To see this as "Gay Cowboy Movie" is missing the point

Rating: 9/10 (24 February 2011)

It might be relevant, in reviewing this film, to state at the outset what your sexual orientation is, for this might color your perspective -- although I'm well aware that not every gay person will necessarily like the film, and not every straight will hate it.
I happen to be a straight male, and I viewed this movie strictly for what it is: a story of love and love lost. To approach this movie primarily as a "gay cowboy movie" is tantamount to regarding "King Kong" as a story about bestiality. I personally am offended by the evangelicals and their ilk seeing nothing but sodomy in this beautifully crafted telling of an affecting love story. What dirty minds these Bible- thumping morons have. They see only ugliness where there is only beauty.
Of the two protagonists, Jack (Gyllenhaal) and Innis (Ledger), only the former is definitely gay, whereas Innis is a laconic, combative, probably homophobic loner, who finds it difficult to make any human connection. He finally makes that connection with Jack.
A beautiful love story, admirably told by a master movie-maker, Ang Lee. Paradoxically, I hope that this movie does not become too great a commercial success, because if it does, it will become retrospectively trivialized by scores of Hollywood "gay-themed" copycat dramas concerned only about the bottom line.