Almost as important, will any gay male sex sell with mainstream American audiences?

Brokeback Mountain producer James Schamus tried to clamp down expectations for gay sex scenes when he told the Calgary Sun in 2004 that the sex scenes are “modest” and that the movie is “old-fashioned.”  Or perhaps he was merely reassuring nervous investors.

But then came a report that one kissing scene was so passionate that during the filming, Ledger almost broke Gyllenhaal’s nose.

All was finally revealed in early September at the Venice Film Festival, when the film had its world premiere.  Attendees liked what they saw and ended up awarding the movie the festival’s top award, the Golden Lion.

And the gay sex?  Not overtly explicit, but apparently like nothing in a major American movie to date.  Rumor has it that in one particularly steamy scene, Ledger shows Gyllenhaal a new meaning to the word “cowpoke.” In a nod to uncomfortable straight male viewers (especially the 99% of all film critics who are straight white men), the movie reportedly also includes a nude frontal by Anne Hathaway, a.k.a. the princess from The Princess Diaries.

Brokeback Mountain may or may not be a good movie, but apparently its producers are very, very smart.

The sex-in-Brokeback-Mountain question isn’t a completely prurient one.  After all, it’s not like there isn’t already plenty of explicit gay sex on film and video, on the internet and elsewhere.

It’s just that theatrical movies are, well, movies.  And movie sex is better than porn sex.  Better lighting, for one thing.

Plus, for whatever reason, movie sex does legitimize certain sex acts.  In 1987, when Dennis Quaid went down on Ellen Barkin in The Big Easy, women everywhere swooned (and dragged their husbands and boyfriends back to watch an otherwise mediocre flick).  Meanwhile, elevators have never been the same since Glenn Close and Michael Douglas went at it in Fatal Attraction.

But the history of gay sex in cinema is, well, ugly.

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