So, I actually watched it. Yesterday afternoon Brokeback Mountain arrived from Blockbuster and we watched it that evening. By the way, a huge kudos goes out to the best husband ever for actually sitting through this entire movie with me, with no complaining, snorting, gagging, or other such respiratory distress.
My first impression as the end credits began to roll was: "Damn, that was a long movie."
Quickly followed by: "That wasn't as bad as people made it out to be....but it wasn't as good either."
A bit of background. I decided to put this film on our Blockbuster que because I am strictly against other people deciding for me what "angers" me, or alternately, what I think should win an award. I watched this movie because I wanted to come to my own conclusions. The same reason I read The Da Vinci Code, Memoirs of a Geisha, and actually sat through the movie Saw.
For anyone who needs a scale to determine good movies, I thought Brokeback Mountain was a magnitude better than Saw. At least it wasn't laughable.
Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain stars the recently deceased Heath Ledger (tear) and Jake Gyllenhaal. I won't give any spoilers because, especially now that I have seen it for myself, I think people need to *watch* the movie to reach their own conclusions. I will give some warnings though:
Men kissing - Yes
Male nudity - Yes
Female nudity - Yes
Naked men wrestling - Yes
Both homosexual and heterosexual sex scenes.
*Graphic* sex/nudity scenes - No, at least I didn't think so. By graphic I am referring to...Clockwork Orange or Monster's Ball. This movie's graphicness would compare to, say, Cold Mountain . Still rated R, but not raunchy either. Brief one or two time scenes throughout the film with lots of music, panning away, and fadeouts. Nothing you can't skip over if one feels it is necessary.
The movie was well written, well cast, and absolutely heartbreaking (made *me* cry). The content and subject of the movie was stunning and took courage and creativity on the parts of director and actors to pull off seemlessly. Overall, I give the movie a "Would watch it again" rating.
