It’s hard to believe but 15 years have passed since the iconic gay film Brokeback Mountain was released.
The film caused a major sensation at the time, raking in almost $180 million at the box office and scoring Oscar nominations for stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger, as well as awarding director Ang Lee his first Oscar statuette.
Now, in a new interview with The Today Show, 38-year-old Gyllenhaal reveals the one thing about the film that really irked his late co-star: people who cracked jokes about it.
“I see people who have joked with me or criticized me about lines I say in that movie,” he says. “And that’s the thing I loved about Heath.”
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
“He would never joke. [If] someone wanted to make a joke about the story or whatever, he was like, ‘No. This is about love.'”
Gyllenhaal continues: “He was extraordinarily serious about the political issues surrounding the movie when it came out. A lot of times people would want to have fun and joke about it, and he was vehement about being serious, to the point where he didn’t really want to hear about anything that was being made fun of.”
Looking back on the project, Gyllenhaal says it was the vehicle that helped propel him into stardom.
“It opened tons of doors,” he recalls. “It was crazy [and] it was amazing. It’s defined my career in different ways.”
Earlier this summer, Gyllenhaal spoke with GQ about the film and how its success took him by surprise, saying he was “blind at the profundity and the echo the movie made.”
“I don’t think we ever had any idea it would have the impact that it had,” he told the magazine.
He continued: “To make a movie that even just works is a miracle. When it resonates even beyond that, it’s impossible. And it has nothing to do with you in the end.”
“Just being in Brokeback Mountain, that’s the feeling I have. I feel that deeply about it. It had nothing to do with me. It came to me, I was honored to be a part of it, and it is now everyone else’s in a way that I can’t even fathom.”
Related: Jake Gyllenhaal reflects on ‘Brokeback Mountain’ with “two straight guys cast in these roles”
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Never got why people fawned over that movie so much. One decent shot of them both jumping off the cliff. Otherwise two miserable closeted guys with a miserable ending for one, and miserable ending of the movie. Certainly no happily ever after….
Larry
Many disagree with your view of the movie. I am glad everyone isn’t the same and has the same view as you. It was a ground breaking movie.
Sean
I think you missed the point and purpose of the movie. It wasn’t meant to show off the stars in the buff. If that’s all you’re looking for, there are site dedicated to nothing but dick pics and ass shots. Find them.
Charlie in Charge
Tragedy is cathartic. The Iliad, Romeo and Juliet, Atonement – all good stuff.
horseman62
you totally missed the point. the point was that there were so many lives and loves ruined then, and even to this day, out of fear and bullshit. I fell in love with a med school classmate. that sickening , obsessive, can’t think , can’t breath, want to listen to the music he listened too, smell his clothes kind of love. we went to a superbowl party with other students and a couple people noted how we leaned on each other and made jokes, and a week later he got engaged to some nursing student he’d known for three weeks on a rotation at the hospital. he told me, when I finally came out about a month later that the bible was against it and you could choose not to be gay, then reiterated, “no, I KNOW you can choose not to be gay!” and never spoke to me again. All loves, all stories don’t end well and thaht movie resonate so deeply for me. but then, I’m likely older than you too.
BGinBigD
Your username should be “clueless”. Brokeback Mountain is a movie about a different kind of love than some/most may be accustomed. Sorry their wasn’t more nudity for you. And sorry the film didn’t contain the kind of “happy ending” you may have expected.
ericcutspaper
Well said, Sean. Some seem riled that two straight actors got these roles or somehow the intimacy was ‘tame’?! I’m not sure what movie they were watching, because I came away feeling the intensity of the two characters. The only other ‘wide release movie’ I can think touches upon this kind of energy between the two main characters is “God’s Own Country”. These lamenters of “Brokeback Mountain” forget both Gyllenhaal and Ledger were only ‘actors-on-the-rise’ and still fresh faces to many of us in both the straight and gay realms. That freshness translated into their believability and chemistry. Ang Lee struck an incredible note of sensitivity to the times, for the story was one that transpired over years, not in the time of the movie’s release. You had to know the life that was so closeted in those times, especially for those of us who were closer to the ‘rural’ scene. To this day, I celebrate the sensitivity straight people brought to a heart-wrenching love story between two men of a certain time and place. This movie, unto itself, is a celebration that there is hope for the empathy possible from our straight counterparts; particularly in our current times of so much foment coming from the extreme right religiosity around the world. I cried when I read the short story book a few years before the movie and I still cried and do so now of this writing, feeling the heartbreak and loneliness of Enis at the end. Well played! Well played!
