Ashley, gentle reminder that it is 1963. Homosexuality was still considered a mental illness and perversion in the DSM until 1973. There was no such thing as open conversation about it without risking getting murdered, institutionalized, losing your children, jail time, the list goes on. The anger you see is shame. His conditioning has him hating himself and hating that he loves him and that even transpires to hating the one you love for “tempting” you. Lots of big complicated feelings wrapped in pain, shame, hate, and repression. Think about the thoughts of your family in the 90s when it had been declassified as a mental illness for 30 years and then think about 30 years earlier.
My take on why Alma didn’t react to Ennis and Jack kissing: she was thoroughly confused and floored at the idea of two men kissing. I wouldn’t be surprised if she had never even heard of such a thing. Parents sheltered their daughters to an extreme back then. It’s possible that the concept of homosexuality had never even been introduced to her or occurred to her. So when she sees what happens, she’s being floored with a billion emotions and questions in her head and just doesn’t know how to process. Not until later in their marriage does she fully grasp what’s been happening.
@@jupiterrising887 Oh, stop. Everyone who reads this knows (or should know) that you're just trolling (badly). They also know that you picked this particular film reaction to troll because you've got some sort of sad little secret life that leads you to try to be shitty toward queers so that others don't "know about you." Darling, everybody _does_ know about you - they just don't consider you worth giving a shit about.
It also at one point was a registered mental illness they believed could be cured and if not through shock treatments some were given a lobotomy 😮😢 plus if you were discovered to be gay by anyone you could be fired, shunned, abused, beat up, lynched and beaten to death and no one just like in Jack's (Jake's) case would bat an eye or do or say anything against it.
I understand that there's a lot of miscommunication on so many sides, but it was the early 60s... it's difficult for anyone to talk about this type of thing. As evidenced by the movie...
It’s easy to understand how she would. These issues have not gone away. In my state (Tennessee) you can literally be fired for being gay, you can be denied house, you government officials can refuse to marry you, adoption and welfare agencies can refuse to let you adopt a child, and lest we forget aaaalll the attacks on transgender people (specifically the youth) including the most recent ban on transitioning medical procedures and hormones which means around about the time the kids are going back to school, yeah they aren’t gonna have those medications. There is also the terrifying fact that in June 2023 (aka just last month) Tennessee’s attorney general’s office was going through medical records, (you know those things that are supposed private) to see how many individuals have had gender-affirming healthcare recently. And while assaulting a member of the LGBTQ+ community is considered a hate crime, it has to be prosecuted first, which means the person has to make a police report and then the cops actually have to take them seriously, and lets not forget the fact that conversion therapy is still a very real thing (and not just in the US), and parents have sent their kids to special camps (sound familiar?) So yeah it’s really easy to see how she may have thought it was in current times.
It’s surprising, considering she remembered how it was received in Tennessee when it came out. Just look at how things had changed in the last 18 years & imagine going back 45 years before that.
In defense of the lovely and extremely talented Ms. Burton, has rural Wyoming really changed all that much? Would the clothes be all that out of place? Would the vehicles..... This movie is filmed so realistically and it's so transporting that it is easy to forget that this is supposed to be 50 years ago in a part of the country that is another 20-30 years behind urban areas. That said, I found Ashleigh's reaction hopelessly naive. I sincerely hope that she and Hubben watch this movie again - and not in reaction mode. Usually, Ashleigh is around in early comments and the fact that she is MIA indicates that she might not be taking her ratio all that well. Hey Ashleigh! We love you. It kinda figures that a Millenial reactor who wasn't exposed to a lot of mature media growing up would miss some historical cues.
I never thought about how weird it would seem to younger generations that people just didn’t talk about being gay a couple generations ago. It was so dangerous and stigmatized. Things really have changed very fast for someone to come away from this story thinking the only issue was from the gay characters.
Right, and to not even mention the utterly shocking tragedy that Jack was brutally murdered for being gay. And that as a child Ennis was shown the dead body of a man brutally tortured and killed just for being gay. There was zero safety in being honest with yourself or anyone else back in that day. Because of crimes like that people have since rallied and fought to change the hearts and minds of people and in many many corners of the world and the US it’s still incredibly unsafe to be honest about who you are or who you love. These men were terrified!
@@marybrown6128 In the immortal words of Emmett Honeycutt (QAF), It takes more courage to wear a dress for an hour than it does to wear a suit for a lifetime.
I kinda wish some of the classic queer movies were easier to find so I could recommend them to Ashleigh. Longtime Companion or another one set during the AIDS crisis just would break hearts.
FYI when Jack was finally honest about who he was, it got him killed. There would've been lynch mobs before either of them could've gotten out of town. I grew up in small-town Texas in the 70s. One kid got outed and he was literally beaten to a pulp almost every day at school while the teachers intentionally "didn't see anything". Seeing that forced me deep into the closet just to survive until I could get out of that town.
I'm sorry you had to go through that. It's not right. I'm glad the world is more open but I know that there are still struggles the LBGT community has to deal with. Just know you are loved and have Ally's that will back you up ❤
People like you are my heroes ❤ i also had a hard time coming out since i'm from a small Town in Jalisco México and a lot of people here use their religion as an excuse to judge and hate but people like you give a lot of strenght to be ourselves 🌺
Better to be honest and dead than live a lie. Better to be a brutally murdered man than a heartbroken woman. Straight women hate this movie because they cannot compete. They prefer their gays to be flaming Nathan Lanes. I wonder how many fell in love with handsome rugged men only to find out that those men were gay? Then BLAMED THE MEN FOR THEIR OWN HEARTBREAK? THEN OUTED THOSE MEN TO THE WORLD?
I realize I'm months late to your comment... but I'm so incredibly sorry you had to go thru that. I sincerely hope you're living your best life as your authentic self. ❤
Jack Twist was upset on the drive back because he was hoping Ennis and him would be together finally after his divorce. Jack wanted nothing else than to share his entire life with Ennis and had to settle for Brokeback. It's a beautiful tragedy
Girl, there are multitudes of homeless queer youth in the U.S. from parents disowning them in this day and age, and in the 60s you're literally ostracized from all society. You were considered sub- human, it's not something that could EVER be spoken about. The shame and guilt these men had for loving each other is understandable. All they know is its "wrong", there was zero education, zero tolerance, zero understanding. I love this film, Heath and Jake are fantastic and the music always makes me cry.
Ang Lee was asked how he related to this story initially knowing so little about homosexuality. He said that being from Asia (he was originally from Taiwan), he knew a lot about emotional repression. Sadly, had Jack or Ennis been straightforward about their situation, one or both of them could have easily been beaten to death way, way earlier. Ennis’ Dad made damn sure he understood that.
That and her wanting them to be honest with their wives. Not an option! 😅 They bring up several times what happened to gay men who were open and honest in that environment.
Thank you Ashley for viewing this movie. ❤️This film is set in rural America in the 60’s and there just no way they’d be able to just “talk about it” as you suggested the couples do.
Exactly. The movie shows what having to repress to that extent does to people. How lonely it must be when you can't even be yourself with your wife and the best you can hope for is mutual silence.
100%! Along with unresolved trauma, shame and fear of death. You won’t dare say anything. I had friends in the 90’s who were afraid to speak out then- I mentioned in my own comment literally Matthew Shephads death was brutal and it was a horrible reality for rural America and their views on lbgtq+ia
She even commented on the scorn and ridicule that this film received in Tennessee (and elsewhere) when it was released, and that was *40 years* after the film takes place. THAT is why it is hard to have "the talk" even today. In the 60s it would have been impossible.
It’s the way you totally missed the DECEASED stamp on that final postcard. 😂😂😂😂😂 I remember seeing this movie in the theater before I came out. I drove over an hour away to see it so that no one would recognize me. I cried so hard at the end with the shirts. The movie is a great reminder of how far we’ve come with LGBTQ rights over the past 60 years.
Oh, Shawn, that is a beautiful and yet heartbreaking story. I'm so happy to hear the movie is something you feel positive about; I am a little hurt for this movie because I see there's a sort of backlash against it. So first people punked on it when it came out, and now there's a backlash. You can't win! lol.
@@TTM9691 Not everyone is certain that closeted men cheating on their wives are great men who are doing an entirely a good thing. Many people are anti-cheating.
lol, I couldn't believe she missed that either but every once and a while, she misses something in a movie. I remember when she didn't understand what was happening at the end of Avengers: Infinity War.
It was a different time, Ashleigh. It takes place in a time (60s to 80s) and place that “gay” wasn’t even uttered from people’s mouths. Homosexuality was still ILLEGAL and considered a mental disorder like schizophrenia. They couldn’t tell their wives because they didn’t trust that their wives 1) would accept them and 2) wouldn’t out them. Being “openly gay,” which wasn’t even a thing back then, would have put them in physical danger. Their wives and families, if they didn’t just shun them, would probably have put them into “conversion therapy” or mental hospitals. They were raised to hate themselves and fear that if anyone would find out that they’d lose everything and everyone they cared about, or worse that they’d be killed. They fought with each other because they were literally being TORTURED by the feelings of love and passion they had for each other that they didn’t know how to let out. There’s no perfect scenario where they could have just been honest with their wives and moved into a cabin together. They’d have to live in total solitude, leave everything behind, ACCEPT THEMSELVES, and be in constant fear that someone would come across them. It’s a tragic love story, and it’s unfair, but that’s the reality they were living in. It’s supposed to make you angry. It’s SO incredibly unfair. They were soulmates.
Heath and the woman who played his wife, Michelle Williams, were a real-life couple. They were engaged and had a daughter, Matilda. It was so sad when Heath died and I remember going to a Q&A session in L.A. with Michelle and Heath and they were so incredible in this movie. Fun fact, Jake Gyllenhaal is Matilda's godfather.
I was born in 1961, and I remember hearing the adults talking about the gays (or "the fruits" as my father termed them). I was also relentlessly bullied by my peers for being gay (before I knew I was... or even before I knew what it meant). My generation was the first to benefit from the Stonewall Riots and the resulting gay lib movement. But while I entered adulthood into a very different world than I was born into, I had the battle scars and baggage from the transition (and then, of course AIDS reared its head, just as I was beginning to accept my sexuality). All of this is to say, that while I agree that infidelity is not something to cheer, I understand why neither man, nor Ennis's wife, could bring themselves to talk about it. It was a taboo along the lines of incest... and miscegenation (which is even crazier, if possible). This movie breaks my heart...
I always felt this movie depicts “star-crossed lovers”. If stars cross they attracted to each other but doomed to collide or go in opposite directions. Beautiful, tragic, memorable.
Thank you for watching this film, Ashleigh. To best understand it, though, it's really important to learn and think about it through the lens of LGBTQ+ history. This film is set in 1963, six years before Stonewall. At that time, you could be arrested for being queer. You could be arrested for being the subject of a rumor that you were queer. Once arrested, they could (and often did) print your name (and sometimes your photo) in the newspaper, which most people read. This meant that you would almost certainly be unable to get a job in that area, you could lose your housing, you could be thrown into a mental institution indefinitely and forced to undergo what we call "conversion therapy"... it could very literally ruin your life in a way it can be difficult to understand today. To those this happened to, some committed suicide - the shame, the threat to safety, and/or having what they felt was no good options available to them was too great. There was no "talking about it" to your wife, or to anyone, really. This is why the conversations in this film are so veiled and vague. The audience can pick up on it because we know that Jack and Ennis are queer, but to someone just passing by overhearing conversations, they wouldn't know what was being spoken about. To be publicly out (not just out to your other queer friends, but to everyone) is still a fairly recent phenomenon, historically speaking. Closeting is and has been something that's a very personal choice. It's become easier because of public support and laws, but some people still choose to do it. This isn't necessarily because of shame, but most often because of safety. Shame can still play a role (as seen by Ennis's rage and violence toward himself, Jack, and others), but it's not always the root of people's choice to be out or not.
Thank you for your detailed explanation describing the time and severe repercussions of speaking out. Many don’t know the history and how it was- and some parts of our country still is. I was a senior in high school when Matthew Shephard died., which surprises me teaching young people how many don’t know who he is.
This is so well said! As a viewer, you really need this perspective to understand their choices. It’s a very different climate here in the US, at least for now. Who know what the future holds for the queer community in the US.
