Cinematic breakthrough - await similar films.

Rating: 8/10 (11 December 2006)

From the first scene to the last I was gripped by this film. As a narrative 'Brokeback' offered so much in terms of originality and it is for this reason I feel other film makers have a well made path for same sex romance movies. Homosexuality has been the subject of ridicule in many films. Also films utilise the token homosexual as a side narrative to the 'Sally' and the 'Harry'. Hanks played a man suffering with AIDs in Philedelphia, in my opinion portraying the dark side of homosexuality. It was refreshing to see two A-list stars play out this story centred around homosexuality.
Set in the American West this film contradicts our perceptions of Westerns. Audiences are used to seeing Wayne and Eastwood display remorseless testosterone on the plains. Ang Lee creates this world of remote loneliness, where the stigmas created by society do not apply. Ledger and Gyllenhaal portray two men so scarred by the attitudes of homosexuality in 1965 that they reluctantly refuse to 'out' themselves as lovers. Instead they retreat to Brokeback Mountain where they fulfil their true desires. As a whole this film portrays a realistic story of how American society at the time refused to accommodate these two men and their raw emotions.
The story plays out to an endearing soundtrack that musically connotes the slow moving nature of the American West and the loneliness that encompasses it. I was left numb by the film and I await other, less daring film makers, to utilise a ready made path of cinematic acceptance for such narratives. More to the point I look forward to it.