Living with Choices

Rating: 10/10 (4 February 2006)

Forget the media distortions. This isn't a movie about "gay cowboys."
First of all they weren't cowboys. They were two 19 year-olds who took jobs as a sheep herder and camp tender. Later in life one worked at an implement dealership and the other worked for a rancher but lived at home.
Secondly, they weren't gay. Society says that a man can be attracted to and make love to a thousand women, but do the same with one other male and he's gay? Come on. By that definition, if you throw in childhood and adolescent experimentation, 90% of the male population is gay. Men can be able to love several women during their lifetime, but if they're also able to love one man they're gay? Who makes up these rules?
Instead, this is a movie about the choices we make and living with those choices. It's about having or not having regret. And, it's a movie about love so strong it endures a lifetime.
For me, it was also about society's demanding obedience to a strict code that wants to pound square pegs into round holes, to define what our behavior and feelings are allowed to be. Why the human fascination with who's doing what with who? Why the human need to process, categorize, label, and cram each of us into pigeon holes? Straight ... gay ... bi. Better live up to one of these labels or there'll be hell to pay from all sides.
The writing, direction, and performances in this film are perfection. This isn't like watching actors in a movie, it's like seeing the lives of real people unfold. It will haunt you because its themes are both personal and universal. This is one of the most powerful films you'll ever see.
I guess the media needed to label this movie. And somehow "The Bisexual Sheepherder Movie" just doesn't carry the punch that "The Gay Cowboy Movie" carries, does it?