Brokeback Mountain

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN

Well, it's about to get 'hot in here' !! I can feel the heat from the bible belt, gearing up their scriptures and holy water and preparing to camp out, if necessary, in the parking lots of the first theatres daring to show the most anticipated love story, since Love Story! Ang Lee's tale of the homosexual love between two cowboys set in the conservative West of the 1960s won the Venice Film Festival's top award Saturday (the 10th).

"Brokeback Mountain", starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, topped 19 other competitors, including favorite "Good Night, and Good Luck," George Clooney's black-and-white movie set in the McCarthy era of the early 1950s.

Receiving the Golden Lion award, Lee described his movie as a "great American love story" that is unique and so universal. "I'm so glad it's prevailed here and was received so warmly here," he said. Based on a novella by "The Shipping News" author E. Annie Proulx, the movie has sweeping vistas, lonesome men, bucking broncos and smoldering campfires. It also has sex scenes between two men whose lives are changed, disturbed and entwined after being hired to tend sheep for a summer in Wyoming. I think, hands down, this film could become a classic if the first trailers are any indication. (The trailer is in the link of the title, above.) Stay tune for a full review after I've had the honor and pleasure of getting to preview it, soon.

Lee's other films include "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," "Hulk," "The Ice Storm" and "Sense and Sensibility."


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