Brokeback Mountain

In this day and age, the word gay has come to mean “un-cool.” To call someone gay is an insult. For some people it’s natural to say, “oh that’s so gay,” in reaction to something they don’t like. Furthermore, most straight men take it as an insult to be called gay. From personal experience I can say that to be called gay as a straight man offends his ego and threatens his sense of masculinity. For these reasons, both Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger took steps, whether consciously or unconsciously, to assert to themselves and the public that they are indeed straight. To agree to play a homosexual character in a movie is a courageous thing for a man to do. However, it was apparent that even Gyllenhaal and Ledger were both slightly uncomfortable with their roles and felt the need to reassure themselves. Ledger’s filming of Casanova at the same time as Brokeback is a significant point. Casanova, which is about the escapades of a cheating, womanizing married man in eighteenth century England, is conveniently almost the exact opposite of Brokeback. Plus, if that wasn’t enough, Ledger thought it necessary to have an affair with his female co-star. In Gyllenhaal’s case, he was filming Jarhead, which focuses on a United States Marine in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War. Not only is this “masculine” image of a marine the opposite of a gay cowboy, but the military’s policy on homosexuals is no secret.