TheBigOne
Sounds like somebody needs their poopy diaper changed.
The movie was AWESOME! If you didn’t “get it” you’re probably one of those self-loathing queens that can’t figure out why nobody wants to be around her.
cjc1414
If you’re always looking for “happily ever after”, go back to kindergarten and only watch the Disney and Hallmark channels!!
paul dorian lord fredine
gee, no happily ever after? guess what? that’s life for a lot of people. not everyone gets a ‘happily ever after’. life isn’t a ‘cinderella’ or ‘sleeping beauty’ disney movie. most of us have to be satisfied with a life that doesn’t totally suck but includes those rare moments of bliss to make life worth while.
JaredMacBride
The movie was a B- to me; there was nothing great or groundbreaking about it, except for the accompanying PR campaign.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Sorry you ALL missed the point of my post. I was at the theater during it’s original release. It was disheartening to watch with my Gay and straight friends. Instead of showing in the first mainstream Gay themed major picture that Gays can be happy, have loving life enriching relationships and actually live happily ever after, it showed two miserable guys one ends up dead the ending that a good percentage of this national actually DOES consider a happy ending….
evanxx
This movie had a huge impact on me since I grew up in a rural setting much like the one used in the movie. I saw much of my own fears of coming-out reflected in the movie’s characters. It was like a glimpse of what life was like for gay men back then when I was growing up. I watch the DVD occasionally. I pre-ordered the DVD as soon as soon as Amazon allowed it. I am so grateful to see this story depicted on the big screen!
Doug
I’ve seen a lot of bad gay movies, but “Brokeback” had a very strong impression on me. The fact that it got a general release and won Oscars so that it found a wide audience made it even more important.
ConnorBryant1658
Never got why people fawned over that movie so….- Absolutely agree with you But i am here not only to discuss this article but I AM LOOKING for NEW BoyFriend. My whatsapp number is 17732425635 . Drop me a line nly if you are sngle and looking for love and pleasure..
ShiningSex
it’s a movie for god’s sakes. NOT all gay films have to be happy and end with a bang. It’s a great film and shot beautifully. The fact that the nude scene is all it’s worth tells us about your taste in films. BYE
richardNobbs
Glad to hear that he’s matured over the years. I used to really dislike him because when this film came out they all were on Oprah and I remember him in the same breath talking about how he had to wrestle with his own homophobia and then later talking about how relieved he was when they got around to shooting scene between he and Ann Hathaway.
He also said that if he and Leger, no comment from Leger, had known that the film was going to be this successful they wouldn’t have done it.
For me, a nearly 60 year old gay man, I’m am sick and tired of listening to str8 actors talk about the challenges of playing a gay character. If the toughest thing you have to do is look into the eyes of another beautiful person and fall in love with them you’re in the wrong job.
Again, glad Gyllenhaal has changed his tune.
batesmotel
I enjoyed the film and watched it with different straight friends both male and female that enjoyed it too. The strange irony is when I’ve brought the film up with gays they’re response was less than stellar. I’d hear things like, “I don’t get why that film was so huge. It was boring.”
BGinBigD
Another one with a strange username. Judging by that, you obviously are into Psycho…which says it all. No wonder you find Brokeback Mountain boring.
HankHarris
BGinBigD that’s not what he is saying – read his post before you attack him.
HankHarris
Sometimes Hollywood makes ‘gay’ films for straight people. Philadelphia felt like that. It was many people’s first introduction to AIDS in a way that made them feel something, which is a good thing. Brokeback is a great movie with great performances (Michelle Williams was impressive, one of her first post-Dawson’s roles). It’s also one of a handful of movies that I loved but have no desire to watch a second time.
Rocinante
Well I found the movie to be excellent. I judge acting, screenplay and overall story based on how emotionally connected I get. I always cry at the end when he opens the closet to smell Jacks shirt. It’s a hard movie to watch sometimes because it’s so sad on so many levels.
I have a few movies that invoke that kind of emotion. One is Interstellar, after watching it for the 5th time I have decided it’s my favorite sci-fi of all time. McConnhey’s acting was amazing and the part when he sees his very old daughter at the end makes me cry. Lots of interesting storylines in that movie. One of the most interesting was Matt Damon’s speech about why the old scientist lied about saving humanity, “humans have a difficult time risking their life for the continuation of unknown future humans but to save their loved ones it’s easy.
tommyboy5023
You knew Jake was comfortable with his sexuality when he sang I’m Not Going from Dreamgirls in falsetto wearing a gown live on SNL. He didn’t goof it. He was great.
