Brokeback Mountain, the romantic drama featuring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal as two cowboys in love, is turning 20 years old this year. And although two decades have passed since its release, the film is still as important as it was back then—not only for audiences, but for director Ang Lee, who believes that the Academy Award-winning Western is the reason he still makes movies.
Widely lauded as a pioneering LGBTQ+ drama that entered into the mainstream with a compelling story, Brokeback Mountain presented audiences with a beautiful romance between two icons of sheer masculinity who were not supposed to fall in love. It was also controversial because of its steamy scenes between the two leads, but this didn’t stop the culturally impactful film from being celebrated on the award circuit.
Lee, also the director of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and The Ice Storm, won the Academy Award for Best Director for his work in the film (he would win again in 2013 for directing Life of Pi). Today, the director recognizes the queer drama as the one project that motivated him to keep directing movies after Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hulk had proved to be too much for him:
“I wanted to retire. I think Brokeback Mountain brought me back, nursing me back to love life, to love filmmaking. And I’m still standing, still making movies, thanks to that movie. That was the one movie where I felt, ‘There’s a movie god who loves me. He wants me to keep going.’ And the movie was so perfect. What have I done to deserve that movie? Everything about it was good. At first, I didn’t even want to go back to work. I was so emotionally drained, because my father had passed away, and I was exhausted after the other two movies. Physically, I was drained. I got Achilles tendonitis. My body just gave up.
“I don’t know what it is about that movie. It’s a sad movie, but it’s about love. It’s so nurturing. Everybody’s in love. And it was great. Every actor turned out to be great. I didn’t do much, I just did the coverage. I didn’t have a cinematic ambition. I just basically made the day and secured the performances. And then, in the first cut, I realized I’d got something. People are so affected by it. You can never plan how people feel about the movie. It never happens as you’d expect. But people swoon over the movie. I thought it was a small arthouse movie. I thought no American company would want it. I thought nobody would see it, so I could do whatever I wanted. And coming from Hulk, there was practically no budget.
“So, I learned that the effectiveness of a movie is literally something you cannot predict. It doesn’t correspond with how much effort you put in it. Making Crouching Tiger was a thousand times harder than making Brokeback Mountain. And Brokeback Mountain was a great success that just seemed to happen on its own.”
The ‘Brokeback Mountain’ Oscar Controversy
Currently boasting an 88% score and a Certified Fresh label on Rotten Tomatoes, Brokeback Mountain won over the hearts of critics and audiences two decades ago. It was also commercially successful, making more than $178 million from a $14 million production budget. It was set to sweep the Academy Awards in 2006.
Brokeback Mountain was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Ledger) and Best Adapted Screenplay (the film was based on a short story of the same name by Annie Proulx). Ultimately, it won in the categories of Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Score. Despite it being a favorite in the Best Picture category, Paul Haggis’ Crash came out victorious. It was a controversial loss because Crash was always seen as the lesser film among the five nominees that year. Additionally, the Academy was accused of being prejudiced and having homophobic views, and basically, refusing to openly recognize the best film of the year.
