“Brokeback Mountain” is one of the most heartbreaking and passionate tragic forbidden love stories ever filmed. It is powerful and courageous, not because it analyzes a homosexual relationship with stark and uninhibited realism, but rather the manner in which it so eloquently and pervasively describes a perfectly beautiful illustration on how invisible boundaries instituted by society can negatively affect the happiness of otherwise innocent individuals. “Brokeback Mountain” poetically unveils a painfully truthful story in which everyone is a victim with the only possible solace either being the sweet release of death to a more forgiving afterlife or the unthinkable refusal to acknowledge acceptable behavior within society.
Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal play Ennis and Jack, tow cowboys who fall in an everlasting love while herding sheep on Brokeback Mountain after a night of sudden passion that reveal both their true nature and a perpetual connection their souls cannot deny. Both men know what they desire, but Ennis always fears the consequences that will arise if anyone finds out about his sexual orientation. Michelle Williams and Anne Hathaway play their wives, whose lives are profoundly damaged because of their husband’s inability to love them in the manner they deserve. Ennis gets divorced and meets another woman (Linda Cardellini), which simply adds to the amount of people who are guiltless casualties in the wreckage caused by society’s untenable rules in addition to the children who are supposed to be conceived through love but are instead created in a desperate attempt to protect a secret that society would find shameful.
“Brokeback Mountain” is a great and groundbreaking experience not only because of the tremendous performances that are both outwardly emotional and incredibly subtle, but also for the intense focus the film has on the reality that these people live which most would consider to be an uninhabitable hell. It is a tender story of love that will have perpetual and immediate resonance because of the lack of acceptance for the rights of gays and their relationships. “Brokeback Mountain” is an extraordinarily emotional event that will live distinctly in the pinnacle of epic filmmaking and is undoubtedly the best and most memorable love story of the decade.