Brokeback Mountain

"This series of books discusses contemporary American films that have found commercial success but which have not been constrained by the formal and ideological parameters of mainstream Hollywood cinema. Each volume explores a specific film and combines original research with clearly defined classroom-orientated frameworks of film analysis." "Upon its release in zoos, Brokeback Mountain became a major cultural event and a milestone in independent American filmmaking. Based on the short story by Annie Proulx and directed by Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain situated a love story between two closeted cowboys at the heart of American mythology, film spectatorship and genre. Brokeback Mountain offered an independent and queer revision of the conventions and clichTs of the western and the melodrama through a studied exploration of homophobia and the closet. This book examines Brokeback Mountain in relation to indie cinema, genre, spectatorship, editing, and homosexuality. In doing so, it brings film studies and queer theory into dialogue with one another and explains the importance of Brokeback Mountain as both a contemporary independent and queer film." "Key Features" "Provides an overview of Focus Features as a hybrid company operating across both the mainstream and independent cinema sectors" "Analyses Brokeback Mountain as a western and places it within an enduring historical and cultural context of relations between homosexuality and the genre" "Analyses Brokeback Mountain as a melodrama examining the film's relationship to concepts of pathos, backward feeling and passivity" Proposes a new way of thinking about gay spectatorship that takes into account how editing and cruising relate to one another.

Brokeback Mountain signalled a milestone in independent American filmmaking. Based on the popular short story by Annie Proulx and directed by the Taiwanese born Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain situated a love story between two men at the heart of American mythology, spectatorship, and film genre. The film offered both an independent and queer revision of the conventions and clichés of the Hollywood melodrama as well as the western through its studied exploration of the sexuality, repression, and desire of two contemporary cowboys. This book explores the film's central drama of sexuality through key ideas in film studies and offers an overview of Focus Features as a hybrid company that operates across both the mainstream and independent cinema sectors.

Julia Ashtiany Bray is professor of Medieval Arabic literature at the Universite Paris 8. Nadia Jamil is a senior instructor in classical and modern Arabic at the Oriental Institute, University of Oxford.