Ang Lee and Heath Ledger's innovation

Rating: 10/10 (14 January 2006)

Ang Lee is one of the greatest chameleons working in cinema. He can take any genre from martial arts to melodrama and change it forever. His command of period and landscape is equally meticulous,whether it's Qing China,Jane Austen's parks or downtown Manhattan. With 'Brokeback Mountain' he does the same for the iconic genre of Hollywood cinema,the Western. With his almost anthropological eye he sweeps away the narrative of Manifest Destiny ,and replaces it with an epic love story which maintains the setting but creates a new world.Other directors from Ford and Stevens to Eastwood and the Coen brothers have done this by incorporating innovative discourses,for example on Native Americans or women.Others have mixed the 1880s drive to the west with later periods or elements from film noir. But Lee has made a change which tops them all. By concentrating on characters who have previously appeared only by inference,and making it clear that he is dealing with a genuine sexual love between two men, he has made a Big Sky mountain of his own. The actors,especially Heath Ledger as Ennis,are brilliantly portrayed with the gestures and scenery commenting on what's left unsaid.Would-be banners or censors are going to look historically retarded,since this is one of the films of the epoch.