Powerful

Rating: 10/10 (15 April 2007)

Powerful. That's the adjective that I can use best to describe this movie. It isn't afraid to show you the truth...no matter how ugly that truth is. When I watched this film, I expected it to be OK, maybe even a "pretty good movie." I've never cried in a movie, and I didn't intend to start now. However, I never thought that days after seeing it, I would still weep at the thought of what happened; I'd feel the pain so far down in my heart that I couldn't describe it to anybody. It's applicable to real life, here and now. To me, it wasn't just some story about two cowboys, but it was something that told us the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about that time as well as now.
This is more than just a "gay cowboy movie" that people try to rationalize. Those that berate it are afraid to think about what it truly means. It's much easier to simply call Brokeback Mountain the "gay cowboy movie" than to think about what it is truly about. Love. There are many that are unwilling to support those that are different than they are because they are afraid. This movie took on homophobia and challenged it's morality. However, those inflicted with homophobia simply revolted by refusing to think about it because, if they did, they would realize that Brokeback Mountain was something that cannot be denied forever. Heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, transsexual, whatever you are, this show told us how we are all people, no matter the minute differences that cloud our judgment from time to time.
They kill Jack Twist in the end. He was beaten by a group of people afraid to accept him. To those that find homosexuality to be so perverse and immoral, how moral is it to murder those that are different? What happened to "love your neighbor"? We are all people. We have a head, a brain, a stomach, a heart. We all have our own souls and our own pains. Brokeback Mountain tried to show the world that we are all really one. But the world fought back with cowardice and refusal to listen to the truth because they were afraid. Just like Alma was afraid of what Jack Twist represented, many in the world are afraid of what Brokeback Mountain represents. But they are misled, This has nothing to do with gay men, straight men, or blue men for that matter. It has everything to do with love.
We are all one in the long run. Composed of nearly identical DNA, all with similar emotions and thoughts, yet there are those that pick apart differences such as homosexuality because that's the only way that they can differentiate themselves from others. But it's not worth it. That's what this film tried to tell us. Hatred is the perversion. Not love. Brokeback Mountain was about, above all else, love. Love...and what happens when people are afraid of love.