This is the best film I've seen in 20 years. It is first-rate cinematic storytelling.

Rating: 10/10 (6 January 2006)

I've seen this film three times and will probably see it at least once or twice more in the next few weeks. I haven't been able to get it out of my head. It is a story of unexpected passion, intimacy and the lack of it, poverty, what it means to be a man, thwarted lives, and the infinite ways in which human beings bring sorrow to each other. I have thought about it, written about it at length and sung its praises to everyone I know.
Heath Ledger gives a jaw-droppingly moving performance as Ennis Del Mar, a deeply repressed and wounded soul. Jake Gyllenhaal as Jack Twist is more open, less repressed and more opportunistic, but equally tragic. Watch everyone carefully in this film, as all of the acting is top notch.
This film takes one of our country's most defining myths--the wide open promise of the West, and the heroism of the rugged individual as embodied in the image of the cowboy--and turns it upside down. BROKEBACK gives us a whole new look at these old stories that we've told ourselves about who and what we are, showing us a new perspective on what it all means. The story illuminates the dark corners where the myths break down, where rugged individualism means keeping your mouth shut and staying out of the way, and where the wide open promise of the west means isolation, loneliness and limitations. And as the story unfolds, we see how this myth celebrates and simultaneously strangles our understanding of what it is to be a real man.
I've been sadly disappointed in the response I've heard from many so-called "straight" men, who, when I've encouraged them to see the movie, have dismissed the idea outright. They're frightened by the idea of seeing gay sex on the screen. All I can say is, they're damn fools to let their fear keep them from seeing this first-rate film.