Beyond ‘Brokeback Mountain’: the daring directors reinventing the Western
Pedro Almodóvar’s ‘Strange Way of Life’ has just landed on MUBI as part of their Neo-Westerns: A New Frontier series. Words Patrick Sproull In the early 2000s Pedro Almodóvar turned down the opportunity to direct Brokeback Mountain, the groundbreaking gay romance starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger.
20 years later the Spanish filmmaker has returned to present what he describes as his “answer” to Brokeback Mountain, with the sexy, passionate Strange Way of Life – now streaming on MUBI as part of their new season, Neo-Westerns: A New Frontier.
In its golden age, the Western was a genre dominated by men. Male characters were often portrayed as lonely nomads, taciturn cowboys skulking around the fringes of society.
Women were confined to saloons or wife roles. People of colour were virtually nonexistent. Any trace of queerness was always implicit, the smallest crumbs being moments like Red River’s Montgomery Clift and John Ireland comparing the size of their, uh, pistols.
