Brokeback Mountain (2005)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Audio & Animation Featurette-On Being A Cowboy- Actors Discuss Their Preparation Featurette-Ang Lee: Directing From The Heart Interviews-Crew-From Script To Screen: Larry McMurty & Diana Ossana Featurette-Making Of-Sharing The Story Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	2005
Running Time	128:56 (Case: 134)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (79:58)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Ang Lee
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Heath Ledger Jake Gyllenhaal Randy Quaid Valerie Planche David Trimble Victor Reyes Lachlan Mackintosh Michelle Williams Larry Reese Marty Antonini Tom Carey Dan McDougall Don Bland
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$39.95	Music	Craig Eastman Rick Garcia Merle Haggard

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    From the outset it is obvious that Brokeback Mountain, one of 2005's most talked about movies, will not be to everyone's taste. It is a film that gets wildly differing reactions when raised in discussion and based on my efforts to loan my DVD review copy to various friends and family it seems the older male demographic are the hardest audience to crack with this film - and all for one simple reason. The film became infamous, somewhat oversimplified and unfairly tainted by the mainstream media and their tendency to want to place a label on everything - in this case it was the altogether appalling moniker of "The Gay Cowboy Movie". Sure it features cowboys and homosexuality as its main themes, but to lump such a rich and multi-layered story with such a simplistic description should see the mass media hang their heads in shame.

    Ennis Del Mar (a suitably gruff Heath Ledger) is an unemployed ranch hand looking for work in the summer of 1963. When he is hired by Joe Aguirre (Randy Quaid) to be a sheepherder on Wyoming's remote Brokeback Mountain he meets the young Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal), who has also been hired to tend the sheep during the warm northern summer.

    The two are wary of each other at first, and as they set off for the herd they are blissfully unaware the summer will change both of their lives forever. Alone on the mountain a bond of friendship is painstakingly formed, despite Ennis's gruff and taciturn manner and Jack's overbearing and somewhat annoying manner. There is something building between the pair in the early scenes on the mountain, but it remains tantalising elusive to the viewer. Sneaking up slowly, before hitting you between the eyes with a sledgehammer, the growing relationship between Ennis and Jack suddenly turns physical, and in perhaps the most confronting scene in the film the two men consummate their love for each other one stormy night.
   
    After this sudden revelation of their feelings towards each other, Ennis and Jack instantly proclaim they "ain't queer" (it is 1963 conservative America after all), and agree that what happened on the mountain must stay there, so once their summer is over, they leave, expecting never to see each other again. Both men settle down to what appears to be a normal heterosexual existence, with Ennis marrying Alma (Michelle Williams) and Jack falling for sassy rodeo queen Lureen (Anne Hathaway). Things seem good, with homes filled with babies looming for both. But neither can forget their summer together five years before and Jack eventually decides he must see Ennis again. The story follows the next 20 or so years, with the pain of Jack's longing for something denied him and Ennis's complete and utter denial of his true feelings driving the film to its painful conclusion. The pain emanating from Ennis as he comes to terms with who he is and his true feelings for Jack is palpable and an indication of how far Heath Ledger has come as an actor. He has so little dialogue in the film that most of his acting is done with his eyes and body language and the effect is quite haunting.

    Ignore the mainstream media and the moronic labels they attach to everything. Director Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, The Ice Storm) has delivered a polished tale of love and of loss and the pain experienced in not accepting who you are in order to maintain a conventional life.

    Worth a look.

Video

    The video transfer gracing this disc is presented in the aspect ratio of 1.78:1, and is also 16x9 enhanced.

    The cinematography is stunning. The visual spectacle of Brokeback Mountain is almost enough reason to have a look at this film by itself. From the dramatic snow-covered mountains and forests of Wyoming to the dusty streets of the small towns, this is a film that abounds with artistic class.

    The transfer is extremely sharp and incredibly detailed throughout, with no evidence of any edge enhancement. Shadow detail is handled very well and grain is virtually non-existent. There is no low-level noise. As far as clarity goes, this transfer is the real deal.