Raybee
Thank you so much for mentioning that clip. I never knew about it and just watched it. Loved it!
Karrnal
You don’t need to know the period which the movie depicts to understand it. The movie shows you what the period was like. Same with Boys in the Band. It wasn’t all Pride parades and Let’s Get Married. It certainly wasn’t a Gay Cruise. If you can’t identify with what the movie shows, watch it again. Learn some history.
cjc1414
I believe only one(Keith) was straight, Jake protests to much and it’s just my observation that most ardent homophobes are closeted gays. I enjoyed the movie and did rewatch it.
cjc1414
Straights playing gay, gays playing straight, who cares so long as they give the public a GREAT performance!!
Man About Town
There was no Keith in this film!
Terrycloth
I waited for it on DVD watched it at home.i thought it was just ok ..slow in places..some of the dialouge was weird..and when they were alone in the tent scene it was so dark you coukdnt see anything..landscape was nice …I kept it in my collection. I don’t think I’ll watch it again ..C minus
Condor221
I loved the movie so much I saw it twice in the theater, bought the DVD, and have a movie house sized poster of Heath and Jake.
alanb32244
After the loss of my wife, I was a newly singled father of a five-year-old daughter when Brokeback Mountain came out. I saw the movie with my daughter in Washington, DC while on vacation. She saw a lovely story that portrayed two men in love and in her innocence accepted it at face value. I saw a riveting story about a love that I could someday have. I strongly believe she became the loving and supportive daughter she is today because we shared seeing that movie. It was a blessing. Many years have passed, and I never dated, but I heled out hope that once she was grown and secure I would have my chance. She is now twenty and is my number one support in finding happiness and love. Brokeback Mountain changed us profoundly. I am forever grateful.
kevininbuffalo
Beautiful, I hope you find what you’re looking for.
Josh447
I found BBM to be the most emotionally engaging film of my life. The artistry in portraying the dark side of the gay “human condition” by Ang Lee was piercingly drawn out so well, that I have been moved to tears more than once just hearing a few seconds of that eerily pleasant guitar twang from the movie’s musical score.
girldownunder
“He would never joke. [If] someone wanted to make a joke about the story or whatever, he was like, ‘No. This is about love.’”
For a sweet person, to have to endure the abuse would be devastating. He obviously couldn’t.
So sorry, Heath. Humankind can be so f*cking sh*t, and for no real reason. Sensitive, beautiful folks die because of you awful people. If you find solace in your evilness, you’re a sociopath.
🙁
ptb2016
I’ve never thought of it as a gay cowboy movie. First of all they herd sheep. Secondly they aren’t gay. It’s a love story that happens to be about two men. For the Heath character there is only one person he really loves, who happens to be another man, but goes through life making do except for the rare times he gets to spend with Jake, whose love is only available now and again and needs to find someone to recreate it with, which is why he goes looking for other men. Heath’s comments I found really moving. He clearly got it! A great loss of a beautiful human being.
GayEGO
Having grown up next door from Wyoming, in Idaho back in the 1940s and ’50s, I remember what people thought about us. Boise, Idaho had a, as Massachusetts calls it, a witch hunt and sent gay professors to prison just on the rumor they were gay. The newspaper published an article that shocked Boise, calling us sexual deviates that attacked young boys in the park. A video was made about it, called “The Fall of ’55.”.
My husband and I met in Boston back in 1962, when I was in the Navy, and we were together for 57 years, married 15 years as Massachusetts passed marriage equality in 2004 when we got married. Unfortunately, he passed away last month, but I have many fond memories of our lives together.
IanHunter
Beautiful story made a beautiful movie. Read the book.
James Mahan
Brokeback mountain was an honest, bare naked depiction of what our country was actually like within the time frame of the movie. Two men fell in love in a time when it was not acceptable. The brutality and cruelty exhibited by everyone in society towards anyone even suspected as being gay was horrific and unimaginable today by people who did not experience it. Be thankful that world is no more. Be wary of any who would try to bring it back to life. We must continue to fight for our right to exist and live our lives freely. If we are not vigilant, history will repeat itself.
ShiningSex
It was a great film. Not all gay films have to be positive. It’s reality.
We have plenty of positive films. At least it was NOT a joke of a film like “In and Out” (which was so insulting) and that hideous Madonna gay BFF film that was so bad, I can’t even remember the name or that Jennifer Aniston one. Those were all jokes of a film.