Product Description
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Drama from Academy Award-winning filmmaker Ang Lee starring Jake
Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger. Set against the sweeping vistas of
Wyoming and Texas, the film tells the story of two young men - a
ranch-hand and a rodeo cowboy - who meet in the summer of 1963,
and unexpectedly forge a lifelong connection, one whose
complications, joys, and tragedies provide a testament to the
endurance and power of love. Both young men seem certain of their
set places in the heartland, obtaining steady work, marrying, and
raising a family. Yet, they both hunger for something beyond what
they can articulate. When Aguirre (Randy Quaid) dispatches them
to work as sheepherders up on the majestic Brokeback ain,
they gravitate towards camaraderie and then a deeper intimacy.
Lee won a Best Director Academy Award.
.co.uk Review
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A sad, melancholy ache pervades Brokeback ain, Ang Lee's
haunting, moving film that, like his other movies, explores
societal constraints and the passions that lurk underneath. This
time, however, instead of taking on ancient China, 19th-century
England, or '70s suburbia, Lee uses the tableau of the American
West in the early '60s to show how two lovers are bound by their
expected roles, how they rebel against them, and the
repercussions for each of doing so--but the romance here is
between two men. Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist
(Jake Gyllenhaal) are two itinerant ranchers looking for work in
Wyoming when they meet and embark on a summer sheepherding job in
the shadow of titular Brokeback ain. The taciturn Ennis,
uncommunicative in the extreme, finds himself opening up around
the gregarious Jack, and the two form a bond that surprisingly
catches fire one cold night out in the wilderness. Separating at
the end of the summer, each goes on to marry and have children,
but a reunion years later proves that, if anything, their passion
for each other has grown significantly. And while Jack harbours
dreams of a life together, the tight-lipped Ennis is unable to
bring himself to even consider something so revolutionary.
Its open, unforced depiction of love between two men made
Brokeback an instant cultural touchstone, for both good and bad,
as it was tagged derisively as the "gay cowboy movie," but also
heralded as a breakthrough for mainstream cinema. Amidst all the
hoopla of various agendas, though, was a quiet, heartbreaking
love story that was both of its time and universal--it was the
quintessential tale of star-crossed lovers, but grounded in an
ever-changing America that promised both hope and despair.
Adapted by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana from Annie Proulx's
short story, the movie echoes the sparse bleakness of McMurtry's
The Last Picture Show with its fading of the once-glorious West;
but with Lee at the helm, it also resembles The Ice Storm, as it
showed the ripple effects of a singular event over a number of
people. As always, Lee's work with actors is unparalleled, as he
elicits graceful, nuanced performances from Michelle Williams and
Anne Hathaway as the wives affected overtly and subliminally by
their husbands' affair, and Gyllenhaal brings surprising
dimensions to a character that could have easily just been a
puppy dog of a boy. It's Ledger, however, who's the breakthrough
in the film, and his portrait of an emotionally repressed man
both undone and liberated by his feelings is mesmerizing and
devastating. Spare in style but rich with emotion, Brokeback
ain earns its place as a classic modern love story. --Mark
Englehart