Member review

Brokeback Mountain is a beautifully shot film, centering around the relationship between two men over the course of their lives, during a period of extreme homophobia in society. Jack (Jake Gyllenhaal) is presented as the more extroverted of the two, and is much more comfortable with his sexuality than Ennis (Heath Ledger), who is quieter and much more protective of his emotions. The audience is lead by the director Ang Lee to feel more connected with the character of Jack right from the beginning of the film, and therefore his death later on in the film has much more of an emotional impact. Additionally, through making Ennis a very closed off character, the writers Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana make his outbursts of emotion feel much more real for the audience, and therefore more susceptible to being emotionally manipulated into feeling sympathy for the character. The setting of Brokeback Mountain holds a very special meaning for both the audience and the characters throughout the film. By returning to the same place, the place where they first met an the last place that they will ever see each other, the Brokeback Mountains start to represent the relationship between Jack and Ennis. Towards the end of the film, when Jack starts to get angry at their situation, the mountains begin to take on a new meaning; they are now a symbol of all the two every shared, and a reminder of the possible life that they could have lead together but never had the chance to. As Jack said, the Brokeback Moutains are 'all we got'. The audience are emotionally manipulated by this constant symbol throughout the film as they watch as this setting changes from something of hope for the two characters to something of despair, and after rooting for the characters through the film, the ending of this hope would have a big emotional impact on an invested audience. Overall, this film is one of emotional highs and lows. The audience are allowed the enjoy the highs of the relationship between Jack and Ennis, which only make the low points even more devastating.