Brokeback Mountain

DVD review from That Guy Named David

Brokeback Mountain (D)

When my fiancé rented Brokeback Mountain, I thought that, because it was nominated for multiple Oscars (and was the favorite to win going into the night of the awards), I would enjoy this critically-acclaimed movie. I based that initial opinion on the fact that (1) I am open-minded; (2) I am considered by most to be a pretty liberal, card-carrying member of the Democratic Party, (3) the movie was put out by Focus Features (Lost in Translation, The Pianist, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Wet Hot American Summer), and (4) I believe gay couples should enjoy the same rights as married couples and find the floating of a proposed constitutional amendment banning gay marriage as offensive and nothing but pure politics for Republicans to energize their base every election year. All that being said, this movie is horrible. Yes, I get that it is groundbreaking in the sense that it has a few major movie stars in a homosexual relationship that Ang Lee had no problem dissecting at every level. However, to me, the story was hollow and boring. Basically, it is 2 guys who go off together to the mountain to round up sheep for a few months, become a couple, leave the mountain, get married to women thousands of miles apart, have kids, get back in touch, and then take annual "fishing trips" to Wyoming to rekindle the flames of their time on the mountain. Heath Ledger's accent reminded me of Sling Blade, and I thought both main characters overacted their roles. To me, this movie was nothing more than an over-hyped attempt by Hollywood to put out a "controversial" product and see how many eyebrows it could raise. My eyebrows, however, were lowered along with my eyelids as I damn near fell asleep watching this dud. As the great poet Flavor Flav once said, "don't believe the hype."