Over-rated and degrading

Rating: 5/10 (13 January 2006)

I saw this film today, and based on the reviews I read, was very disappointed, but Ang Lee is an excellent director, so I was hoping the film would at least be emotionally moving and artistic.
Spoilers**** Okay, first of all, I almost walked out and asked for my money back when Jack Twist practically raped Ennis in the tent. The anal sex scene seemed more like rape to me than any kind of emotional bonding experience.
I find it amusing that this story is billed as a great "love" story when as Gene Shalit said, Jack did act very much as a sexual predator towards Ennis. Jack's aggression towards Ennis was not portrayed as a meeting of emotions and minds, but very much in the way that an adult sexual predator would stalk an innocent child. Fist fighting scenes ensued when Jack again tried to force himself on Ennis -- I found it rather degrading, to be honest.
Also, I found their behavior VERY dishonorable in the way that they callously used and abused the women in their lives. They stayed with their wives and girlfriends -- lying to them the whole time they were taking "fishing" trips up in the mountains. They showed NO honor towards the women and children who TRULY loved them. Women are the enemy, I guess.
I wouldn't bill this as a "love story", but as a lust story.
If Jack was SO IN LOVE with Ennis, then why did he run off to Mexico and sleep with male hookers? It seems that he was bored out on the range and just looking for a cute guy to have sex with and Ennis let him have his way with him?
I went to this movie with an open mind, really wanting to like it. However, this is nothing even remotely romantic about it. I found the romance between Alma and Ennis to be the most romantic relationship in the film, and that was built on deceit.
I truly felt embarrassed walking out of the theater -- I felt sleazy and dirty, like I needed to take a hot shower. And this post is from a woman who has nothing against sex in cinema, if it is well done. I even prefer R and NC-17 rated movies. Heck, I've even watched gay porn clips. But this movie presented sex in a very emotionally degrading way. Like Tina Turner says, what's love got to do with it? What drew them together? What made them care about each other? Apparently only sexual lust and loneliness. I am really shocked that this movie is billed as some kind of great and noble "love" story.
And personally, I found the lying, deceitful, and uncaring attitude of the two gay men towards the women in the film to be reprehensible. The prevailing attitude seems to be we don't care who we hurt, we just want to be free to have unbridled sex together.
Jack was portrayed merely as a vapid, lying, blue-eyed, buff, pretty playboy. I have to say though that Heath Ledger's performance rocked. The performance of Heath and Michelle Williams were the best things about the film -- that and the panoramic views.
It bothered me that Ennis was trying to do the right thing and break off the relationship and stand by his wife, and Jack was a weasel and kept trying to draw him back in again. And this is noble love? What about commitment to your family? What about marriage vows? If they were truly honorable, they would have been honest with the women in their lives rather than lying and deceiving them about fake "fishing trips." Better yet, they never would have gotten married and fathered children in the first place.
Sorry folks, but TRUE love thinks about others, not just themselves. And I would find similar behavior between two married heterosexuals to be sordid as well.
Some people have a funny idea about "love", I guess.