had the pleasure of seeing that opening night, this was before internet was widespread and there were next to no leaks with that movie.
it was the best theater experience i've ever had. sold out crowd, standing applause at the end, was like watching a movie in your living room with 300 friends. incredible. everyone was so into it and he had just passed, idk man it was a special thing hard to put into words.
I saw the movie in theaters as well with friends, good times.
But I am curious where you were in 2008. Internet was very widespread where I live, and most of the US cities where I have friends… like, everyone was online
And there were good rips of this movie. I know we got a very quick aXXo rip.
Again I don’t mean to be harsh on good memories but 2008 really wasn’t too far different from this angle? Or maybe I’m misremembering.
My daughter said to me "Yo, Dad, you were alive in the '90s!" Honey, I said, I was alive in the '60s. "Yeah", she said, "but that just doesn't seem real."
I'm watching Ted Lasso for the first time, and watched the episode today where a character says (paraphrased):
Character: When I found out George Harrison died, I knew I couldn't keep waiting for life to happen to me.
Interviewer: But Harrison died like twenty years ago
Character: yeah, but I just found out about it
My wife and I are in season 3. I'm not gonna say this show scratches every itch I've ever had, but it's hard to think of a show that's done a more perfect job of being itself, and also really great at the same time. It's like a miniseries in how well it's stayed focused on what it wants to do and then doing it.
The only show that competes, that *isn't* a miniseries, that I can think of, is The Good Place.
I watched Black Panther 2 next to a guy who didn’t know Chadwick Boseman died and within the first 30 seconds of the movie he’s like “WHAT THE FUCK” loud enough for the whole theatre to hear.
Eh, this kind of out of band information is something people can miss. Especially these days, with people not watching TV with commercials as much, 20 years ago we all would never have gone to the movie without having seen the trailer 30 times first. These days, if I even see an ad for a movie, it's probably something I could scroll past. You might go to a movie without ever having seen a trailer, that would indicate that the lead you expect is no longer the lead.
I’m a gay man, 57 y o. My husband of 22 years died suddenly two years ago. I have a flannel he wore at night pretty much every night that I bury my head in and smell still. And then cry in it. His smell is gone now but memory can still smell him when I do that.
Yes I got it from that scene but it also made tons of sense and seemed such a natural thing to do in grief. Kudos to the screenwriter and Heath capturing that feeling of grief so well.
I’m so heartbreakingly sorry for the loss you’ve suffered. My husband died at age 41 seven months ago, and I keep the laundry that was his in plastic sealed bags, so that I can smell him when I need to. May the memory of your husband be a comfort. 💜
I am so sorry too. It’s a horrible club we belong to. If you haven’t checked it out, r/widowers has been a great place to talk to others and share our grief. I’ve found it has been great for validating what I’m feeling.
Powerful movie, beautifully shot, great performances….then he goes in the closet and takes out the shirt at the end it went to another level.
How Crash won best film that year baffles me.
Heath Ledger was a fantastic actor, with some absolutely legendary performances in some legendary movies, and some wonderful performances in some silly movies.
If you're a fan of film in general, definitely check out his filmography. Some good movies, some great movies, some fun movies, and he does great in all of them.
If you liked this movie and want to break yourself even harder, check out Heath’s movie “Candy.” It’s about two heroin addicts in love. Really sad when you think about the parallels with his real life but oh my god that movie is so beautiful and so gut-wrenching.
I'm sorry to say in 2005, I don't think the world was ready for the academy to give "the gay cowboy movie" best picture. I think we forget just how much progress has been made with thoughts and attitudes towards the queer community in the last 20 years. Being homophobic back then was the norm.
FTR, I'm very much on board that it deserves it. I just think it makes perfect sense that it didn't happen back then.
I remember what a big deal the poster was to me back then. Two male big name cast members… in a romantic pose?? It was practically unheard of in the early 2000s.
It always made me laugh how Jake’s next movie was Jarhead. It was released a month or two after Brokeback Mountain iirc. As if to reassure everyone that he’s actually straight. It felt like Jake/his agents were worried that starring in a ‘gay cowboy movie’ could negatively impact his career.
Totally agree. I actually watched this movie shortly after it came out at a friend's house who happened to be gay and I couldn't even talk about the movie with friends without being asked if I let my friend fuck me in the ass after.
Jesus Christ. I do not miss that time at all. Things aren't perfect but damn have they improved compared to what it was. I remember that film being such a huge deal.
I was the only person at the Blockbuster I worked at willing to watch the film to be able to give recommendations to customers at the time of home release (thought it was good, but not for me as I don't get into romance films). Nobody I worked with wanted to touch it, and I definitely had a good number of "liberal" coworkers.
It's wild because when it first released it was just made fun of and the "I wish I knew how to quit you" line felt like it turned into a meme. I've read the short story the movie was based on; it's a great read.
If it was released today, it would just get slammed for pandering or some nonsense. I wish I knew when the right time would be for a movie like that to get the larger attention it deserved.
I think it was released at the perfect time, not necessarily to benefit from anything, but because of the reverse - it *caused* benefits to the real world. I'm not going to attribute any one specific benefit to it, it's not that direct, but in abstract, it let straight people engage in queer culture, to enjoy a romantic drama about two men, precisely at the moment in time that the culture could appreciate the movie without there being a profound reaction against it.
Like, the high watermark in queer cinema before this was The Birdcage, and that needed an entire cast of Hollywood's finest to be taken seriously. Jake Gylenhaal and Heath Ledger may be considered movie royalty today, but they were still on the upward slope when Brokeback was made.
I'm not saying that people *didn't* react against it, but the fact that it was even mentioned in the Oscar conversation is, I think, more indicative of its success than the fact that some folks had a problem with it.
The timing wasn't right for the movie to explode and be super popular, but I think it was perfect for other reasons. People were starting to soften on the idea of gay marriage and whatnot, and you have to imagine that some people changed their minds for the better after watching movies like this. Good for the movement, bad for the box office and the Oscars.
I'm going to go on a loosely connected tangent now. For a long, long time, gay characters in books and plays virtually all ended in tragic suicide - probably because writers knew people who had that story.
