An Epic Cinematic Masterpiece

Rating: 9/10 (8 January 2007)

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN is a masterpiece of storytelling that takes some uncomfortable topics and situations and places them in the context of a moving and beautiful story. This is the story of Ennis Delmar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal), two cowboys whose isolated summer sheepherding assignment turns them from strangers to friends to lovers in the matter of couple of months. After their assignment is over they are separated for four years, in which time they both marry and have children. They are then reunited and it's like no time has passed at all. Unfortunately, Ennis' wife, Alma (Michelle Williams)witnesses their passionate reunion and chooses to live with the secret instead of confronting Ennis. What we then see is two people who seem to genuinely love each other, kept apart by circumstance. The word love never passes between Ennis and Jack. Ennis calls it "this thing." The men claim to be straight after their first encounter (though I have my doubts about Jack). The words "gay" or "homosexual" appear nowhere in the screenplay, though the word "queer" is used once. What we see more than the passion these men share when they're together is the passion they long for when they are apart. Ang Lee's sensitive and detailed Oscar-winning direction captures every nuance of emotion and passion between these two men without preaching to us or taking a stand on the underlying issues here. Ledger and Gyllenhaal give breathtaking, Oscar-worthy performances and receive solid support from Williams as Alma and Anne Hathaway as Jack's wife, Lorene. For me, this movie is above everything else, a love story, a beautiful, moving, emotionally charged love story where the protagonists just happen to be men.