Updated: It is one of the finest films produced in recent memory

Rating: 10/10 (26 December 2005)

Thank you, director Ang Lee, for your cinematic gift. "Brokeback Mountain" is one of the finest films produced in recent memory. This is an absolutely honest film about realistic love and the ecstasies and sorrows it provokes in the era it is set. 26 year old actor Heath Ledger is given the role of a lifetime and Lee's perfect restraint and the cinematographer's careful lighting fully capture the essence of Ledger's character. Jake Gyllenhaal as also extraortdinary. Michelle Williams (playing Ledger's wife) and Roberta Maxwell (Jack's mother) deserved Oscar wins. It's sad, heartwarming, very honest and ultimately makes us think. I've now seen Brokeback Mountain five times. It is still stunning and remarkable on many levels. Ang Lee's carefully crafted restraint of Annie Proulx's short story makes this my favorite film ever. No film I have seen is so utterly compelling. Correction from my earlier comment: it is an independent film gem and not a product of homophobic Hollywood. Despite its absurd loss at the Oscars, BBM has won every world award as best picture and deservedly. Lastly, thank you, Diana Ossana, for your tenacious gift to make BBM a cinematic reality. God bless Brokeback Mountain. It lives on forever.