30/11/2016

Brokeback Mountain

                        
Probably my favourite romance. Not that there are many to choose from, as I don't particularly like the genre, but still: this one I really enjoyed. It also ends unhappily, which I usually prefer.
                   
                
What was so great about this one was how unhappy it made me feel. Don't get me wrong, I don't really like being unhappy, but I was so impressed by how effective the movie was at wringing emotion from me at all. I think that speaks volumes of the two leads (Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal - you know Anne Hathaway is also in this? I always forget that, and am surprised when she turns up half way through), and they're both brilliant here. I'd go so far as to say that this might be the best work of either actor.
The cinematography is excellent, and the movie often lingers to let the landscapes inject their energy into the plot. The contrast between the wide open beauty of nature and the constricting human world that they go back to is stark and makes the tradgedy all the more that.
                 
                     
If anything, the film leans towards tragging its feet sometimes. But in a similar way that I can't blame 'The Lord of the Rings' series for this, I find it hard to make this a point against 'Brokeback Mountain', but it does stop it being a complete all-time classic. The slow shots and wordless scenes are important in building tone and getting across how bad these two are expressing themselves. It's not an action movie.
That they begin their timeskips to soon, instead of maybe doing one right at the end, is a nice touch and gives the viewer a somewhat uneasy feeling. It's like their lives after that job are a dream sequence. The odd event remembered before time leaps forwards again. It's not until the end when we linger for a while and Jack is dead, that we're snapped back to reality.
You can see the ultimate tradgedy coming a mile off, but that doesn't diminish it. I think what you makes you feel sad - or anything - is a very personal thing, and this aspect just worked perfectly for me. I'm a sucker for the whole lifelong regret deal, it's one of the things I'm most scared of (apart from actual death, and as an extention of that being forgotten, and heights).
                         
 Brokeback Mountain: 77.9