In the 80s (!) two men were arrested in Arkansas (I think near Little Rock) for having sex in the home of one of the men! The police actually raided the house. The names AND ADDRESSES were printed in the papers, even in my small town in NW Arkansas.
Exactly. A lot of younger viewers today get frustrated, as if the characters are being dishonest for the sake of making things easier or due to cowardice or paranoia. But it's actually a very realistic threat assessment for the time to live the way Ennis does. Through an accurate historical lens, Jack is downright foolhardy at times. And it doesn't help that there's a lot of 1960s macho toxic male BS still putting pressure on them as well to not talk about feelings with each other as much as with the others in their lives. I love watching Ashleigh react to things, but part of the problem with Millennials (or anyone younger--not singling out millennials or Ashleigh--she's good people) watching older media is that they don't have the historical context that makes that media such rich and relatable viewing for the people who lived in that time. Younger people often seem to think that history and culture don't move that much, and hold people accountable for choices and viewpoints as individuals, as if there's an objective rightness to the world that everyone should instinctively know. They don't understand that that's a subjective perception that's a product of their time. They don't understand that in thirty years, the values they hold today will be "problematic" in their own right as the generations after Z keep things moving. Today, people have unprecedented access to points of view other than their own, and it's sooo much easier to find communities that support you as you grow and change. Back then (or even in the 80s, when I was growing up), your view of life was pretty much limited to TV, books, and the people around you, and if those sources took you to stare at tortured gay people when you were a little kid, there was no way out of that head space, even with your own wife.
They couldn't have just talked to their wives and then run off to live together. Back in the time period this was set, and the location, it's just not a safe option for them as evidenced by Jack's murder.
Ashleigh's solution to social and political oppression: "Just talk to your partner!" Everyone is giving her a free pass for being ignorant of history, but the movie itself shows what happens to gay people who get exposed. And yet she still thinks it's a film about the importance of communication.
@@punklover99It's a movie about a situation in which you either marry to cover your secret or you are quite likely to be executed in the streets, so it is far more complicated than just "cheating".
I get what you're saying. But Ennis and Jack didn't do a good job of keeping their sexualities secret. They were very lucky in no one exposing them earlier. Instead of lying to themselves and pretending to be straight by having wives and kids, they should've stayed single and had their getaways as they wished. That way they wouldn't be hurting the feelings of any potential partners through cheating and reduced the chances of their sexualities being leaked.
You might have chosen better. It's all about making choices that are more true to yourself. I grew up with a younger brother who was gay. Everyone knew it, but until he acknowledged it, no one could talk about it. When he found the right guy, he was 35, and he thought the “big announcement” would have all sorts of dire consequences. The major reaction was that everybody was relieved that we could finally be honest about it. On June 17, 2023, he would have been 70 years old, but he died of a heart attack the morning after last Thanksgiving day. Even so, he fully and truly lived for half of his life, and that's a real accomplishment. Just keepin’ it real, RealTechZen, AKA John L. Battey
Oh Ashleigh. I know we view things through our own experiences and times but you missed so much. This film illustrates how a society where a type of love and existence is illegal (to the point of death) hurts everyone. It destroys the oppressed but also destroys families, It wasn't that long ago (and it still is true for many cultures even within our country) where the expectations of gender roles, heteronormativity, and masculine toxic culture were the most important things. That's why they fight after they fall in love, that's why women don't bring things up with their husbands, that's why men don't express their feelings, that's why they don't discuss their relationships. To do so is to face truth and to do so is to disconnect yourself and your family from society (which is especially hard in smaller rural communities. You reacting with confusion around these men shows your blindness to what men, especially gay men, experience in our bs society. You celebrating their moments of heteroness is you projecting a norm for yourself and failing to see the reality of the situation. Same as these poor women did when they entered these relationships with these broken men. The unspoken nature of everything coming to a head at the end with his parents and the shirt (hidden I might ad) should make you cry, There is so much loss of potential at that moment in the film. This movie isn't so much about the effects of the characters choices but of the lack of choices the world they live in allows them.
This movie was so important when it came out - the first big breakout drama that covered gay issues. Most LGBTQ+ films before this were indie, small budget and "art house" focused, but Brokeback was marketed to a much wider audience and got a huge following. I saw it for the first time in a theater in DC's gay Dupont Circle neighborhood and the men's room afterwards were just a bunch of guys crying. As amazing as the two leads are, my favorite characters are the three main women - Michelle Williams, Anne Hathaway & Linda Cardellini, who had all been stars in teen-focused films/TV and had their first real adult roles in this film. Williams and Heath Ledger were falling in love during the filming (their daughter was born before the film even debuted) and that adds a real energy to their scenes, but it's Anne Hathaway, whose character was not in the original short story, who impressed me the most. Lureen marries Jack to piss off her father, and succeeds at that, but is stuck in a loveless marriage at a time when divorce was still really stigmatized. Hathaway described the character as getting blonder hair and bolder nails as she gets more bitter about the relationship, and the big question about the phone call with Ennis is whether Lureen knows the truth, and if the scene playing out is Ennis' fear or the real murder. Hathaway has always refused to say how she was playing it, and her talent really shows through in that moment. Of course the most meaningful scene is Ennis with Jack's parents, and I love the way the mother makes sure he has the shirts. She knew, as mothers know.
I don't think Ashleigh grasps the stress these guys are going through. Society rejects them and their lives are in danger. And they could completely lose their kids.
Hey Ashleigh, your reactions are always thoughtful. ❤️ This film was shot in Alberta Canada. The opening sequence was shot in a little town called Carseland, Alberta. I mean tiny town lol. I lived on a farm nearby and had worked in film for 10 years and a friend of mine was the script supervisor on this film and she invited me to spend a day on the set. I was thrilled to find out that Ang Lee was the Director of this film. And that the cinematographer was the same who had shot the great Salma Hayek biography of Frida Kahlo. She introduced me to Heath and he commented on my tattoo on my wrist. And then showed me some of his tattoos. He was a genuinely warm friendly person. Karen told me that he was one of the nicest people she had ever worked with, and she was in the business for near 30 years at that point. The fact that Heath could play both The Joker and Ennis is a testament to his astonishing talent. He was by the accounts of the crew that worked on this film, a very kind and down to earth person. Some people said at the time that Jake and Heath were ruining their careers with this film, which is based on a story from the great E Annie Proulx’s short story collection, Wyoming Stories. But they had the courage in the face of the backlash to be true to themselves, their convictions and their art.
Back then, telling their wives would have been the equivalent of telling them that they're pedophiles because that's how most of society would have viewed them.
Hell, that’s how the right still tries to portray them today. It’s changed, but there’s still a percentage of people that would love for it to be just like this movie again. So much for Making America Great Again..😞
I believe that Heath and Jake won for Best Kiss at the People's Choice Awards. One of them even got a broken nose from that powerful kiss! Thanks for reviewing this amazing movie that has a very special place in my heart and reminds me of a special someone I met around the time this movie came out. He was 17 years younger than me and I was his first but he was not ready to get serious. He got married to a man a few years ago and we have stayed in touch for 20 years! I cry every time I watch this movie.
Heath Ledger was asked to present at the Oscars with Jake with a parody of this movie, and he, no joke, said, "Hell no!" People tried to be like, "Its just a joke." and he said, "Not to me." We didn't just lose the Joker tied for first with Mark Hamill for best, we lost an ally that understood the assignment from day fucking one. 💔
I love all your reactions Ashleigh, but I gotta say that as a Pride Month Reaction it was a painful watch to feel your lack of understanding of what it means to be gay in certain contexts, specially in past times. Definitely not something you could just "talk with your wife" and solve without risking your own physical or social safety. Also, Jack is not being dramatic being upset because Ennis told him he couldn't meet him that weekend because it is not just a weekend. It is the only intimate romantic connection he ever got to have in his life. The only moments in his whole life that he gets to be his true self after years and years of having to hide as someone else. I know you will read many of these comments and understand where we are coming from with this.
Heartbreaking news, I was really hoping that they find him alive and in one piece. I'd love to see her react to Arachnophobia, one of my favorites, loved him, Daniels & Goodman in there & I think she'd love it. RIP Julian Sands, you will be missed :(
"People need to learn how to respond instead of react" is such a good way to word that sentiment. I've never heard that expression before, but... wow. Yes. That.
The sweet innocence that Ashleigh displays is what makes her such a beautiful person. The fact that she didn't recognise Heath Ledger all through the movie made me smile broadly. I knew she wasn't understanding the attitudes in the film but that's okay. Those things can be learned in the future and a greater understanding will develop. You are a beautiful person, Ashleigh.
Sweet ignorance or blind ignorance? You honestly think that people born after 1990 will even TRY to conceive that life existed before them. No. She can SAY the right things and it takes two seconds and no effort. Doing something about it? Why don't you ask her to give out her physical address and invite everyone to dinner? Never happen. She's no more beautiful than a Hallmark card. Less beautiful really because cards have to be read and she can't. She has a spouse who supports her financially so that she can pretend to be beautiful. And you think you're watching a reaction? Reactors PERFORM to pre-screened movies to find out if a movie can be performed to. "Reacted" to. Of course she knew Heath. Ledger. But she wasn't going to have much to react to, hence the where's Heath ledger conceit. And her beautiful performance to Brokeback Mountain consisted mostly of looking for nekkid butts and yelling Flying dicks! I saw flying dicks! infantilism. Like most straight women she's more comfortable with cutesie drag queens and Nathan Lanes. Gay men who have to tell you that they're gay since nothing about them is stereotypically gay are problematic. Why? Probably because these virile rugged men have zero use for women except maybe as friends. That makes them dangerous. If a straight woman falls in love with a coworker who never discusses their lovelies and who doesn't even encourage any romantic beliefs, that coworker is going to be hated and despised once these women know that they've fallen in love with a gay man. Even if the relationship only consists of a few lunches and zero physical contact, a woman who has deluded herself will blame the gay man deeply and forever. He will be painted as leading the young woman on by not acting gay. And straight women will do this every single time. He lied to me! He tricked me! He conned me by not letting the world know he's gay! All gay men should either be a drag queen or a hyper Nathan Lane!! Anyone else is,a liar!
More ignorant than innocent, I would say. I enjoy her reactions, but this one was painful because of her out of touch comments. Her being a millenial is no excuse to be too obtuse to understand the societal issue that the movie so clearly portrays.
@@amandac.d.4216 I understand precisely what you are saying and agree with your point. I cannot help but feel that Ashleigh's naivety on the matter will be corrected as she starts seeing more films with strong messages as the themes. As good as they are, there is only so much anyone is going to take away from MCU movies.
I really don't get people's problem. If this movie is not for you, fine. Understandable. Just do what I do when she's reacting to a Marvel movie and pass. No need to get mad about it.
If Alma got brought up anything like me, she would see the men kissing and know on some level they were having a physical relationship but I mean beyond that she was probably never taught the word and instead was taught crazy things like that 'people like that' are spawns of hell who have no soul and will take yours away from you. The way I grew up in the isolated rural South, men were very hard, they 98% stayed out of anything regarding raising the children unless it was discipline, and they were quick tempered and never shared their emotions, and they dealt hard blows to anyone who tested them. They dealt with each other that way. So men that didn't conform got destroyed. Men like Heath's character Ennis would probably survive, because they would turtle. Men like Jack, meanwhile, want to not be ashamed, want to just be happy and at peace, and those hard men pick up on that. Thanks for being a supportive and loving person willing to share your time and your effort with folks out here. Cheers
I’m surprised by the number of people who didn’t like this film. It was difficult for me. I grew up in the south and ended up in a similar relationship with a guy who couldn’t admit he was gay. It was painful as it was abusive. So this movie hit some familiar notes for me.
I have only ever watched this movie in the theater once… it was heartbreaking. Then I got into a relationship with a woman who refused to come out of o her family. We even lived together and I was her “special friend.” Then we broke up and she got married and came out I was happy for her but a little jealous.
