What impressed me most was not the social significance of the movie, nor was the beautiful scenery of the open mountains, rather, it is the convincing sad love story between the two men.
It is always difficult to make a film that tells a REAL love story. Almost impossible to put years of tedious love affairs into a 2 hour feature. Ann Lee's Brokeback Mountain, avoiding most of the cliches that romance films have, plays so smoothly that you barely feel the time running. Every minute of this 134-minute film is attractive to the viewer. The touching details were rendered so well that your emotion moves along with the characters.
How do we define love? Is it often being planned and developed through routine intelligence? I seriously doubt that. I believe that love is actually series of accidents: you're attracted to someone without even notice it. But even the shortest realization of love would cause you to memorize it for your lifetime. Then in this term, love is not an accident at all. When massive accidental dots linked together, a line forms like an unbreakable linkage between the two. This was exactly what happened between Ennis and Jack. There were so many accidental attraction between them, no matter it was story telling, liquor drinking or intimate touching or sighting. Therefore the "accidental" love making in that freezing night was not a sudden event at all. After that, daily routine carried on with increased intimacy. It was so natural and so real. Until the final fight at the end of the season. The fight was definitely not physical, it was a fight for their human nature against what the then society didn't allowed. But they failed, went back to their "normal" plans, married to women and had kids. But the love can not be hide, even though it was not publicized. You can see the joy and passion when two of them get together four years later, as if they were never apart. That's how strong the link between lovers could be.
No one can deny Heath Ledger's portraying of Ennis del Mar, an introvert man imprisoned by social restrictions. This shy cowboy has strong feelings for responsibility. During this 20-year love affair, both of the men were struggling, while the fact that their fears toward the violent punishment and social humiliation they may confront, were they being exposed, was hurting both of them; and not only them, but also other parties. This little tragedy certainly reflects the price a society has to pay if there are less social tolerance. It is so clear that although deeply in love with Jack, Ennis suffers so much from social stereotype that he can not accept the offer of living together with his beloved partner. Well, there might be escape for "fishing trips", there would never be any freedom if the minds were not freed.
People came out the theater with tears. There are so many simple but touching scenes in the film. I was told about the movie from so many people so many times. Still, seeing it in person is a wonderful experience. You HAVE to see it yourselves.
Hopefully someday, everyone may have their shirts joint together with the one they love without suffering so much.