Brokeback Mountain (Directed by Ang Lee): Rating 10/10
Love -- that complicated simple painful joyful confusing emotion! So many love stories are made yearly yet few of them manage to capture the essence of love perfectly. But Brokeback Mountain gets it right. Perfectly right! The fact that the love shown on screen is between two men does not make a difference. Ang Lee has crafted such a perfect framework for a love story that even if the two main characters were a man and a woman, a boy and a girl or even two women, the movie’s core would still be the same. Now, if one does not get involved emotionally in this movie, then it won’t seem that great of a movie. One might still appreciate the beautiful cinematography and the excellent acting but the simple story might not seem too big of a deal. Sometimes the best movies are the ones with a very simple story. Different people might take different things away from this movie. And that is what good movies do -- each person should feel something different or get a different message. Love is complicated enough, love is painful enough that it seems bloody frustrating when ignorant people put restrictions on others. Why? Because of what they believe in! Why do they believe in such things? Because they were told to! Why were they told to? Because that is how things are supposed to be! Why? Because it is written! Why is it written so? Because it was spoken so! Why was it spoken so? Because that is how it is supposed to be, dammit!!!! Well I don’t agree that is how things are supposed to be but the world works on such beliefs.
When I had first heard or seen the trailers of this movie, I had my doubts – I felt the movie might be contrived for award season. But I still wanted to check it out. And I am very glad I did. I got hooked emotionally yet at no point did the movie feel contrived. Did the original story focus on the essence of love? Did Annie Proulx use two cowboys on purpose to show that love is such a powerful emotion that it can carve past the tough exteriors? Or did she want to truly show that love is the same, no matter the sex of the person involved? Whatever the original intentions, I really liked this onscreen adaptation.
It is interesting that my top 2 favourite movies this year have had an underlying theme of friendship between the two male leads. Cinema, Aspirins and Vultures was about friendship and seeking freedom; Brokeback is about friendship which turns to love; it is also about seeking freedom but of a different kind. One movie I saw in a film festival, one in a multiplex! Interesting year in movies!
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