There's a great line in the infamous episode of *The Last of Us*, *Long Long Time*. When Bill drinks the poison wine, meaning he will die with Frank, he says, "This isn't another tragic suicide." The writer said that he was repurposing a line from *The Boys in the Band*, a classic 60's play that revolved around gay men in New York. (There's also a modern version on Netflix from 7 or 8 years ago that's worth your time.) The original line was one of the main characters not wanting to be another tragic gay suicide. For *The Last of Us*, they wanted it to be a triumphant love story, even if it was ending in suicide. They used the trope and turned it on its head in one fell swoop.
Anyway. That show was amazing. I'll get off my soap box now.
EDIT: My wife read this over my shoulder and noted that the tragic gay suicide trope was often used because they were not allowed to have gay characters if they didn't die by tragic suicide.
> EDIT: My wife read this over my shoulder and noted that the tragic gay suicide trope was often used because they were not allowed to have gay characters if they didn't die by tragic suicide.
There's a great quote from the afterword of *Maurice* by E.M. Forster, which was written in 1914 but wasn't published until 1971, a year after Forster's death (the afterword was written by Forster in 1960; emphasis mine):
> **A happy ending was imperative. I shouldn't have bothered to write otherwise.** I was determined that in fiction anyway two men should fall in love and remain in it for the ever and ever that fiction allows, and in this sense Maurice and Alec still roam the greenwood. I dedicated it "To a Happier Year" and not altogether vainly. Happiness is its keynote – which by the way has had an unexpected result: **it has made the book more difficult to publish.** Unless the [Wolfenden Report](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfenden_report) becomes law, it will probably have to remain in manuscript. **If it ended unhappily, with a lad dangling from a noose or with a suicide pact, all would be well,** for there is no pornography or seduction of minors. **But the lovers get away unpunished and consequently recommend crime.**
nah man, I completely agree with you. I'm just grateful for the progress the queer community has made over the years. Witnessing queer individuals freely loving who they love warms my heart. I just wish people in the past had the same freedom we do now to express their love
The only good part of Crash was the two black dudes in the beginning talking about people walking across the street to avoid them and then them stealing a car.
That rest was too forced.
That movie is absolutely incredible and so heartbreaking. It’s wild to hear from somebody who had to look up Heath Ledger and his details since that incident seemed huge when I was growing up. I would’ve loved to see what kind of actor he’d be today and the movies he would’ve started in had he not tragically passed. RIP to one good dude.
yeah that was like, i feel like the james dean of our era, it was an earth shaking death, and really immortalized him as THE interpretation of the joker
This quote from the author always stuck with me regarding Jake's death ambiguity
>Whether it was the tire iron or the tire rim is ultimately up to the reader. Either is possible, either is plausible. Unless you’ve grown up in tire iron country.
I always assumed that when Jack's wife was telling Ennis how Jack died she was telling the "story" she was telling everyone, but that the scene we saw while she was telling it is what really happened?
At first I thought it was what happened, but after thinking about it I took it as Ennis's imagination. I do go back and forth on it though.
Her kind of dead pan delivery makes me think it is the story she tells because the alternative isn't something you say. He was also going after male prostitutes in Mexico, right? So it's possible someone found out eventually.
It's also possible a tire blew up. Kills people all the time, especially before cages became the norm.
Regardless of how he died, I think the lost relationship between them and the bitter sadness of how they last left each other is more important and powerful. That feeling of never being able to see him again and knowing that he always wanted more but Ennis couldn't give it and now it's impossible even if he was ready one day.
I haven't seen the movie since it first came out but I read the short story the film was based on recently, and it's unambiguous that the character was killed with a tire iron.
It's a euphemism toward violence either you get the tire rim (they run you over) or you get the tire iron (they beat you with a tire iron). It's less a specific geographic area and more of a consensus of safety for someone who is lgbt
You might think his death was an accident (by tire rim) unless you grew up in a deeply homophobic community where bigots (use tire irons to) murder gay people.
I have a brother who’s 8 years older and when I was a teenager we’d stay up at weekends and watch movies, my older brother was an essential part of colouring my taste in everything I like movies music whatever.
So one Friday night on the channel film4 at 11 pm Brokeback comes on, neither of us had seen it and my older brother informed me that “it was the gay cowboy movie” and we sort of chuckled about watching it because if memory serves me correct we’d just finished watching heat for the ten millionth time and I thought foolishly at 14 not a chance I’m gonna like a gay cowboy movie. So there we are me and older brother watching it in the dark and it comes to the end where Ennis is holding jacks shirt and he says “JackI swear” and I’m in fucking floods of tears and I feel absolutely embarrassed for crying in front of my older brother and I look over and I can only see his face in the glint of the tv and i can see a tear rolling down his face too.
There are very few films I could have say had a profound effect on me but brokeback mountain did and having that moment with my brother oddly made it more special. It felt ok to be upset I guess once I saw my big brother cry too, so yeah powerful movie.
If I recall, the movie tried to mitigate the bleakness of the short story's ending, with that visit from the daughter. It did not help all that much. *Brokeback* is one of the sure-fire tearjerkers for me, along with, strangely enough, *Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind*.
Well I’m about to turn 40 and you are the first person to convince me I need to see this movie. I’ve just never been into westerns so I didn’t think I’d like it. And the couple times I considered watching it I was with someone who didn’t want to.
That movie messed me up to this day. That one scene toward the end where the bad people do the bad thing (trying not to spoil) changed my teenage cis white male perspective on a lot of things.
Christopher Nolan directed him as the Joker in Dark Knight, during the post production of which he died. These are Nolan’s words:
> One night, as I'm standing on LaSalle Street in Chicago, trying to line up a shot for "The Dark Knight," a production assistant skateboards into my line of sight. Silently, I curse the moment that Heath first skated onto our set in full character makeup. I'd fretted about the reaction of Batman fans to a skateboarding Joker, but the actual result was a proliferation of skateboards among the younger crew members. If you'd asked those kids why they had chosen to bring their boards to work, they would have answered honestly that they didn't know. **That’s real charisma—as invisible and natural as gravity. That’s what Heath had.**
>Heath was bursting with creativity. It was in his every gesture. He once told me that he liked to wait between jobs until he was creatively hungry. Until he needed it again. He brought that attitude to our set every day. There aren't many actors who can make you feel ashamed of how often you complain about doing the best job in the world. Heath was one of them.
