Jake Gyllenhaal

More Jake Gyllenhaal

Jake Gyllenhaal by Mario Testino.

An oddly sexy man.   But I wouldn't say no.  He might, though!

[from Hunk du Jour]

Jake Gyllenhaal

I'm pretty certain that this is Mr Gyllenhaal. Whoever it is, he is hot.

Not admitting

Brokeback Mountain -- Ennis del Mar played by the much-missed Heath Ledger, not admitting (at the motel) how much he'd missed Jack Twist (played by Jake Gyllenhaal)

What a magnificent film.

Jake Gyllenhaal

As Jack Twist in Brokeback Mountain.

A marvellous, deeply moving masterpiece.

Brokeback Mountain

This film changed the public's perceptions of gay love.  The fuss and blather the Christian-Fascists made just encouraged everybody to see it.  Ordinary people came away realising that "gay" isn't just effeminate men in feather boas, that straight-looking and straight-acting men could be gay too.  More than that ... that they could love.  It wasn't just sex.  It was love.  I've mentioned here before that though straight, Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger seemed as fond of each other off-screen as they acted on-screen.

It's been a few years since the film was released.  But it will stay in my mind forever.

Look at the love on Heath Ledger's face, and the contentment on Jake Gyllenhaal's.  Magic.

Jake Gyllenhaal & Heath Ledger

I remember when Brokeback Mountain was just whispered about.  Like everybody else who was a bit or more than a bit gay, and all those straight women who support the gay cause, we read everything we could, discussed every snippet of info, and planned for our first viewing of the film.  Which was an amazing and wonderful, a subtle and marvellous masterpiece.  (For those who've not seen this incomparable film, here is a rather bloodless summary from Wikipedia.  Now go out and see it!)

Here are two of the photo stills from the film, which show an extraordinary closeness between Ennis del Mar (played by Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (acted by Jake Gyllenhaal)   Real or acted?  If acted, it's consummate acting.  Look at the look on both their faces, especially in the first picture.  This looks like love.  Examine Jack Twist's face, with the downcast eyes and the serene happiness.  Look at Ennis del Mar's fierce possessiveness and love.  Remarkable.

Recently, I came across two photos of these actors off camera, and was astounded to see their closeness.  Not love ("in love") as Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist were, but an obvious and unashamed intense affection.  I know these blokes weren't gay, in the sense of the word when we use it as a label to describe sexual orientation and sexual culture.   But the love and affection for each other, the playful way they transgress the boundaries of straight male public affection is telling.  And heart-warming.

It is said that Jake Gyllenhaal was extremely distraught at Heath Ledger's death.  Understandably.

I felt I had lost a friend, even though I didn't know him -- perhaps not a friend, a beloved and admired patron, because as a straight actor he had the courage to play a gay role, which might have destroyed his career, but which instead altered the world, and made ordinary people realise that we homos can love and we do, and that that love is as valid and real and worthy as the heterosexual kind.  I wonder how much of the rapid advance of acceptance of us by the straight world over the last five years is due just to this film and this act of courage by these two guys.

Thank you Jake and Heath (wherever your spirit is).  You did good.  You helped make the world a better place, and there is no higher calling.