20 Years of ‘Brokeback Mountain’: Why the Real Best Picture Still Rides Higher than Ever
Two decades after its release, ‘Brokeback Mountain’ remains a seminal queer love story, a revolution in romance and a revelation in filmic style and form. As we revisit Ang Lee’s masterful film in anticipation of its 20th year rerelease in theaters, Heath Ledger’s haunting performance and the film’s controversial Best Picture loss feel more vital today than they were in 2005. Not simply a queer film, a Western, or a doomed romance, it is all these things and more, a story of love denied and the long shadow of repression. With 20 years of hindsight, there is no longer any doubt; ‘Brokeback Mountain’ was always the rightful Best Picture of 2005.
From its opening shots of vast, desolate landscapes, ‘Brokeback Mountain’ strips the mythology of the hypermasculine American cowboy to its rickety bones. The wide open skies and empty stretches of Wyoming (though really shot in Alberta, Canada) visually convey the emotional isolation of its central character, Ennis Del Mar (Ledger). His life is one of hard work and silence, emotionally shut down to the point of paralysis In that stillness, Ang Lee stages a deploy internal tragedy, one where societal norms do not merely restrict queer desire, but annihilate it.
Author Annie Proulx’s short story is unsparing, and Lee’s adaptation honors that restraint. Working with master cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto, Lee shoots the mountain as both Eden and exile, the only space where Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Ennis’ love can briefly flourish. In doing so, he directly challenges the cowboy’s traditional role as a symbol of stoic, heterosexual masculinity. Here, the cowboy is a man in disguise, hiding not from bandits or enemies, but from himself.
The visual motifs reinforce the masquerade. The tilted cowboy hats, beer bottles, the ropes and wood fire, are symbols of masculinity rendered hollow, props in a role Ennis cannot shed. The film meticulously codes nature as a sanctuary away from dominant American ideologies, from heteronormativity, Protestant moralism, and hypermasculinity that shape Ennis and Jack’s suffocating world. On Brokeback, their love is as naturally beautiful as the surrounding facade. Off the mountain, it’s impossible.
This ideological tension becomes the heartbeat of the film, pulsing beneath every stolen glance. Ennis and Jack are never safe to love, not just because of the 1960s America they inhabit, but because of their internalized shame that renders vulnerability lethal. That’s what makes ‘Brokeback Mountain’ a devastating meditation on how normalized social structures devastate the inner lives of queer people, and male vulnerability at large.
Heath Ledger delivers one of the most eloquent performances in film history as Ennis Del Mar. He embodies a man whose every muscle, every twitch, every glance communicates what he cannot bear to say. Ennis is trapped in a cage by a life built on fear, shame, and the inability to imagine another future.
From the beginning, Ledger gravitated toward Ennis over Jack, recognizing the character’s complexity. As Ledger stated in an interview, “The lack of words he had to express himself, his inability to love,” was a challenge that drew Ledger in, and what makes his work so indelible. There is a breathtaking control to his physicality: the way he hunches in on himself, swallows his words, locks his jaw, wells up when no one is looking. Every movement carries the weight of a man crushed by his own emotional architecture.
Luke Davies described Ledger’s performance as a “bible of unrequited desires.” There is no better phrasing. Ennis does not just repress his love for Jack, he represses his very self. In that repression lies the tragedy. Jack, played with equal brilliance and verve by Jake Gyllenhaal, yearns for a life that might have been. Ennis, on the other hand, is incapable of allowing himself to imagine one.
Lee’s quiet direction gives Ledger space to construct this internal portrait. Unlike many romantic dramas, the film avoids melodrama. Instead, it trusts Ledger’s subtlety the carry the film’s central tragedy. Ennis cannot sustain love, he can only grieve it.
Ledger’s performance was hailed immediately as one of the greatest of his generation. In retrospect, it feels like a prophecy. Ledger died tragically just a few years later, and ‘Brokeback Mountain’ stands as perhaps his finest work. Ennis is one of cinema’s loneliest figures, but his deep love and emotional nuances also make him one of its most memorable.
‘Brokeback Mountain’ won the Golden Lion at Venice, swept the BAFTAs, won Best Director and Adapted Screenplay at the Oscars, and seemed poised to take home Best Picture. Then came the shock. At the 78th Academy Awards, ‘Crash’—a fumbling, blunt-force morality play about race in Los Angeles—took the top prize.
The backlash was immediate. Industry insiders and critics alike accused the Academy of homophobia, claiming voters were unwilling to honor a film with a gay romance at its center. Tony Curtis famously refused to watch it. Mark Wahlberg turned down a role in the film, saying he was “creeped out.” Despite its prestige and artistry, as well as the many strides made in LGBTQ representation in the past decades, ‘Brokeback’ still made many in Hollywood uncomfortable.
In hindsight, the decision looks worse. ‘Crash’ has not aged well. Its message feels forced, its narrative contrived. Even its director, Paul Haggis, has expressed regret over its win. Meanwhile, ‘Brokeback Mountain’ has only grown in stature, frequently topping lists of “Best Pictures That Lost Best Picture.” However, the loss didn’t dim its cultural power. If anything, it amplified it.
What the Oscar snub revealed was the exact prejudice ‘Brokeback’ was critiquing. Ennis and Jack were denied their happy ending. So, too, was ‘Brokeback Mountain.’ The film’s heartbreak extended beyond the screen, exposing the very real discomfort mainstream audiences had (and still have) with queer love stories that challenge American norms and do not resolve neatly, safely, or straight.
In the years since, ‘Brokeback Mountain’ has emerged as one of the most influential films of the 21st century. In 2018, it was added to the U.S. National Film Registry for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” Critics have drawn direct lines from ‘Brokeback’ to later queer films like ‘Milk,’ ‘Call Me By Your Name,’ and ‘Moonlight, ’the last of which finally broke through and won Best Picture in 2017.
The film also paved the way for more complex representations of masculinity. Its emotional depth, refusal to define Ennis and Jack by labels, and insistence on showing love as both natural and tragic helped move queer narratives into the mainstream. It remains a rare film that treats gay love not as spectacle or political statement, but as poetry. Raw, lyrical, and human.
Even outside of its queer context, ‘Brokeback’ has touched audiences for its depiction of unfulfilled longing and the roads not taken. The infamous final shot, Ennis touching Jack’s shirt, whispering “Jack, I swear”—has entered cinematic legend. It’s a moment of quiet grace, where decades of repression, love, grief, and regret collapse into a single image. There are no words left to say, and yet everything is said.
The discourse around the characters’ sexualities continues, but perhaps it misses the point. As Heath Ledger told Time in 2005, “I don’t think Ennis could be labeled as gay. Without Jack Twist, I don’t know that he ever would have come out. I think the whole point was that it was two souls that fell in love with each other.” In the end, ‘Brokeback Mountain’ is a capstone gay film as much as it is a revelatory human film.
Twenty years on, ‘Brokeback Mountain’ stands not only as the true Best Picture of 2005, but as one of the most enduring American films of the last three decades. Its artistry remains staggering, its themes evergreen, and its emotional power undiminished. It quietly dismantled the myths of American masculinity, gave queer love a new kind of visibility, and redefined the romantic tragedy for a new generation. That it lost the Oscar is a footnote. That it changed cinema and lives is the headline. Because some stories don’t end on a mountain. They echo from it.
‘Brokeback Mountain’ will re-release in theaters on June 22nd and 25th, according to Focus Features. Catch this legendary film on the big screen and cry your eyes out with a room full of cinephiles.
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