If you like really epic and intense films, this is for you. A remarkably solid film about family, bisexuality, and coming-of-age

Rating: Null/10 (10 September 2008)

So BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN is the film known as the "gay cowboy movie". I think it's a little too easy to call it that. For a supposed "gay" film, it's not very gay. There's one sex scene between two men, but it's so brief and so quick and so mild in every way that it probably could have been filmed in the 1930s. It's not even a sex scene really. You see them grope each other and then you see them wrestling, then Heath Ledger spits on his fingers, the we see Jake Gyllenhaal's pleasured facial expression and then they moan, and then it ends!!! I went into this film expecting a ton of gay sex and penises and stuff and that scene was all I got. Sure, we see Heath Ledger have sex with his wife, but that's different. But I guess it doesn't matter because the film is really good! Ang Lee did exactly what I was hoping he would do. He tells the story of two men who have similar lives who get especially intimate with each other and then spend the next ten to thirty years trying to deal with it. It's a very moving film. Ennis(Heath Ledger) marries and has a girl. Jack(Jake Gyllenhaal) goes out to find love with several different women. They both care for each other but they also still love the women in their lives as well. Who can blame them? Their wives are incredibly attractive and both have beautiful bodies. Still, they are ashamed and they still find conflict in what they are doing. I don't want to give too much away, but their situations become increasingly desperate and they have a harder and harder time letting go. Is it a love story? Kind of. Is this thing that these two men share really love? What I do know is that they definitely care about each other and they will do anything for each other. They both are what the other person has been looking for in a human being. They both can talk more comfortably about life and about anything with each other than they can with their wives and children. They both admire each other to a degree that is quite beautiful. They share so much and are very fond of each other. Maybe that's what love is. However, they both love the women in their lives as well. I'm not 100% sure it is love that they share or if it is compassion, but for the sake of simplifying something that is complicated I'll call in love. People can love their friends, their pets, their children, their neighbors, and even their wives. The thing that these men have for each other is love, and it's the most pure and innocent kind of love. It's not a sexual love or a weird, sick, confused type of love. They don't love each other for their manly looks and their desire to have the other jump their bones. The two men love each other as human beings. If one of them were a woman, it would be the exact same thing. If they were two women it would be the exact same thing. These two men just want to be with each other and want to share their lives, and it's a beautiful thing to watch grow and progress. I don't exactly know why this film was controversial. There were other films that came out that had gay sex scenes that were far more graphic than the scene in this film(MYSTERIOUS SKIN). But whatever. People have been known to waste time, so I guess it doesn't matter. What I do know is that this is a beautiful film that I highly recommend to anybody who just wants to watch a straight-forward, emotional, strong, well made film. Definitely check it out. It's a masterpiece.