A Beautiful Story of A Simple Love in a Complicated Time

Rating: 10/10 (18 January 2006)

In Brokeback Mountain, I found myself watching a "love story", in every sense of the expression. The sort of plot that will fill the lining of any Julia Roberts or Meg Ryan tale of love lost, found, and perhaps lost again, only to be found once more. As clichéd a story as any film the world might define as a "chick flick". However this is not any ordinary "chick flick". This is a film that serves a greater purpose. As simple as it is complicated in its idea; how hard is it to love someone, regardless of who they are? Sitting in the theater, I was not fifteen minutes into the film before I saw someone stand up and declare what they were seeing to be "disgusting", before walking out of the theater to where I have to believe they demanded their money back. Talk of graphic sex scenes have been blown out of proportion. This is no more than any films traditional unseen "under the bed-sheet" intention. It is simply the subject that I believe offends some and changes their perspective.
I don't pretend to fully understand the world that was in 1963. However, in today's day and age, to see people walk out of a movie theater in disgust over the idea of two men embracing, I can only imagine the perspective of a world forty years earlier. This is more than Capulet and Montague's familial angst towards one another (Romeo and Juliet), this is an entire civilization that outwardly condemns your feelings to the point of violence.
Ang Lee is one of the most versatile and subtle directors I have ever witnessed. His work would not be apparent to most as they sit and watch. There is little expressive cinematic choice. No obtuse camera angles or editing tricks that cry for anyone to say "great directing". Lee performs his job in its purest essence, creating a world from start to finish and a vision that cries for your attention.
The acting by both Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal is superb. They bring those characters to life. There is no doubting the feelings that they have both for each other and towards the world. They support each other equally. I would say that I wouldn't pick anyone else in Hollywood to have played these roles, but I don't know who I could have chosen to begin with.
The supporting cast simply cannot stand on screen with the performances of the leads. So much thought has been put into the two lead characters, and they take up so much of the screen time that other characters barely deserve mention. They don't have to. This story is not really about anyone beyond the two men, and in that frame of mind, the film brilliantly succeeds.
I have seen few films that may have opened my eyes to a perspective I had not yet seen more than Brokeback Mountain. It is a movie well deserving of praise, both for its story and its message.