I want to make something really clear up front.
My very first article for BC Magazine was an enthusiastic and loving tribute to Brokeback Mountain. I’ve written a few more on the subject that were just as positive afterward, so it’s a fair assessment that I’m a fan. I make this statement because I found this new edition a disappointment, not because of the storyline or the production values, but because I was expecting — no I was hoping for — what I didn’t get.
With the addition of the unused amount of space afforded on a second disc, I expected DVD extras such as outtakes and flubbed lines. After reading reports of how the original film had to be edited from nearly three hours down to two hours and fourteen minutes, I wanted to see what was edited out. Any true fan of the film would welcome — no, downright relish — the chance to enjoy a two and a half hour or even longer version, just to see what was missed and to satisfy a hunger for more of the story.
Perhaps more than all the other unanswered questions, I’d hoped to discover the solution to the mysterious missing scenes from the movie that have been taunting me for over a year now.
Missing scenes?
I’ll get to that in a moment and present evidence of them.
When it all comes down to it, if you don’t own a DVD version of Brokeback Mountain yet or have a brand new HD/DVD player, then you should definitely buy this edition now. This is a glorious and beautiful presentation of an incredible film that’s not to be missed. The HD in HD/DVD is obvious and magnificent.
However, if you already own the original DVD released in 2006 don’t bother with this one. Instead, try holding out for a director’s cut version further down the road and hope it’s not until a tenth anniversary edition is released.
Here’s why.
Having seen the movie repeatedly - having for all intents and purposes memorized this DVD - having put up an entire tribute web page to it, I can say without doubt that this is the exact same transfer to disc of the original DVD, complete with soundtrack foibles and all.
For example, in chapter five there's a scene where Ennis is setting up the camp tent and Jack is laying on his back playing his harmonica. Over the dialogue there's an annoying reverb that I expected would have been repaired or replaced on this version, but disappointingly wasn't.
![Brokeback Mountain [HD DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5153B2QG81L._SL120_.jpg)
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Jet in Columbus
I love this movie, I just feel cheated at what I expected them to present in this new version
2 - Triniman
Honestly, I thought this was an incredibly overhyped film that was just average - neither lousy or great, just somewhere in between. I definitely wouldn't watch it again. Maybe my expectations were too high?
3 - Jet in Columbus
I'd say Triniman that the movie is too sophisticated for what the viewing public expects.
It's a plain and simple love story.
There are no exploding cars and no explicit sex and it makes people think too much, and mindless entertainment is what people are more connected to these days.
4 - handyguy
Not everyone is going to respond to every film. Even if the person has taste and sensitivity and a lot of other folks think the movie is well done, there's no guarantee that particular individual will love that particular film. This seems almost too obvious to have to say it. Taste is subjective.
I love this movie about as much as Jet does, but the first time I saw it, I felt a bit let down. All the pre-release hype had allowed me to imagine something impossibly great, instead of simply a very well done movie. Since then, I've rewatched it a few times and read the beautiful original story a couple of times, and I've become convinced it's a masterpiece.
But just because someone else doesn't have that reaction doesn't mean that person only likes mindless car chase movies.
However, a lot of the online criticism of the movie, especially a year ago, had a political or polemical edge. People seemed to want to use the movie to express their favorable or [especially] unfavorable opinions about gay people and gay rights. Many of these comments were silly, offensive, and ugly...and had little to do with the film itself. Some were apparently written by insecure adolescent boys of all ages and genders.
PS If you have access to an HD television, watch this film on HBO in high-def. It is inexpressibly beautiful, so superior to the standard DVD.
5 - El Bicho
What you seem to be ignoring is that this may well be the Director's Cut. I have yet to see an interview where Lee wished he could have included more scenes. Inserting scenes just because doesn't mean they are going to work. It could throw off the pacing.
With all the hype beforehand, I don't know anyone nor do I believe anyone didn't know what this film was about before walking in.
Why would there need to be a sequel? The story was over.
Your opinion of the Oscar is based solely on emotion and has no basis in fact. First off, no film is entitled to an award. Second, you have no idea how many votes it lost by. Third, let's stop and think about who the judges are: people living in Los Angeles, so it's no surprise they might identify more with a film set in LA than Wyoming. Fourth, Ledger, who I thought gave a brilliant performance, lost to Hoffman who was playing a homosexual, so how would that be PC exactly?
I thought the movie was very well done, one of the top ten of the year; however, I didn't think it was the best picture, so I hope I don't get tagged with your "firm conviction," which is presumptuous and insulting.
