The story of a love that is "unique yet universal", and uncommon in its place and time.

Rating: 10/10 (29 November 2006)

Brokeback Mountain tells a story as old as time, but one that is new to the mainstream. It is heartbreaking; cinematically beautiful; subtle in its messages; and impossible to forget. It offers the possibility of changing minds about love, changing minds about the American west, and changing how people approach their own lives. There is no acting -- only being: the actors become the characters and will be immortalized forever as Jack and Ennis. This film became a classic the moment it hit the theaters, with its tale of two ranch hands and an unarticulated, yet layers-deep, relationship. Fear, violence and oppression are never blatantly or gratuitously offered to the audience, but that energy is always lurking below the surface, as the friendship unfolds over a course of 20 years, leaving marriages and children in its wake. The true casualty here is the viewer's emotions, which are taken on a battering ride up and down a mountainous journey toward realizing love.