Brokeback Mountain [Blu-ray]

This film hit me right in the heart. Set in a different time with bleak prejudices, this story unfolds against a tense back story. Both actors give passionate and emotional performances. Knowing Heath Ledger passed away so young only added to my feelings of injustice while watching this. As a viewer I was rooting for them all the way through. It's a beautiful film with some amazing scenery and the music really sets the scene. The inevitability of their fates is both heartbreaking and frustrating. Sensitively filmed with some iconic shots of both actors. If you like films about the complexities of Love and don't mind getting tearful then this is for you. Also Jake Gyllenhaal/Heath Ledger fans definitely need to watch this!

A lovely, if quite sad film which at the end of the day is a love story, but so much more. Thankfully most people have become far more accepting since this was set, but unfortunately many still face prejudice.Only criticism is I would have liked subtitles, as found it quite hard to understand what they were saying and had to rewind it several times. Just couldn't understand their accents.Great acting from all the main parts. RIP Heath, you beautiful man xx

I watched a documentary about Heath Ledger recently and I'd forgotten what a great character actor he was. This DVD was pence from a hospice charity seller using Amazon and I've really enjoyed watching it again. Ledger's performance is so understated; it's superb. Gyllenhall and Anne Hathaway are also compelling and at times the tension and undercurrents that run through the tale are almost palpable.A pile of interesting bonus features with this film including the actors discussing their preparation for the role, Ang Lee on directing, the making of the film and interviews with the scriptwriters. All very interesting. Really enjoyed this and will watch again sometime.

It was apparently a film; where at theatrical cinema release, it had been 'designed' for heterosexual couples to go and watch. I remember a review in Variety and a more striking review in the New Yorker which suggested that Brokeback Mountain was a film which women wanted to go and see in order to test their husband was actually heterosexual. I found that a bizarre notion.Because I really couldn't care about becoming involved as a third wheel in a 'heterosexual' relationship. It's now 15 years since Brokeback Mountain was released and I think Virgil best sums up through his description of the Storm in The Aenid my prediction of what was to come from this film:"During all this, Neptune became awareOf hurly-burly and tempest overhead,Bringing commotion to the still sea-depthAnd nettling him. He lifted his calm browAbove the surface, viewing the great sea,And saw Aeneas' squadron far and wideScattered over the water, saw the TrojansOverwhelmed, the ruining clouds of heaven..."Where conformity requires a system of Trojans... there is none better than Virgil to turn to for a description. The cinemas needed no Trojan. And I would be happy to sit there with the man. But he is not with me; my Virgil.Brokeback Mountain has also been labelled a piece of heterosexual propaganda in the context of a gay relationship which fails badly. But that's just flimsy criticism which does not stand up to any reason.It is the ultimate film in portraying the truth about love. That is certainly true. It questions and questions and questions, again, whether two men love one another. And they do. But as Virgil knew... the Eastwind and circumstance transpire to the fortunes of another.It is beautiful in every sense of truth in which a theatrical release can be. It is history written, spoken, easing a sense of pain that you would have to accept that you would have to love a person no matter what. And seek no description of them. Just love them. As Shakespeare put it: "Restoration hang! They medicine on thy lips! And with this kiss.."I simply would not care to go back in time. And though based in Signal, Wyoming in 1963; and because of that, I never have to become 'The Time Traveller's Wife.' I'm proudly gay and I'm proudly male. And I am proudly happy.The film was also labelled 'too white.' And for that reason; it's Director Ang Lee deservedly picked up the Oscar for Best Director. But it is his stunningly portrayed time capsule of art which is overshadowed by some pretty vile criticism.In the same Oscar year; the film 'Crash' picked up the Best Director Award. Made by a Director who claims to have left the Church of Scientology in disgust. I would ask him what possessed him to join that organisation or even what possessed him to make that film. But a vote is a vote and none of the Actors nominated secured an Award.It is possibly one of the last 'Screen Plays' and that lends itself to the 'time capsule quality' it presents. It also leaves women who want to live in a fantasy world of Schizotypal proportions with what they have; a dead character. But it also sadly leaves the love of somebody's life with an aftershave drenched shirt shut away in a closet.I'll leave the final words to Virgil..."Give this message to your king:Power over the sea and the gaunt tridentWere never his by destiny, but mineHe owns the monstrous rocks, your home, Eastwind;Let Aeolus ruffle in that hall aloneAnd lord it over winds in their shut prison."

I first saw this on Now Tv and I did not have a clue what it was about only that it was about cowboys. I was glued to it from the start and it showed that everybody can fall in love and have the right to no matter what your sexual orientation is. I have to admit it is not my normal choice of film but I really enjoyed it