Brokeback Mountain (Widescreen Edition) | DVD Review

Before the accolades began falling around Ang Lee’s modern western, hype had already planted its spurs into the public’s anticipation. It was becoming known as “The Gay Cowboy Movie.” Yes, it’s gay and yes, the leads are cowboys but that title doesn’t do justice to the love story that is born to Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist (Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal). It is a love that cannot be explained or defined; it merely is and cannot be ignored.

Of course, the fact that it is between two men is what drew so much focus and attention to the film. If controversy is what it takes to get people into the theatre then so be it, as most who had the chance to see this film, left having seen an intimate and sensitive portrayal of a difficult love between two men when they had likely not seen imagery like that before. Distinctly marketed as a universal love story that would appeal to both gay and straight audiences alike, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN showed straight audiences a gay relationship that was real and more than purely sexual while gay audiences were given an epic representation of love between men instead of the usual hollow cliché.

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN is an important film, a film that transcends its homosexual imagery allowing for the communication of the basic elements of the story to reach the viewer, any viewer. Lee has created a benchmark film about how love can take hold of any two people at any time and change you forever. I cried three times before the credits ran and was barely able to speak after the lights came up when I initially saw this in theatres. My fourth viewing was on my couch and I cried just as much.


When a film pummels through the competition of nearly all the major awards (you should be ashamed, Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences) and makes as much noise as this one does with critics and audiences, one would expect the DVD release to be vast and celebratory. This single disc edition contains only four featurettes. Three of those featurettes might as well have been strewn together into one decently sized “Making Of” piece. They each run about five to ten minutes and say very little about the process of making this film, which is unfortunate given the film’s sweeping cinematography and sharp editing. At least the extras focused on two elements that are particularly intriguing about this film. The first is a brief look at the cowboy boot camp Ledger, Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway (who plays Jack Twist’s wife, Lureen) had to go through in order to get comfortable handling sheep and riding horses and bulls. Gyllenhaal points out that Ledger was more comfortable on the horse given his upbringing ranching in the Australian outback as a child and then notes how this lends to the character of Jack Twist as a cowboy who always looks like he’s trying real hard. The second focus is on BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, the short story by Annie Proulx and its evolution into a screenplay by Larry McMurtry & Diana Ossana. The screenwriters discuss how virtually every sentence of the thirty-page short story was worked into the film but how that still only amounted to fifty pages of script. It was then their job to flesh out the domestic lives of the two main characters to fill the rest of the screen time.

The most comprehensive feature on the DVD is the publicity piece produced by LOGO, MTV’s gay and lesbian television network. It is glitzy and fast paced but respectful to the nature of the film with insightful adoration from the film’s principal players, including Lee and the cast, for the significance of the film.

Ang Lee mentions during one featurette how much making this movie restored his passion for film making (post THE HULK, poor guy) yet the DVD contains no director commentary or any from anyone else for that matter. I can only assume there will be a special edition released at a later date so this edition may not be worth purchasing right away, if extras mean anything to you. After all, features aside, you’re still left with a quiet, beautiful film that will keep the tears streaming after many screenings to come.

Movie rating – 5

Disc Rating – 3