Brokeback Mountain Soundtrack Review: This is a review of the film score Brokeback Mountain by Gustavo Santaolalla.
At a glance:
Geek Score: 97.1
Total Minutes Of Excellence: 11.53
Album Excellence: 89%
How are the scores calculated and what does it mean?
Brokeback Mountain is a 2005 American romantic drama film directed by Ang Lee and starring Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway. It tells the story of a forbidden and secretive relationship between two cowboys and their lives over the years. The score is composed by Gustavo Santaolalla.
Brokeback Mountain has always appealed to me musically and it made me look for more Santaolalla. I remember I didn’t get too far, because nothing was quite like this. I would maybe compare this to some of Zbigniew Preisner’s work. I love the symbolism in this score, the vast America, the prejudice, it’s all here. ‘Opening’ is just so beautiful minimalistic Americana with just a reverberating guitar. It’s a cue to dream to. Then comes one of my favourite themes, the Brokeback Mountain theme. From the first time I heard it, and I think it was the first time I had listened to Santaolalla’s music, I thought he was going to be my favourite composer. ‘Brokeback Mountain 1’ is gorgeous whichever way you look at it. I mentioned dream, and that’s what this cue does for me as well. Imagine sitting on a horses back looking over nothing but endless fields of beautiful America at sunset or sundown. Yeah, I’ll have a bit of that please. ‘Snow’ is the most “upsetting” cue so far to use that word. Upsetting is probably wrong though, but what I’m trying to say that this doesn’t feel calm anymore. It’s a little bit of more active country, faster. It’s good, but please bring me back to dream land and so he does with ‘Brokeback Mountain 2’ which is a variation of the main theme. I love the little break in the guitar in the first few seconds. It’s so beautiful. This is definitely a more faster, busier version than ‘Brokeback Mountain 1’, but I enjoy this almost as much. ‘Riding Horses’ is beautiful as a secondary theme. I actually had forgotten about it because the main theme seems that much more memorable, but this is gorgeous. Dream away my friends, dream away.
The score is very short, but the content in this score fills me with happiness. Maybe this isn’t Santaolalla’s best score, but this is the first time I heard it and I am still in love with this score. Nostalgia is one thing, but this score holds up very well. I have heard various expanded bootlegs of it and maybe there’s more music out there to be released? Maybe there is just more of the same? I like more of the same, even if the variations is small, I’d love to have it, to own it, to listen to it some more. I wish there are many scores like this one and there are probably a few, but this to me is quite unique, and also probably unique to Santaolalla. It’s a gem. Make sure you don’t miss it.
HIGHLIGHTS:
1. Opening
3. Brokeback Mountain 1 *
9. Brokeback Mountain 2
12. Riding Horses *
15. Brokeback Mountain 3
17. The Wings
