"Brokeback Mountain" Is A Cinematic Masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (7 February 2006)

I've read nearly every professional review and the user reviews on the Website. All I have to add is this film proves Ang Lee has done his homework. Although the style is his own, he's telling this story with minimal dialog (albeit expertly written dialog that will be quoted for years) and proves a picture is worth a thousand words. I see influences of Kubrick, especially "2001" and "Barry Lyndon," and the minimalism of "L'Aventura" shining through. The composition of the scenes are a striking echo of "L'Aventura" and it is also a story of love thrown to the wayside, but in that film it's the dalliances of the idle rich that is the tragedy. The almost metaphysical, symbolic imagery is astonishing. It's just going to go over many moviegoer's heads and this has manifested itself in one way by concocting jokes -- jokes that provoke nervous, self-conscious laughter in many cases.
This is a unique film experience and not just because there are gay thematic ideas contained therein. It will hold up in film history and could become a watershed film, actually unlike any of the racism or anti-Semitism films of the past because the results could easily reveal themselves quite soon.