How The West Was Changed

As reported in a previous post, husband and I went to the movies last Saturday because of sheer boredom. It was my turn to pick the movie since husband had picked probably the last five that we've seen. After reading up on what was playing at the cineplex (and after perusing all the current reviews), I decided that we would see director Ang Lee's version of the ultimate cowboy movie of our time, Brokeback Mountain.

For all you movie lovers out there, especially those who love cowboy movies, a disclaimer should be handed to each movie-goer who enters the theater. This was a pretty graphic film. The cinematography was exquisite, the direction was flawless, and the acting was Oscar material. The content, however, was R-rated and was punctuated with a lot of roughhousing, kissing, fondling, and other stuff that you would find in your typical girly-boy cowboy movie.

The story-line goes something like this:









Two young cowboys are hired to be shepherds up on Brokeback Mountain.
















Their first task is to drive all the animals up to Brokeback Mountain without losing a lot of them (sheep).













The sheep will live the life of Riley on Brokeback Mountain so they can fatten up all Summer on all that green grass.

Both cowboys take turns fixing the grub, but they soon get tired of all the beans and stuff. They crave spuds and fresh meat.












With all the isolation up on Brokeback Mountain, and plenty of time on their hands, the two cowboys find that they like to roughhouse, do a little fightin', brawlin', drinkin', sleepin' in the same tent 'cause it's dang cold up in them thar hills, and eventually fall madly in love (for about 20 years).

You know this ain't gonna have a good ending.





So, if you'd like to spend a couple of hours at the movies enjoying a good, old-fashioned cowboy movie, Brokeback Mountain's a sure thing, pardner. It's a shoo-in to be an Oscar winner come March.

Man, the West sure has changed since John Wayne, Randolph Scott, Jimmy Stewart, Jack Palance, and all the other rough-and-tumbles rode, shot Indians and each other, pillaged, settled down on their rancheros, drove cattle, and married the school marm back in the old days. That's How The West Was Won.