I am shocked and a little angry at the sort of "backlash" this movie has gotten. It's like.....excuse them for even making the movie in the first place, you know what I mean? First there was the whole brouhaha when it came out, and then in the blink of an eye it's some kind of millstone around gay people's necks, I don't get it at all. It's an amazing love story every single person on the planet can relate to, like Romeo & Juliet. It's so simple and straightforward, and impeccably written, acted and directed, and people just sit back and pick it apart these great artists' work. These people busted their asses and bared their souls and took great risks to their careers all so that we could have this incredible experience.....and the peanut gallery would have them feel BAD about it! lol. I'm happy the movie resonated with your very real and not uncommon experience, unfortunately.
@@d3l3tes00n Obviously my comment went sailing over your head, your reading comprehension absolutely sucks. Why don't go you go re-read the comment, imbecile? I'm talking about the backlash.....the backlash is FROM THE GAY COMMUNITY, you friggin' moron! I believe that's what the OP is talking about as well! Try to keep up, dopey. Or better yet, go babble somewhere else.
I remember David Letterman, one of two most popular late night hosts making fun of the movie when it was only just announced. He did comedy skits about it and was peeved at why someone was making a movie about gay cowboys. He later apologized after it was released and the critical acclaim it got and knowing the tragic love story of two men who loved each other but society wouldn't let them be together. It's an important movie that contributed to the change of public's views that gay people weren't immoral but loved each other just like other couples. Only in 2012 did majority of Americans approve of gay marriage and only then did Obama support it. There are still concerted efforts to suppress gay rights from the right-wing. Simply instructing kids in school that gay parents exist is being fought against with hateful language accusing people of "grooming" kids to be gay. It's a disgusting term that's meant for pedophiles who befriend kids in order to assault them. Being gay isn't a choice, it's physical attraction to the same sex. There are still plenty of religious and ignorant types who think it's a moral failing and a choice. Prejudice and discrimination only flourish without proper knowledge, but there's people that want this to continue.
I had to watch this movie for the first time, on my old tv, practically with the volume on 0 with subtitles on because my in-laws also felt very strongly about gay people. (We lived together. o_o) This is when I learned that romance endings that aren't 100% happy are way too hard for me to process as a new mother. When I tell you I cried.... oof. The heartbreak poured out of my eyes. I also learned that I needed to move away from my inlaws. I was going through some emotions after this one and when I tried to talk a little about it they basically told me to control myself and that crying for gays was "weird and sick".
Story time: When this movie was on its last round in theaters, my wife dragged me to see it because i lost a bet. It was in ShadyBrook Cinema in Columbia TN (many memories made there, but sadly closed down after the covid fiasco)Anyhoo, wife and I sat in the very back and only 1 other person there...in the middle of the theater, a dude with a cowboy hat. When the 'spit hit the hand' this cowboy dude literally RAN out of the theater!! I couldnt stop laughing until the movie got serious....great movie, im actually in shock that Ang Lee directed it!
I love that bit "Wait..no hold on,.he's not about it?!...OH he's about it!" might be the perfect externalized inner monologue I have heard in a minute. Good stuff.
I feel it should be noted that the scene where they show the death scene of Jack near the fence was paying respect to Matthew Shephard and his brutal death. Also- my dear Ashleigh it is so incredibly easy to say, “have the talk” but for someone at that time having their own unresolved trauma and shame, & literally the fear of death will keep you from speaking your truth.
I always sob at the end of this movie just because of the symbolic nature of the shirts. Jack’s shirt is hanging on the OUTside of the closet, and Ennis’ shirt is still on the INside of the closet. Jack was no longer confined to a life where he couldn’t be himself, and even though Ennis is working through it, he still couldn’t come out, and in this time period living alone was as close as he could get.
A gay man, I’ll be 71 in a little over a week. Born and raised in an environment exactly like that in this film, I know exactly what its characters go through and why they behave as they do. Forgive me, but I was delighted you didn’t recognize Ledger until the end title revealed him. It’s a truly stellar performance. I’ve personally known men like that and Ledger portrays Ennis so flawlessly he sends chills of memory down my back each time I watch the film. What an inconceivable loss his early death was and is.
I had come out to my very conservative grandmother while this was in theaters. The coming out didnt go well, and ended with both of us in tears and her upset and leaving. BUT she went and watched this on her own, and came away from it saying .... " they have the same issues lots of couples have issues with". That planted the seed and now shes ok with me. I think shes still coming to terms with the remainder of the rainbow , but she came a lot further than i thought possible.
I haven’t seen this in so long. I think it was ground breaking in a lot of ways. I appreciate that it portrays the characters as we all are; EXTREMELY human. We are not perfect and the characters were certainly not perfect. we always have to keep in mind the time this was set in. I think the film did an excellent job of portraying the longing we all feel whatever for it may be. You don’t have to be gay or be a cowboy to appreciate this film. Empathy and compassion is all that’s needed ❤
One of the most beautiful and tragic love stories I’ve ever seen. And the film making is superb. Ang Lee’s sensibility is just so gentle and sensitive. ❤
It's not right they both hid their relationship from their wives but also consider at the point this movie is taking place it's entirely possible one of the wives could have told their families and both men would be killed. People were not anywhere near as accepting of such truths back then as they are now which also explains why Ennis' wife couldn't bring herself to ask him about it.
Exactly! The whole story is about how you *couldn't* be honest about those things, and how that ruins people. Ruins their lives, their relationships, and possibly gets them murdered.
This film came out in 2005. Just a few years earlier, Matthew Sheppard, a university student in Wyoming, was brutally murdered. Perhaps it was an inspiration for this film. But at the least, it gives you a sense of the reality of the time. Here on Staten Island a Vietnam Veteran, James Patrick Zappalorti, was also murdered for being gay. This was a breakthrough film for depicting a gay relationship at its heart with the same depth and honesty as any other film about love. It's not surprising that the general public didn't flock to this film, but not for its own merits.
The film is actually based on a short story by Annie Proulx so I don't think it was necessarily inspired by Shepard's murder, although the publication date of the story was eerily close to the date of his death (literally a full year on from the day before)
As much as I love Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal's performances in this movie, I also love Anne Hathaway and particularly Michelle Williams' reserved portrayal. This is such a sad story of an impossible love affair. I also love that while making the movie, Heath and Michelle fell in love IRL and later had a baby girl together. RIP Heath Ledger.
Both Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams were beyond excellent in this movie. My previous exposure to them consisted of Dawson’s Creek (Williams), which I enjoyed, though I wasn’t crazy about her character in it, and The Patriot and A Knight’s Tale (Ledger), both of which I did not particularly care for. Brokeback Mountain was a huge upgrade to anything they had done before, and really gave them a chance to shine, displaying their capacity for subtlety and the portrayal of unspoken feelings.
Another film starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway in the leads is Love & Other Drugs. Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams, who played his wife, met on the set and were married until a couple of months prior to his death in 2008. Gyllenhaal is their daughter's godfather.
Since it's been confirmed that actor Julian Sands died on Mount Baldy, could you do a film for him? His most famous role is in "A Room With a View" but there could be another. I personally loved the wild film "Gothic" which is about the origins of the story "Frankenstein" but your fans can pick.
RIP Heath Ledger. This film showed how courageous he was as an actor. It's so tragic that we lost him as his career was really about to skyrocket. I had doubts about him as Joker but he walked up to the plate and knocked it the F out of the park. I think he surprised everyone. One of my favorite movies with him and guilty pleasure films, because it's cheesy, corny, but fun, is KNIGHT'S TALE. It was one of the first films I saw him and I really got behind his character. I am a sucker for a good underdog film. And like I said, it's just a fun film. It's like a chick flick for guys. Lol. I encourage you to watch it. You'd love it.
The first thing I ever saw him in was 10 Things I Hate About You and immediately developed a massive man crush. I was probably like 9 or 10. 😂 Loved him ever since.
Thanks for the great reaction. I've never been able to watch this one, just hit too close to home for me at the time it came out and my first marriage was ending, because my husband finally came out. But your early access reaction is the most I've seen of it so far. Thanks for helping me through some of that. Maybe I'll be able to watch the whole movie sometime. In the end my first husband and I were able to develop a good relationship, and be good friends before he passed in 2020. Thanks for a safe place to feel some of my big feelings Ashleigh, you are always the best.
I got through this movie fine, but in the very end when he looked at the two shirts and the music started playing, I cried my damn eyes out. (Can't believe Heath Ledger was only 25, and he played that years-spanning performance. He and Gyllenhaal were fantastic.)
The blue-eyed one is Jake Gyllenhaal. He's a good actor. I haven't seen him in a lot of movies, but another really good movie he's in is October Sky, which is based on true events and based on the life of Homer Hickam (who Jake plays), who was an engineer for NASA. Also, both October Sky and Brokeback Mountain are also based on a book.
In what way is that fact ironic? It seems purely coincidental to me, which is in no way related to being ironic.Ironic would be if the boss were by the same author, or even more so if they were written by two separate authors who were known to hate each other.
@@GeminiWolfstarGaming Give it some time. That use of the word ironic has become widespread enough that in a century or two English professors will probably see it as correct and proper usage. You may yet prove to be in the avant-garde on the path to language change. It just happens to rub me the wrong way, but who the hell am I?
@@fordhouse8b I may yet prove to be in the avant-garde on the path to language change? One, I've never had anyone say that to me, and two, I find it very _ironic_ you say to me as I am also a writer, and also did really well in my English classes when I was in school. And you know, it's all good. If something irks you, it irks you, and you speak your mind about it. There's nothing wrong with that!
This is definitely one of those movies, for me, that I go back to a lot. Watching Ennis struggle so much with his attraction to Jack, and his feelings for him, all while trying to maintain the illusion that he's just a "normal man" is the most heartbreaking part of all this. The movie invokes in the viewer an honest desire for them to be happy together, because (even between all the macho bravado, physical fights out of frustration/inability to process their feelings, and their attraction to one another) you get this almost compulsory empathy for the absolute unfairness of it all. They love each other on a level that neither of them can really comprehend and because of it, the fear takes hold. They can't bring themselves to set fire to their lives to be together, and it's Ennis's ingrained fear of what could become of them and self-hatred (internalized homophobia), that makes him torture himself for the rest of his life. It becomes the greatest regret of his life, and he is never the same.
@@andrewsmith74I think Ashleigh hit on it several times, but yes absolutely there is betrayal and deceit and as a viewer I felt very bad for them. But the main focus in the movie is Enis and Jack. But Anne Hathaway and Michelle Williams we’re also very good in this movie and not demonized in my opinion.
@@andrewsmith74. When the whole world hates a group of people, no one comes our unscathed. Everyone and everything around them was telling them to be straight, to marry and have kids, and they did, but that’s not who they were. If these 4 lived today, Jack and Ennis would be a couple, and their wives would be their best friends. People who want gays to “go back in the closet”, this is the Great America they want to return to, guys (and girls) burying who they are deep down inside themselves, spouses often devastated, maybe kids harmed too. There is still a ‘kill the gays’ portion of the religious right, who biggest decision is whether all gays should be killed now, or allowed to repent first and then killed. And if it sounds like that must be a super tiny fringe group, think again. THREE of the Republicans running for the presidency spoke at their ‘kill the gays’ conference in 2016. Ted Cruz, current senator for Texas; Bobby Jendal, governor of Louisiana at the time; and Mike Huckabee, the dad of the current governor of Arkansas, Sarah Huckabee Sanders all spoke at the ‘kill the gays’ religious conference. Not exactly nobodies, but all three incredibly prominent Republicans.
Wyoming and Montana are both gorgeous--lots of nice national parks. I wouldn't care to live there forever, but they're nice to visit! The scene with them fighting as they're getting ready to come down the mountain is definitely guys (especially Ennis) who haven't been raised to deal with their emotions properly, and who can't live openly because it's the 60s. They can't express how much they'll miss each other, that they can't exist like this anywhere but Brokeback Mountain, etc., so it turns in to rage. At 22:05, I assumed Jack was crying because he thought this meant he and Ennis could finally be together, and his hopes were shattered. The scene Ennis imagines with Jack getting beaten up--if you read the short story, it's meant to be ambiguous whether Jack really did die in an accident or was killed. Anne Hathaway's accent! I remember seeing a clip where they explained that Anne Hathaway's vocal coach very specifically helped her with a Texas accent. What stuck in my mind was someone saying something like, "We don't say 'thank you,' we say 'thang-que."
