Director Ang Lee recently reflected on
the legacy of Brokeback Mountain.
Speaking to gay glossy Out,
Lee said that the film, which turned 10 this year, was a turning
point for him.
“I was pretty wrecked by making
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,”
Lee said. “My friend Jim [Schamus] introduced me to
this little story by Annie Proulx, and towards the end when they talk
about all they’ve got is Brokeback Mountain, that was an
existential question to me. What is this Brokeback Mountain? They
say, 'We don't really have a relationship, it's just Brokeback
Mountain,' and I cried there. That really perplexed me. I grew up
in Taiwan, so nothing is more remote to me than gay cowboys in
Wyoming. At the time, I was in the flow of doing something pulpy and
picked to do The Hulk, which wracked me even more. But the
story just refused to leave me.”
The film, which spans 20 years, stars
Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal as star-crossed lovers in the
American West.
“After The Hulk I thought
about retirement. I thought I'd had enough. My father had just
passed away, and I was exhausted. Brokeback Mountain nurtured
me back to filmmaking and as a person. I'm not the creator of that
movie – I'm just a participant. It was meant to come out, to see
the world, to affect people. I think everybody involved felt that
way, like we were blessed. I don't have another movie I feel that
way about.”