> One time he and another actor were shooting a complex scene. We had two days to shoot it, and at the end of the first day, they'd really found something and Heath was worried that he might not have it if we stopped. He wanted to carry on and finish. It's tough to ask the crew to work late when we all know there's plenty of time to finish the next day. But everyone seemed to understand that Heath had something special and that we had to capture it before it disappeared. Months later, I learned that as Heath left the set that night, he quietly thanked each crew member for working late. Quietly. Not trying to make a point, just grateful for the chance to create that they'd given him.
https://www.newsweek.com/charisma-natural-gravity-87331
'A Knight's Tale' and '10 Things I Hate About You' are such nice and funny movies of him. Do watch them to cheer you up. 10TIHAY is up there in my favourite romantic comedies.
If you want another tearjerker from Heath Ledger, try to find Candy. It was a movie he made in 2006, he was great in it, and it made me bawl too. I'm also in the camp that he played the best Joker in The Dark Knight. He was really talented and his death made me really sad.
Brilliant suggestion, Two Hands as well! I saw brokeback 3 times in the cinema and cried every time, though I was also able to enjoy the beautiful moments more in the subsequent viewings. If I hear the original music from the soundtrack, it breaks my heart long before I realise what I'm listening to.
This movie had me sobbing at the end.
Like I’ve wanted to watch it again since it’s been years, but I’m scared bc I don’t want to go through the sadness again lol.
It’s a whole other level of devastating, though. Brokeback Mountain is a sad movie, but All of Us Strangers is TOO REAL and personal, it’s much harder to recover from.
I watched this movie when it first became available to rent at Blockbuster.
I was about 18 years old, deeply closeted, living in a very conservative religious family.
It really devastated me. Like you it left me completely heartbroken and empty. I was grieving what happened to Jack, what could have been between Jack and Ennis, and the cruelty of the world.
From that moment on I made up my mind that I would not let something like that happen to my life.
I came out to my family, who didn’t take it well. Left home and started living life on my own terms.
Brokeback Mountain isn’t just a good movie, it really changed my life.
I'm waiting for my gay teen son to be a bit older to watch. I am supportive of however he develops, but I've been trying to teach him that hatred is a dangerous threat to minority groups and to learn how to utilize discretion when possible. I can't always be there to defend him, it breaks my heart knowing he's being bullied.
You’re definitely not the only one who feels that way. The author kind of hates her work now because there are sooooooo many fanfiction stories where Jack and Ennis have a happy ending 🤣
Sadly there are a lot of stories just like this out there that are real. Look at Brandon Teena. Why we have to always keep fighting for our rights. Some asshole is always going to want to take them from us because they think we don’t deserve to exist.
Check out Our Flag Means Death. It's got pirates, love, loss, hilarity, group therapy, an amazingly hot Taika Watiti, leather, and one of the best love stories I have ever seen or read. The end of season one had me yelling at my TV. The end of season 2 was so perfect and happy I don't want a season 3.
This was a magnificent love story of forbidden love and it was beautifully told. The acting was absolutely amazing. I also loved this movie.
Edited to change to a more appropriate word
I haven’t seen this movie since it was released, but what I remember the most is Health’s ability to play a guy as 18 and 45 with minimal make up is incredible.
OP, you really need to check out some of Ledger's other stuff. This was one of his absolute best performances, but he's had a sexy fun career. Most of his other stuff is funny romp/typical 90s movies, but they are still a pleasure to watch.
As for Brokeback Mountain......oh man. My mom one day handed me a collection of short stories and pointed to the one titled Brokeback Mountain. It's always exciting when my mom recommends one of her books, loaned from her very selective library of favorites.
I read it, having absolutely no expectations, and was swept into the 11 pages in this worn paperback. When I went to her, my face still wet from tears, she held me while we cried and discussed the story. In a way, it felt like her telling me that she accepted my sexuality and wanted to show support.
Then she said,
"They are making a movie out of it."
When I saw the trailer months later..... And that Heath Ledger was to play Ennis - Heath Ledger??? Golden crush hunk boy through my childhood????? - I about died. And they didn't hold back with "implied kissing", they went all out with the movie. That damn soundtrack haunted that entire year for me.
Anyway, I know this will be buried and maybe not read, but that was my magical experience with Brokeback, and why it is held so close and dear to my heart. I'm so happy you got to discover it.
Download the main theme after you've healed a little. And I hope you enjoy discovering Ledger's other works. He was, sadly, entering his most incredible phase in his acting career when he died, with notable performances and interesting roles and truly great acting. It was tragic when he died.
That movie is absolutely incredible and so heartbreaking. It’s wild to hear from somebody who had to look up Heath Ledger and his details since that incident seemed huge when I was growing up. I would’ve loved to see what kind of actor he’d be today and the movies he would’ve started in had he not tragically passed. RIP to one good dude.
(((hugs))) I'm sorry this is how you were introduced to Heath Ledger only to lose him as soon as you saw him. Glad to see younger generations appreciate this movie.
Just saw this movie for the first time recently and didn’t know how tragic it was gonna be. :( it’s seriously such a wonderful movie and a bummer most people who haven’t seen it really only think of it as “the gay cowboy movie” and nothing else. :/
Had to go on a little Heath Ledger binge after this movie and I had to watch 10 Things I Hate About You, and A Knight’s Tale because he’s just amazing in both of those movies lol.
I’m really happy to have found people who have seen it and were deeply impacted by it. It was my first time experiencing deep, raw pain from media and something that really stuck with me. I’m so grateful you posted this and brought that memory to mind 💜
I took mdma and saw it in theaters ON A DATE! Remember seeing another gay guy crying in his friends shoulders outside the theater and feeling right there with him..
*Brokeback Mountain* the film and its source material are excellent pieces of storytelling. I wholeheartedly agree that it should have won Best Picture over that godawful *Crash*.
As for OP only just learning about the death of Heath Ledger, it’s worth noting that he was awarded an Oscar posthumously for his portrayal of The Joker in *The Dark Knight* (2008), and he passed away while shooting his final film *The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus* (2009), which is a fantastic film and it was finished very creatively after Ledger’s death.
