I am just a cowboy, lonesome on the trail

Rating: 8/10 (21 August 2010)

Brokeback Mountain is derogatory called Bareback Mountain by American Conservatives (the type of people who want to hold America back socially). These people obviously do not understand that Brokeback Mountain was more then 'the gay cowboy movie', but a powerful tale of forbidden love and the changing nature of rural America. Ang Lee, Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal do a terrific job with this film.
Starting in 1963, ranch hand Ennis del Mar (Ledger) and rodeo cowboy Jack Twist (Gyllenhaal) who work together on Brokeback Mountain, Wyoming to herd sheep. There are alone in the mountains and of course they become friends. But after one drunken night Ennis and Jack have sex, and but Ennis warns Jack it was a one time incident. When the two split Ennis marries Alma (Michelle Williams), fathers two daughters and becomes a general labourer. Jack becomes a rodeo cowboy and marries rodeo princess Lureen (Anne Hathaway), the daughter of a wealthy man and the two have a son. But the two cowboys are continually drawn to each other, going back to Brokeback Mountain for 'fishing trips' and their families suffer because of it.
Brokeback Mountain is a powerfully acted film, with great performances all round. Both Ledger and Gyllenhaal show why there deserved an Oscar nod each and why there were the greatest actors of their generation (Ledger untimely death a tragic lost to the work of acting). Both Ennis and Jack are two very different characters, Ennis being hot-headed, with a temper and seems to denied what he really is. He is a loving father, but suffers financial issues and is trapped in a loveless marriage, to a woman who suffers because of his hollow feelings. Jack on the other hand is more accepting about his feeling, though has to keep them hidden because of the nature of his environment: he willingly goes into a relationship with Lureen and the two seem to have a more healthier relationship, but he has more need for contact with other men. Both are believable and the situation is made out to be real. It is how a closet relationship work functioned and that what you would expect to be the most manly men can harbour feelings for each other and do not fall into the stereotype of what gay man would be. The other relationships are handled with great skills with the writers and Lee understanding human psychology. All the characters are well drawn and complex, with it easy to feel sorry for Ennis. But I would have like to have seen more of Jack and Lureen's home live.
Lee directs with great skill, using excellent cinematography and an understated, simple score by Rodrigo Prieto and Gustavo Santaolalla to great effect. Lee shows the isolated nature of the mountain, beautiful, but cold and serves as a metaphor for both the characters as their relationship. It serves as both everything good and bad about them. Lee captures this area and period of America really well, showing that it period of change and that work of cowboys was changing and dying to be no more then a show act. He could have shown more of the conservative nature of areas of Wyoming and Texas and more ideas about Homophobia, but you can't have everything. Lee also follows a very simple rule of direction, show, don't tell, allowing the audience to see the emotions of the characters, using little dialogue for many moments of the film.
A very good film that is more the 'gay cowboy movie' and a great way to say stuff you (because it's IMDb I can't use any harsher language) to American Conservatives of the Sarah Palin model.