Brokeback Mountain: An Ideological Critique of Love and Society

This essay offers an in-depth ideological critique of Ang Lee's film "Brokeback Mountain," examining its portrayal of homosexuality and its challenges to societal norms between 1963 and 1983. The paper explores the film's central themes of forbidden love, societal stigmatization, and the impact of these factors on the lives of the characters Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist. The analysis incorporates the framework of ideological criticism, as defined by scholars like Sonja Foss, to reveal the dominant and muted ideologies within the film. The essay highlights the significance of the "neo-Western romantic" relationship between the two lead characters, the use of symbols like the bloodstained shirts and Brokeback Mountain itself, and the movie's critique of traditional gender roles and power dynamics. Furthermore, the essay reflects on the movie's ability to break taboos and offer insights into the human condition and the societal context in which individuals navigate their lives. The essay concludes by emphasizing the movie's importance in addressing important issues that have long been considered as taboo.

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Brokeback Mountain
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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“There was some open space between what he knew and what he tried to believe, but nothing
could be done about it, and if you can't fix it you've got to stand it.”
The above quoted lines from the movie “Brokeback Mountain” gives an overview of
the entire movie and also about the ideological nature of the movie. This paper will deal with
the ideological critique of the movie “Brokeback Mountain” and try to focus on the important
ideological aspects of the movie which gets suppressed among the plethora of other ideas
portrayed in the movie. The genre of ideological critique is a recent one and has gained a
considerable amount of significance in the present times (Barounis 381-397). In the opinion
of many scholars this particular kind of criticism is a rhetorical one and concerns itself with
the critique of the rhetorical ideological elements within a particular text or movie which are
either in conformity with or in opposition with the dominant ideology of the society or the
general trend which is seen in the society (Barounis 381-397). The opinion of Sonja Foss
about this framework of criticism is pertinent to note in this particular context when she says
that “the primary goal of the ideological critic is to discover and make visible the dominant
ideology or ideologies embedded in an artifact and the ideologies that are being muted in it”
(Piontek 35.2: 123-134). The movie “Brokeback Mountain” when viewed through the lens of
this particular framework would reveal significant new insights about the ideologies as well
as the nature of the society of that particular time.

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The movie “Brokeback Mountain” was released in the year 2005 as tries to show the
secretive as well as the forbidden romantic relationship between two cowboys and the
subsequent impact which this particular relationship had on their lives. The movie directed by
Ang Lee and produced by James Schamus in association with Diana Ossana is often
considered not only to be one of the masterpieces of the director Ang Lee but also of the
2000s. It is a reflection of this particular fact that the movie under consideration here was the
recipient of several prestigious awards like “Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, Best
Picture and Best Director at the British Academy Film Awards, Golden Globe Awards,
Producers Guild of America Awards, Critics' Choice Movie Awards, and Independent Spirit
Awards” in addition with others (Lee). Furthermore, the movie also received eight “Academy
Awards” nominations and went on to win three Oscar awards, namely for “Best Director,
Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Score”. The movie featured some of the most
prestigious actors of Hollywood like “Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway, and
Michelle Williams” in the lead role in addition to other minor characters.
The central fulcrum of the movie revolves around the concept of homosexuality and
the way the people who are homosexuals had to face not only the stigmatization of the
society but also their violence for deviating from the general ideology or the pattern set by the
society. The human society since the traditional times in a bid to maintain not only the gender
status quo of the society but also to maintain the power balance of the society had tried to
advocate the doctrine of heterosexuality. Therefore, since the traditional times the society has

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kind of ostracized the people who show a different sexual orientation. The movie “Brokeback
Mountain” becomes very important precisely in this particular context. The movie tries to
show the “neo-Western romantic” relationship between the lead characters of the movie,
namely, “Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist” during the years “1963 and 1983” in the western
part of the nation of the United States of America. The two lead characters working on a
ranch soon develop a romantic attraction for each and even though they get separated and
married after a brief relationship they carry the imprints of this particular relationship through
the entire course of their lives (Madden 3.1: 63-75).
The director Ang Lee through the portrayal of the characters of “Ennis Del Mar and
Jack Twist” tries to show the dark as well as the seamy side of the human civilization and
their need to regulate as well as control all the activities of the human beings. It is significant
to note that the character Enis during the entire course of the movie is haunted by a memory
in which he had witnessed the brutal fate which two homosexual men had received for their
sexual orientation. Furthermore, all the activities as well as the emotions of Enis are dictated
by this particular memory and he is afraid that the same kind of fate awaits him and Jack who
have also decided to go against the traditional norms outlined by the human society. Thus, to
break away from the attraction which he feels for Jack and also to overcome the fear which
he feels that he and Jack would have to receive if they do not part ways he says “You got no
fuckin idea how bad it gets. I'm not you. I can't make it on a couple a high-altitude fucks once
or twice a year. You're too much for me, Ennis, you son of a whoreson bitch. I wish I knew