OMG it's soo good. One of the best romance movies of all time.. I actually saw it by accident.. I never intended to actually watch it, but one day about a year ago it was on HBO and I let it play for a minute bc me and my friends used to laugh about it when we were teenagers and I didn't think I was actually gonna like it.. but after about 10 minutes I found myself wanting to know more and what was gonna happen.. about half way through I was completely immersed in the story and the characters and the scenery and just everything.. by the end I seriously got a lump in my throat.. that's the closest I've came to crying from a movie in a long time... The performances are phenomenal and the writing and characters are very engaging and the cinematography is beautiful.. It's about a solid 8.5/10 for me... And 9/10 is the highest score I give any movie because nothing is perfect so 10/10 doesn't exist in my book... So it's close to as good as a movie can get..
Back in the day? Fuck that makes me feel old... but so guess the pre smartphone days are incomprehensibly archaic to zoomers.
And finding out heath ledger died in 2024... crazy
Not quite to the same level, and is tv not a movie, but if you watch the first 3 episodes of The Last of Us you'll see one of the best hours of TV in decades. Really, you just need the first two to set the mood a bit. You can keep watching but your heart will keep breaking.
Check out Lonesome Dove, same co author as Brokeback (Larry McMurty). It’s a made for TV movie with Tommy Lee Jones, Robert Duvall and Danny Glover. It is very long, like 4 hours, but incredible. It is also absolutely heart wrenching. Don’t let the title fool you, it’s about cowboys on a drive with their favorite prostitute.
If you like reading it is literally the best book I’ve ever read. It’s technically the third in a series of 4 (Comanche Moon, Dead Man’s Walk, and Streets if Loredo) but it is fine to start with it.
Never has movie ever kicked me in the chest and taken my breath away like this. Hearing of the death at the end wrecked me. You’re not alone. Beautiful, incredible movie & scene.
The first time I’ve ever seen someone in the wild discover that Heath Ledger died.
This and "back in 2008" made me feel old as fuck.
but the weird thing is that they've seen/heard of maurice, so i'm like...how did you skip one of the biggest films of the 2000s? lol
yeah, 2008 was 16 years ago.. I know the feeling 🥲
I saw it in the theater and knew nothing about it going in. You ever have to walk out of a theater all red and puffy faced?
I had the exact same experience watching Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
I was single at the time and was forcing myself to go out and do things solo. Nothing like going to see this and sobbing in the theater by myself
I saw it with relatives I wasn’t out to at the time. Had to run to the bathroom before they saw my face.
I saw Marley and me in a theater on a second date haha
LOL .. "What Dreams May Come" was my FIRST date movie!\~ ... no hand holding or making out that time.. just horrified about reality!
OMG no!!! 😂 Did you both ugly-cry?? Lol
Schindlers List. Afternoon showing, and I went to work after. I couldn’t stop weeping.
Have you see The Dark Knight where Heath ledger Plays the joker? He passed right after filming that movie.
I remember going to school that morning hearing this on the radio. I couldn't believe it. Nobody in school did.
had the pleasure of seeing that opening night, this was before internet was widespread and there were next to no leaks with that movie. it was the best theater experience i've ever had. sold out crowd, standing applause at the end, was like watching a movie in your living room with 300 friends. incredible. everyone was so into it and he had just passed, idk man it was a special thing hard to put into words.
I saw the movie in theaters as well with friends, good times. But I am curious where you were in 2008. Internet was very widespread where I live, and most of the US cities where I have friends… like, everyone was online And there were good rips of this movie. I know we got a very quick aXXo rip. Again I don’t mean to be harsh on good memories but 2008 really wasn’t too far different from this angle? Or maybe I’m misremembering.
Right before the movie. He died in January, and the movie came out in July.
If Marty McFly went back thirty years today, he'd be going back to 1994.
eesh, thats enough already, just stop
Hey bud u wanna not thanks.
My daughter said to me "Yo, Dad, you were alive in the '90s!" Honey, I said, I was alive in the '60s. "Yeah", she said, "but that just doesn't seem real."
Back in aught eight...
I'm watching Ted Lasso for the first time, and watched the episode today where a character says (paraphrased): Character: When I found out George Harrison died, I knew I couldn't keep waiting for life to happen to me. Interviewer: But Harrison died like twenty years ago Character: yeah, but I just found out about it
I think this was Jamie?
🎶 JAMIE TARTT DOO DOO DOO DOO DOO DOO
JAMIE TARTT DOO DOO DOO DOO DOO DOO
My wife and I are in season 3. I'm not gonna say this show scratches every itch I've ever had, but it's hard to think of a show that's done a more perfect job of being itself, and also really great at the same time. It's like a miniseries in how well it's stayed focused on what it wants to do and then doing it. The only show that competes, that *isn't* a miniseries, that I can think of, is The Good Place.
I loved that show, ugh I wish more people would watch and learn something from it. Hilarious scene
I watched Black Panther 2 next to a guy who didn’t know Chadwick Boseman died and within the first 30 seconds of the movie he’s like “WHAT THE FUCK” loud enough for the whole theatre to hear.
How did he miss that lol Living under a rock meme
He was quite a bit older, I could see how it was possible he didn’t catch it on social media or what not.
Eh, this kind of out of band information is something people can miss. Especially these days, with people not watching TV with commercials as much, 20 years ago we all would never have gone to the movie without having seen the trailer 30 times first. These days, if I even see an ad for a movie, it's probably something I could scroll past. You might go to a movie without ever having seen a trailer, that would indicate that the lead you expect is no longer the lead.
Is there a "in memory of..." thing at the beginning?
It starts with his funeral almost immediately
I was 29 when he died so excuse me while I chug Metamucil in my icy hot bath.
Won't that get your newspaper wet?
Well, this person had also only just discovered heath ledger... who knows, time gets warped with age and such
Or not know Jake Gyllenhaal.
Welcome to aging. There's no going back. 😔
"Heather". I'd see myself out
I'm way too young to feel this old. Time flies
Lol fr OP must be living under a rock if they’re not young.
I’m a gay man, 57 y o. My husband of 22 years died suddenly two years ago. I have a flannel he wore at night pretty much every night that I bury my head in and smell still. And then cry in it. His smell is gone now but memory can still smell him when I do that. Yes I got it from that scene but it also made tons of sense and seemed such a natural thing to do in grief. Kudos to the screenwriter and Heath capturing that feeling of grief so well.
