Austin Movie Show review -- greatest film to ever depict 2 men in love

Rating: 10/10 (18 December 2005)

Yes, absolutely! Brokeback Mountain deserves all the praise, hype, nominations, and awards it's receiving. It's so good that I just want to cry all over again. Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) meet as young men in 1963 Wyoming. They spend the summer as hired ranch-hands, taking care of a herd of sheep on Brokeback Mountain. One night, after having spent the day drinking an entire bottle of whiskey, the two fall asleep together in a tent. Jack reaches for Ennis hand and wraps it around his body. Ennis jumps up and tries to get out of the tent. Jack holds him back. In a moment of serious passion, without a word or even a kiss, the two end up having sex right then and there. And so beings their lifelong and doomed love affair.
Undoubtedly, Brokeback Mountain is the greatest film ever made about a gay relationship. The morning after their first physical interaction, Ennis (the quiet one) says to Jack (the more out-going one), "You know I ain't queer." Jack replies, "Neither am I." This movie isn't about homosexuality or heterosexuality. It's about a painfully passionate  yet forbidden  love affair. But the summer ends, and both men go their separate ways, hardly saying a word to each other. Ennis gets married and starts having children, while Jack moves to Texas and marries a rich rodeo girl.
Four years later, Jack contacts Ennis and tells him that he's coming up to Wyoming to visit. The two lovers pick-up exactly where they left off. Ennis tells his wife (Michelle Williams) that he and Jack are "going fishing" for a week up on Brokeback Mountain. For the next 20 years, Jack comes back two or three times a year, and the two "go fishing" for a week. Jack always wants more. Jack wants to get a ranch with Ennis and live together forever. Ennis keeps him at bay, warning him that their relationship could end up killing them both  literally.
In 1960s and 70s Wyoming, it was impossible for two men to be openly in love and in a committed relationship. In most states in this country today, the same is still true, as more and more state legislatures pass Constitutional Amendments banning gay marriage. Jack and Ennis both end up alone because society never allowed them to be in love and be together.
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