    The colours as expected are sensational. Bright blue skies are joined by dazzling green forests and fields. The dusty confines of the towns provide a stark contrast to the free and open high country yet these too are displayed with a certain clarity that is breathtaking. Overall the colours are well rendered and the black levels as deep and as true as they can be. There are no problems with bleeding or oversaturation.

    Compression artefacts are completely absent. Being a new film there are virtually no film artefacts.

    There is just one subtitle option available this being English for the Hearing Impaired. I found them to be mostly accurate and well positioned on screen.

    This is a dual-layered disc that is RSDL formatted. The layer change point occurs at 79:58.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    This Region 4 disc comes with two audio soundtracks, the first being an English Dolby Digital 5.1 effort encoded at the higher bitrate of 448Kb/s, while the other track is also an English effort, specified as a Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack encoded at a bitrate of 224 Kb/s.

    The English Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track was my choice of listening for the main film and this really is a first-rate soundtrack about as close to reference quality as you can get. While the film does not pack a whole lot of punch in terms of fast-paced action and deafening explosions, there is still some cracking and wide-reaching use of the surround and LFE channels. The soundtrack exhibits a solid and wide dynamic range with beautiful use of the front soundstage for directional effects. Surround effects are used to maximum impact during many outdoors scenes in the mountains when sheep, horses, birds and other assorted animals fill in the background sound.

    The dialogue is a little difficult to comprehend at times with many of the actors taking the laconic drawl of the taciturn cowboy to a new level - Heath Ledger especially, but this is purely artistic and cannot be attributed to the quality of the soundtrack. There are no audio sync problems to report.

    Gustavo Santaolalla is responsible for the melancholy and pensive score that evokes the mixed feelings of forbidden longing, passion and desire. It does not drop to the level of a clichéd or hokey western theme at any point for which I am truly thankful.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    The quality of the extras on this disc is a little lacking for a film that struck such a chord with many in 2005 and was one of the frontrunners at many of the awards ceremonies. The controversy it caused and its stumble at the eleventh hour at the Academy Awards when it lost out on best picture to Crash are not even mentioned, and there is also no sign of a commentary track from either the director or producer. Maybe an extra special edition is in the wings.

Main Menu Audio & Animation

Featurette - On Being A Cowboy- Actors Discuss Their Preparation

    Running for a brief 5:45, this is a quick look at how the main actors prepared for the demands of being a cowboy. Obviously horse riding features heavily, but so does other cowboy-style pursuits such as roping and bull riding in a rodeo.

Featurette - Ang Lee: Directing From The Heart

    Director Ang Lee and his cast and crew discuss the way he approaches making a movie. There's not a whole lot of substance here with everyone exclaiming what great people they all are. Runs for 7:27.

Interviews-Crew - From Script To Screen: Larry McMurty & Diana Ossana

    There's a bit more detail on the script development process provided here with screen writers Larry McMurty and Diana Ossana discussing how they went about adapting the E. Annie Proulx novel for the screen. Runs for 10:53.

Featurette-Making Of - Sharing The Story

    This is the meatiest extra clocking in at a healthy 20:48, but it is pretty much your typical making of effort, with a bit of fluff interspersed amongst actors and crew discussing how great they all are with a few interesting background anecdotes.

Theatrical Trailer

    Quite a decent trailer that sets the story up quite nicely. Runs for 2:14.

    The only difference between the Region 1 disc and this Region 4 release is the replacement of the Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack with the obvious Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack in French (for the French-speaking Region 1 Canadians). Call it a draw and collect the disc wherever you can get it the cheapest.

    Brokeback Mountain will not be to everyone's taste and based on my efforts to loan my DVD review copy to various friends and family it seems the older male demographic will be the hardest film audience to crack. It is a film that has certainly been adversely tainted by the media attention focused on it and their tendency to want to place a label on everything - in this case "The Gay Cowboy Movie". But it is a film that still deserves to find an audience, if based solely on the superb cinematography and the near flawless acting from the impressive cast.

    The video transfer is superb, with no major issues.

    The audio is also magnificent. Some decent low range activity when required, mixed with immersive surround activity and an emotional score all combine for a definite winner in the audio stakes.

    The extras are extremely limited, but hopefully point to an extra special edition just around the corner.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall