Brokeback Mountain

I think this is the first big budget movie ever made on a gay theme; certainly it's the first western (albeit modern-day - 1963) to feature a storyline involving two cowboys who fall in love with each other. The picture will be released tomorrow to LA and New York with wider release to follow. The buzz is fantastic. It's directed by Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger. Here are a few links for anyone interested: The trailer at Yahoo. An interview with Ang Lee and Jake Gyllenhaal from ABC's At The Movies. The video features a couple scenes not shown in the trailer. The original short story Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx, courtesy of The New Yorker.

It will be interesting to see how the movie is received by the general public. It sounds quite ground breaking. I loved the short story (thanks for posting it!), but what a sad ending.

Hi, Berb,I guess the loneliness of the cowboy life might provide many tales of male love if they were ever preserved. OTOH, it might cause me to re-assess the term 'cow-puncher'.

I'm curious, were they gay, bi-sexual, or hetero? To me, they appeared hetero. Or perhaps the ambiguousness was the point of the story...This message has been edited by roxrkool, 12-08-2005 08:12 PM

I don't think it really matters, and I think that - more than sexual ambiguity - was at least one of the points to the story. Ennis really loved his wife, as I gathered, but he also loved Jack and didn't know what to do.

http://cityrag.blogs.com/main/2005/11/theres_somethin.htmlalso, cowboys are totally gay, but something about heath ledger and donnie darko making out disturbs me.

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I think this is the first big budget movie ever made on a gay theme;

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Would you count Philadelphia with Tom Hanks as a gay-themed movie? What about Mulholland Drive?

Okay, I guess I should have put another qualifier or two in there. Your films have gay themes indeed, but the thriller and surreal mystery elements of Mulholland Drive overshadowed everything else (speaking of which, I never did really understand that movie), and Philadelphia was more courtroom drama than anything else. The AIDS storyline was a first, but the picture dealt more with the disease than the sexuality, at least as I remember it. These are the types of films where one wouldn't be quite so surprised to find gay themes.Brokeback Mountain is more ironic - or paradoxical - in that one would hardly expect a big-budget western to feature gay male leading characters, even though on reflection one might realize that it isn't so far-fetched given the fact that cowboys do spend lots of time alone with other cowboys out on the range.So yeah, my statement was inaccurate, but I think it's still true that nothing even close to this has been done before.

A straight dude's guide to Brokeback

haha that's so cute. it's about time there was a gay love story movie. it's not like we didn't already see butt-driving in six feet under. that made me giggle.

Are there any westerns that aren't basically about men being in love with each other?

Boy, Lammy, have I got some re-evaluating to do. All those Westerns with nobody making a move on the token female--------edited to add
Especially those singing cowboys like Roy Rogers and Gene Autry This message has been edited by Nighttrain, 12-09-2005 06:58 PM

Two mules for Sister Sara maybe?It's been a long time since I've seen it though...Edit: Thinking about it, isn't every Clint Eastwood western film western except The Beguiled about a man in love with his gun?This message has been edited by MangyTiger, 12-09-2005 07:20 PMThis message has been edited by MangyTiger, 12-09-2005 07:26 PM

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I wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then

Well, since you crossed out the word 'western', I'm thinking Play Misty For Me.

Yeah and the two jar starred in as well.Back to the topic - I just saw a review of Brokeback Mountain on a cultural review over here (it's only just about to be released in the UK).The consensus seemed to be it was a good film, well acted and very sad. It was commented on that the wives had very strong parts despite the movie being based on the relationship between the two men.

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I wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then