Brokeback Mountain

The movie is about two cowboys who met while guarding some sheep on Brokeback Mountain develop deep affection for each other; the love that cannot be named. The film was adapted from a short story by E. Annie Proulx who also wrote the Shippin News.

It is a love story. Between two cowboys guarding sheep. Imagine the Marlboro Man falling in love with the other Marlboro Man. I its something new. This not your typical tragic love story. No Capulets and Montressors to muck things up, only society and its present morality. It is an interesting story you keep asking where is it going to take me. You have an idea of how it will end, but you ask how will it end? If that makes any sense.

I received a copy of the short story a couple of weeks before the film came to Metro Manila. Again an interesting story. How about the film?

Ang Lee’s treatment was superb. The panoramic shots were magnificent and subdued. Heath Ledger’s acting was great, without a minimum amount of words and a great amount of internalization he was able to bring to life the melancholic cowboy, while Jake Gyllenhaal managed to bring forth the inner frustration of his character. Watching the movie, you get to see the characters transform and remain the same through the years. The sexual interplay between the characters is essential but was not overdone. It was not only Eros. And I guess that is what is satisfying about the movie, you come in expecting an Eros-laden film and leave with a realization that like all good relations it ends up with Philia.

Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Directed by Ang Lee. Short story written by E. Annie Proulx. Screenplay written by Larry McMurtry. Actors in the film includes: Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Randy Quaid, Anne Hathaway, Michelle Williams, Valerie Planche, Graham Beckel et al.