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Brokeback Mountain
Jan. 22nd, 2006 05:43 pmGotta add my accolades to all those this brilliant movie has already garnered. It's profoundly moving, very powerful, yet in a quiet, understated way which makes the moments of emotion that much more compelling. Technically, it's beautifully done, with excellent acting by everyone, not just the leads, and the photography is gorgeous. The sets really bring home the poverty in which most of the characters lived and felt very authentic -- reminded me a lot of my childhood, actually. At the same time, the more middle class environment that Jack had underscored a kind of poverty of spirit. I thought sound quality could have been better, in that I missed dialogue here and there, but then I might simply be growing deaf. Even with knowing what was coming, having read the short story and others commentaries on the movie, I was weeping at the end and if I'd been watching in the privacy of my home rather than a movie theatre, might well have been sobbing. It's tragic, and leaves an ache inside.
Like Aly, I found the audience to be made up of middle aged and older people rather than young adults. Not sure what that says, except we're the hippie generation, the ones that believed people, any people, should have the chance and right to love as their hearts chose. So maybe we've all been waiting a long time for this movie, this expression that it's past time to bury the bigotry and let people just be who they are and love who they will.
Between Heath and Jake, I'm hard-pressed to delineate who was the best actor. Jake had some of the best lines and his character was the more expressive of the two. Heath was like a volcano, dormant most of the time, his emotions locked down tight but, man, when he blew -- after they'd separated after the first summer; when he was defending Jack, his time with Jack, with his ex-wife; their last time on the mountain; his controlled grief cracking as he broke down in Jack's closet -- God, the man can rip your heart out. Both men were entirely credible in their parts (so much so that I forgot I was watching a movie and was simply there, in the story); both gave passionate and poignant performances.
In short, I loved the movie and I'm grateful to everyone involved for having made it. I think it will, one day, be considered a 'classic'. It's a truly great film.
Like Aly, I found the audience to be made up of middle aged and older people rather than young adults. Not sure what that says, except we're the hippie generation, the ones that believed people, any people, should have the chance and right to love as their hearts chose. So maybe we've all been waiting a long time for this movie, this expression that it's past time to bury the bigotry and let people just be who they are and love who they will.
Between Heath and Jake, I'm hard-pressed to delineate who was the best actor. Jake had some of the best lines and his character was the more expressive of the two. Heath was like a volcano, dormant most of the time, his emotions locked down tight but, man, when he blew -- after they'd separated after the first summer; when he was defending Jack, his time with Jack, with his ex-wife; their last time on the mountain; his controlled grief cracking as he broke down in Jack's closet -- God, the man can rip your heart out. Both men were entirely credible in their parts (so much so that I forgot I was watching a movie and was simply there, in the story); both gave passionate and poignant performances.
In short, I loved the movie and I'm grateful to everyone involved for having made it. I think it will, one day, be considered a 'classic'. It's a truly great film.