Gay cowboy film brings Ang Lee Golden Lion

SENSE and Sensibility director Ang Lee’s controversial story of cowboys in love, Brokeback Mountain, has won the Golden Lion for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival.

The film was adapted from a short story which appeared in The New Yorker in 1997, with Lee deciding to embark on the project after other names shied away from its controversial storyline.

Brokeback Mountain stars Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal as a ranch hand and rodeo cowboy embarking on an affair.

If the film reaps healthy box office returns - it is yet to be released in the US or Ireland - it could mean the smashing of Hollywood’s last taboo.

The Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon director described the movie, which has a sex scene between the two men, as “a great American love story.”

Set in the 1960s, it is based on the short story by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Proulx of hidden sexuality in the American west.

Ledger and Gyllenhaal’s characters fall in love while working as sheep herders on the majestic Brokeback Mountain.

At the summer’s end, the pair return to their normal lives - and both marry.

Four years later they meet again, and their relationship is secretly rekindled.

The American film has won the Golden Lion over the likes of The Constant Gardener, the adaptation of the John le Carré novel, and Terry Gilliam’s movie The Brothers Grimm.

Twenty films were shortlisted for the Golden Lion, with contributions from as far afield as the US, Russia, Italy, China, France, Portugal and Japan.

The Calgary Gay Rodeo Association advised and consulted the production.

Many Hollywood stars are advised not to take gay parts for fear of denting their image in the eyes of conservative America.

Some major actors are said to have refused to audition for the film, despite the fact that the director can usually audition anyone he wants.

Major Hollywood stars, such as Tom Hanks and Antonio Banderas, have played gay roles in the past.

George Clooney’s second film as a director, Good Night And Good Luck, won two big prizes at the Venice Film Festival.

The movie, which is shot in black and white, scooped Best Actor for David Strathairn in the lead role and Best Screenplay for Clooney and co-writer Grant Heslov.

The movie chronicles a broadcast journalist’s battle against the Communist witch-hunt that gripped 1950s America.