Brokeback Mountain

[CellarDweller]

Brokeback Mountain is a 2005 American Neo-Western romantic drama film directed by Ang Lee and produced by Diana Ossana and James Schamus. Adapted from the 1997 short story of the same name by Annie Proulx, the screenplay was written by Ossana and Larry McMurty. The film stars Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway, and Michelle Williams and depicts the complex emotional and sexual relationship between two American male cowboys named Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist in the American West from 1963 to 1983.

In Wyoming in 1963, cowboys Ennis Del Mar and  Jack Twist are hired by Joe Aguirre to herd his sheep through the summer on grazing pastures on Brokeback Mountain. After a night of heavy drinking, Jack makes a pass at a hesitant Ennis, and Ennis eventually positively responds to Jack's advances and the two have sex in their tent. Ennis tells Jack that it was a one-time incident, but they soon develop a passionate sexual and emotional relationship. 

Eventually, Jack and Ennis part ways; Ennis marries his longtime fiancée Alma Beers and has two daughters with her. Jack returns the next summer seeking work, but Aguirre, who had observed Jack and Ennis cavorting together on the mountain, refuses to hire him again due to his homosexuality.

Jack moves to Texas, where he meets rodeo rider Lureen Newsome; they marry and have a son. After four years apart, Jack visits Ennis. Upon meeting, the two passionately kiss, which a stunned Alma inadvertently witnesses. After having sex, Jack broaches the subject of creating a life with Ennis on a ranch, but Ennis refuses; he is unwilling to abandon his family, and is haunted by a childhood memory of his father showing him the body of a man who was tortured and killed for suspected homosexuality.


Ennis and Jack meet infrequently for fishing trips, while their respective marriages deteriorate. Lureen abandons the rodeo, going into business with her father, which in turn causes Jack to work in sales. Alma and Ennis divorce in 1975. Upon hearing about the divorce, Jack drives to Wyoming and tells Ennis that they should live together, but Ennis refuses to move away from his children. Upset, Jack finds solace with male prostitutes in Mexico.