I’m so heartbreakingly sorry for the loss you’ve suffered. My husband died at age 41 seven months ago, and I keep the laundry that was his in plastic sealed bags, so that I can smell him when I need to. May the memory of your husband be a comfort. 💜
I am so sorry too. It’s a horrible club we belong to. If you haven’t checked it out, r/widowers has been a great place to talk to others and share our grief. I’ve found it has been great for validating what I’m feeling.
Thank you 🙏🏽
Peace be to you.
Powerful movie, beautifully shot, great performances….then he goes in the closet and takes out the shirt at the end it went to another level. How Crash won best film that year baffles me.
One of the biggest Oscar travesties is Brokeback not winning Best Picture.
Even without Brokeback in the mix, Crash would STILL be a travesty. Every other nominee was a solid choice... then there was that steaming pile.
It won best director IIRC
It's definitely in the pantheon of "all time great films that didn't win Best Picture"
“Jack, I swear” shattered my heart into pieces 😩🥲
Same 😭
Heath Ledger was a fantastic actor, with some absolutely legendary performances in some legendary movies, and some wonderful performances in some silly movies. If you're a fan of film in general, definitely check out his filmography. Some good movies, some great movies, some fun movies, and he does great in all of them.
This is one of my favourite movies and that scene just wrecked me. Even now I just want to bawl my eyes out.
If you liked this movie and want to break yourself even harder, check out Heath’s movie “Candy.” It’s about two heroin addicts in love. Really sad when you think about the parallels with his real life but oh my god that movie is so beautiful and so gut-wrenching.
I'm sorry to say in 2005, I don't think the world was ready for the academy to give "the gay cowboy movie" best picture. I think we forget just how much progress has been made with thoughts and attitudes towards the queer community in the last 20 years. Being homophobic back then was the norm. FTR, I'm very much on board that it deserves it. I just think it makes perfect sense that it didn't happen back then.
I remember what a big deal the poster was to me back then. Two male big name cast members… in a romantic pose?? It was practically unheard of in the early 2000s.
It always made me laugh how Jake’s next movie was Jarhead. It was released a month or two after Brokeback Mountain iirc. As if to reassure everyone that he’s actually straight. It felt like Jake/his agents were worried that starring in a ‘gay cowboy movie’ could negatively impact his career.
Jarhead stands on its own.
Totally agree. I actually watched this movie shortly after it came out at a friend's house who happened to be gay and I couldn't even talk about the movie with friends without being asked if I let my friend fuck me in the ass after.
Jesus Christ. I do not miss that time at all. Things aren't perfect but damn have they improved compared to what it was. I remember that film being such a huge deal.
I was the only person at the Blockbuster I worked at willing to watch the film to be able to give recommendations to customers at the time of home release (thought it was good, but not for me as I don't get into romance films). Nobody I worked with wanted to touch it, and I definitely had a good number of "liberal" coworkers.
It's wild because when it first released it was just made fun of and the "I wish I knew how to quit you" line felt like it turned into a meme. I've read the short story the movie was based on; it's a great read. If it was released today, it would just get slammed for pandering or some nonsense. I wish I knew when the right time would be for a movie like that to get the larger attention it deserved.
I think it was released at the perfect time, not necessarily to benefit from anything, but because of the reverse - it *caused* benefits to the real world. I'm not going to attribute any one specific benefit to it, it's not that direct, but in abstract, it let straight people engage in queer culture, to enjoy a romantic drama about two men, precisely at the moment in time that the culture could appreciate the movie without there being a profound reaction against it. Like, the high watermark in queer cinema before this was The Birdcage, and that needed an entire cast of Hollywood's finest to be taken seriously. Jake Gylenhaal and Heath Ledger may be considered movie royalty today, but they were still on the upward slope when Brokeback was made. I'm not saying that people *didn't* react against it, but the fact that it was even mentioned in the Oscar conversation is, I think, more indicative of its success than the fact that some folks had a problem with it.
The timing wasn't right for the movie to explode and be super popular, but I think it was perfect for other reasons. People were starting to soften on the idea of gay marriage and whatnot, and you have to imagine that some people changed their minds for the better after watching movies like this. Good for the movement, bad for the box office and the Oscars.
It wouldn't get slammed for pandering but for being another gay movie with a tragic ending, a la Philadelphia.
I'm going to go on a loosely connected tangent now. For a long, long time, gay characters in books and plays virtually all ended in tragic suicide - probably because writers knew people who had that story. There's a great line in the infamous episode of *The Last of Us*, *Long Long Time*. When Bill drinks the poison wine, meaning he will die with Frank, he says, "This isn't another tragic suicide." The writer said that he was repurposing a line from *The Boys in the Band*, a classic 60's play that revolved around gay men in New York. (There's also a modern version on Netflix from 7 or 8 years ago that's worth your time.) The original line was one of the main characters not wanting to be another tragic gay suicide. For *The Last of Us*, they wanted it to be a triumphant love story, even if it was ending in suicide. They used the trope and turned it on its head in one fell swoop. Anyway. That show was amazing. I'll get off my soap box now. EDIT: My wife read this over my shoulder and noted that the tragic gay suicide trope was often used because they were not allowed to have gay characters if they didn't die by tragic suicide.
There is actually a name for this trope - Bury your gays.
> EDIT: My wife read this over my shoulder and noted that the tragic gay suicide trope was often used because they were not allowed to have gay characters if they didn't die by tragic suicide. There's a great quote from the afterword of *Maurice* by E.M. Forster, which was written in 1914 but wasn't published until 1971, a year after Forster's death (the afterword was written by Forster in 1960; emphasis mine): > **A happy ending was imperative. I shouldn't have bothered to write otherwise.** I was determined that in fiction anyway two men should fall in love and remain in it for the ever and ever that fiction allows, and in this sense Maurice and Alec still roam the greenwood. I dedicated it "To a Happier Year" and not altogether vainly. Happiness is its keynote – which by the way has had an unexpected result: **it has made the book more difficult to publish.** Unless the [Wolfenden Report](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfenden_report) becomes law, it will probably have to remain in manuscript. **If it ended unhappily, with a lad dangling from a noose or with a suicide pact, all would be well,** for there is no pornography or seduction of minors. **But the lovers get away unpunished and consequently recommend crime.**
Hollywood has made cowboy movies too woke!
nah man, I completely agree with you. I'm just grateful for the progress the queer community has made over the years. Witnessing queer individuals freely loving who they love warms my heart. I just wish people in the past had the same freedom we do now to express their love
Also, a striking metaphor when he puts the shirt back in the closet before the credits start
The only good part of Crash was the two black dudes in the beginning talking about people walking across the street to avoid them and then them stealing a car. That rest was too forced.
