REVIEW -- BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (15)
Directed by Ang Lee 2005

The Dukes, Moor Lane, Lancaster
Monday 3 April, 2006 8pm, Tuesday 4 April 2006 5.45pm

The best American film I've ever seen

... was my immediate verdict as John and I discussed what we had just seen on Sunday evening with our two friends 'Essex Boy' and 'Will O' the Wisp'. They too were bowled over, and felt that "it hit all its points perfectly and as a result it isn't easy viewing at times, but that's just a reflection of how well it was done".

But first, let's dispel a couple of myths. Brokeback Mountain is so much more that just the 'gay cowboy film' as some parts of the press have described it. It is also more than the 'tender love story' of its billing. It is a profound, sensitive and elegiac look at what it means to love and be loved. And as that is something that affects nearly every single one of us, it is a monumentally important and beautifully executed commentary.

Nor is it jam packed with in-your-face gay sex. Whilst there is much implicit lust- and lovemaking between the two men, there is actually more visual heterosexual sex, which just as sensitively handled as the male bonding. And the women characters, far from being marginalised, are lovingly portrayed and shrewdly cast.

It is lovingly filmed, with glorious locations and nicely captured weather, the dialogue -- often sparse -- tells its tale with authenticity. Sometimes it is raw and brutal, often tender and occasionally ironic - a quality abundant in this film. The heroes' characters are exquisitely and minutely drawn, particularly as they age some twenty years or more during the course of the action.

'Essex' and 'Wisp' were right; easy viewing it isn't, as anyone who has been gaybashed, was once married and now lives as a gay man (or woman, come to that), will tell you. Or any gay man of over fifty -- some of us remember those dire and difficult times before 1967 when all male homosexual acts were illegal.

Or indeed anyone who has experienced the pain of separation from a loved one, or who finds out they are hitched to the wrong person. It could be any Romantic novel, or one of hundreds of twentieth century plays. These interpersonal situations are common to all humanity and across the ages.

The film also appeals and deserves its acclaim because it tackles a number of different issues; ageing, family ties, loyalty, and the social and political climate of rural America from 1960 to the 1980s. Like Dickens' Great Expectations and much of Hardy, it also addresses the Darwinian question about who or what, ourselves or others, shapes and guides our destinies.

Despite all that, there is nonetheless no small amount of humour in this film; wry, comic, black and even satiric. This quality, which places the core questions in a dramaturgical context, is always a sign of a great work of art. So despite the dramatic ending, we four all came away with uplifted hearts.

I will not tell you much about the plot, for there are still two more screenings at The Dukes as I write, and is to be screened by Lancaster University Cinema after Easter. Suffice it to say that a sexual and emotional relationship develops between two young itinerant agricultural labourers (no, not cowboys, because they are tending sheep and not cattle). This relationship survives the boys' marriages and more, broadly, but with one final exception. Well, we're all flawed ...

"It's such a deeply personal film that you're drawn into your own life".

So said the young Wisp. He's right. If you have any feel for the innermost nature of the human condition, or have ever felt strong emotions or passion, you will come away from Brokeback Mountain with a lumpy throat, possibly eyes not quite dry, and an overwhelming admiration for the director, cast, and crew of this tremendous, universal film.

Copyright © 3 April 2006 Michael Nunn, with thanks to Will and Neil.

Lancaster University Cinema is to screen Brokeback Mountain on Friday 5 and Saturday 6 May 2006 at 6.30 and 9.30pm in Bowland Lecture Theatre.

For a spoof condensed take on the film, go to: www.starz.com/features/brokebackmountain/