Brokeback Mountain is a short story by American author Annie Proulx. It was originally published inThe New Yorker on October 13, 1997, and was subsequently published in a slightly expanded version in Proulx's 1999 collection of short stories, Close Range: Wyoming Stories. The story won an O. Henry Award prize (third place) in 1998. The New Yorker won the National Magazine Award for Fiction for its publication of "Brokeback Mountain" in 1998. The collection was named a finalist for the 2000 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction.
Screenwriters Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana adapted the story for the film of the same name, released in 2005. At that time, the short story and the screenplay were published together, along with essays by Proulx and the screenwriters, in Brokeback Mountain: Story to Screenplay. The story was also published separately in book form.
Synopsis
Two young men who meet in Wyoming in 1963 forge a sudden emotional and sexual attachment, but soon part ways. As their separate lives play out with marriages, children and jobs, they reunite for brief liaisons on camping trips in remote settings over the course of 20 years.
I'm 23, and I find it hard to write this review. I saw the film exactly one week ago today and not a moment has gone by when I don't ache. It finds me in the shower; it haunts me in bed; it has filled my mind and clings to my thoughts, and it won't let up. I try to lie to myself, to find some solace by saying that it's just a movie, but I know better. Jack and Ennis are alive, and they represent so many aching people, so many untold stories. There is no contrivance, no manufactured importance; there are no tricks. Brokeback Mountain tells, with painful honesty and frankness, the story of two men's lives and nothing more. Whether you are gay or straight, it doesn't hit close to home: it hits you. Brokeback Mountain is a place we all most desperately yearn to go. It's where we can be free. It feels funny to say that Brokeback Mountain is my favorite film of all time, because I think it almost an injustice to call it a film at all, or to critique its incredible technical sophistication. Somehow Brokeback Mountain transcends that. I could hear a thousand speeches celebrating diversity or read a hundred love stories and not be absolutely broken in just two hours as I was after this film. I've never felt waves of nausea come over me as I did sitting in that theater, my face contorted as I watched truth and honesty spill from the screen and onto moviegoers who had no idea what they were in for. I am usually the first to point out bias, so I know my words might be mistaken for favoritism or blind loyalty. They should not. This movie will change your existence. I find so many things in my life trivial now in the wake of this film---for me, watching it was truly like having a near-death experience. And am I better for it? Yes. Broken and undone, but better. For once in my life, I feel hope, and I've seen love.
Personal View
I thoroughly enjoyed this absorbing film, beautifully acted and shot in amazing locations. As a film it deserves the accolades.
If the moral message is that a sexual relationship between two men is infinitely superior to their relationships with their respective wives and children (who can be sacrificed for their pleasure and happiness) then I totally disagree. The widespread acceptance of such a view would not only destroy the particular families involved but also lead to the disintegration of society.
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