"A Truly Grounbreaking Film For Understanding of Love Between Two Human Beings"

Rating: 10/10 (1 January 2006)

I saw this film with friends, both straight and gay. I saw myself up on the screen for the first time in my 62 years of living. What a great feeling. While gays have been portrayed in many films over the years for many years and in very positive ways, this is the first time I have seen a real love story. By having its origin begin in 1963, six years before the Stonewall Riots in New York City - a cosmopolitan, sophisticated city even then it structures the turmoil these two men faced between each other and even more powerful from society. Both Ennis and Jack mirror some of my life (and I'm sure many other gays). Back then many of us had no role models for what it was to realize this attraction in our early teens. Many of us just kept it hidden and sometimes discovered this attraction in the same manner as Jack and Ennis, often stating the same ruse of denial after such and encounter. Oh, do I remember!!! I am out now.
This film is so well done on so many levels. First the setting is so stark. Gays exist in the hinterlands, what a surprise!!!...they just up and move to the accepting cities, or at least where they can blend into the surroundings. The non-stereotypical ( by the media's standards, not mine) men in the film are brilliantly acted. Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger are both to be commended for their portrayals - equally. I only hope that both get recognized for their quite truthfully perfect acting performances. The rest of the cast members, Michelle Williams and Anne Hathaway, are also to be commended as are Larry McMurtry and Dianna Osanna for their screenplay and Ang Lee for his direction. I have just read the short story and must note that much of Annie Proulx's prose in the book are adapted verbatim in the screenplay. Thanks to all involved for a great, great film.