6 - Matthew T. Sussman
"the movie is too sophisticated for what the viewing public expects.
It's a plain and simple love story."
7 - Jet in Columbus
My complaint has to do with the presentation, Handyguy not the movie itself, though as I said they could've fixed the sound problem.
8 - Jet in Columbus
Elbicho, The original edit of this film was nearly three hours long. This is material that Lee thought enough of to have put on film. It was edited down because most theaters won't show a movie that's more than two hours long unless they have to because the more showings per day the more they and the studio makes.
This means that there's 45 minutes of footage somewhere that could be presented.
The end of the film left Ennis alone, with no prospects but to stay alone the rest of his life unable to recapture what he'd let escape through his fingers. There's another 40 years of his life that could be told.
If you'd like to see how I continued the story, you can click here
As for my firm conviction that he was robbed at the oscars. Arguing that both actors played gay characters isn't valid. Hoffman played more of nonthreatening a caricature of a character to be observed at rather than Heath, who played someone that nearly everyone could identify with, which some considered threatening and a little too close to home.
I stated at the end of this article that this was my opinion.
respect mine as valid, and I'll respect yours?
Jet
9 - Jet in Columbus
Thanks Matt. Beautifully put.
10 - Mat Brewster
I didn't see this film until way after all the controversy settled down. I liked it pretty well, but not nearly as much as you did. It was well told, and well acted, and beautifully shot, but I didn't fully buy the story.
The opening quarter seemed more like two horny cowboys who needed to get laid and had only each other. It didn't show me enough of their relationship to make me believe that little bit of loving would haunt them as it did. But lots of movies do that trick, so I wasn't too bothered.
Has Ang mentioned anywhere that the cut that made it to the screen is in anyway not the cut he wanted to make? Every movie has scenes that were filmed but ultimately don't make it into the final cut for the reasons Bicho described.
I'll agree that they deserve to make it into the deleted scenes section of the DVD (especially when it is a two disk dealie) but they might not need to be placed into the actual film.
11 - Jet in Columbus
Point taken Matt but What second version of a DVD didn't come with outtakes?
12 - tink
A personal pet peeve is that fact that way too many DVDs neglect to add all the special features that they have available, including outtakes, goofs and interviews (either filmed for the DVD edition or culled from press coverage).
I absolutely get what you're saying here, Jet. Great job!!!
13 - Mat Brewster
I'll agree with ya there Jet. If they are going to make a second disk, they ought to jam pack it with extras including the stuff that got edited out of the actual film.
14 - Jet in Columbus
Thank you Tink, I was trying to make that point politely to them. It's a fact that they rushed the initial offering last year into production and release because they wanted it out before the Academy awards.
But now they've had a year to play with it and all they added was a meager 30 minutes or so of material that didn't come close to what fans were waiting for.
It's always been my opinion that studio bean counters think like this.
1. Well we'll put this out just in case someone wants to buy it, but we'll spend as little as possible... after all it is a fag film.
2. Holy Shit! they bought a lot of them. I know, we'll put a little more on it and add HD-DVD on it and charge 'em more for it, but leave out a bunch of stuff so if we decide to later down the road we can always sucker 'em into buying another one.
3. wow those fools bought two, now we'll give 'em what they want but we'll charge say... oh... $45 bucks for each. then we've suckered 'em into buying 3 DVDs when they could've held off and only bought one!.
I don't think this is Focus Features doing this, I think it Universal Studios.
That's why I'd like to hold out for the Director's cut.
Fortunately for me and my limited budget. I got the original DVD free when I bought some movies through TLA last year, and I got this one for free for reviewing it.
Others aren't so lucky.
Thanks for contributing Tink
Jet
15 - Jet in Columbus
Thanks Mat-To expand a little.
A. Okay VHS movies were all the rage and the studios knew DVDs were coming, but they wanted as many VHSs as possible sold, so that the consumer would want to upgrade to DVDs.
b. Sell DVD players for as low a cost as possible to sucker people into buying them and then having to spend hundreds or even thousands upgrading their collections.
C. Shut off all sale of VHS copies to force consumers to buy DVDs. Anyone with a VHS is shit out of luck. We'll laugh all the bank because the suckers have two copies of the same movie!
D. Don't tell anyone about HD-DVD until they've had time to upgrade to DVDs. Then flood the market with HD-DVD players and make the fools all buy third copies of their favorite movies. HEY THIS IS GREAT!!!