I am so happy you reacted to this movie. It is such an important film and I ugly cried when I first saw it. I'll echo what a lot of other people have said about how that honesty was not at all possible with the times. When this movie came out I was in the slow process of being honest about myself. At the time I identified as a lesbian, I now know I'm trans masculine. When this came out on DVD I had my first girlfriend, so this invoked a lot of emotions about where Jack and Ennis were back then versus where I was with my girlfriend. I was still extremely closeted and my girlfriend and I were still being extremely careful especially since we lived in rural New Hampshire which isn't the most accepting place. Still it made me so emotional just how far things had come and even how far they had come in my lifetime. Things have come a long way now but obviously there are still massive problems. I do agree with the message of being honest and respecting your partner no matter what the situation is or how it's handled, though obviously this was a different time. Also Ashleigh your final statement here almost had me in tears, Thank you for being such a great, accepting person. On a separate note if you want another good Jake Gyllenhaal movie, I highly recommend Donnie Darko especially around Hallobeans or if you want a good mindfuck.
Hey there! Alan Arkin died today. My favorite film of his was "Wait Until Dark." It has Audrey Hepburn in it (Breakfast At Tiffany's), and is a really gripping suspense/horror film.
as much as cheating is wrong, this movie started outin 1963. not only was it dangerous for anyone to know you were gay, for your safety, as jacks death showed, but it was illegal. if they had been hoenst they could have gone to jail ro ended up in a mental institution getting shock therapy and shit because it was considered a mental disorder. you couldnt be honest. especially in the areas they lived in. and they never would have seen their kids again. heaths character (so funny you didnt know it was him) hated himself because at the time gays were hated. andshamed. and treated horribly. you think about how the movie was recieved when you were a kid, and then try rewinding time a few decades and think about how much worse it was. i remember mathew sheaperd in the 90s. and that was the 90s. this movie has to be looked at from the perspective of the time period and location. its really well done, great cast, cinimatography is beautiful, story is well done and takes its time so it feels like it fits the scene. its tragic. and yeah at the time getting married and willing yourself straight or even just having a wife so you dont draw suspicion, was very very common.
This movie received or was nominated for so many awards that I had to see it and never regretted it. The cinematography is gorgeous. The acting superb.
As many have said, it was a different time (and in many ways and places, not much has changed). The norm for every man was to marry a woman and have kids. Everything and anything else was on the down low and the truth was denied because that could literally end your life. This movie is based on a short story. Ang Lee took many liberties and stretched a few pages into a long film. It's a pretty quick read and I recommend anyone interested to take a little time for it.
thank you for your sweet words in the end of the video and the ticket to the hot mess express! i struggle alot with internalized homophobia but trying not to beat myself up about it and wish to some day be proud of who i am
Ashleigh, I think you forget or don't understand how hard it was for anyone to "come out" and be honest about this lifestyle during the time period it was set in comparison to the freedoms they have today. I think so many forget how rough it was and how scary it really was to be open & honest.
Ashleigh, girl, since you’re seeing more of Heath Ledger movies, I highly recommend A Knights Tale and The Patriot! Such a talented actor, God rest his beautiful soul. I wish Heath could play the Joker one more time in the Dark Knight trilogy.
Yes for A Knight's Tale! The Patriot however should never bee sen by anybody, ever. If I could round up every copy on the planet and launch them into the sun, I would.
One of the things about Heath Ledger is that he was a chameleon actor, able to play a broad range of roles. Ennis and the Joker are good examples, though, of how wide his range was. He was also in 10 Things I Hate About You, if you want to check that out. As with every video of yours, I also recommend Imagine Me & You, as well as Zsazsa Zaturnnah.
I would also add that Ashleigh should watch "A Knight's Tale" for Heath's (semi-)comedic role. In that movie he's more the straight man to the other truly comedic characters but the overall tone of the movie is a comedy.
I'm glad you watched this. For me, I'm glad I saw it, but it's not one I'd rewatch because although it's a very good movie, it's also bleak and sad. Those two men were absolutely trapped. They were of a time where they would not only have been condemned by society, they were internally condemning themselves because of what society had told them was "normal and acceptable" since they were born, and how they felt about each other didn't fit that narrative. Homosexuality was still labeled as a deviant mental illness by medical professionals...your average Joe-on-the-street was even less charitable in how they viewed it. Open communication is critical, but in this story, set at the time that it was, it was not a viable option. Literally a no-win situation for all parties involved. As late as the 80s "gay bashing" was seen as an acceptable pastime for young men here in the buckle of the bible belt. On Friday and Saturday nights they'd get drunk and head out for the tiny gay section of town and then lay in wait for lone men to come out of known gay bars and beat them senseless. Just a good ol' time for the good ol' boys. Vile and reprehensible. And that was 20 years AFTER this movie was set. Being honest wasn't possible.
I have only watched the intro so far but I wanted to say how much I appreciate you and love you for being an ally when you knew that it was right. For overcoming your environment and the views of those around you when you were young. I'm looking Forward to when we get over this speed bump in this country, And our younger people take over.
I remember when I went to see this in the theatre and I was nervous to go see it as a gay man who wasn’t out at the time. I remember that it was probably the most diverse group of people in the audience, everyone from teenagers to senior citizens and gay couples. I left really depressed because of the ending and being angry at Ennius for not just running away with Jack and using the money Jacks father in law offered him to leave his daughter. They could have bought some land in the middle of no where or up her in Canada and just spent their lives together.
Ennis didnt want to abandon his daughters. He has always been financially responsible towards his children. His "mistake" was not to break up with Alma after the brokeback summer but he was still young. He probably didnt want to break Alma 's heart and thought he could supress his gay instincts. Plus, he was traumatized by the gay couple slaughter, so he was unable to come out. Unfortunately, even if Jack was heartwarming, Ennis was more responsible, pragmatic and in touch with reality. And, considering the institutionalized homophobia of this periode of time, Ennis was probably right...
The hate was and is real... I'm 57 now and I'm still not out to my employer and coworkers, neighbors and some friends. Life experience and no support from family keeps people closeted.
Coming out is very hard for some people. I didn’t come out until I was 30 (to my family) and only when I knew I could support myself without them, if they rejected me. Luckily they didn’t. But I still struggle with my own internalized homophobia, growing up as a kid in the 80s during the AIDS epidemic. I hope you do find the strength to come out one day. It really will change your life to live as authentically as you can. And know that there are others out there and I hope you find your tribe and chosen family.
They probably already know and don't care. Had some people "come out" to me. I knew. I didn't care. They were stressing themselves out for no reason. And it is ultimately none of my business. You'll be just fine. Don't worry.
We lost my cousins brother to suicide in the 70’s. I wasn’t born yet, and I wish I could have met him. He was gay and closeted and when he came out, he was rejected and all of his brother and parents wanted nothing to do with him. This was rural South Texas, so not very progressive at the time. Now, this same town is very accepting and we have a lot of openly out gay and trans people that aren’t harassed. I wish he would have been born in this time.
Have to remember hon, this was the 1960s, sadly, a completely different time and place where if you were found out to be LGBTQ+, it was classified as a mental illness and you could be put in an institution, cops used to raid gay bars and if you were in the bar, you were arrested, you name printed in the newspaper and almost all the time, you would lose your job. I have been somewhat thankful that I was born in 1971 and I came out at the age of 21 while on active duty with the US Navy (true story, I officially came out on September 30th, 1992 and at that time I was a "true virgin," where I had not been with anyone in an intimate manner, I just knew I had more of an attraction to men then I ever did towards any woman. A lot of gay men baby boomers, this is how they lived their lives. They were attracted to other men, but that fear of being "outed," a lot of them hid their homosexuality from their wives and children.
It's tragic for everyone involved. A lot of the people in the comments have clearly been personally effected by it when you read their disdain. That's why it's important to be accepting of and have space for different expressions of love so women and children don't get caught up living a desperate man's lie
How did you not see the red "DECEASED" stamped across that postcard? "You still owe it to your partner to be honest." How do you be honest when you yourself don't understand what's happening or what you're feeling? In 1963 that would have been unthinkable. It's easy for me to see how it would be never be possible to even find the words. They had absolutely NO positive examples of that to look to.
This is a beautiful film in every regard and was an integral part of changing how I perceived a certain segment of society I disregarded as “those kind of people” at that time. I owe a great deal to it.
I was a homophobe once too. A racist as well for that matter. I grew and I learned. I've never been attracted to men, but there is nothing wrong with it. Love is love. 23:44
@@RugNug There's nothing wrong with cheating?! A wife should never have a problem with her husband cheating on her, as long as he only cheats with men?!
@@andrewsmith74 That's correct. He should have been honest, just like Ashleigh said. There is nothing wrong with two men loving each other. Maybe if there wasn't such a stigma against it back then, they could have been.
Ashley, gentle reminder that it is 1963. Homosexuality was still considered a mental illness and perversion in the DSM until 1973. There was no such thing as open conversation about it without risking getting murdered, institutionalized, losing your children, jail time, the list goes on.
The anger you see is shame. His conditioning has him hating himself and hating that he loves him and that even transpires to hating the one you love for “tempting” you. Lots of big complicated feelings wrapped in pain, shame, hate, and repression. Think about the thoughts of your family in the 90s when it had been declassified as a mental illness for 30 years and then think about 30 years earlier.
Oh how I pine for 1963. 2070 B.C Was even better.
It still is.
Same sex marriage led to grooming children. Who would have thought?
It *is* a mental issue and that's okay.
@@jamesfowler5100Amen to that!
My take on why Alma didn’t react to Ennis and Jack kissing: she was thoroughly confused and floored at the idea of two men kissing. I wouldn’t be surprised if she had never even heard of such a thing. Parents sheltered their daughters to an extreme back then. It’s possible that the concept of homosexuality had never even been introduced to her or occurred to her. So when she sees what happens, she’s being floored with a billion emotions and questions in her head and just doesn’t know how to process. Not until later in their marriage does she fully grasp what’s been happening.
It really was a better time back then.
@@jupiterrising887 Better?!?! Being pistol whipped and pummeled to death for being gay doesn’t sound like a better time.
@@jupiterrising887 ONLY if you were a straight white Christian guy who didn't mind hiding all his emotions except anger and pride.
@@tracy4290 Stop listening to activists, they've scrubbed your brain smooth.
@@jupiterrising887 Oh, stop. Everyone who reads this knows (or should know) that you're just trolling (badly). They also know that you picked this particular film reaction to troll because you've got some sort of sad little secret life that leads you to try to be shitty toward queers so that others don't "know about you." Darling, everybody _does_ know about you - they just don't consider you worth giving a shit about.
I think Ashleigh is forgetting that this film is mostly set in the 60's. A different time. Being a homosexual was illegal back then.
It also at one point was a registered mental illness they believed could be cured and if not through shock treatments some were given a lobotomy 😮😢 plus if you were discovered to be gay by anyone you could be fired, shunned, abused, beat up, lynched and beaten to death and no one just like in Jack's (Jake's) case would bat an eye or do or say anything against it.
I understand that there's a lot of miscommunication on so many sides, but it was the early 60s... it's difficult for anyone to talk about this type of thing. As evidenced by the movie...
It’s easy to understand how she would. These issues have not gone away. In my state (Tennessee) you can literally be fired for being gay, you can be denied house, you government officials can refuse to marry you, adoption and welfare agencies can refuse to let you adopt a child, and lest we forget aaaalll the attacks on transgender people (specifically the youth) including the most recent ban on transitioning medical procedures and hormones which means around about the time the kids are going back to school, yeah they aren’t gonna have those medications. There is also the terrifying fact that in June 2023 (aka just last month) Tennessee’s attorney general’s office was going through medical records, (you know those things that are supposed private) to see how many individuals have had gender-affirming healthcare recently. And while assaulting a member of the LGBTQ+ community is considered a hate crime, it has to be prosecuted first, which means the person has to make a police report and then the cops actually have to take them seriously, and lets not forget the fact that conversion therapy is still a very real thing (and not just in the US), and parents have sent their kids to special camps (sound familiar?) So yeah it’s really easy to see how she may have thought it was in current times.
It’s surprising, considering she remembered how it was received in Tennessee when it came out. Just look at how things had changed in the last 18 years & imagine going back 45 years before that.