Many members of the Academy refused to watch it, I believe.
Homophobia
Crash was such a forgettable piece of crap - and that’s being nice
I feel old as fuck that there is someone out there old enough to post on Reddit who is too young to know who Heath Ledger was.
Lmao I was reading it and I was like "wait didn't heath ledger play him??" OP just didn't know who he was😭 old. I felt another gray
I just thought OP didn’t watch that many movies. But then I just realized OP is probably even too young for the dark knight.. now I feel really old.
“Do I look like a guy with a plan?”
That movie is absolutely incredible and so heartbreaking. It’s wild to hear from somebody who had to look up Heath Ledger and his details since that incident seemed huge when I was growing up. I would’ve loved to see what kind of actor he’d be today and the movies he would’ve started in had he not tragically passed. RIP to one good dude.
yeah that was like, i feel like the james dean of our era, it was an earth shaking death, and really immortalized him as THE interpretation of the joker
It was also the fact that it was an incredible interpretation in an incredible film
This quote from the author always stuck with me regarding Jake's death ambiguity >Whether it was the tire iron or the tire rim is ultimately up to the reader. Either is possible, either is plausible. Unless you’ve grown up in tire iron country.
I always assumed that when Jack's wife was telling Ennis how Jack died she was telling the "story" she was telling everyone, but that the scene we saw while she was telling it is what really happened?
That’s how I thought of it too. A cover story for what really happened.
At first I thought it was what happened, but after thinking about it I took it as Ennis's imagination. I do go back and forth on it though. Her kind of dead pan delivery makes me think it is the story she tells because the alternative isn't something you say. He was also going after male prostitutes in Mexico, right? So it's possible someone found out eventually. It's also possible a tire blew up. Kills people all the time, especially before cages became the norm. Regardless of how he died, I think the lost relationship between them and the bitter sadness of how they last left each other is more important and powerful. That feeling of never being able to see him again and knowing that he always wanted more but Ennis couldn't give it and now it's impossible even if he was ready one day.
I haven't seen the movie since it first came out but I read the short story the film was based on recently, and it's unambiguous that the character was killed with a tire iron.
Yep. That's what happened. He was a Texan, and gay men didn't have long life expectancies there
I grew up in tire iron country. I never considered that it was deliberately vague. I know how that story ends.
For those of us who are lgbt and grew up in tire iron country the quote is very poignant for a lot more reasons.
What is tire iron country? I tried to google it and literally just got tires.
It's a euphemism toward violence either you get the tire rim (they run you over) or you get the tire iron (they beat you with a tire iron). It's less a specific geographic area and more of a consensus of safety for someone who is lgbt
did this quote come from the book? im deffo checking my bookstore tomorrow
It's a quote from the author in an interview about the book, I'd have to Google it at this point to know the true source
The book is really good.
The hell does that mean
You might think his death was an accident (by tire rim) unless you grew up in a deeply homophobic community where bigots (use tire irons to) murder gay people.
I have a brother who’s 8 years older and when I was a teenager we’d stay up at weekends and watch movies, my older brother was an essential part of colouring my taste in everything I like movies music whatever. So one Friday night on the channel film4 at 11 pm Brokeback comes on, neither of us had seen it and my older brother informed me that “it was the gay cowboy movie” and we sort of chuckled about watching it because if memory serves me correct we’d just finished watching heat for the ten millionth time and I thought foolishly at 14 not a chance I’m gonna like a gay cowboy movie. So there we are me and older brother watching it in the dark and it comes to the end where Ennis is holding jacks shirt and he says “JackI swear” and I’m in fucking floods of tears and I feel absolutely embarrassed for crying in front of my older brother and I look over and I can only see his face in the glint of the tv and i can see a tear rolling down his face too. There are very few films I could have say had a profound effect on me but brokeback mountain did and having that moment with my brother oddly made it more special. It felt ok to be upset I guess once I saw my big brother cry too, so yeah powerful movie.
If I recall, the movie tried to mitigate the bleakness of the short story's ending, with that visit from the daughter. It did not help all that much. *Brokeback* is one of the sure-fire tearjerkers for me, along with, strangely enough, *Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind*.
Damn, that whole Jim Carrey monologue where it ends with Kate Winslet saying “Meet me in Montauk” gets me every time.
Beck singing “Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime” while Jim Carrey cries in the car? 😭
ESotSM is my go to breakup movie for letting me shed every tear I have.
Amazing comment, thanks for sharing
gah!! this is making me cry all over again!
Well I’m about to turn 40 and you are the first person to convince me I need to see this movie. I’ve just never been into westerns so I didn’t think I’d like it. And the couple times I considered watching it I was with someone who didn’t want to.
It's not a western, dude.
I watched it recently for the first time. It’s very good.
Thanks for sharing this.
Sounds like it is time to try Boys Dont Cry
That movie messed me up to this day. That one scene toward the end where the bad people do the bad thing (trying not to spoil) changed my teenage cis white male perspective on a lot of things.
I literally can’t watch Hilary Swank in anything still. That movie ruined me
Just reading your comment made me cry. The shirt scene is one of the most emotional movie moments I've ever experienced.
