A masterpiece. A touching and haunting love story.

Rating: 10/10 (17 April 2006)

Absolutely amazing! This movie hit me like a shot in the heart. It's a beautiful story about deep and genuine LOVE, denied by society. How could some - luckily, very few - critics slap the easy tag of "gay cowboy movie" on this film, I wonder?
"Brokeback Mountain" made me think about my own life, about the force of genuine feelings: those who are lucky enough to find true love in this - short - life should keep it like a treasure because this is ultimately what counts. This film also made me think about the cruelty of some people, and the iniquities that homosexual people have suffered in different parts of the world, in different ages.
I don't accept some criticism, according to which the characters are immoral because they are HOMOSEXUAL and cheat on their wives. Who said so didn't understand much of this film. ENNIS has no tools to come to terms with his feelings and sexual attraction to Jack. He was brought up with a sense of horror towards homosexuality, which he considers as an aberrant condition to be ashamed of and repress: unfortunately, this is what was taught to him. The social background he comes from doesn't enable him to cope with this situation. He literally swallows his feelings and hardly ever expresses them (well, he hardly ever speaks). He desperately tries to forget about Jack and Brokeback Mountain and live a "normal" and "respectable" life with his wife.
But, as the movie tag line reads, LOVE IS FORCE OF NATURE, and you cannot resist it, whoever you are: why should one's life be hell, just because he received a twisted education, imbued with religious dogmas or social conventions, I wonder? All the characters, including the two wives, are ultimately unhappy and defeated. But whose fault is it? Ennis's? I found his character deeply moving and absolutely realistic.
Ang Lee's intent, however, is not to deliver a "J'ACCUSE" movie, but just to recount a tragic and vivid love story between two human beings, like it was in the original Annie Proulx short narrative.
This is Ang Lee's best film by far, and one the best movies I have ever seen; at least, the one which struck me the most. It may sound pathetic, but I must confess that it's been the very first time I cried for a film... I can't get OUT OF MY HEAD its intense images, the laconic, unforgettable lines, its haunting music.
The pacing is calm: the writer of the original short story, Annie Proulx, and the two screenwriters, McMurtry and Ossana, managed to depict this peculiar and, at the same time, universal American story (which is set in 1963-1983 Wyoming) with few but incisive masterstrokes.
What makes this movie great is its perfect mixture of strong and poetic images (it's hard to believe they gave the Oscar for best CINEMATOGRAPHY to "Memoirs of a Geisha"!), its melancholic MUSIC, the meaningful silence and facial expressions of the characters, the scarce, poignant and unforgettable LINES... There are no long dialogs: this would have been unrealistic, since it's ultimately two young (and later mature) uneducated cowboys, grown up in the narrow spaces of a provincial rural society.
The actors' performances are absolutely stunning: HEATH LEDGER is in my opinion the best of all, and it's a real shame he didn't get the awards he deserved! His astounding portrayal of Ennis does smack of loneliness and alienation.
I was very disappointed too when I saw that the ACADEMY members didn't give "Brokeback Mountain" the Oscar as best picture. I think this is outrageous and a clear indication that the Academy Awards do not - too often in my humble opinion - mean quality, but, on the contrary, are just the result of unpredictable marketing strategies or old-fashioned "ideologies". I also read that many of the voters don't even watch all the nominated films. In this case, I think a lot of voters acted out their prejudices against a still controversial theme, that is, gay love and homosexuality, in the secret of their voting booths.
I think that even here in THIS SITE it's unacceptable to see that 9% of the voters gave a 1 vote. I'm sure most these people didn't even see the film, and want to express their anger towards the gay love theme, and to decrease the average mark of the film.
Yet, I am glad this masterpiece received dozens of other ACCOLADES, among which the "Leone d'Oro" (the golden lion) at the Venice Film Festival, back at the film's world premiere in September 2005: being Italian myself, I'm proud we paved the way for such an amazing and moving piece of art.