In defense of the lovely and extremely talented Ms. Burton, has rural Wyoming really changed all that much? Would the clothes be all that out of place? Would the vehicles..... This movie is filmed so realistically and it's so transporting that it is easy to forget that this is supposed to be 50 years ago in a part of the country that is another 20-30 years behind urban areas. That said, I found Ashleigh's reaction hopelessly naive. I sincerely hope that she and Hubben watch this movie again - and not in reaction mode. Usually, Ashleigh is around in early comments and the fact that she is MIA indicates that she might not be taking her ratio all that well. Hey Ashleigh! We love you. It kinda figures that a Millenial reactor who wasn't exposed to a lot of mature media growing up would miss some historical cues.
You going through the entire movie not realizing Heath was Heath is the comedy surprise I didn't know I needed today. 🤣
That's nothing compared to the laughable Trump fan reaction,in this video. "It's a movie about the lack of communication."
I never thought about how weird it would seem to younger generations that people just didn’t talk about being gay a couple generations ago. It was so dangerous and stigmatized. Things really have changed very fast for someone to come away from this story thinking the only issue was from the gay characters.
It's almost like someone engineered it this way...weird...huh...now there's drag queens in schools....
Right, and to not even mention the utterly shocking tragedy that Jack was brutally murdered for being gay. And that as a child Ennis was shown the dead body of a man brutally tortured and killed just for being gay. There was zero safety in being honest with yourself or anyone else back in that day. Because of crimes like that people have since rallied and fought to change the hearts and minds of people and in many many corners of the world and the US it’s still incredibly unsafe to be honest about who you are or who you love. These men were terrified!
@@marybrown6128 In the immortal words of Emmett Honeycutt (QAF), It takes more courage to wear a dress for an hour than it does to wear a suit for a lifetime.
I kinda wish some of the classic queer movies were easier to find so I could recommend them to Ashleigh. Longtime Companion or another one set during the AIDS crisis just would break hearts.
@@jupiterrising887 so you’re a bigot. Got it. Go away.
FYI when Jack was finally honest about who he was, it got him killed. There would've been lynch mobs before either of them could've gotten out of town. I grew up in small-town Texas in the 70s. One kid got outed and he was literally beaten to a pulp almost every day at school while the teachers intentionally "didn't see anything". Seeing that forced me deep into the closet just to survive until I could get out of that town.
This made me nauseated to think of that poor child. I’m so sorry that you had to go through that.
I'm sorry you had to go through that. It's not right. I'm glad the world is more open but I know that there are still struggles the LBGT community has to deal with. Just know you are loved and have Ally's that will back you up ❤
People like you are my heroes ❤ i also had a hard time coming out since i'm from a small Town in Jalisco México and a lot of people here use their religion as an excuse to judge and hate but people like you give a lot of strenght to be ourselves 🌺
Better to be honest and dead than live a lie. Better to be a brutally murdered man than a heartbroken woman. Straight women hate this movie because they cannot compete. They prefer their gays to be flaming Nathan Lanes. I wonder how many fell in love with handsome rugged men only to find out that those men were gay? Then BLAMED THE MEN FOR THEIR OWN HEARTBREAK? THEN OUTED THOSE MEN TO THE WORLD?
I realize I'm months late to your comment... but I'm so incredibly sorry you had to go thru that. I sincerely hope you're living your best life as your authentic self. ❤
Jack Twist was upset on the drive back because he was hoping Ennis and him would be together finally after his divorce. Jack wanted nothing else than to share his entire life with Ennis and had to settle for Brokeback. It's a beautiful tragedy
Girl, there are multitudes of homeless queer youth in the U.S. from parents disowning them in this day and age, and in the 60s you're literally ostracized from all society. You were considered sub- human, it's not something that could EVER be spoken about. The shame and guilt these men had for loving each other is understandable. All they know is its "wrong", there was zero education, zero tolerance, zero understanding. I love this film, Heath and Jake are fantastic and the music always makes me cry.
Ang Lee was asked how he related to this story initially knowing so little about homosexuality. He said that being from Asia (he was originally from Taiwan), he knew a lot about emotional repression. Sadly, had Jack or Ennis been straightforward about their situation, one or both of them could have easily been beaten to death way, way earlier. Ennis’ Dad made damn sure he understood that.
I love how Ashley COMPLETELY missed the giant red “DECEASED” stamp over the postcard 🤣🤣
That and her wanting them to be honest with their wives. Not an option! 😅 They bring up several times what happened to gay men who were open and honest in that environment.
I love how Editing Ashley completely caught that she'd missed it, and included it in the edit for us to see.
When she said "oh so they are gonna meet up again" I was like girl- 🤣
@@mariomarciodrf 🤣 Yep
...hey I don't know us mail, i missed it too
Thank you Ashley for viewing this movie. ❤️This film is set in rural America in the 60’s and there just no way they’d be able to just “talk about it” as you suggested the couples do.
Exactly. The movie shows what having to repress to that extent does to people. How lonely it must be when you can't even be yourself with your wife and the best you can hope for is mutual silence.
My point exactly
100%! Along with unresolved trauma, shame and fear of death. You won’t dare say anything.
I had friends in the 90’s who were afraid to speak out then- I mentioned in my own comment literally Matthew Shephads death was brutal and it was a horrible reality for rural America and their views on lbgtq+ia
She even commented on the scorn and ridicule that this film received in Tennessee (and elsewhere) when it was released, and that was *40 years* after the film takes place. THAT is why it is hard to have "the talk" even today. In the 60s it would have been impossible.
@@Johnny_Socko Many people don't think cheating on your wife is a great thing to do.
It’s the way you totally missed the DECEASED stamp on that final postcard. 😂😂😂😂😂
I remember seeing this movie in the theater before I came out. I drove over an hour away to see it so that no one would recognize me. I cried so hard at the end with the shirts. The movie is a great reminder of how far we’ve come with LGBTQ rights over the past 60 years.
Cheating is great, as long as men only cheat with other men?!
Oh, Shawn, that is a beautiful and yet heartbreaking story. I'm so happy to hear the movie is something you feel positive about; I am a little hurt for this movie because I see there's a sort of backlash against it. So first people punked on it when it came out, and now there's a backlash. You can't win! lol.
The shirts scene tore me up in the theater. It still makes me tear up to this day. 😢
@@TTM9691 Not everyone is certain that closeted men cheating on their wives are great men who are doing an entirely a good thing. Many people are anti-cheating.
lol, I couldn't believe she missed that either but every once and a while, she misses something in a movie. I remember when she didn't understand what was happening at the end of Avengers: Infinity War.
It was a different time, Ashleigh. It takes place in a time (60s to 80s) and place that “gay” wasn’t even uttered from people’s mouths. Homosexuality was still ILLEGAL and considered a mental disorder like schizophrenia. They couldn’t tell their wives because they didn’t trust that their wives 1) would accept them and 2) wouldn’t out them. Being “openly gay,” which wasn’t even a thing back then, would have put them in physical danger. Their wives and families, if they didn’t just shun them, would probably have put them into “conversion therapy” or mental hospitals. They were raised to hate themselves and fear that if anyone would find out that they’d lose everything and everyone they cared about, or worse that they’d be killed. They fought with each other because they were literally being TORTURED by the feelings of love and passion they had for each other that they didn’t know how to let out. There’s no perfect scenario where they could have just been honest with their wives and moved into a cabin together. They’d have to live in total solitude, leave everything behind, ACCEPT THEMSELVES, and be in constant fear that someone would come across them. It’s a tragic love story, and it’s unfair, but that’s the reality they were living in. It’s supposed to make you angry. It’s SO incredibly unfair. They were soulmates.
The wives should accept being cheated on?
@@andrewsmith74That's not what the OP here was saying.
@@andrewsmith74Wow, way to completely miss the point🤦♂️
So well said
@@andrewsmith74 that’s up to them. Some wives did and some didn’t.
Heath and the woman who played his wife, Michelle Williams, were a real-life couple. They were engaged and had a daughter, Matilda. It was so sad when Heath died and I remember going to a Q&A session in L.A. with Michelle and Heath and they were so incredible in this movie. Fun fact, Jake Gyllenhaal is Matilda's godfather.
I was born in 1961, and I remember hearing the adults talking about the gays (or "the fruits" as my father termed them). I was also relentlessly bullied by my peers for being gay (before I knew I was... or even before I knew what it meant). My generation was the first to benefit from the Stonewall Riots and the resulting gay lib movement. But while I entered adulthood into a very different world than I was born into, I had the battle scars and baggage from the transition (and then, of course AIDS reared its head, just as I was beginning to accept my sexuality). All of this is to say, that while I agree that infidelity is not something to cheer, I understand why neither man, nor Ennis's wife, could bring themselves to talk about it. It was a taboo along the lines of incest... and miscegenation (which is even crazier, if possible). This movie breaks my heart...
I always felt this movie depicts “star-crossed lovers”. If stars cross they attracted to each other but doomed to collide or go in opposite directions. Beautiful, tragic, memorable.
Thank you for watching this film, Ashleigh. To best understand it, though, it's really important to learn and think about it through the lens of LGBTQ+ history. This film is set in 1963, six years before Stonewall. At that time, you could be arrested for being queer. You could be arrested for being the subject of a rumor that you were queer. Once arrested, they could (and often did) print your name (and sometimes your photo) in the newspaper, which most people read. This meant that you would almost certainly be unable to get a job in that area, you could lose your housing, you could be thrown into a mental institution indefinitely and forced to undergo what we call "conversion therapy"... it could very literally ruin your life in a way it can be difficult to understand today. To those this happened to, some committed suicide - the shame, the threat to safety, and/or having what they felt was no good options available to them was too great. There was no "talking about it" to your wife, or to anyone, really. This is why the conversations in this film are so veiled and vague. The audience can pick up on it because we know that Jack and Ennis are queer, but to someone just passing by overhearing conversations, they wouldn't know what was being spoken about. To be publicly out (not just out to your other queer friends, but to everyone) is still a fairly recent phenomenon, historically speaking. Closeting is and has been something that's a very personal choice. It's become easier because of public support and laws, but some people still choose to do it. This isn't necessarily because of shame, but most often because of safety. Shame can still play a role (as seen by Ennis's rage and violence toward himself, Jack, and others), but it's not always the root of people's choice to be out or not.
Thank you for your detailed explanation describing the time and severe repercussions of speaking out.
Many don’t know the history and how it was- and some parts of our country still is. I was a senior in high school when Matthew Shephard died., which surprises me teaching young people how many don’t know who he is.
This is so well said! As a viewer, you really need this perspective to understand their choices. It’s a very different climate here in the US, at least for now. Who know what the future holds for the queer community in the US.
In the 80s (!) two men were arrested in Arkansas (I think near Little Rock) for having sex in the home of one of the men! The police actually raided the house. The names AND ADDRESSES were printed in the papers, even in my small town in NW Arkansas.
Exactly. A lot of younger viewers today get frustrated, as if the characters are being dishonest for the sake of making things easier or due to cowardice or paranoia. But it's actually a very realistic threat assessment for the time to live the way Ennis does. Through an accurate historical lens, Jack is downright foolhardy at times. And it doesn't help that there's a lot of 1960s macho toxic male BS still putting pressure on them as well to not talk about feelings with each other as much as with the others in their lives.
I love watching Ashleigh react to things, but part of the problem with Millennials (or anyone younger--not singling out millennials or Ashleigh--she's good people) watching older media is that they don't have the historical context that makes that media such rich and relatable viewing for the people who lived in that time. Younger people often seem to think that history and culture don't move that much, and hold people accountable for choices and viewpoints as individuals, as if there's an objective rightness to the world that everyone should instinctively know. They don't understand that that's a subjective perception that's a product of their time. They don't understand that in thirty years, the values they hold today will be "problematic" in their own right as the generations after Z keep things moving. Today, people have unprecedented access to points of view other than their own, and it's sooo much easier to find communities that support you as you grow and change. Back then (or even in the 80s, when I was growing up), your view of life was pretty much limited to TV, books, and the people around you, and if those sources took you to stare at tortured gay people when you were a little kid, there was no way out of that head space, even with your own wife.
@@miriam8376 It's frustrating, but it actually shows how far we've come that young folks can't imagine having to fake it or lie.
Ash missing the giant, red, all-caps DECEASED on that postcard nearly deceased me myself.
