Brokeback Mountain is Not a Gay Movie

In fact, it’s a rather sad movie--the way life is sad when you aren’t true to yourself, when you try so hard to please others that you force yourself into molds that don’t fit, and you end up not only miserable yourself, but making everyone you were trying to please miserable too. That’s the kind of movie it is--with universal lessons for everyone.
Yes, the movie does detail a gay relationship (in a refreshingly real way--not like on Will & Grace, with silly, stylized characters and insider jokes, but as ordinary people--like you find in real life). But, the movie also details heterosexual relationships, and relationships between parents and their children--with all the struggles and hurts and joys that come with them.
Brokeback Mountain portrays real life--up and down, good and bad.
It is a good snapshot of the time periods in which the story takes place, of the social attitudes and realities that led to the actions of the characters, as well as social attitudes and realities that have led us to the times in which we now live (which may not be as different as we think).
If Brokeback Mountain makes viewers uncomfortable, I suspect it has little to do with “gay cowboys” and everything to do with having to look at themselves and the relationships they are involved in.
The study of literature involves talk about round and flat characters--round being three-dimensional, deep, real. Flat characters are two-dimensional, undeveloped. They serve primarily to move the story. Brokeback Mountain makes you examine your relationships in somewhat the same way. Are they real? Or just role-playing?
We should all be so lucky as to experience a Brokeback Mountain--a time and place where we are completely free to be ourselves, a place where we are loved for being ourselves--in our lifetime. The saddest part of the movie is coming away from it wondering if such a place exists, and if you’ll ever be so lucky as to find it.
No, Brokeback Mountain is not a gay movie. It is a moving, thought provoking and inspiring movie, a movie well worth seeing, a movie that deserves its nominations, its awards, and a movie with lessons we could all benefit from learning--about making committments to ourselves, and not putting off until tomorrow that which we are afraid to do today. It leaves all who see it thinking about it long after they’ve left the theatre.