Brokeback Mountain (Directed by Ang Lee) is an American neo-western romantic drama film released in 2005.
The movie depicts the tumultuous homosexual love story between two men in Wyoming between 1963 and 1983. The movie highlights the themes of search of personal identity and love.
The two men discover their interest for one another after a night of heavy drinking. They become involved in an empowered sexual and romantic relationship which will be developed in the movie through great socio-normative obstacles.
The film was banned from showing in China for many obvious reasons. It portrays sexually explicit scenes and language. It was also censored because it presents gay themes – being homosexual in China is legal yet there are no civil rights laws that protect homosexual people and there is great bias against gay people. Homosexuality remains a highly taboo subject in China and for this reason is not represented in movies “authorized” for viewers. Lastly, the movie was considered altogether too controversial to be shown.
The film received positive criticisms from the West. The Rolling Stone raved about the movie:
Ang Lee’s unmissable and unforgettable Brokeback Mountain hits you like a shot in the heart. It’s a landmark film and a triumph for Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, who bring deep reserves of feeling to this defiantly erotic love story about two Wyoming ranch hands and the external and internal forces that drive them from desire to denial. Directed with piercing intelligence and delicacy by Lee, the film of Annie Proulx’s 1997 short story — the unerring script by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana is a model of literary adaptation — wears its emotions on its sleeve.
And the New York Times praised Ang Lee’s work as well, particularly noting the rich portrayal of love in the film:
Yet “Brokeback Mountain” is ultimately not about sex (there is very little of it in the film) but about love: love stumbled into, love thwarted, love held sorrowfully in the heart.
Or, as Ms. Proulx writes, “What Jack remembered and craved in a way he could neither help nor understand was the time that distant summer on Brokeback when Ennis had come up behind him and pulled him close, the silent embrace satisfying some shared and sexless hunger.”
One tender moment’s reprieve from loneliness can illuminate a life.
This movie is an all time American classic. Both visually appealing and well-written, the drama-filled movie would certainly change the stereotypical notions of cowboys and emotionally empathise with the tragic love story between the two main characters.
Foreign Correspondent produced an investigative documentary on gay couples in China:
The Economist also published an article to explain Chinese citizen’s attitude towards gay rights among the older and younger generation. Read it here.
Human rights group in China also began to speak out against China censoring “abnormal” homosexual relationship contents online. Read it here.
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