Director Ang Lee later admitted in interviews that he approved the trailer’s opacity. "We wanted the audience to discover the love the same way the characters do," he said. "By surprise. In the dark. Without warning." When Brokeback Mountain was released, it became a phenomenon. It grossed $178 million worldwide on a $14 million budget. It won three Golden Globes and three Oscars (including Best Director). And it was the most parodied film of the year—every late-night sketch mocked the "gay cowboy" angle that the trailer had so carefully hidden.
This was not an accident. It was a carefully engineered marketing strategy, often referred to internally at Focus Features as "the cowboy misdirection." o segredo de brokeback mountain trailer
To the untrained eye, it looked like a solemn, sweeping period romance. Two young men—Heath Ledger’s Ennis del Mar and Jake Gyllenhaal’s Jack Twist—meet against the majestic backdrop of the Wyoming wilderness. There are horses, campfires, a beautiful woman (Michelle Williams), and a tense marriage. There is longing. There is tragedy. Director Ang Lee later admitted in interviews that
The trailer is cut like a classic American Western tragedy—think The Last Picture Show meets The Misfits . The swelling, melancholic score (long before Gustavo Santaolalla’s iconic guitar became famous) emphasizes loss, not passion. The voiceover asks, "Is there a greater gift than the love that takes you by surprise?" The word "gay" is never uttered. The goal was to lure in the heartland audience that would never dream of buying a ticket to a "gay film," but would absolutely show up for a "Heath Ledger drama about a cowboy’s broken heart." In the dark
