Not a publicity stunt

Rating: 7/10 (12 October 2007)

There was a lot of talk about this film, a lot of publicity because of the gay interest in the script, and like always when there is too much talk, I don't pay for a seat because there are a lot of clever marketing scams around these days.
It went away and then it was in my video store. I waited. Then it went on "3 for a week for a fiver" and I rented it. Ang Lee did a great job there, not only in shooting a difficult story, but also with exceptional photography (it looks like an ad for a cigarette brand, but I don't remember which) and brilliant acting and bringing us back to the US in the 1960s.
The story itself, about a secret love affair, is dealt with cleverly, and with qualities in the script, in the performance, and without cheap and easy voyeurism, which in itself is admirable of Ang Lee. Heterosexual love is the subject of so many films that directors lack practise in treating homosexual love, and with the controversy around Brokeback Mountain managing to get through the minefield was not easy. I felt a bit that only one of the two cowboys was in love with the other - but this is an opinion only, but most importantly it seems to me that Brokeback Mountain deals also with the eternal topic of forbidden love, and in that way manages to send the gay aspect of this love to the background