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Wilmington
..MCN Review ..DVD Review ..Story On Brokeback ..A Reader Responds ..Another Look At The Film
Brokeback Mountain
A widely hailed period film about two men whose romantic entanglement becomes the defining aspect of their lives, Brokeback Mountain, has been issued as a Focus Features Four-Star Collection Widescreen title by Universal (UPC#025192631528, $30). Set mostly in Wyoming, the 135-minute film begins in the early Sixties and spans two decades, with subtle markers to indicate the cultural changes in the outside world. It was directed by Ang Lee, who applies the same transfixing sense of visual metaphor that he utilized in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Jun 01), for a more down-to-earth impact. Heath Ledger (one of those actors who seems totally different in every part he plays) and Jake Gyllenhaal star, with a fine array of supporting performers coming and going as the years advance. It is fully understandable that some viewers will be unable to sympathize with the hero when he voluntarily begins and then abandons his family, despite the use of the time period to justify his sense of confusion and sociological estrangement. Others have embraced the film wholeheartedly, taking its cry from the past as a cause to be rescued in the present. Whether or not the 2005 movie will endure beyond its topicality, however, will depend entirely upon the power, beauty and depth of Lee's imagery, and despite the languorous running time, one suspects that it will.
The letterboxing has an aspect ratio of about 1.85:1 and an accommodation for enhanced 16:9 playback. The color transfer is exact. The 5.1-channel Dolby Digital sound has a full, satisfying dimensionality and clear tones. There is an alternate French audio track in 5.1 Dolby, optional English, French and Spanish subtitles ("J'aimerais savoir comment te laisser!"), and 45 minutes of production featurettes, including interviews with Lee and with screenwriters Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana. Over the spread of the featurettes, the 'talking points' pop up a little too often ("It's not a gay cowboy movie…"), but much of the material is worthwhile, particularly as McMurtry and Ossana describe the process they went through to flesh out the Annie Proulx short story that served as the basis for the film.
June 27, 2006
DVD Roundup: This Week's DVD Releases
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