Brokeback Mountain was a great film ... it moved me and turned me on - and I'm a woman!

Rating: 10/10 (21 December 2005)

The performances were wonderful and authentic, Ang Lee's direction was spare and economical storytelling - just a short moment yields so much info about the people and what happens as time passes. I think the women were finely drawn and their lot in life, being married to men whose hearts were elsewhere, became etched into who they became.
I totally disagree with any criticism about it being slow in the beginning or that their life-long love affair seemed unfounded. I felt that by taking the time to show how these two men got under each other's skin and, in a way, complimented the other as a person was absolutely necessary to justify their falling in love & lust. I totally believed the depth of their bond to each other and was extremely moved at the turn of events in their life.
While Heath Ledger was magnificent as the closed-off, sad cowboy, it turns out that it is Jake's transformation through the years that stays with me, even days afterward. Both men do a fine job in challenging roles as well as all the supporting actors.
I do agree, also, that it will be a hallmark film in that it has redefined man on man love in film as well as expanded the range of the myth of the cowboy in American cinema. I know I will never forget it and it will become part of my image-memory whenever I hear the term cowboy again.
And I think this is a good thing. Anytime we can expand the stereotype of any form and explore humanity is, as Martha says, "a good thing." I think Brokeback Mountain did more for Kinsey's belief that sexuality is on a continuum and that everyone falls somewhere on that line of being entirely heterosexual and entirely homosexual. Both of these men were bi-sexual as they had sexual relationships with the women in their lives, but I felt that had Ennis never met Jack, he would never has discovered this aspect of himself, whereas Jack seemed experienced to a degree and more adventurous in all things sexual.
Enjoy it!