Classic in every sense.

Rating: 9/10 (5 February 2006)

Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain" is a classic, both in terms of film and literature. Annie Proulx's short story is followed almost perfectly--with two non-essential scenes added by the screenwriters--and this adds to the strength of the elliptical dialogue.
What makes this a classic? First, like any Greek tragedy, the story revolves around two "star-crossed" lovers whose fate involves not only their lives, but also the larger culture in which they attempt to negotiate irreconcilable desires. The sub-text of "Brokeback" is the vanishing American West and all that it symbolizes. As with Cormac McCarthy's "Border Trilogy", the story of these two men is played out over time, and the audience sees both the slow downward spiral of Jake and Ennis and the gradual commercialization of the West. In the Edenic world where the two men meet, the audience sees pure blue skies, ranging grasslands, powerful mountain ranges, horses, sheep, campfires--in short, an idyllic setting worthy of Homer. In the "real" lives of the men, horses are replaced with trucks, rodeos with television football, whiskey with pot, and the classic intimacy of tents with the bleakness of trailers.
The film is also classic in that it mirrors many of John Ford's westerns. Profound and painful close-ups alternate with equally profound shots of the natural world. Heath Ledger's unarticulated pain and anger reach a tragic climax only once in the film. And this scene--Ennis' emotional "showdown" with Jack--marks the heartbreaking slide of the plot into its bleak denouement. It's a John Wayne movie without the Duke, and the absence of this icon of impossibly romantic machismo is yet another source of invisible power that makes this film one for the ages.