Brokeback Mountain, to quote what just about every entertainment news source is saying, has taken the Venice Film Festival by storm. Many are firm in their belief that it will win the Golden Lion, essentially the best picture award of the festival. Vera Drake won last year, another movie that was supposedly rejected from Cannes. Stupid, stupid Cannes.
This is exactly the thing I want to hear:
"The entire film is very close to the original novella, but for those who have not read it I will not reveal the heartbreaking ending; suffice to say that Lee and his cast and crew have done the near impossible; they have translated one of the most acclaimed American novellas of modern times onto the screen and deliver something that is on par, if not better, than the work that inspired it and yet is completely respectful of its source material. Someone please convince Ang Lee to keep making films for the rest of his life; it is for works like this that the cinema exists."Furthermore...
"Brokeback Mountain is something very special: it's a slow burning movie that dares to do what has seemed unthinkable just a few years ago, get under the skin of the Marlboro Man and show him for a small human being that he is. ...It's presented with extreme sensitivity, best seen in the minutely observed portrayals of their wives, played by the megaadorable Michelle Williams and the plain gorgeous Anne Hathaway. Both will probably surprise people with their turns. As will the cumulative effect of the entire movie. Brokeback is good enough to be nominated for Best Picture, let alone win the Golden Lion -- IF the authorities have the nerve to deal with its theme."
From the BBC:(The BBC website also has footage from the film and some press interviews. There's three scenes shown - the scene where Ennis and Jack part ways for the first time, a scene where Ennis surprises Alma at the Riverton grocery place, and a scene with SPEAKING Lureen talking to Jack about business. Anne sounds really good and looks grown up.)
"There has never been a homosexual cowboy movie," producer James Schamus said.
"We are using the codes and conventions of romance that have always applied to straight people very unapologetically. We don't care if anyone is upset about it."
Lee, however, insisted the gender of his protagonists is immaterial.
"When it comes to love, there is no difference for me between the love I have for my wife and the love a man has for another man."
Regarding other reviews, everyone seems to be wild about Heath Ledger. Jake Gyllenhaal also gets maximum praise, but Ledger has somehow managed to be higher. There are slight reservations about Jack's development, but in my mind, Ennis has always been the lead and Jack is what changes him. Hathaway and Williams also get nice mentions, but the majority of the praise is for Ang Lee. Deservedly so, I fully imagine. The film also reportedly received a long and robust standing ovation.
And finally, from The Hollywood Reporter:
Brokeback Mountain
By Ray Bennett
"VENICE, Italy (Hollywood Reporter) - Everything you ever imagined about the characters of John Wayne and Montgomery Clift in "Red River" or Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott in "Ride the High Country" is revealed candidly in Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain," an epic Western about forbidden love.
Anne Proulx's 1997 short story in the New Yorker has been masterfully expanded by screenwriters Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana to provide director Lee with his best movie since "Sense and Sensibility" in 1995.
Featuring scenes filmed in the fabulous Canadian Rockies of Alberta and boasting a fine cast topped by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, "Brokeback Mountain" will appeal to moviegoers who enjoy grand filmmaking and poignant love stories, whether gay, hetero or otherwise.
The film, which screened in competition at the Venice International Film Festival, follows two men, Ennis Del Mar (Ledger) and Jack Twist (Gyllenhaal), and their love for each other that in the hide-bound and traditional world of the American West they must keep hidden, fearful not only of scandal but also for their lives.
Ennis and Jack meet in 1963 when they each show up looking for a summer's work herding sheep on Brokeback Mountain, Wyoming, on land owned by no-nonsense rancher Joe Aguirre (Randy Quaid). In order to keep his herd safe, Aguirre is happy to break regulations by requiring one of his men to roam high in the mountains, sleeping rough with no fire, while the other maintains a base camp with a one-man tent throughout the summer and into the fall.
There's nothing romantic about herding huge numbers of four-legged beasts left to range far and wide, and cowboys pretty much have cornered whatever romance there is in rugged outdoor animal husbandry. Riding herd on sheep guaranteed a horseman a hard time in old Westerns, but Ennis and Jack make the most of it, even if their diet is mostly beans.
They don't talk much, but Ennis speaks of being raised by his brother and sister after their parents died in a car crash, and of a woman named Alma he plans to marry. Jack tells of stern parents and working the Texas rodeo circuit. The scenery is breathtakingly gorgeous but their days are hard, with bears and coyotes threatening, and the biting mountain cold, and the two men soon come to rely on each other totally.
One night, Ennis decides to sleep by the fire rather than head off to his lonely post, but in the wee small hours, with the fire dead, he's freezing. Jack yells at him to join him in his tent. A simple human gesture in sleep prompts a frantic coupling that in the cold light of morning each man is quick to dismiss.
The summer ends, and as time goes by Ennis marries Alma (Michelle Williams) and Jack weds Lureen (Anne Hathaway), and they each have kids. The men's shared passion keeps its fire, however, and their affection and need for each other grows. Over the years, they contrive to spend time together back on Brokeback Mountain. Always there is the threat of exposure and the fear it breeds.
Pulitzer Prize-winner McMurtry ("Lonesome Dove") and his recent writing partner Ossana use a large canvas for what is really an intimate story. They develop the secondary characters with great insight and compassion. The women in the lives of Ennis and Jack are given full attention, and the acting, especially by Williams, Hathaway and Kate Mara, as Ennis' daughter Alma at age 19, is deeply affecting.
The fine details of the West are as precise as you would expect from a McMurtry piece, and Lee's adroitness with the excellent cast is on full display, particularly in the brave and moving performances of Ledger and Gyllenhaal.
The dusty towns of Wyoming and Texas are contrasted with the spectacular Canadian Rockies, splendidly filmed by Rodrigo Prieto, and the film benefits enormously from composer Gustavo Santaolalla's melodic and plangent score.
Cast: Ennis Del Mar: Heath Ledger; Jack Twist: Jake Gyllenhaal; Joe Aguirre: Randy Quaid; Alma: Michelle Williams; Lureen Newsome: Anne Hathaway; Alma Jr., age 19: Kate Mara; Alma Jr., age 13: Cheyenne Hill; Cassie: Linda Cardellini; Monroe: Scott Michael Campbell; Fayette Newsome: Mary Liboiron; L.B. Newsome: Graham Beckel; Randall Malone: David Harbour; Lashawn Malone: Anna Faris; Jack's mother: Roberta Maxwell; John Twist: Peter McRobbie.
Director: Ang Lee; Screenplay: Larry McMurtry & Diana Ossana; Based on the short story by: Annie Proulx; Producers: Diana Ossana, James Schamus; Executive producers: William Pohlad, Larry McMurtry, Michael Costigan, Michael Hausman, Alberta Film Entertainment; Director of photography: Rodrigo Prieto; Production designer: Judy Becker; Editors: Geraldine Peroni, Dylan Tichenor; Music: Gustavo Santaolalla."
I feel like doing a big 'told ya so' dance right now. Told ya..
Told ya..
Told ya so!
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