Gary Dretzka
Leonard Klady
David Poland
Ray Pridecia Vidal

Brokeback
Mountain

Directed by Ang Lee
Focus Features

Now that the Sturm und Drang over Ang Lee’s critically lauded New Age western has finally died down, all the defenders of Hollywood virtue and genre purity – especially those academy members paralyzed by the thought of pansy cowpokes lassoing a Best Picture nod-- now can get a copy of the DVD mailed to their homes in a plain red Netflix envelope. Not that there’s anything in Brokeback Mountain that would shock the neighbors. After all, when the writers of Queer as Folk decided to “out” star quarterback Drew Boyd, no one demanded that all the closets in NFL locker-rooms be locked until the story arc ended, lest the Manning boys agree to endorse Capezio ballet slippers.

The tagline on posters for Brokeback Mountain read, “Love Is a Force of Nature,” as if to suggest that what happened between Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist was as inevitable and unpredictable as a hurricane bearing down on the Gulf Coast, carrying winds of 150 miles per hour. Perhaps. Or, maybe, the lads merely were inspired by the constant rutting of the sheep all around them. In reality, everything that happened after the boys came down from the mountain bore the markings of such traditional stories of star-crossed love as Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story.

The grandeur of the environment in which Ennis and Jack’s “lifelong connection” (as the relationship is described on the DVD jacket), and period in which the film is set, demanded of audiences that they realign their notions of what inspires love, lust, pleasure, pain and longing. Let’s face it, though, a doomed romance between a pair of high-plains drifters was far more aesthetically pleasing than one that played out against the background of a prison, a construction site, army barracks or loading dock. No mountain range has ever looked more inviting and beautiful -- or achingly lonesome – than the one captured here by cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto.

This initial DVD release is likely to be followed somewhere down the road by a more elaborate “collector’s edition.” As it is, though, there are some pretty decent bonus features, including the featurettes "Sharing the Story: The Making of Brokeback Mountain,” "Directing From the Heart: Ang Lee" and "On Being A Cowboy." It also offers interviews with screenwriters Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana.