Enlightening, pure humanity, spiritually transcendent, a true gift.

Rating: 10/10 (10 February 2006)

I have read so many beautiful comments that express the very same feelings and impressions I had about this movie that it almost looks like one more comment will be just a repetition of all I have read. But if you think this is it, you are then missing the whole point!!! Why are so many people saying so many similar things? Maybe because this movie is so superlatively deeply touching, intense, heart-breaking and haunting, that in a way it looks like it has been bringing a kind of dormant and unusual humanity and perception to the surface, like you're coming back to life, the real one this time, for many people.
People watch this movie and they end up in total awe and numb for what they have seen, most of us still trying to digest the "volcano" of deep hardcore emotions that it has provoked on us. It's like for the first time we have been exposed to a different and completely new way of seeing love, of seeing life, of seeing humanity, a way none of us ever imagined existed or would be possible... in a simple movie.
Absolutely needless to mention how all the people involved in the production certainly got to transcend themselves to a higher level here, any adjective I might try to use would not be able to appropriately express how splendid everything became. Direction, Screenplay, Cinematography, Score, Acting - well, this last one certainly deserves another superlative adjective that may have not been created yet - the main cast was simply out of this world, undeniably believable and realistic in every way.
Here is another aspect that the movie was absolutely superb in - most of what it conveyed could not simply be expressed with words - and it actually wasn't!!!!! Most of it goes silently and unspoken into the audience's heart, unwillingly, subtly, without warning... and when you become aware of what's going on with you, it's too late. You're already way too involved, astonishingly numb and trapped in a dialog the movie produces between the characters' lives and pain and your true self...
Now, there's no way out for you!!!! It's like now this movie has created a direct interface with your heart and spirit... something your conscious reason cannot control anymore. Maybe this is the reason you cannot simply go on with your normal lives, after having simply watched another great movie. It goes on with you, you go bed, trying to sleep, but it's still there, making you think, images and striking feelings coming back to your mind over and over, forcing you to try to reason or understand something that maybe is still out of our reach.
We have have all been raised within a cultural context that both shapes us and is reciprocally shaped by us. We tend to try to give names and label everything we touch, everything we come in contact with. But maybe we are starting to realize that this rationalism and materialism we have been used to may not be enough to give us even a glance of who we really are, or what we are really supposed to do in this life on our precious third rock from the sun. This movie gets all the point here. It is indeed able to show us a sight of a kind of humanity, with such raw honesty, it gives us a glance of what our world might be if not for all the labels, all the repression, all the control we try to have on others.
Like many people have said, even though we all know it is a story between two men here, that is NOT what OUR HEARTS actually see, we REALLY see two human beings, two spirits that are bound to go together, no matter what gender they are, no matter what society might think of them, no matter how each and all of us would label them, it is still there - the only concrete thing, the love they feel for each other, pure love, raw love, love that comes from deep beyond the heart itself, love that comes straight from the PRIMEVAL fire of the spirit. Love that is above anything. Anything AT ALL. Love so pure, so complete, that it cannot be judged by societal, cultural and material standards. Maybe this movie might help us take a glance at a new reality, a new kind of bonding for mankind, a bond that might be based on new standards.
All in all, like many others, I have been haunted by this movie since I saw it the first time, I cannot simply get it out of my mind!!! Every now and then I catch myself wondering on one or another aspect of what I saw, new ideas coming to my mind, and still sometimes tears come to my eyes when a scene or another comes back to my focus of attention. So, I also decided to share my experience with you. I hope I can enlighten you somehow with my own impressions...
I truly believe this movie is already a landmark in the history of the cinema, but maybe it has not revealed itself to us completely. Maybe we are yet to come to a final objective conclusion and understanding of what this turmoil is all about. The experience of this movie only starts on the screen, believe me... Nothing you can do will prevent it from bringing the storm and the bliss directly into your own heart and spirit.
Totally unique. A masterpiece.
Now, forget all I have just said and go experience it for yourself (if you haven't already). It can only be IF it is a personal emotional and spiritual journey. It's like in the "Matrix", you have to make your choice and take the pill yourself to get to know the true meaning of things.