Lol same!
lol, yeah that was hilarious xD
"I wish I knew how to quit you" is THE quote that this movie is most famous for. It was memed frequently in the years that followed.
And improvised in the moment by Jake.
100 memes hit me.....i started laughing.
They couldn't have just talked to their wives and then run off to live together. Back in the time period this was set, and the location, it's just not a safe option for them as evidenced by Jack's murder.
Yeah, we gotta get Ashleigh brushed up on her gay history.
Ashleigh's solution to social and political oppression: "Just talk to your partner!" Everyone is giving her a free pass for being ignorant of history, but the movie itself shows what happens to gay people who get exposed. And yet she still thinks it's a film about the importance of communication.
Can't it be both, it's a movie about cheating
@@punklover99It's a movie about a situation in which you either marry to cover your secret or you are quite likely to be executed in the streets, so it is far more complicated than just "cheating".
@@edisonlima4647 still cheated
Agreed. She is not being "innocent", she's being ignorant and insensitive in this particular commentary (and this is coming from a fellow millenial).
I get what you're saying. But Ennis and Jack didn't do a good job of keeping their sexualities secret. They were very lucky in no one exposing them earlier. Instead of lying to themselves and pretending to be straight by having wives and kids, they should've stayed single and had their getaways as they wished. That way they wouldn't be hurting the feelings of any potential partners through cheating and reduced the chances of their sexualities being leaked.
You might have chosen better. It's all about making choices that are more true to yourself.
I grew up with a younger brother who was gay. Everyone knew it, but until he acknowledged it, no one could talk about it. When he found the right guy, he was 35, and he thought the “big announcement” would have all sorts of dire consequences. The major reaction was that everybody was relieved that we could finally be honest about it.
On June 17, 2023, he would have been 70 years old, but he died of a heart attack the morning after last Thanksgiving day. Even so, he fully and truly lived for half of his life, and that's a real accomplishment.
Just keepin’ it real,
RealTechZen, AKA John L. Battey
Oh Ashleigh. I know we view things through our own experiences and times but you missed so much. This film illustrates how a society where a type of love and existence is illegal (to the point of death) hurts everyone. It destroys the oppressed but also destroys families, It wasn't that long ago (and it still is true for many cultures even within our country) where the expectations of gender roles, heteronormativity, and masculine toxic culture were the most important things. That's why they fight after they fall in love, that's why women don't bring things up with their husbands, that's why men don't express their feelings, that's why they don't discuss their relationships. To do so is to face truth and to do so is to disconnect yourself and your family from society (which is especially hard in smaller rural communities. You reacting with confusion around these men shows your blindness to what men, especially gay men, experience in our bs society. You celebrating their moments of heteroness is you projecting a norm for yourself and failing to see the reality of the situation. Same as these poor women did when they entered these relationships with these broken men. The unspoken nature of everything coming to a head at the end with his parents and the shirt (hidden I might ad) should make you cry, There is so much loss of potential at that moment in the film. This movie isn't so much about the effects of the characters choices but of the lack of choices the world they live in allows them.
This movie was so important when it came out - the first big breakout drama that covered gay issues. Most LGBTQ+ films before this were indie, small budget and "art house" focused, but Brokeback was marketed to a much wider audience and got a huge following. I saw it for the first time in a theater in DC's gay Dupont Circle neighborhood and the men's room afterwards were just a bunch of guys crying. As amazing as the two leads are, my favorite characters are the three main women - Michelle Williams, Anne Hathaway & Linda Cardellini, who had all been stars in teen-focused films/TV and had their first real adult roles in this film. Williams and Heath Ledger were falling in love during the filming (their daughter was born before the film even debuted) and that adds a real energy to their scenes, but it's Anne Hathaway, whose character was not in the original short story, who impressed me the most. Lureen marries Jack to piss off her father, and succeeds at that, but is stuck in a loveless marriage at a time when divorce was still really stigmatized. Hathaway described the character as getting blonder hair and bolder nails as she gets more bitter about the relationship, and the big question about the phone call with Ennis is whether Lureen knows the truth, and if the scene playing out is Ennis' fear or the real murder. Hathaway has always refused to say how she was playing it, and her talent really shows through in that moment. Of course the most meaningful scene is Ennis with Jack's parents, and I love the way the mother makes sure he has the shirts. She knew, as mothers know.
I don't think Ashleigh grasps the stress these guys are going through. Society rejects them and their lives are in danger. And they could completely lose their kids.
Hey Ashleigh, your reactions are always thoughtful. ❤️
This film was shot in Alberta Canada. The opening sequence was shot in a little town called Carseland, Alberta. I mean tiny town lol. I lived on a farm nearby and had worked in film for 10 years and a friend of mine was the script supervisor on this film and she invited me to spend a day on the set.
I was thrilled to find out that Ang Lee was the Director of this film. And that the cinematographer was the same who had shot the great Salma Hayek biography of Frida Kahlo. She introduced me to Heath and he commented on my tattoo on my wrist. And then showed me some of his tattoos. He was a genuinely warm friendly person. Karen told me that he was one of the nicest people she had ever worked with, and she was in the business for near 30 years at that point.
The fact that Heath could play both The Joker and Ennis is a testament to his astonishing talent.
He was by the accounts of the crew that worked on this film, a very kind and down to earth person.
Some people said at the time that Jake and Heath were ruining their careers with this film, which is based on a story from the great E Annie Proulx’s short story collection, Wyoming Stories. But they had the courage in the face of the backlash to be true to themselves, their convictions and their art.
Argh, I forgot to say that Rodrigo Prieto what is the cinematographer on the great film, Frida.
Her not recognising Ledger despite him being the main character until the end was so funny😂.
the way that one postcard said “DECEASED” in big red letters and you were still surprised that he died😭😭
Back then, telling their wives would have been the equivalent of telling them that they're pedophiles because that's how most of society would have viewed them.
Hell, that’s how the right still tries to portray them today. It’s changed, but there’s still a percentage of people that would love for it to be just like this movie again. So much for Making America Great Again..😞
@@goldenageofdinosaurs7192 They're not entirely wrong.
I believe that Heath and Jake won for Best Kiss at the People's Choice Awards. One of them even got a broken nose from that powerful kiss! Thanks for reviewing this amazing movie that has a very special place in my heart and reminds me of a special someone I met around the time this movie came out. He was 17 years younger than me and I was his first but he was not ready to get serious. He got married to a man a few years ago and we have stayed in touch for 20 years! I cry every time I watch this movie.
Heath Ledger was asked to present at the Oscars with Jake with a parody of this movie, and he, no joke, said, "Hell no!"
People tried to be like, "Its just a joke." and he said, "Not to me."
We didn't just lose the Joker tied for first with Mark Hamill for best, we lost an ally that understood the assignment from day fucking one. 💔
27:38 Ashleigh ignoring the bright red “DECEASED” on the postcard 😂😂😂😂
I love all your reactions Ashleigh, but I gotta say that as a Pride Month Reaction it was a painful watch to feel your lack of understanding of what it means to be gay in certain contexts, specially in past times. Definitely not something you could just "talk with your wife" and solve without risking your own physical or social safety. Also, Jack is not being dramatic being upset because Ennis told him he couldn't meet him that weekend because it is not just a weekend. It is the only intimate romantic connection he ever got to have in his life. The only moments in his whole life that he gets to be his true self after years and years of having to hide as someone else. I know you will read many of these comments and understand where we are coming from with this.
“I wish I knew how to quit you.”
Y’all. YALL. THAT LINE!!!
In light of the discovery of Julian Sands remains that confirmed his death, I would love if A Room With A View gets on a list to be checked out.
Boxing Helena
Sad news, i was wondering if he had been found, Great actor
@amandacogger3075 also from what I've gathered a very sweet and down to earth guy.
@@kimp.5853 wish i could of met him, not too many are like that sadly
Heartbreaking news, I was really hoping that they find him alive and in one piece. I'd love to see her react to Arachnophobia, one of my favorites, loved him, Daniels & Goodman in there & I think she'd love it. RIP Julian Sands, you will be missed :(
Thanks for watching this for me/with me. I knew I'd always be too emotional to watch this. But I loved seeing you react to it.
Criminally, this was denied best picture Oscar that year.
Even worse that it went to Crash. One of the dumbest years for the Academy Awards for sure.
"People need to learn how to respond instead of react" is such a good way to word that sentiment. I've never heard that expression before, but... wow. Yes. That.
As a Queer person, thank you Ashleigh🖤
Ashleigh, honey... it was a different time. VERY different. Imagine how unbelievably hard it was to be yourself. It still is for so many...
Postcard says “deceased”
Ashleigh: oh they are gonna meet up again!”
Me:……wait what? Lol!!!
Jajajajajaa
The sweet innocence that Ashleigh displays is what makes her such a beautiful person. The fact that she didn't recognise Heath Ledger all through the movie made me smile broadly. I knew she wasn't understanding the attitudes in the film but that's okay. Those things can be learned in the future and a greater understanding will develop. You are a beautiful person, Ashleigh.
Asleigh is a good reactor but sometimes she can be very naive.
Sweet ignorance or blind ignorance? You honestly think that people born after 1990 will even TRY to conceive that life existed before them. No. She can SAY the right things and it takes two seconds and no effort. Doing something about it? Why don't you ask her to give out her physical address and invite everyone to dinner? Never happen. She's no more beautiful than a Hallmark card. Less beautiful really because cards have to be read and she can't. She has a spouse who supports her financially so that she can pretend to be beautiful. And you think you're watching a reaction? Reactors PERFORM to pre-screened movies to find out if a movie can be performed to. "Reacted" to. Of course she knew Heath. Ledger. But she wasn't going to have much to react to, hence the where's Heath ledger conceit. And her beautiful performance to Brokeback Mountain consisted mostly of looking for nekkid butts and yelling Flying dicks! I saw flying dicks! infantilism. Like most straight women she's more comfortable with cutesie drag queens and Nathan Lanes. Gay men who have to tell you that they're gay since nothing about them is stereotypically gay are problematic. Why? Probably because these virile rugged men have zero use for women except maybe as friends.
That makes them dangerous. If a straight woman falls in love with a coworker who never discusses their lovelies and who doesn't even encourage any romantic beliefs, that coworker is going to be hated and despised once these women know that they've fallen in love with a gay man. Even if the relationship only consists of a few lunches and zero physical contact, a woman who has deluded herself will blame the gay man deeply and forever. He will be painted as leading the young woman on by not acting gay. And straight women will do this every single time. He lied to me! He tricked me! He conned me by not letting the world know he's gay! All gay men should either be a drag queen or a hyper Nathan Lane!! Anyone else is,a liar!
Should read never discuss their lovelives. Sorry
More ignorant than innocent, I would say. I enjoy her reactions, but this one was painful because of her out of touch comments. Her being a millenial is no excuse to be too obtuse to understand the societal issue that the movie so clearly portrays.
@@amandac.d.4216 I understand precisely what you are saying and agree with your point. I cannot help but feel that Ashleigh's naivety on the matter will be corrected as she starts seeing more films with strong messages as the themes. As good as they are, there is only so much anyone is going to take away from MCU movies.
✨️ I just teared with you. I so appreciate you sharing your feelings and opening your arms to everyone, as it should be. ❤
I really don't get people's problem. If this movie is not for you, fine. Understandable. Just do what I do when she's reacting to a Marvel movie and pass. No need to get mad about it.
If Alma got brought up anything like me, she would see the men kissing and know on some level they were having a physical relationship but I mean beyond that she was probably never taught the word and instead was taught crazy things like that 'people like that' are spawns of hell who have no soul and will take yours away from you. The way I grew up in the isolated rural South, men were very hard, they 98% stayed out of anything regarding raising the children unless it was discipline, and they were quick tempered and never shared their emotions, and they dealt hard blows to anyone who tested them. They dealt with each other that way. So men that didn't conform got destroyed. Men like Heath's character Ennis would probably survive, because they would turtle. Men like Jack, meanwhile, want to not be ashamed, want to just be happy and at peace, and those hard men pick up on that. Thanks for being a supportive and loving person willing to share your time and your effort with folks out here. Cheers
I’m surprised by the number of people who didn’t like this film. It was difficult for me. I grew up in the south and ended up in a similar relationship with a guy who couldn’t admit he was gay. It was painful as it was abusive. So this movie hit some familiar notes for me.
