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Sunday, April 02, 2006

....[*[Review of Brokeback Mountain]*]....

hey, i was just glad that I got a 1.25 grade for my film class for this one.. I just thought that my professor was so OC about film reviews (i thought this was going to be oh so low..) but apparently... it turned out okay.. (although she hated the way that it was too formalist in style.. she said that I was lacking in terms of personal reflections.. so there!)

Errr yeah... I used the Ideological Perspective for this one ^_^ just thought it was fitting to do so ^_^

The movie started as two cowboys, Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger), met when they were hired as sheepherders on Brokeback Mountain, Wyoming during summer of 1963. At first, Ennis was the silent one, thus, the film started with a lot a dead air between the two of them, concentrating mostly with the sceneries and what they were doing. Eventually they became at ease with each other, and became friends, until finally, they crossed the boundaries of friendship and became sexually attracted, consequently becoming lovers in the process. After parting, the two lived their own lives, including getting married in the process, until Jack decided to renew their relationship through sending a postcard. The story happened in a span of 20 years, with Ennis' daughter as the reference point for time, since everything that happened shows them as they grew up. Apparently, putting sideburns for Ennis' character and a moustache for Jack to show them as older persons wasn't a good help at all.

Starting with the film's aesthetic qualities, it exhibited a vivid color of green, which was very apparent in most of the film's scenes. The movie boasts of a breathtaking mise-en-scene and cinematography through emphasizing the great sceneries most of the time by using extreme long shots focusing on the mountain and the sky; characters were barely visible and good perspective relations were also emphasized between the sky and road using horizon. The film used slightly canted frames and low angle shots were shown always if the two of them were riding their horses while going up a hill. Close up shots were used during a serious talk between the two men to emphasize their emotions. During the night, there were two techniques, which were used alternatively, one was a red lighting to indicate the presence of fire, and another one was a slight lighting during the night time, thus it wasn't dark as it was supposed to be and the whole scene can still be visibly seen. The actors were both convincing as homosexuals which still portrays a "macho" image outside, in fact, I wouldn't think of them as gays until both of them show their affection for each other. Some forms of nudity and sex were shown in the entire film but were still tolerable for me as a viewer because they were short.

Background sounds give a sense of western films but were slightly modified to give a more melodramatic type of background sound. Ennis' accent was that of a Texan cowboy, and because of that, some dialogues often come out as murmurs and hard to comprehend. In editing, establishing shots of the scenes were shown first to give a sense of where the setting is, an example would be a focus on the sky first, then the mountain and then followed by an extreme long shot of the whole scenery. Some graphic match was also used as a transition from one scene to another. Discontinuity editing technique was the most apparent technique used. Examples would be the violation of the 180o perspective when the two of them were talking, jump shots from one scene to another in a different time were apparent, and crosscutting to show the real cause of Jack's death. It wasn't really disorienting at all because the film managed to come up with certain cues to give the audience an idea, like a shot of them being side by side first before violating the 180o perspective, Ennis' daughters growing up as time cues, and a narration of Jack's wife of what she knows versus the real reason of Jack's death.

The film focused on the relationship between the two men, thus, some scenes which was shown was never elaborated any further, giving me the hanging feeling of everything unresolved at the end of the film, plus the fact that the movie was an open ended one.

The movie is controversial in the sense that it tackles gender issues and the relationship between two homosexuals in particular, and how society's conventions prevented them from being together. Two differing traits of homosexuals were presented in the movie. Jack as the willing one, one who was ready to give up everything, including his married life to live with Ennis, together with his own parents. Ennis was the introvert, the one who opted to conform to the society's rules, because he was afraid of the social stigma they would receive; he was well aware that the society wouldn't accept two men living together. Until now, relationship between people of the same sex is not as readily accepted in other countries, in that instant, I knew that the film was going to be reflective on their conflicting values and beliefs.

It is ironic that cowboys were used as the representatives for homosexuals, since we are well aware that cowboys, especially in western movies, were the perfect representation for a machismo image. Still, expectations were not entirely cheated because their gender orientation seemed vague. Both men still give the impression that they also prefer women as what happened when both got married, attraction for their spouses were apparent also, with Ennis having a relationship with another woman after getting a divorce. But of course, that didn't stop them from seeing each other in Brokeback mountain, which was a special place for both of them and which for me was a symbol of unrealized dreams for the both men. The scene when Jack's father, being anti-homosexual, refused to give Ennis the ashes of Jack to be spread to Brokeback mountain as his last wish, was very reflective of the fact that until the end, everything did not work out well for them.

The society also does not approve of infidelity, and it brought about the divorce between Ennis and his wife. And because of that, many years of his life was wasted as he was struggling to support his daughter, and in the process, failed to see them grow up. The movie also showed the different dynamics of a family, each with a difficult and not ideal situation. An example was the relationship between Jack and his father-in-law; with him being difficult to get along with. Jack's wife was also the exact opposite of the ideal wife of the society, being the daughter of a rich man, the responsibility of their family business fell into her hands, thus, the unsatisfying life that their family was leading was probably the reason why Jack broke his silence and decided to contact Ennis again. For that same reason also, he became cold against his wife.

Although the movie's narrative was all about a social taboo, how two men fell in love with each other, the whole movie was still supportive of the society's values. Expectations about certain things were met; like a man being unfaithful to his wife will bring about a broken family. The film also showed how unaccepted the relationship between two men were; how their employer never hired them again, how Jack's father hated homosexuals, and how Ennis' life was shown.

The miserable life that they led, and the unhappy ending of their relationship was indicative that homosexuals could never be too happy in a kind of society where social stigma can be strong.

Ran 7:41 AM

Music

these are some of my favorite songs.. more songs to be uploaded soon..

The Webmistress

made the doll in such a way that it looked sorta like me.. plus the pink outfit.. gah! Meet my counterpart.. PORKY! ^^

Name: Rosalin Angeli C. Merez

Age: 19

School: UP Diliman

Course: CommRes ^^

Hobbies: Drawing, singing, PLAYING RPGs (you know, the ff series, and yeah! online games! woohoo! hooray for ragnarok!), collecting anime and cutesy stuffs, shoes.. lots of em, cosplaying, instrument: piano, tinkering weblayouts, fanfic writing

Loves

meowmeow! pink.. chocolates (ESP. Cadbury Hazelnuts).. almost anything.. lolz jk! well..the best way to bribe me is through my stomach and sweet tooth XD

Hates

posers, people who think they're high and mighty, backstabbers, gooey stuffs, blood and gore

Email

sorceress_ran@yahoo.com

That's about it I guess... (for now..)

err yeah.. please visit my DA too! look for the link below.. thanks!

Linkage