Brokeback Mountain

Who it's for

Brokeback Mountain shows two men whose love lasts twenty years but never gets to exist in the open, making the cost of concealment painfully clear.

Feelings it meets

• Shame
• Oppression
• Fear of Intimacy
• Regret
• Gender Expectations

What it is

Ang Lee's 2005 drama, adapted by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana from Annie Proulx's short story, begins in 1963 Wyoming, where two young men, Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist, are hired to herd sheep on Brokeback Mountain for a summer and fall in love. Afterwards Ennis marries Alma and Jack marries Lureen, but the two men keep meeting in secret on fishing trips over many years.

Where to find it

Rent or buy on major digital stores. Streaming availability rotates; check JustWatch.

Before you start

Heads up: Homophobic violence and a death.

Age: R (MPAA; for sexuality, nudity, language and some violence)

Praise shames me, for I secretly beg for it.Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds, no. 207