I have only ever watched this movie in the theater once… it was heartbreaking.
Then I got into a relationship with a woman who refused to come out of o her family. We even lived together and I was her “special friend.”
Then we broke up and she got married and came out I was happy for her but a little jealous.
I am shocked and a little angry at the sort of "backlash" this movie has gotten. It's like.....excuse them for even making the movie in the first place, you know what I mean? First there was the whole brouhaha when it came out, and then in the blink of an eye it's some kind of millstone around gay people's necks, I don't get it at all. It's an amazing love story every single person on the planet can relate to, like Romeo & Juliet. It's so simple and straightforward, and impeccably written, acted and directed, and people just sit back and pick it apart these great artists' work. These people busted their asses and bared their souls and took great risks to their careers all so that we could have this incredible experience.....and the peanut gallery would have them feel BAD about it! lol. I'm happy the movie resonated with your very real and not uncommon experience, unfortunately.
@@TTM9691 Why are you shocked? It was obvious it would when it came out. Any gay movie.. especially two men.
@@d3l3tes00n Obviously my comment went sailing over your head, your reading comprehension absolutely sucks. Why don't go you go re-read the comment, imbecile? I'm talking about the backlash.....the backlash is FROM THE GAY COMMUNITY, you friggin' moron! I believe that's what the OP is talking about as well! Try to keep up, dopey. Or better yet, go babble somewhere else.
I remember David Letterman, one of two most popular late night hosts making fun of the movie when it was only just announced. He did comedy skits about it and was peeved at why someone was making a movie about gay cowboys. He later apologized after it was released and the critical acclaim it got and knowing the tragic love story of two men who loved each other but society wouldn't let them be together. It's an important movie that contributed to the change of public's views that gay people weren't immoral but loved each other just like other couples. Only in 2012 did majority of Americans approve of gay marriage and only then did Obama support it.
There are still concerted efforts to suppress gay rights from the right-wing. Simply instructing kids in school that gay parents exist is being fought against with hateful language accusing people of "grooming" kids to be gay. It's a disgusting term that's meant for pedophiles who befriend kids in order to assault them. Being gay isn't a choice, it's physical attraction to the same sex. There are still plenty of religious and ignorant types who think it's a moral failing and a choice. Prejudice and discrimination only flourish without proper knowledge, but there's people that want this to continue.
I had to watch this movie for the first time, on my old tv, practically with the volume on 0 with subtitles on because my in-laws also felt very strongly about gay people. (We lived together. o_o)
This is when I learned that romance endings that aren't 100% happy are way too hard for me to process as a new mother. When I tell you I cried.... oof. The heartbreak poured out of my eyes. I also learned that I needed to move away from my inlaws. I was going through some emotions after this one and when I tried to talk a little about it they basically told me to control myself and that crying for gays was "weird and sick".
Story time: When this movie was on its last round in theaters, my wife dragged me to see it because i lost a bet. It was in ShadyBrook Cinema in Columbia TN (many memories made there, but sadly closed down after the covid fiasco)Anyhoo, wife and I sat in the very back and only 1 other person there...in the middle of the theater, a dude with a cowboy hat. When the 'spit hit the hand' this cowboy dude literally RAN out of the theater!! I couldnt stop laughing until the movie got serious....great movie, im actually in shock that Ang Lee directed it!
Fun fact: the man Jack picked up in Mexico was the cinematographer of the movie
I love that bit "Wait..no hold on,.he's not about it?!...OH he's about it!" might be the perfect externalized inner monologue I have heard in a minute. Good stuff.
Holy shit, how good was Heath Ledger? What a loss.
Talking to wives about being gay in the 60s? In Texas? This was before Stonewall and there weren’t even words for what they were experiencing.
I feel it should be noted that the scene where they show the death scene of Jack near the fence was paying respect to Matthew Shephard and his brutal death.
Also- my dear Ashleigh it is so incredibly easy to say, “have the talk” but for someone at that time having their own unresolved trauma and shame, & literally the fear of death will keep you from speaking your truth.
I always associate this movie very much with Matthew, and yet I never picked up on that. Thanks for pointing that out.
The story of Mathew Shepherd will haunt me for the rest of my life. I did think the same thing when I saw hoe he died. Matthew’s was worse though. 😞
I always sob at the end of this movie just because of the symbolic nature of the shirts. Jack’s shirt is hanging on the OUTside of the closet, and Ennis’ shirt is still on the INside of the closet. Jack was no longer confined to a life where he couldn’t be himself, and even though Ennis is working through it, he still couldn’t come out, and in this time period living alone was as close as he could get.
A gay man, I’ll be 71 in a little over a week. Born and raised in an environment exactly like that in this film, I know exactly what its characters go through and why they behave as they do. Forgive me, but I was delighted you didn’t recognize Ledger until the end title revealed him. It’s a truly stellar performance. I’ve personally known men like that and Ledger portrays Ennis so flawlessly he sends chills of memory down my back each time I watch the film. What an inconceivable loss his early death was and is.
1960s it was a different time. A different world. Unspoken truths. No one discussed these things back then...A movie masterpiece.
Wait! Have you not seen 10 things I hate about you!!!??? That's the movie that all the ladies in my life fell for him!
I had come out to my very conservative grandmother while this was in theaters. The coming out didnt go well, and ended with both of us in tears and her upset and leaving. BUT she went and watched this on her own, and came away from it saying .... " they have the same issues lots of couples have issues with". That planted the seed and now shes ok with me. I think shes still coming to terms with the remainder of the rainbow , but she came a lot further than i thought possible.
I haven’t seen this in so long. I think it was ground breaking in a lot of ways. I appreciate that it portrays the characters as we all are; EXTREMELY human. We are not perfect and the characters were certainly not perfect. we always have to keep in mind the time this was set in. I think the film did an excellent job of portraying the longing we all feel whatever for it may be. You don’t have to be gay or be a cowboy to appreciate this film. Empathy and compassion is all that’s needed ❤
One of the most beautiful and tragic love stories I’ve ever seen. And the film making is superb. Ang Lee’s sensibility is just so gentle and sensitive. ❤
It's not right they both hid their relationship from their wives but also consider at the point this movie is taking place it's entirely possible one of the wives could have told their families and both men would be killed. People were not anywhere near as accepting of such truths back then as they are now which also explains why Ennis' wife couldn't bring herself to ask him about it.
Exactly! The whole story is about how you *couldn't* be honest about those things, and how that ruins people. Ruins their lives, their relationships, and possibly gets them murdered.
That wasn't a moose, Ashleigh, that was an elk.
This film came out in 2005. Just a few years earlier, Matthew Sheppard, a university student in Wyoming, was brutally murdered. Perhaps it was an inspiration for this film. But at the least, it gives you a sense of the reality of the time. Here on Staten Island a Vietnam Veteran, James Patrick Zappalorti, was also murdered for being gay. This was a breakthrough film for depicting a gay relationship at its heart with the same depth and honesty as any other film about love. It's not surprising that the general public didn't flock to this film, but not for its own merits.
The film is actually based on a short story by Annie Proulx so I don't think it was necessarily inspired by Shepard's murder, although the publication date of the story was eerily close to the date of his death (literally a full year on from the day before)
How did u miss that the letter had been returned and marked "deceased" lol
As much as I love Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal's performances in this movie, I also love Anne Hathaway and particularly Michelle Williams' reserved portrayal. This is such a sad story of an impossible love affair.
I also love that while making the movie, Heath and Michelle fell in love IRL and later had a baby girl together. RIP Heath Ledger.
Both Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams were beyond excellent in this movie. My previous exposure to them consisted of Dawson’s Creek (Williams), which I enjoyed, though I wasn’t crazy about her character in it, and The Patriot and A Knight’s Tale (Ledger), both of which I did not particularly care for. Brokeback Mountain was a huge upgrade to anything they had done before, and really gave them a chance to shine, displaying their capacity for subtlety and the portrayal of unspoken feelings.
Another film starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway in the leads is Love & Other Drugs.
Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams, who played his wife, met on the set and were married until a couple of months prior to his death in 2008. Gyllenhaal is their daughter's godfather.
Since it's been confirmed that actor Julian Sands died on Mount Baldy, could you do a film for him? His most famous role is in "A Room With a View" but there could be another. I personally loved the wild film "Gothic" which is about the origins of the story "Frankenstein" but your fans can pick.
RIP Heath Ledger. This film showed how courageous he was as an actor. It's so tragic that we lost him as his career was really about to skyrocket. I had doubts about him as Joker but he walked up to the plate and knocked it the F out of the park. I think he surprised everyone. One of my favorite movies with him and guilty pleasure films, because it's cheesy, corny, but fun, is KNIGHT'S TALE. It was one of the first films I saw him and I really got behind his character. I am a sucker for a good underdog film. And like I said, it's just a fun film. It's like a chick flick for guys. Lol. I encourage you to watch it. You'd love it.
The first thing I ever saw him in was 10 Things I Hate About You and immediately developed a massive man crush. I was probably like 9 or 10. 😂 Loved him ever since.
No need for guilt. A Knight's Tale is pure awesome start to finish.
The Dark Knight's the only movie I ever watched four times in the movie theater. Because of Heath's performance.
Thanks for the great reaction. I've never been able to watch this one, just hit too close to home for me at the time it came out and my first marriage was ending, because my husband finally came out. But your early access reaction is the most I've seen of it so far. Thanks for helping me through some of that. Maybe I'll be able to watch the whole movie sometime. In the end my first husband and I were able to develop a good relationship, and be good friends before he passed in 2020. Thanks for a safe place to feel some of my big feelings Ashleigh, you are always the best.
I got through this movie fine, but in the very end when he looked at the two shirts and the music started playing, I cried my damn eyes out.
(Can't believe Heath Ledger was only 25, and he played that years-spanning performance. He and Gyllenhaal were fantastic.)
The blue-eyed one is Jake Gyllenhaal. He's a good actor. I haven't seen him in a lot of movies, but another really good movie he's in is October Sky, which is based on true events and based on the life of Homer Hickam (who Jake plays), who was an engineer for NASA. Also, both October Sky and Brokeback Mountain are also based on a book.
In what way is that fact ironic? It seems purely coincidental to me, which is in no way related to being ironic.Ironic would be if the boss were by the same author, or even more so if they were written by two separate authors who were known to hate each other.
@@fordhouse8b Okay, poor choice of a word. I changed it. I wrote my comment in a hurry.
@@GeminiWolfstarGaming Give it some time. That use of the word ironic has become widespread enough that in a century or two English professors will probably see it as correct and proper usage. You may yet prove to be in the avant-garde on the path to language change. It just happens to rub me the wrong way, but who the hell am I?
@@fordhouse8b I may yet prove to be in the avant-garde on the path to language change? One, I've never had anyone say that to me, and two, I find it very _ironic_ you say to me as I am also a writer, and also did really well in my English classes when I was in school.
And you know, it's all good. If something irks you, it irks you, and you speak your mind about it. There's nothing wrong with that!
Thank you for the ending of this video!!! It means a lot!
This is definitely one of those movies, for me, that I go back to a lot. Watching Ennis struggle so much with his attraction to Jack, and his feelings for him, all while trying to maintain the illusion that he's just a "normal man" is the most heartbreaking part of all this. The movie invokes in the viewer an honest desire for them to be happy together, because (even between all the macho bravado, physical fights out of frustration/inability to process their feelings, and their attraction to one another) you get this almost compulsory empathy for the absolute unfairness of it all. They love each other on a level that neither of them can really comprehend and because of it, the fear takes hold. They can't bring themselves to set fire to their lives to be together, and it's Ennis's ingrained fear of what could become of them and self-hatred (internalized homophobia), that makes him torture himself for the rest of his life. It becomes the greatest regret of his life, and he is never the same.
Imagine how the wives feel. No-one seems to care about them.
Beautifully put!! I think it’s going to sit with her for a while…
@@andrewsmith74I think Ashleigh hit on it several times, but yes absolutely there is betrayal and deceit and as a viewer I felt very bad for them. But the main focus in the movie is Enis and Jack. But Anne Hathaway and Michelle Williams we’re also very good in this movie and not demonized in my opinion.
