Perhaps because it played by the rules while challenging them at the same time, Brokeback Mountain’s place in film history is assured. In 2018, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry, which recognises works that are “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”. It occupies an equally integral, though more complicated place, in the queer film pantheon. “As a piece of cinema, it remains as ravishing and disarming as ever,” Betancourt argues, “but as a pivot point for queer representation, it remains as singular but limiting as it was then.” It is, after all, the story of two closeted gay or possibly bisexual men who “pass” as straight in their everyday lives.
