'Brokeback' Taboos in Big Sky Country

Fresh Air | By David Edelstein

Published December 9, 2005 at 12:00 AM EST

The new film Brokeback Mountain, directed by Ang Lee, stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger. Based on a short story by Annie Proulx, it describes the relationship between two young men in the West in the 1960s.

Adapted for the screen by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, the film follows the pair through a summer they spent together on Brokeback Mountain -- and their reunion years later, after they've become husbands and fathers.

David Edelstein

David Edelstein is a film critic for New York magazine and for NPR's Fresh Air, and an occasional commentator on film for CBS Sunday Morning. He has also written film criticism for the Village Voice, The New York Post, and Rolling Stone, and is a frequent contributor to the New York Times' Arts & Leisure section.

See stories by David Edelstein

Prospect of tariffs in the new Trump administration divide U.S. businesses

Scott Horsley

President-elect Trump has called for sweeping tariffs on all imports. Some domestic businesses would welcome that, but others warn it will mean higher prices for their U.S. customers.
Sednaya prison was where Assad regime would make Syrians disappear without trial

Ruth Sherlock

Under Syria's president, a vast jail complex in the capital Damascus was known as a place where Syrians were disappeared without trial. Now it's crowded with with families searching for loved ones.
Trump's withdrawn nominees latest in a long line of Cabinet members who never were

Elena Moore

Many presidents face failed Cabinet picks so when former Rep. Matt Gaetz withdrew from consideration for President-elect Donald Trump's Cabinet, it wasn't unprecedented, though Trump's style has been.