They lobby for policy.īased on an Annie Proulx short story, it's the tale of two young cowboys, Ennis Del Mar (Oscar-nominated Heath Ledger, in a superb performance) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal, also nominated), who are hired to spend the summer of 1963 up Wyoming's Brokeback Mountain, tending a herd of sheep far from civilization.

What is said is secondary to the imagery - images, in the hands of a skillful filmmaker, such as the great Lee ('Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' is his most well-known, 'Eat Drink Man Woman' his best), are ideas. But again, a movie is a collection of images, not just words. It's a story of a love that dare not speak its name because nobody in it knows the word for its name.Īll that is true. It's as stoic as the men it follows and the mountain it loves. It's only a movie.īut the question remains: Does 'Brokeback Mountain' have an agenda? After all, it's certainly not preachy. Liberals will see the film as a beacon of tolerance, a study of the cruel pathologies of intolerance, a plea for acceptance for the humane principle that love between consenting adults, no matter their gender or orientation, should be celebrated.Ĭonservatives will see the liberal tyranny of an entertainment culture forcing elitist 'progressive values' on the reluctant red-state millions and, in the process, staining the purity of the most American of good ol' American genres, the western, home of Duke Wayne, Gene Autry and Roy Rogers.īoys, boys, boys, settle down. The eight Academy Award nominations secured this week by Ang Lee's 'Brokeback Mountain' guarantee that not only will the film itself continue to prosper at the box office, but that the bitter culture war surrounding the gay-themed western will continue to be fought.

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