BrokeBack Mountain

"Brokeback Mountain threaten's our culture's very definitions of Heterosexuality and masculanity"- Harry Benshoff

Brokeback Mountain is renowned as being one of modern day cinemas biggest risks in terms of subject matter as it is a story that follows the life of two men, both 'straight', both married and their realisation that they may not be who they thought they were.

When watching certain scenes of the film, Craig Snyder, a gay film critic stood out to me as he wrote an article reminiscing on his first viewing of the film. He describes how himself and the audience didn't know what to expect when walking into the cinema due to the films risky choice of taking one of histories most iconic american characters, The Cowboy and turning them into gay representations.

The scene I have chosen to focus on in the film is the first time Jack and Ennis have sex in the tent. The scene is lit in a way that to even get an impression of what the characters are doing is a struggle and only faint silhouettes are seen. Every move the characters make is in a drunken flail of limbs and neither character look properly at each other during the intercourse and perform the act so Jack is facing away from Ennis. Before the sex, Ennis attempts to fight Jack off, pushing him away and grabbing him despite them both wanting the same thing. This is a good representation of how men view gay sex as completely different to straight sex, despite Ennis, the character fighting the mot, doing exactly what he would be doing if he were to be having sex with a woman.

The scene has no music playing during the act and no light highlighting the forms of the men. Both men stay clothed throughout and the camera jaggedly cuts from shots of Jack pulling his pants down to darkened shots of Jack and Ennis' faces. The only sound heard is the rustling of clothes and grunting from both parts. It is clear that this scene is not to be seen as a glamorisation of homosexuality so much as a condemnation. Its shown not as an act of love, but an act of hate. Mostly of themselves.