Brokeback Mountain

I highly recommend this movie, for nothing else than Heath Ledger's remarkable performance. The arc of the story rests entirely on his journey. There is a subtleness to his acting that you might not have expected. I only had one problem with the movie *****SPOILER ALERT***** I found the dead sheep predictable and very unnecessary. As Ennis was riding back up the mountain, I kept begging the movie not to do the obvious thing and show us the result of his sin. And there it was...the punishment for crossing the line, the dead sheep. My problem with this is that it's too Greek tragedy. The story was not being told in that fashion and it was too bold and too obvious a choice. I was discussing this with someone on Sunday and he said that it was true to the book. Not having read it, I couldn't argue (although books and movies don't have to have anything to do with one another.) So, I read the book. WRONG!!!! No dead sheep. Ang Lee, or Larry McMurtry, put it in there. The only mention of a dead sheep in Proulx' story is a suspicion by Ennis that the coyote with balls big as apples musta got some lambs before he shot it. Too Greek to put it in. Still, go see the movie.