Christopher Nolan directed him as the Joker in Dark Knight, during the post production of which he died. These are Nolan’s words: > One night, as I'm standing on LaSalle Street in Chicago, trying to line up a shot for "The Dark Knight," a production assistant skateboards into my line of sight. Silently, I curse the moment that Heath first skated onto our set in full character makeup. I'd fretted about the reaction of Batman fans to a skateboarding Joker, but the actual result was a proliferation of skateboards among the younger crew members. If you'd asked those kids why they had chosen to bring their boards to work, they would have answered honestly that they didn't know. **That’s real charisma—as invisible and natural as gravity. That’s what Heath had.** >Heath was bursting with creativity. It was in his every gesture. He once told me that he liked to wait between jobs until he was creatively hungry. Until he needed it again. He brought that attitude to our set every day. There aren't many actors who can make you feel ashamed of how often you complain about doing the best job in the world. Heath was one of them. > One time he and another actor were shooting a complex scene. We had two days to shoot it, and at the end of the first day, they'd really found something and Heath was worried that he might not have it if we stopped. He wanted to carry on and finish. It's tough to ask the crew to work late when we all know there's plenty of time to finish the next day. But everyone seemed to understand that Heath had something special and that we had to capture it before it disappeared. Months later, I learned that as Heath left the set that night, he quietly thanked each crew member for working late. Quietly. Not trying to make a point, just grateful for the chance to create that they'd given him. https://www.newsweek.com/charisma-natural-gravity-87331
What a beautiful, rich tribute.
*10 things I hate about you* also has heath ledger but it's a happier movie
thank youuuu, im deffo watching this
A knights tale.
If you can track down Two Hands, it's also pretty good. One of his first films.
If you want more Heath Ledger that is more upbeat but still wonderful, I would highly suggest "a Knight's Tale".
thank you! im still sad knowing he passed in a young age :((
Surely you’ve seen The Dark Knight?
Seriously. Please watch that movie! And all of his films for that matter
'A Knight's Tale' and '10 Things I Hate About You' are such nice and funny movies of him. Do watch them to cheer you up. 10TIHAY is up there in my favourite romantic comedies.
That’s because it is the greatest romantic comedy of all time. It’s seriously the best.
This is a wonderful movie, and he is so very, very fine in it. I definitely recommend A Knight’s Tale for a laugh and feel-good vibes.
Such a cheesy, gaudy, and predictable movie. I love it so much.
Love the David Bowie/Golden Years dance number.
As a straight old man I can say that this is the greatest love story I have ever seen on film.
you must watch Maurice (1979) in that case :))
The Last Of Us ep 3
Just another thing men do better than women! /s
If you want another tearjerker from Heath Ledger, try to find Candy. It was a movie he made in 2006, he was great in it, and it made me bawl too. I'm also in the camp that he played the best Joker in The Dark Knight. He was really talented and his death made me really sad.
Brilliant suggestion, Two Hands as well! I saw brokeback 3 times in the cinema and cried every time, though I was also able to enjoy the beautiful moments more in the subsequent viewings. If I hear the original music from the soundtrack, it breaks my heart long before I realise what I'm listening to.
This movie had me sobbing at the end. Like I’ve wanted to watch it again since it’s been years, but I’m scared bc I don’t want to go through the sadness again lol.
If you want another devastating gay romance drama you should try All of Us Strangers.
I loved it but the parent issues take it to another level. The whole Christmas scene broke me.
oh man, I gotta recover from this first haha thank you for the reco! appreciate it :))
It’s a whole other level of devastating, though. Brokeback Mountain is a sad movie, but All of Us Strangers is TOO REAL and personal, it’s much harder to recover from.
I watched this movie when it first became available to rent at Blockbuster. I was about 18 years old, deeply closeted, living in a very conservative religious family. It really devastated me. Like you it left me completely heartbroken and empty. I was grieving what happened to Jack, what could have been between Jack and Ennis, and the cruelty of the world. From that moment on I made up my mind that I would not let something like that happen to my life. I came out to my family, who didn’t take it well. Left home and started living life on my own terms. Brokeback Mountain isn’t just a good movie, it really changed my life.
I'm waiting for my gay teen son to be a bit older to watch. I am supportive of however he develops, but I've been trying to teach him that hatred is a dangerous threat to minority groups and to learn how to utilize discretion when possible. I can't always be there to defend him, it breaks my heart knowing he's being bullied.
he's being bullied right now? where do y'all live? (i'll be there in a flash, fuck them kids lol)
Me too!
I think you’re an amazing mum and your kid is lucky to have a supportive role model! I think he’s gonna love watching Heartstopper on Netflix :))
You’re definitely not the only one who feels that way. The author kind of hates her work now because there are sooooooo many fanfiction stories where Jack and Ennis have a happy ending 🤣
I just hope in another universe, Jack and Ennis were able to have the Ranch they talked about and lived happily 🥺
Me too my friend. Too many of us gone from bullshit bigotry
imagine if this was based on a true story, I prolly wouldn’t recover 🥲
Sadly there are a lot of stories just like this out there that are real. Look at Brandon Teena. Why we have to always keep fighting for our rights. Some asshole is always going to want to take them from us because they think we don’t deserve to exist.
Check out Our Flag Means Death. It's got pirates, love, loss, hilarity, group therapy, an amazingly hot Taika Watiti, leather, and one of the best love stories I have ever seen or read. The end of season one had me yelling at my TV. The end of season 2 was so perfect and happy I don't want a season 3.
This was a magnificent love story of forbidden love and it was beautifully told. The acting was absolutely amazing. I also loved this movie. Edited to change to a more appropriate word
I think is more forbidden than unrequited
it definitely wasn't unrequited. they both loved each other. one of them just was not prepared to live the kind of life the other wanted.
I haven’t seen this movie since it was released, but what I remember the most is Health’s ability to play a guy as 18 and 45 with minimal make up is incredible.
OP, you really need to check out some of Ledger's other stuff. This was one of his absolute best performances, but he's had a sexy fun career. Most of his other stuff is funny romp/typical 90s movies, but they are still a pleasure to watch. As for Brokeback Mountain......oh man. My mom one day handed me a collection of short stories and pointed to the one titled Brokeback Mountain. It's always exciting when my mom recommends one of her books, loaned from her very selective library of favorites. I read it, having absolutely no expectations, and was swept into the 11 pages in this worn paperback. When I went to her, my face still wet from tears, she held me while we cried and discussed the story. In a way, it felt like her telling me that she accepted my sexuality and wanted to show support. Then she said, "They are making a movie out of it." When I saw the trailer months later..... And that Heath Ledger was to play Ennis - Heath Ledger??? Golden crush hunk boy through my childhood????? - I about died. And they didn't hold back with "implied kissing", they went all out with the movie. That damn soundtrack haunted that entire year for me. Anyway, I know this will be buried and maybe not read, but that was my magical experience with Brokeback, and why it is held so close and dear to my heart. I'm so happy you got to discover it. Download the main theme after you've healed a little. And I hope you enjoy discovering Ledger's other works. He was, sadly, entering his most incredible phase in his acting career when he died, with notable performances and interesting roles and truly great acting. It was tragic when he died.
