Brokeback Mountain, directed by Ang Lee, is hyped as a “gay cowboy” film but the theme of homophobia is actually more powerful, and the protagonists are bisexuals during their lives albeit at different points along the monosexual-bisexual continuum. The movie begins in summer 1963 at Signal, Wyoming, where Jack Twist (played by Jake Gyllenhaal) and Ennis Del Mar (played by Heath Ledger), both nineteen, await the arrival of their new boss, Joe Aguirre (played by Randy Quaid). After his arrival, he assigns them to drive a large herd of sheep through grazing lands in the Rocky Mountains to market. Much of the cinematography then celebrates the magnificent wilderness areas of the Rockies, where the two not only drive the sheep but also camp out, cook out, and grow in their respect for each other’s masculinity. Jack, who made the drive in 1962, does not particularly like his father, but Ennis lost both parents at an early age and was reared by a brother and sister. One night near Brokeback Mountain, subzero weather arrives, so Jack invites Ennis into the tent to stop coughing and warm up. Soon, Ennis is on top of Jack, the first sex scene in the film, after which they both deny that they are “queers,” though they engage in horseplay from time to time. Aguirre unexpectedly appears during one of those times and later refuses to rehire Jack in 1964 as a result. After the sheep are delivered to market, they go their separate ways, and four years passes. Ennis marries Alma (played by Michelle Williams) and has twin girls. Jack moves to Texas, marries Lureen (played by Anne Hathaway), and the couple has a son. In 1968, just as they have settled into the sameness of married heterosexual life, Jack sends a postcard to Ennis that he will be in Wyoming, wondering if the latter is interested. Laconic Ennis replies “You bet” on a postcard. When Jack arrives, the two reunite with passionate kisses just outside Ennis’s residence. Alma observes the passion between them, allows her husband to join the visitor for a bout of drinking that night, but tears come to her eyes as he leaves. They spend that night at a motel in bed, enjoying the body contact that they missed so much. But now a dilemma emerges. Their love is too deep for them to let go and go back to their wives. Jack proposes that they get a ranch together, whereupon Ennis recalls that his father showed him at age nine the dead body of a gay cowboy who was dragged to his death by his sex organs. Anyway, both are trapped in marriage, so they instead decide to see each other a few times each year on “fishing trips” at Brokeback Mountain, reunions far more intense than those in Same Time, Next Year (1978). Alma finally divorces Ennis because she cannot tolerate his bisexuality. Jack then rushes to see him in the belief that they could now get that ranch together. Ennis, instead, indicates that he needs money to pay for child support, and future visits become fewer. His passion has either declined or he is still fearful of being outed. Jack’s juices, however, demand satisfaction, so he finds one-night-stands across the border and perhaps in Texas as well. One day, he is killed by two men one day who evidently did not enjoy his advances. The essence of romantic love is unattainability, which Ennis creates by being reluctant to pair off with Jack. Ennis’s visit to the house of Jack’s parents in Wyoming after his death is certainly the most touching scene in the film. As in Far from Heaven (2002) of the 1950s, the homophobia in 1960s and 1970s Middle America that is portrayed in Brokeback Mountain is a story about prejudice that may inspire some to question what they are doing when they reject gay marriage in state after state because their religious leaders preach hatred. In short, the last act of Brokeback Mountain is how the highly publicized film will be received in those places where homophobia, compulsory heterosexuality, and secret bisexuality are prevalent. MH