@@andrewsmith74I get that but they didn't have a choice, they couldn't be with the person they loved
@@andrewsmith74. When the whole world hates a group of people, no one comes our unscathed. Everyone and everything around them was telling them to be straight, to marry and have kids, and they did, but that’s not who they were. If these 4 lived today, Jack and Ennis would be a couple, and their wives would be their best friends. People who want gays to “go back in the closet”, this is the Great America they want to return to, guys (and girls) burying who they are deep down inside themselves, spouses often devastated, maybe kids harmed too. There is still a ‘kill the gays’ portion of the religious right, who biggest decision is whether all gays should be killed now, or allowed to repent first and then killed. And if it sounds like that must be a super tiny fringe group, think again. THREE of the Republicans running for the presidency spoke at their ‘kill the gays’ conference in 2016. Ted Cruz, current senator for Texas; Bobby Jendal, governor of Louisiana at the time; and Mike Huckabee, the dad of the current governor of Arkansas, Sarah Huckabee Sanders all spoke at the ‘kill the gays’ religious conference. Not exactly nobodies, but all three incredibly prominent Republicans.
Wyoming and Montana are both gorgeous--lots of nice national parks. I wouldn't care to live there forever, but they're nice to visit!
The scene with them fighting as they're getting ready to come down the mountain is definitely guys (especially Ennis) who haven't been raised to deal with their emotions properly, and who can't live openly because it's the 60s. They can't express how much they'll miss each other, that they can't exist like this anywhere but Brokeback Mountain, etc., so it turns in to rage. At 22:05, I assumed Jack was crying because he thought this meant he and Ennis could finally be together, and his hopes were shattered. The scene Ennis imagines with Jack getting beaten up--if you read the short story, it's meant to be ambiguous whether Jack really did die in an accident or was killed.
Anne Hathaway's accent! I remember seeing a clip where they explained that Anne Hathaway's vocal coach very specifically helped her with a Texas accent. What stuck in my mind was someone saying something like, "We don't say 'thank you,' we say 'thang-que."
Eyeliner is on point girl!!!!
Love it, love you, love Beans💜😻🐾
I am so happy you reacted to this movie. It is such an important film and I ugly cried when I first saw it. I'll echo what a lot of other people have said about how that honesty was not at all possible with the times. When this movie came out I was in the slow process of being honest about myself. At the time I identified as a lesbian, I now know I'm trans masculine. When this came out on DVD I had my first girlfriend, so this invoked a lot of emotions about where Jack and Ennis were back then versus where I was with my girlfriend. I was still extremely closeted and my girlfriend and I were still being extremely careful especially since we lived in rural New Hampshire which isn't the most accepting place. Still it made me so emotional just how far things had come and even how far they had come in my lifetime. Things have come a long way now but obviously there are still massive problems. I do agree with the message of being honest and respecting your partner no matter what the situation is or how it's handled, though obviously this was a different time. Also Ashleigh your final statement here almost had me in tears, Thank you for being such a great, accepting person. On a separate note if you want another good Jake Gyllenhaal movie, I highly recommend Donnie Darko especially around Hallobeans or if you want a good mindfuck.
Ang Lee doesn't make many bad ones. I would recommend The Ice Storm as another one of his to watch.
The Ice Storm is so good. Lee’s masterpiece.
Reading some comments and I see homophobia is still alive and kicking 🙄
Hey there! Alan Arkin died today. My favorite film of his was "Wait Until Dark." It has Audrey Hepburn in it (Breakfast At Tiffany's), and is a really gripping suspense/horror film.
as much as cheating is wrong, this movie started outin 1963. not only was it dangerous for anyone to know you were gay, for your safety, as jacks death showed, but it was illegal. if they had been hoenst they could have gone to jail ro ended up in a mental institution getting shock therapy and shit because it was considered a mental disorder. you couldnt be honest. especially in the areas they lived in. and they never would have seen their kids again. heaths character (so funny you didnt know it was him) hated himself because at the time gays were hated. andshamed. and treated horribly. you think about how the movie was recieved when you were a kid, and then try rewinding time a few decades and think about how much worse it was. i remember mathew sheaperd in the 90s. and that was the 90s. this movie has to be looked at from the perspective of the time period and location. its really well done, great cast, cinimatography is beautiful, story is well done and takes its time so it feels like it fits the scene. its tragic. and yeah at the time getting married and willing yourself straight or even just having a wife so you dont draw suspicion, was very very common.
I watched this when it came out because people made such a big deal out of it and I already loved Heath. Such a beautiful, sad story. 💕
This movie received or was nominated for so many awards that I had to see it and never regretted it. The cinematography is gorgeous. The acting superb.
As many have said, it was a different time (and in many ways and places, not much has changed). The norm for every man was to marry a woman and have kids. Everything and anything else was on the down low and the truth was denied because that could literally end your life.
This movie is based on a short story. Ang Lee took many liberties and stretched a few pages into a long film. It's a pretty quick read and I recommend anyone interested to take a little time for it.
thank you for your sweet words in the end of the video and the ticket to the hot mess express! i struggle alot with internalized homophobia but trying not to beat myself up about it and wish to some day be proud of who i am
Ashleigh, I think you forget or don't understand how hard it was for anyone to "come out" and be honest about this lifestyle during the time period it was set in comparison to the freedoms they have today. I think so many forget how rough it was and how scary it really was to be open & honest.
Heath Ledger was amazing in everything he was in. I highly recommend A Knight's Tale.
"Is Wyoming really this pretty?"
I don't know. The movie was actually filmed in Alberta, Canada.
Ashleigh, girl, since you’re seeing more of Heath Ledger movies, I highly recommend A Knights Tale and The Patriot! Such a talented actor, God rest his beautiful soul. I wish Heath could play the Joker one more time in the Dark Knight trilogy.
I agree. A Knights Tale is a must watch.
Gotta watch the Patriot! Bad, terrible history. But a really great movie about imaginary history! Then again, I'm a sucker for costumes.
Yes for A Knight's Tale! The Patriot however should never bee sen by anybody, ever. If I could round up every copy on the planet and launch them into the sun, I would.
she should also see 10 things I hate about you, I know she will love that one.
@@veronicagross7458yep-Knight’s Tale & 10 Things I Hate About You are both films I think Ashleigh would love.
One of the things about Heath Ledger is that he was a chameleon actor, able to play a broad range of roles. Ennis and the Joker are good examples, though, of how wide his range was. He was also in 10 Things I Hate About You, if you want to check that out.
As with every video of yours, I also recommend Imagine Me & You, as well as Zsazsa Zaturnnah.
I would also add that Ashleigh should watch "A Knight's Tale" for Heath's (semi-)comedic role.
In that movie he's more the straight man to the other truly comedic characters but the overall tone of the movie is a comedy.
I'm glad you watched this. For me, I'm glad I saw it, but it's not one I'd rewatch because although it's a very good movie, it's also bleak and sad. Those two men were absolutely trapped. They were of a time where they would not only have been condemned by society, they were internally condemning themselves because of what society had told them was "normal and acceptable" since they were born, and how they felt about each other didn't fit that narrative. Homosexuality was still labeled as a deviant mental illness by medical professionals...your average Joe-on-the-street was even less charitable in how they viewed it.
Open communication is critical, but in this story, set at the time that it was, it was not a viable option. Literally a no-win situation for all parties involved.
As late as the 80s "gay bashing" was seen as an acceptable pastime for young men here in the buckle of the bible belt. On Friday and Saturday nights they'd get drunk and head out for the tiny gay section of town and then lay in wait for lone men to come out of known gay bars and beat them senseless. Just a good ol' time for the good ol' boys. Vile and reprehensible. And that was 20 years AFTER this movie was set.
Being honest wasn't possible.
Heath was terrific in A Knight's Tale.
That is a movie you would LOVE!
I have only watched the intro so far but I wanted to say how much I appreciate you and love you for being an ally when you knew that it was right. For overcoming your environment and the views of those around you when you were young. I'm looking Forward to when we get over this speed bump in this country, And our younger people take over.
I remember when I went to see this in the theatre and I was nervous to go see it as a gay man who wasn’t out at the time. I remember that it was probably the most diverse group of people in the audience, everyone from teenagers to senior citizens and gay couples.
I left really depressed because of the ending and being angry at Ennius for not just running away with Jack and using the money Jacks father in law offered him to leave his daughter. They could have bought some land in the middle of no where or up her in Canada and just spent their lives together.
Ennis didnt want to abandon his daughters. He has always been financially responsible towards his children. His "mistake" was not to break up with Alma after the brokeback summer but he was still young. He probably didnt want to break Alma 's heart and thought he could supress his gay instincts. Plus, he was traumatized by the gay couple slaughter, so he was unable to come out. Unfortunately, even if Jack was heartwarming, Ennis was more responsible, pragmatic and in touch with reality. And, considering the institutionalized homophobia of this periode of time, Ennis was probably right...
Ang Lee The Director, Is So Awesome! The Storyline & Acting! PS Happy Pride!😭🙆♀️🥰🌈🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🖥🎛💕
The hate was and is real... I'm 57 now and I'm still not out to my employer and coworkers, neighbors and some friends. Life experience and no support from family keeps people closeted.
Coming out is very hard for some people. I didn’t come out until I was 30 (to my family) and only when I knew I could support myself without them, if they rejected me. Luckily they didn’t. But I still struggle with my own internalized homophobia, growing up as a kid in the 80s during the AIDS epidemic. I hope you do find the strength to come out one day. It really will change your life to live as authentically as you can. And know that there are others out there and I hope you find your tribe and chosen family.
❤🧡💛💚💙💜
They probably already know and don't care.
Had some people "come out" to me. I knew. I didn't care. They were stressing themselves out for no reason. And it is ultimately none of my business.
You'll be just fine. Don't worry.
We lost my cousins brother to suicide in the 70’s. I wasn’t born yet, and I wish I could have met him. He was gay and closeted and when he came out, he was rejected and all of his brother and parents wanted nothing to do with him. This was rural South Texas, so not very progressive at the time. Now, this same town is very accepting and we have a lot of openly out gay and trans people that aren’t harassed. I wish he would have been born in this time.
Have to remember hon, this was the 1960s, sadly, a completely different time and place where if you were found out to be LGBTQ+, it was classified as a mental illness and you could be put in an institution, cops used to raid gay bars and if you were in the bar, you were arrested, you name printed in the newspaper and almost all the time, you would lose your job.
I have been somewhat thankful that I was born in 1971 and I came out at the age of 21 while on active duty with the US Navy (true story, I officially came out on September 30th, 1992 and at that time I was a "true virgin," where I had not been with anyone in an intimate manner, I just knew I had more of an attraction to men then I ever did towards any woman.
A lot of gay men baby boomers, this is how they lived their lives. They were attracted to other men, but that fear of being "outed," a lot of them hid their homosexuality from their wives and children.
It's tragic for everyone involved. A lot of the people in the comments have clearly been personally effected by it when you read their disdain. That's why it's important to be accepting of and have space for different expressions of love so women and children don't get caught up living a desperate man's lie
"He missed out on the life h wanted...so he better make the most of the life he got..." Wow. I love your commentary. 👍
How did you not see the red "DECEASED" stamped across that postcard?
"You still owe it to your partner to be honest."
How do you be honest when you yourself don't understand what's happening or what you're feeling?
In 1963 that would have been unthinkable. It's easy for me to see how it would be never be possible to even find the words. They had absolutely NO positive examples of that to look to.
This is a beautiful film in every regard and was an integral part of changing how I perceived a certain segment of society I disregarded as “those kind of people” at that time.
I owe a great deal to it.
I was a homophobe once too. A racist as well for that matter. I grew and I learned. I've never been attracted to men, but there is nothing wrong with it. Love is love. 23:44
@@RugNug There's nothing wrong with cheating?! A wife should never have a problem with her husband cheating on her, as long as he only cheats with men?!
@@andrewsmith74 That's correct. He should have been honest, just like Ashleigh said. There is nothing wrong with two men loving each other. Maybe if there wasn't such a stigma against it back then, they could have been.
@@RugNug There's nothing wrong with closeted men cheating on their wives?!
This film presents the view that there's nothing wrong with closeted men cheating on their wives!