E. Don't tell them about Blue Ray.
What's next? having been in the fringes of the industry for a little while I'll tell you. Japan has found a way to store massive amounts of info in holographic form on discs, enough to store 10-15 HD movies on one disc, or 5 in a new more data consuming format that's coming that'll make Blueray-HD look like a VHS tape.
By the time that hit's the market we'll have bought our favorite movies 4-5 times in ascending formats and they'll have laughed themselves all the way to the bank.
ha ha
16 - Pandora
Wonderful review! I agree with almost 100% of what you've said. I'm so disappointed there is not more to love about this collectors edition. I too have seen this movie more times than I care to admit and intentionally waited to buy the dvd because I knew the collectors edition would be coming out. What a waste! How do we bring this to the attention of the "powers that be"? I want more!!
17 - Jet in Columbus
Pandora, as a reviewer I'm obligated to send the review to the people who supplied me with this DVD. Whether they do something about it or not... well that's another question.
I absolutely love this movie. If you'd like to see how I closed out their story up to Ennis' death in 2007 click on the link in comment 8
Thanks for your input
Jet
18 - handyguy
It's understandable that you feel let down by the lack of deleted scenes in this new package. DVD marketing often seems to include "rip-off" as part of the deal, especially when a film is released multiple times.
However...
I couldn't disagree more strongly about a sequel. What a beautiful story Annie Proulx wrote, so spare, not one extra word used. The ache you feel at the end is part of the great achievement of both story and film. A sequel would unavoidably cheapen that.
It's as unthinkable as a sequel to Casablanca or Gone with the Wind, which also had great endings where the main couple in the plot had split, with the future uncertain. [The laughable results when greed overcame good sense and a sequel to GWTW was indeed written speak for themselves.]
I feel virtually certain that Annie would agree with me on this. And saying she "should be compelled" to write a sequel....lordy, Jet. You're thinking like a fan rather than a critic in this instance.
19 - Jet in Columbus
Does ANYONE know who that man and the kid in front of the garage is?
20 - Jet in Columbus
Handyguy, in this instance, I can't separate the two. see comment 8 and the link
21 - handyguy
My guess would be that the boy is either Ennis or Jack, and the adult is a relative, in a flashback that got excised.
22 - Jet in Columbus
Nope sorry, in the original credits of the movie there's someone credited as killer mechanic, so I thought he was one of the guys enlisted to kill Jack.
In the picture behind them is a mid 70s dodge truck in the garage, so it can't be a flash back.
23 - handyguy
Possibly related to this scene? [from IMDB]
"According to an interview that Heath Ledger gave to the Philadelphia Inquirer's Steven Rea, there was a sequence that was filmed for the movie in which Jack and Ennis help some hippies get their car out of a river. According to Ledger, the scene took a week to shoot but was disliked almost immediately by everyone involved."
A long shot I know. But the two guys in the garage seem to be looking at and reacting to something...perhaps Jack and Ennis and the hippies coming into town?
24 - El Bicho
Sorry, Jet, but your opinion that everyone not willing to vote the film Best Picture or Heath Best Actor due to homophobia is not valid. Certainly not in my case.
You should be careful with the broad brush because your view that everyone's motivations stem from homophobia are clouding your vision. To think that BBM got a bare bones release initially because "after all it is a fag film" shows you don't know the marketplace. Most films, especially ones doing well at the box office, are rushed out on DVD to combat piracy, which is rampant worldwide. Why did Sin City get a bare bones release? The Lord of the Rings? I could go on.
"It was edited down because most theaters won't show a movie that's more than two hours long"
BBM is over two hours, so that point doesn't apply here. I've been working in different aspects of film production for years, not the fringes, so I know the many reasons why films are cut. Time is only one, and I trust Lee as an artist.
Every film shoots more footage than it uses and just because the footage was shot doesn't mean the director thinks it should be seen. Woody Allen shot September a second time with a new cast because the first version didn't work. He reshot some of Purple Rose of Cairo because Michael Keaton seemed to modern for the role. Stanley Kubrick shot a famous pie fight at the end of Dr Strangelove. Sometimes, they even try ideas out on the set that don't work.
Absolutely agree with handy on there being no sequel or further adventures of Ennis. The ending was perfect.
If someone is listed as killer mechanic, my guess would be he was responsible for killing the gay man Ennis refers to seeing. The kid in the back looks like a younger version of Ennis.
I don't know how you could tell what model the truck is (kudos to you), but that has no bearing on the scene. Go to IMDb and look under goofs for a number of Anachronisms. The movie is filled with them.
25 - Jet in Columbus
Thanks Handy guy, a plausible solution.