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Based on the movies reception by the American public, there is reason to be optimistic. Despite being an independent film that had long languished in development, and that was filmed for only $14 million, Brokeback has earned $74 million domestically and over $111 million worldwide. This is far from the flop that many anticipated, although if Brokeback does win the Oscar for Best Picture, there is still a good chance that it may not break the magic $100 million mark domestically, something most Best Picture winners do manage.

Like In the Heat of the Night, Brokeback has been a critical smash. The reviews have been almost universally glowing, and those that weren't, nonetheless acknowledged the film's power, as well as its phenomenal performances. Brokeback has won almost every major Best Picture award from the Golden Globes to the Directors Guild to the BAFTA's (Britain's version of the Oscar). Ang Lee has been similarly honored for directing, as have Larry McMurty and Diana Ossana for writing.

Brokeback has even fared reasonably well in the “red” areas of the country that tend to vote Republican. And it has definitely crossed over from being a “gay” movie to one that straight people---granted, more women than men---have been willing to embrace despite its supposed sexual explicitness. Add to that the extraordinary amount of media coverage devoted to the movie and there is no doubt Brokeback marks a cultural milestone.

None of this is to say that everyone has loved the movie. Religious conservatives have blasted the “gay cowboy” movie calling it everything from “abhorrent” to “sadomasochistic” to “homosexual propaganda”. And that barely scratches the surface of their vitriol.

Secular conservatives have been no kinder. David Kupelian of WorldNetDaily.com wrote an article titled “The Rape of the Marlboro Man” and then appeared on FOX to share his opinion. Charles Kincaid, of Accuracy in Media, has managed to be even more homophobic. Even Larry King invited anti-gay pundits on his show to debate and criticize a movie they couldn't be bothered to see.

FOX commentator Bill O'Reilly can scarcely imagine himself catching the movie, but if he did, he imagines that when the romantic scene in the pup tent occurs he will find himself wondering what would happen if the cowboys from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly were to stumble upon Jack and Ennis. Says O'Reilly, “Gunfire would be involved I imagine.”

MSNBC's Chris Matthew and radio personality Don Imus referred to Brokeback as Fudgepack Mountain among other derogatory comments they offered on-air. Neither they, nor O'Reilly, nor any of the other public figures who have said similar things have faced any real censure for their comments. No doubt equally ugly things were said about Poitier and his movies, but it is doubtful they were said on national television by national figures.

Brokeback has also been widely spoofed and satirized, sometimes affectionately, sometimes not. Sports fans of the Seattle Seahawks and Gonzaga University Bulldogs in Spokane, Washington, have used Brokeback as an epithet to hurl against opposing teams.

Meanwhile, politicians have either run from the topic (see President Bush's bumbling response to whether he had seen the movie or not) or used it as proof of the country's decay to press their homophobic agenda. Back in 1967, Senator Bobby Kennedy made it a point to be the one to present Norman Jewison with one of the many accolades won for In the Heat of the Night.

So has Brokeback shown that America is truly progressing on the issue of gay and lesbian rights? One would need a crystal ball to answer that with certainty. It's hard to know whether or not Jack and Ennis' ill-fated love story will one day be looked back at as the movie that marked a before and after period in our struggle for gay and lesbian equality.

But when Ang, Heath, Jake and everyone else gather on stage Sunday night to collect an Oscar for Best Picture, it will be hard not to feel that America has indeed passed the Brokeback Mountain test.

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