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how to quit you” (Lee). However, Jack is of the opinion that the society had got no right to
interfere with the personal preferences which the individuals make during the course of their
lives and commenting on the stagnation which has crept within the society he says that
“Nothing ended, nothing begun, nothing resolved”.
The best aspect of the movie “Brokeback Mountain” is its beautiful portrayal of the
relationship between the characters of Jack and Enis. It is significant to note that during the
entire course of the movie the director tries to break the various taboos which form a
predominant part of our society through the representation of the “neo-Western Romantic”
relationship of Jack and Enis and the way their attraction as well as love for each other
becomes a part of their very identity. The relationship which Jack and Enis share is not only
against the general norms of the society but also the expectations of their family members. It
is a reflection of this particular fact that the wives of these characters get tired of playing the
waiting that someday their husbands will acknowledge their love and return it (Pointon 2.2).
However, during the course of the movie it is seen that both of them gets tired of waiting and
leaves them. The emotions which the unconventional couple show towards each finds
adequate representation in the words of Enis when he leaves Jack and the ranch where he had
found the true love of his life “He felt about as bad as he ever had and it took a long time for
the feeling to wear off” . The ending of the movie have been much appreciated by the various
critics from the different parts of the world (Fojas 310). It is significant to note that the
romantic relationship between the two central characters develops in the ranch where it is

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described in the words “As it did go. They never talked about the sex, let it happen, at first
only in the tent at night…..goddamn word except once Ennis said, I’m not no queer, and Jack
jumped in with Me neither. A one-shot thing. Nobody’s business but ours”. One of the most
predominant symbols used during the entire course of the movie is the symbol of the
bloodstained shirt which both the central characters of the movie while their stay at the ranch.
In a way it can be said these two shirts are the symbolic representatives of the romance which
these two characters share with each other. Therefore, when Enis goes to the house of Jack
the thing which most moves him is his bloodstained shirt which he had thought he had lost at
the ranch. The feelings of Enis at this particular time are pertinent to note in this particular
context when he says that “The shirt seemed heavy until he saw there was another shirt inside
it, the sleeves carefully worked down inside Jack’s sleeves…..buttons missing, stolen by Jack
and hidden here inside Jack’s own shirt, the pair like two skins, one inside the other, two in
one”.
A dominant symbol which appears frequently during the entire movie and which can
be said to represent the romantic relationship of Enis and Jack is the “Brokeback Mountain”
itself. It is significant to note that after the death of Jack, which Enis thinks happens because
of the homosexual relationship which he shares with him, his death wish is that his ashes
should be spread over the “Brokeback Mountain”. Over here as well as the symbolism of the
shirt appears and Enis “pressed his face into the fabric and breathed in slowly through his
mouth and nose, hoping for the faintest smoke and mountain sage and salty sweet stink of

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Jack but there was no real scent, only the memory of it, the imagined power of Brokeback
Mountain of which nothing was left but what he held in his hands”.
To conclude, the movie “Brokeback Mountain” is one of the most important ones of
the recent times and the movie represents some of the issues which have been considered as
taboo for a very long time. However, when seen through the lens of the ideological criticism
the movie would further reveal insightful information about the very nature of the society as
well as the time in which the human beings dwell it. In this particular context it can be said
that the movie apart from depicting the secretive relationship of Enis and Jack is a critique of
the society of America between the years 1963 and 1983.

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References
Barounis, Cynthia. "Cripping heterosexuality, queering able-bodiedness: Murderball,
Brokeback Mountain and the contested masculine body." The disability studies reader(2013):
381-397.
Blake, Nancy. "Manhood in Hollywood from Bush to Bush." (2012): 141-143.
Lee, Ang et al. "Brokeback Mountain (2005)." IMDb. N.p., 2018. Web. 15 May 2018.
Madden, Christopher. "I Contain Multitudes’: The queer chronotopes of Annie Proulx’s
‘Brokeback Mountain." Short Fiction in Theory & Practice 3.1 (2013): 63-75.
Piontek, Thomas. "Tears for Queers: Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain, Hollywood, and
American Attitudes toward Homosexuality." The Journal of American Culture 35.2 (2012):
123-134.
Pointon, Seraphina Grace. "‘They Believed Themselves Invisible’: Panopticism and the
Construction of Homosexuality in Annie Proulx’s Brokeback Mountain." Surrey
Undergraduate Research Journal 2.2 (2017).
Sinfield, Alan. "Humanism and ideology." Textual Practice 30.6 (2016): 1121-1133.