"

ep, it's no coincidence that all critical roads to 
Brokeback Mountain seem to go through Red 
River. Of all the potentially gay cowboys populating Hollywood westerns (i.e. close-knit buddies Butch and Sundance, the cast of 
Johnny Guitar), Clift is the most obvious by virtue of his now un-closeted biography as well as the smoldering glares he exchanges with Ireland before Ireland essentially disappears from the story. It's a quick way to point out that regardless of all the blather about 
Brokeback Mountain being 'revolutionary,' the emotions it 
taps have been there all along. It's also, paradoxically, an easy way to underline why 
Brokeback Mountain earns the accolade 'groundbreaking': Heath Ledger's Ennis Del Mar and Jake Gyllenhaal's Jack Twist don't have to exchange pleasantries about their guns in place of acting on their feelings."
-- Lucia Bozzola, The Simon Magazine   
Brokeback Mountain: Why Cowboys Get the Blues