Brokeback Mountain (Dir. Ang Lee) | Poster By Aleks Phoenix

Thane and 3 others

Tribute poster for Ang Lee’s affecting and everlasting Brokeback Mountain.

I just got the chance to revisit one of Hollywood’s biggest mainstream so-called “gay romances” ever put on screen and so many feelings and thoughts arise compared to my first watching. By today’s standards and politics, it’s easy to disregard Brokeback Mountain as a “safe”, conventional, sanitized, and by-the-numbers story on queer identity with two huge straight male stars at the center of it. However, I find it even more deep and poignantly refreshing now, almost 20 years later from its release. Beyond all labels and genres, Brokeback Mountain is way more than a “gay cowboy movie”, it’s a touching story of love, desire, and human connection under siege.

But it’s eminently relevant and beautiful today as it was 20 years before and as it will be 20 years from now. Because it depicts realities that are lived each day, behind closed doors or confined secrets, no matter the progress on human rights, gender politics, or queer identity conversations. It’s a beautifully shot and scored story about two men unequivocally attracted and in love with each other but bound to anguish and fight against the impossibility of their true nature in the eyes of everyone else.

Uploaded
2 weeks ago

Category
Movies