Brokeback Mountain-A Review, sort of

Warning: Spoilers ahead!

We finally went to see "Brokeback Mountain" this past weekend, and it was ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE!!!!

For a cowboy movie set in 1960s Wyoming, it truly caught the essence of life and mentality of those times. I could feel the blight and decay of small town life, how Ennis went from job to job with little purpose or focus. There were no big grand goals just survival. When Ennis and his brother is taken to the woods by his father to see the "queer" who had been dragged around by his "dick" until it fell off, Ennis learns quick that life in Wyoming is about survival. To declare to the Jack, "I ain't no queer!" isn't a statement against Jack as much as a statement of survival. He couldn't be that "queer" in the woods.

We soon forget, watching this movie, that it is about two gay men. It's about a love stronger than the social pressure and forces around them. They can't stay away from each other but can't let themselves be free of societies defined masculine roles. In the end, we see what damage this does. Love is never allowed to come full circle between partners. Children never really understand the distance of their parents. Spouses face a betrayal and hurt they should have never had to endure.

The shirt scene in Jack's parent's house is perhaps the most heartwrenching movie scene to date. A bloodied shirt reminds us of a painful encounter and a love that couldn't be completed in the world in which it existed. This shirt represented love and loss at the same time. It's why Ennis must keep it secretly tucked away in his own closet. Isn't that symbolic as well?