For someone who has seen hundreds of movies in my lifetime, Brokeback Mountain transcended what had normally passed as the typical moviegoing experience

A film need not be decades old for viewers to realize they have been moved, have been witness to the gentle and clear-eyed artistry of the direction, the deep observation of the screenwriters, and the devastating honesty of the performers. Brokeback Mountain is a supreme achievement in every department.

I doubt that I was prepared to emerge from this movie feeling, as I did, that I had never reaally seen a movie before. And months after participating in the phenomenon, of repeat visits to the theater, of seeing a swell of cultural interest in this movie, and after the unconscionable decision of the Motion Picture Academy to deny the film its highest honor, I thought I would never want to see another movie again.

After its five-month theatrical run, I missed it as though I had said goodbye to friends for the last time.

How many of us feel a surge of emotion whenever we hear the opening guitar notes? How many are immediately caught up in the tentative, natural unfolding of the relationship between these two men? Who among us cannot identify with the intensity of their feeling for one another? How many of us agonize for these characters as they practice the deceptions their world has forced upon them? Who among us isn’t devastated by the sense of lost youth and missed opportunity in their last, remembered embrace? How many of us become transfixed as a discovery is made in a parents’ home (a sequence which catapults this movie into the highest realms of art)?

Finally, how many are not haunted by the image of two shirts and a postcard, all that remains of these characters’ dreams? My favorite movie? Without question. Able to stand with the greatest films of all time? See for yourself.