Brokeback Mountain, is, without a doubt, a masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (5 April 2006)

There was no film before this one that touched me on such an emotional level. By the end of the film I was bawling my eyes out, and for me with films, that's a first. The movie's story is by now well-known: two sheep wranglers (Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar) work together on Brokeback Mountain one summer and develop a relationship with each other that, simply, can never truly be. What I found truly amazing about this movie was that, yes, it is about two gay men, two "gay cowboys" as has been described so often of the film. And yet, when I watched the film, I was so entranced by the story and the characters, their lives, what they did, what happened to them, that their sexual orientation was never a question in my mind--it never seemed to matter. That is a stroke of masterwork by the film's director, Ang Lee, who rightly deserved the Oscar (and other awards he received) for this film, as he could have taken an approach to glorify Jack and Ennis' homosexuality. But instead he takes the approach to relate it to anyone: gay or straight. This moving is also the crowning moment for Heath Ledger, who before now, I believe, had never gotten a chance to show his true talent--he does here, and it is simply amazing to watch. Jake Gyllenhaal gives more of his continuing good performances, but he shows a new depth to this part than any of his others. I read the short story before seeing the film, and thought it was decent. I was not expecting the heart-wrenching story I saw. Annie Proulx, (who wrote the original short story) herself admitted that after seeing this film, that, sometimes, "film can be more powerful than the written word." Brokeback Mountain, is, without a doubt, a masterpiece, and will be remembered for years to come as a classic.