A film to treasure.

Rating: 10/10 (19 February 2006)

I came to "Brokeback Mountain" with many recommendations from friends who utterly loved the film. This usually means disappointment because few films live up to the hype, but "Brokeback Mountain" exceeded my highest expectations.
The film is concerned with gender, relationships, fidelity and the human need for love, affection and companionship. Ledger and Gyllenhaal, who are both painfully convincing, have both said that this is not a gay film per Se, and although I first thought they were pussy footing around the fact, I have come to agree with them. The film doesn't merely portray a same-sex relationship or sexual encounter, although it does both, it rather addresses the construction of gender. What makes a man. This is most obviously done through the appropriation of what was in the 60's an unquestioned icon of machismo, the cowboy. Ang Lee gives us a glimpse behind the rough exterior of the Marlbro Man and exposes a vulnerable, tormented and guilt stricken man trying to survive and desperately trying to punch themselves into what is acceptable. The films narrative foundations may be that of a classic Hollywood thwarted romance, but it is so affecting.
The film is beautifully photographed but almost too heartbreaking to watch, with every scene filled with unspoken truths, desires and tension. The men cry and break-down, but presumably not enough to let out all that is fermenting inside. Instead the cinema screen weeps. If you allow yourself the emotional connection needed to fully appreciate this film, then like me you'll leave the cinema with a stomach ache, completely exhausted.
Lee's direction is invisible, but deft enough in order to analyze, pull apart and examine what's been done. This is a Hollwood film which adheres to independent sensibilities and made by an Asian director. A film about two (for a lack of a better word) "gay" men who are played by two straight actors. A quiet, in all senses of the word, film which is about the unsaid, the repressed and the silenced which manages to say so much, with sparse dialog.
"Brokeback Mountain" is a film to treasure.