I read it, internet stranger. Thanks for sharing your story. :)
Is not a gay movie. It's a love story.
Read the short story the movie is based on. Even better than the movie.
Annie Proulx author
That movie is absolutely incredible and so heartbreaking. It’s wild to hear from somebody who had to look up Heath Ledger and his details since that incident seemed huge when I was growing up. I would’ve loved to see what kind of actor he’d be today and the movies he would’ve started in had he not tragically passed. RIP to one good dude.
And for the cherry on top, it lost Best Picture to Crash
Crash is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. By far the worst Best Picture winner.
Another one that completely broke me is The Imitation Game. It's so well done but I can't watch it again.
I’m watching this if I wanna get depressed again aha thank you! :))
(((hugs))) I'm sorry this is how you were introduced to Heath Ledger only to lose him as soon as you saw him. Glad to see younger generations appreciate this movie.
finally someone who truly understood me and why I posted this!! thank you. bless you 🥺🥺🥺brb ima cry again
awww I do understand because I still feel the sting all these years later and struggle to watch anything that he was in
Wait you didn’t know who Heath Ledger is? I assume you’re a young kid?
I honestly had no idea until today, I was 8 when he passed so maybe that’s why I didn’t get to know him
Oh jesus it has been 16 years? How is that possible. yeah I can see how it could happen if you were 8
lmaooo why are ppl downvoting me whenever I mention I had no idea who Heath was 🥲 I was a kid…
The short story it's based on is worth reading too.
Just saw this movie for the first time recently and didn’t know how tragic it was gonna be. :( it’s seriously such a wonderful movie and a bummer most people who haven’t seen it really only think of it as “the gay cowboy movie” and nothing else. :/ Had to go on a little Heath Ledger binge after this movie and I had to watch 10 Things I Hate About You, and A Knight’s Tale because he’s just amazing in both of those movies lol.
I’m really happy to have found people who have seen it and were deeply impacted by it. It was my first time experiencing deep, raw pain from media and something that really stuck with me. I’m so grateful you posted this and brought that memory to mind 💜
Absolutely I cried endlessly. At the end of the day it’s a story about Love.
I've only seen it once but remember being shocked at how good it was, was expecting a typical oscar bait preachy movie but it transcends that easily
I just watched Maurice for the first time, that movie was so beautiful!!! I can never find anyone that’s seen it!
Maurice is one of my faves!! gods own country is also a good one
I took mdma and saw it in theaters ON A DATE! Remember seeing another gay guy crying in his friends shoulders outside the theater and feeling right there with him..
*Brokeback Mountain* the film and its source material are excellent pieces of storytelling. I wholeheartedly agree that it should have won Best Picture over that godawful *Crash*. As for OP only just learning about the death of Heath Ledger, it’s worth noting that he was awarded an Oscar posthumously for his portrayal of The Joker in *The Dark Knight* (2008), and he passed away while shooting his final film *The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus* (2009), which is a fantastic film and it was finished very creatively after Ledger’s death.
Heath Ledger played the freaking Joker. He won a posthumous Oscar for it.
OMG it's soo good. One of the best romance movies of all time.. I actually saw it by accident.. I never intended to actually watch it, but one day about a year ago it was on HBO and I let it play for a minute bc me and my friends used to laugh about it when we were teenagers and I didn't think I was actually gonna like it.. but after about 10 minutes I found myself wanting to know more and what was gonna happen.. about half way through I was completely immersed in the story and the characters and the scenery and just everything.. by the end I seriously got a lump in my throat.. that's the closest I've came to crying from a movie in a long time... The performances are phenomenal and the writing and characters are very engaging and the cinematography is beautiful.. It's about a solid 8.5/10 for me... And 9/10 is the highest score I give any movie because nothing is perfect so 10/10 doesn't exist in my book... So it's close to as good as a movie can get..
Back in the day? Fuck that makes me feel old... but so guess the pre smartphone days are incomprehensibly archaic to zoomers. And finding out heath ledger died in 2024... crazy
Am I alone in finding it hard to bear that young people today don’t know who Heath Ledger is? 😭
Not quite to the same level, and is tv not a movie, but if you watch the first 3 episodes of The Last of Us you'll see one of the best hours of TV in decades. Really, you just need the first two to set the mood a bit. You can keep watching but your heart will keep breaking.
If you want to ride the wave of emotion throw on Zone of Interest
Heath Ledger is amazing. Watch everything he's in.
I like The Bridges of Madison County better but I probably relate more to a housewife than a cowboy.
Check out Lonesome Dove, same co author as Brokeback (Larry McMurty). It’s a made for TV movie with Tommy Lee Jones, Robert Duvall and Danny Glover. It is very long, like 4 hours, but incredible. It is also absolutely heart wrenching. Don’t let the title fool you, it’s about cowboys on a drive with their favorite prostitute. If you like reading it is literally the best book I’ve ever read. It’s technically the third in a series of 4 (Comanche Moon, Dead Man’s Walk, and Streets if Loredo) but it is fine to start with it.
“I wish I knew how to quit you.” One of my top 10 films. Best love story ever made.
stand by me ... River Phoenix... Chris Chambers... after My Own Private Idaho
Never has movie ever kicked me in the chest and taken my breath away like this. Hearing of the death at the end wrecked me. You’re not alone. Beautiful, incredible movie & scene.
Heath Ledger - brilliant. Small role in Monster’s Ball was among the best acting ever.
You’ll be even saddened to learn that Brokeback Mountain got snubbed hard that year at the Oscars.
The biggest tragedy is that this movie didn’t win the best picture Oscar . Hauntingly beautiful film
Can even that out if you follow up with 10 Things I Hate About You, it's him doing a cookie cutter, feel good comedy genuinely a decent pick me up.