Brokeback Mountain

Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal are two cowboys who fall in love in 1963, but can’t really share that with the rest of the world.

Brokeback Mountain

Starring: Jack Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger, Michelle Williams, Anne Hathaway

Directed by: Ang Lee
Written by: Larry McMurtry, Diana Ossana, Annie Proulx (short story)

Rating: R
Length: 2 hour 14 minutes
Genre: Drama
Release Date: January 13, 2006

Damn Heath Ledger! He made me cry three times while watching this movie. I haven’t ever been a big fan of his. I thought A Knight’s Tale was pretty annoying as a movie, so associated that with him. He was fine in The Brothers Grimm, but he never stood out.

He’s awesome in this movie. He plays the quiet, reserved cowboy of the two, named Ennis, who is just trying to make enough money to live. He’s grown up broke and doesn’t really aspire to much more than what he needs. Jack is the more outgoing one who dreams of a lot of money from riding in the rodeo. They meet when they are herding sheep throughout Wyoming as a summer job. They need to sleep out with the sheep to make sure no coyotes eat them at night. It is during these many months of just the two of them hanging out that they cuddle together for warmth during a freezing night in a tent and then…oops!…man love.

The movie starts out a tad slow, but it is also building up this relationship and showing that these guys didn’t plan for this to happen and it never happened to either one before the scene. I think that the beginning of the movie, everyone is waiting for them to sleep together since you know it is going to happen. Once that is out of the way, then it can focus on the rest of the story.

Heath does an awesome job with his cowboy guy. His character doesn’t talk much and doesn’t show much emotion, yet he still portrays what he is thinking. Jake is also good, but when he was frustrated with the situation, it didn’t break my heart as much as it did when Heath’s character was feeling the same way. They both end up married with kids since that is what society expects them to do, but they still get together through the years for fishing trips where no fishing ever happens. It’s the only time they are ever happy. Jack hates having to hide, but Ennis fears what will happen to them if anyone finds out.

The entire movie is heartbreaking, but it’s awesome love story. It doesn’t focus on the sex besides the first time, and even then not really. It focuses on two people that fell in love, but can’t be together. It follows them for over 20 years in the movie and it is towards the end, when Ennis actually breaks down and cries, that I lost it too. It’s very sad, but in a good way. I actually want to watch the movie again. It’s really that good.

Rating: A

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