Brokeback Mountain: Focus Feature Four Star Collection DVD Review

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Title: Brokeback Mountain: Focus Features Four Star Collection

Region: One

Genre: Drama

Stars: Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Linda Cardellini, Anna Farris, Anne Hathaway, Michelle Williams, and Randy Quaid

Writers: Larry McMurtry, and Diana Ossana

Based Upon The Story By: Anne Proulx

Director: Ang Lee

Feature length: 2 hours and 15 minutes

Extras: Directing From The Heart: Ang Lee, From Script To Screen: Interviews With Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, Sharing The Story: The Making Of Brokeback Mountain

Languages: English and French Language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound

Subtitles: English Subtitles For The Deaf And Hard Of Hearing and Spanish and French Language Subtitles

Packaging: Keep Case

Chapter Stops: 20

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound

Year of Theatrical Release: 2005/DVD Release: 2006

Theatrical Distributor: Focus Features

Home Video Distributor: Universal Studios Home Entertainment

MPAA Rating: R

Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera

Back in 1994 when I was still earning my Masters Degree in Literature and Writing, I remember taking a graduate class entitled The Modern American Novel Since World War II and among the books and short stories we read was “Legends Of The Fall” in part because the feature film version was being released that same semester. I vaguely remember the actual story as it compares to the feature film, but I do remember wondering how a novelette could be expanded into a feature film of epic proportions. When “Brokeback Mountain” was still playing in theaters I remember seeing the novelette the film was based on and the same thought I had about “Legends Of The Fall” crossed my mind. The fact is as the screenwriters Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana state in the interview that is included among the extra value features on the DVD (10:54), taking the dialogue alone from the novelette would only fill up about fifty pages of the actual script. The writers had to interpret what was in the text of the story regardless of how vague it might be and expand upon it while still be true to their perceived intentions of the author. This is an extremely difficult challenge since like anything creative undertaking, films, screenplays, and fiction are extremely subjective. The only person who can truly state what was at the heart of the story is the author and sometimes even they are not completely sure what they meant because a large part of writing is intuitive. When writing my graduate thesis on the connection between the sci-fi genre and the western genre, as a personal exercise I stuck the laserdisc of “Once Upon A Time In The West” into the player and transcribed the dialogue word for word along with a short description of the scenes. Text alone I found that there is approximately 50 pages of dialogue in “Once Upon A Time In The West” with the rest of the film time basically crafted into a beautiful symphony of Composer Ennio Morricone’s beautiful score and Sergio Leone’s brilliant eye for telling a story visually with widescreen vistas and close-ups. The film has a running length of 165 minutes and since a single page of a screenplay is roughly equal to a minute of screen time, that means that over 90 minutes of “Once Upon A Time In The West” is at least in part free of major and supporting character dialogue. Yet if you are a fan of the film as I am, the ratio between dialogue and visual storytelling combined with a musical score to punctuate the scenes just seems to fly by easily without notice.

This takes me back to the writing of “Brokeback Mountain,” which is both quite internal in terms of the characters star-crossed situations and yet almost epic if not definitely ambitious as we watch approximately two decades in the lives of two cowboys, who because of societal stigma, pressure, and danger, literally cannot be who they want to be in their personal lives and instead have taken on wives and kids because they are keeping up appearances and essentially are forced to live a lie. Emotionally however the men and their respective wives and families begin to fall apart because how can a person continually pretend to be something they are not constantly. Intuition and subtle behaviors begin to manifest itself to such a point that ultimately the lives of all involved could become ruined. To this day both gay men and women are perhaps the most discriminated group of individuals worldwide because of stigma and a lack of understanding as well as outright bigotry. Granted there are some things people might have trouble seeing or accepting, but as a straight man I think gay men and women are in some ways forced to adapt an heir of apathy for the world around them because society is still not sophisticated or mature enough to recognize that just as the rights of a human being to be treated equally regardless of race or creed somehow has not yet extended to the right to express one’s sexuality and preference or orientation and be afforded the same privileges other people receive. I think gay men and women are perhaps the most discriminated against nation of individuals living in the United States and abroad today.

So not having read the book personally, I felt that the writers who adapted it really brought home the tragedy of the situation for the two men, their wives, and families. This makes “Brokeback Mountain” an important film that should be seen at least once by everyone and it also makes “Brokeback Mountain” quite depressing in some ways. I still am unsure how to interpret the last scene in the film, but I do feel a sense of empathy for all the characters and find the losses to be terrible.

Beautifully directed by Ang Lee, “Brokeback Mountain” is presented in an anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) aspect ratio complete with a clear English and French Language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack as well as English Subtitles for the Deaf and Hearing impaired and French and Spanish Language Subtitles. Although the packaging lists “Brokeback Mountain” as a part of the “Focus Features Four Star Collection,” the actual extra value materials are rather skimpy. In addition to the interview with the screenwriters, there is a short profile on Ang Lee (7:28), a short look at the realities of being a cowboy and taking on the role for the film (5:45), and a making of special that aired on the Logo network (20:28). A preview for “Pride And Prejudice” (3:23) is also featured on the DVD and the interactive menus are well rendered and easy to navigate. While not a film I could watch again in part because I found it as a whole to be depressing, I think “Brokeback Mountain: Focus Features Four Star Collection” is definitely worth renting and seeing at least once now that is available at stores on and offline courtesy of Universal Studios Home Entertainment.

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