Just as in The Sound of Music the most impressive character in the Ang Lee’s cowboy movie are beautiful mountains. Whenever the camera shows pictures of the arresting Wyoming landscape, one’s soul takes in a deep breath. As a piece of drama the film falls flat: forty years ago a story of two cowboys in love would have been a shocker to everyone. Elton John got married two weeks ago to his boyfriend and this was news only because Elton John is a celebrity. As a piece of politics and a moral statement, the movie works very well. Whereas European countries one after another are allowing gay people to form mariage-like unions, several American states now are putting laws on the books to outlaw legal unions between people of the same sex. Since the identity of most American is tied up with the idea of macho cowboy, it is a brilliant symbolic move to show cowboys deeply in love with each other.

Let’s see how long it will take before every person in American can marry whoever they want. The many young people in the theatre tonight and the popular success of the film throughout the land gives me confidence that it will not take more than one generation.

Addendum: The state of Utah banned this film after I wrote my review. This is just proves that the young people in Utah are ready to watch the film… I will go out on a limb for once and make a prediction: gay people will be able to file for civil unions even in the Mormon state within three generations, unless the U.S. experiences some cataclysmic event, challenging the security and livelihood of each an everyone everyday.

 

Addendum, April 6, 2026: I was much to conservative in my prediction.  Nine year later the Supreme Court, on  June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.