Brokeback Mountain
Brokeback Mountain is another successful piece of literature that made it to the big screen. It was originally one of Annie Proulx’s short stories, and later became an Academy Award-winning film that partially changed pop culture in the early 2000s. The film stars Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway, and Michelle Williams and depicts the complex romantic relationship between two American cowboys, Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist, in the American West from 1963 to 1983.
The love story in Brokeback Mountain is a complex yet emotional and long-lasting forbidden love story that ends with tragedy. In Wyoming in 1963, cowboys Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist are hired by foreman Joe Aguirre to herd his sheep through the summer on grazing pastures on Brokeback Mountain. In there, they develop a sexual and emotional relationship out of understanding and deep connections. When summer ends, before parting ways, Ennis and Jack have a brawl that leaves both of them bloodied. They later had their own family, but neither of them changed their feelings for the other.
After four years apart, Jack visits Ennis. Upon meeting, all the memories came back, and they once again fall in love. They keep seeing each other despite still being scared of the injustice they might have to face due to the homophobic acts at the time. Upon hearing about the divorce from his wife, Jack drives to Wyoming and tells Ennis that they should live together, but Ennis refuses to move away from his children. They then went through fights, arguments, and embrace, all because their relationship is simply unforgivable at that time. Sometime later, Ennis found out that Jack died in an accident from drowning in his own blood after a car tire exploded in his face, though Ennis visualizes Jack's death as a violent murder. They never got to make up, and what is left for Ennis at the end is only Jack's shirt. Ennis hangs his shirt and Jack's shirt together, and next to them, tacked to the closet door, is a postcard of Brokeback Mountain.
Even though Brokeback Mountain was subject to controversies, the film has also been regarded as a turning point for the advancement of queer cinema into the mainstream.
