Comment: Brokeback Mountain

Does Brokeback Mountain deserve the Golden Globe award? A debate that mixes film critics with political, moral, and social issues. Some say that it is not the film itself that got the award, it is more the 'controversial' theme.

Watching the movie, I must say that I cannot make up my mind whether it is a good (interesting) movie or not. While I agree that the movie itself is too long and slow, the way it unfolds a sensitive issue is very subtle. The social context and how it has conditioned homosexuality are superbly shown. The 'absence' of continous interactions between the two main characters (we would see snap shots of their life separately but not the evolution of their relationship) deepen the feeling of frustation that the movie intended to show. This 'void' does not make the movie dull, au contraire, it saddens me.

Unfortunately, magnificent landscapes that, I think, are intended to fill this void are overemphasized. These excellent photographic sceneries, Ang Lee's trademark, are out of place and sometimes are disturbing the emotion build up throughout the movie. Sometimes I was not sure whether I should concentrate on the couple's frustation and rejection or contemplate on the background landscape.

This movie has shown homosexuality from a point of view that reminds us that it is a love story after all. It is not a gay-cowboy movie, it is a movie about tragic love. Tragic, as it was not only a forbidden nor impossible love, but it was a love which should /could not exist.

In short, it is a romantic, sad, and moving story. A story that hopefully will create more tolerance in this world.