Brokeback Mountain poster & wallpaper

Anne Hathaway, Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal

Set against the sweeping landscapes of Wyoming and Texas, this epic love story tells of two young men -- a ranch-hand and a rodeo cowboy -- who meet in the summer of 1963 while driving cattle on a mou...( read more  read more... )ntain range. They unexpectedly forge a lifelong connection, one whose complications, joys and tragedies provide a testament to the endurance and power of love.

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77% liked it

483,899 ratings

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86% liked it

225 critics

R, 2 hrs. 14 min.

Directed by: Ang Lee

Release Date: December 9, 2005

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DVD Release Date: April 4, 2006

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Flixster Reviews (43,717)

  • 76Majikat
    October 31, 2009
    76Majikat
    A film that leaves you full of emotions. Not the first film to bring about the subject of Homosexuality, yet the size of publicity this film gained, both positively and negatively has probably made it the most talked about Gay Interest film.

    What makes this film quite unique ...( read more)for me is the lack of stereotyping in the casting and sitation of the storyline. The storyline builds from a slow moving start to a powerful and emotional tale.

    Truly great performances by both Ledger and Gyllenhaal and is part of my favourite films list.
  • SirPant
    September 30, 2009
    SirPant
    Overall I was disappointed. Loads of hype didn't help and while the scenery and cinematography was good, I though all the performances where unconvincing and it really dragged on. Also, why didn't they age? A moustache does not make up for 20 years of ageing! Had some cool cars i...( read more)n it though! (Not trying to emphasise my heterosexuality there, I just like old American cars). Watch with subtitles but don't go out of your way to rent it out any time soon.
  • ironclad1609
    June 11, 2009
    ironclad1609
    Although a lot of people called this the "movie with the gay cowboys" when it came out, everyone who saw this beautiful film should understand that this was not a story about being straight or gay. It's about forbidden love and not daring to follow through with it against all con...( read more)ventions and the grief that comes with it. The film is beautifully shot, the main theme unforgettable, the acting top notch. Although the flow is really slow at times, there are several scenes that will stay with the audience for a very long time. The ending is particularly touching. Heath Ledger hugging Gyllenhaals shirt is one of those scenes he will be remembered for.
  • TheMachinist
    February 13, 2009
    TheMachinist
    "You know it could be like this, just like this always."

    Ang Lee's masterpiece is a landmark in cinematic perfection. The two male lead's, Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhall, give us career best performances as the two young cowboys who share a love that the world can't comprehend...( read more).

    There is so much raw emotion in the performances. Ennis Del Mar (Ledger) is the quiet one, who has more troubles to cope with his feelings. Jack Twist (Gyllenhall) is the more open one of the two, the one who suffers more of them not being able to live their lives as he would want to. In simple words, they just happen to live in the wrong place at the wrong time. Being cowboys, is there a more masculine profession to think of?

    The astonishing landscapes of Wyoming are presented in a beautiful way. The cinematography couldn't be any better. Had me almost pack my bags and go into the wild...

    The composer, Gustavo Santaolalla, deserves every credit he got. I'm a sucker for soundtracks that feature basically nothing more than a guitar and a piano. The score is simple, beautiful and a definite future classic in its own genre.

    "Brokeback Mountain" has several characters, not only the two male leads but also their female partners, whom the viewer has no problems to care about. All of the lead actors give us honest, moving and powerful performances, especially Heath Ledger. This is his movie, without a doubt.

    The film is a beautiful and tragic love story with exceptionally good performances, a future classic that will surely move you.

    "Brokeback got us good, don't it?"
  • IfeellikeGregorSamsa
    December 21, 2008
    IfeellikeGregorSamsa
    Too many wrong pictures get attention these days and it would be fair to say that "Brokeback Mountain" was one of them back in 2005, but only on a scale of how ridiculously it was misunderstood as a homosexual picture and, if I remember correctly, even banned in some places from ...( read more)screening. Well, if Jung was alive to observe this, he might say that we may have more homosexuals around us than we think since every time someone bursts out with some serious homophobic remarks it is possible it's because he has something in common with it. If something disturbs us in others, it more likely disturbs something we have in ourselves, in our unconciousness. Sadly, a movie can't be a teacher of psychology for thousands of people, it just can't. But as we see, it can be, even unintentionally, a prove of a small psychological experiment.

    Initially, when I first watched it shortly after all its hype, I didn't know what to think of it. Neither I liked it, nor I hated it. The story had a nice, slow, contemplative flow, direction was competent, cinematography and acting were fine, overall giving us yet another meatsy stamp of Ang Lee's trademark of cinematic excellence which in the end, strangely enough, doesn't rise above mediocrity. Watching it the second time surely hasn't much improved the rating I gave it then (from 2.5/5 to 3.5/5) but it surely convinced me that if Larry McMurtry's terrific script was realized by someone else, more passionate and courageous, the picture might've been much better, a bit shorter, a bit more darker and probably without the unnessessary sentimental tone which comes at the end. I should then say that I didn't like "Brokeback Mountain", as a movie. Yes. But I liked very much what it was about. What it touched. Certain elements of its substance can't go unnoticed since they're on the level of utmost importance.

    On the surface, "Brokeback Mountain" tells a story about two young cowboys, Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) who build a mysterious closure while tending the sheeps in Brokeback Mountain. It is mysterious as they themselves seem to be unable to understand what caused them to act this way onto each other, doing "something" which supposedly, as they've been raised and taught, should be taking place between man and woman. Unable to continue the relationship, they go separate ways, get married, start their families, growing more and more frustrated. And lonely. Were they truly unable to understand? Or maybe they understood it all too well? Or maybe just one of them?

    Without going into from what homosexuality comes from, whether it simply is a sexual orientation or a consequence of unproperly resolved Oedipus complex or something else, it's secondary to the meaning of the story whether Jack and Ennis are in fact homosexuals. What is important is the sheer need of being close with someone, and as close as possible, to experience this powerful emotion of ease and safety, which can also be frightening and ultimately uncomprehensible. It can happen between two men, why not? But here, once the two commit a sexual act, they never really leave Brokeback Mountain. No matter what they have - money, kids etc. - they're gone to the world, driven only to re-experience the time they had there. But what follows isn't the same, and it can't be. There's too much guilt, too much fear and, finally, resentment.

    What's great about McMurtry's script is that it always shows, and never tells. Jack and Ennis are a pair of simple men yet they realize the consequences fast enough. They both share a secret and they are sentenced to each other. Especially Ennis, who started all this by jumping at Jack, liberating his deeply repressed needs of sexual fulfillment and who now fights with himself, being in constant dilemma whether to be with Jack or to get away from him (but in truth, from himself). Yet he always chooses to meet Jack because he doesn't want the truth to come out to the light since he bears the terryfing story from his childhood about a man who was accused of being "a queer". The terrible image of him. Jack is in no better position: he invested all his feelings and trust in Ennis and romantisizes him, as he was the one with whom Jack had the best time of his life, back in Brokeback Mountain. When they come to conflict that ends their relationship, Jack is killed while trying to find someone with whom he might once again experience what he's experienced with Ennis-- only he chooses wrongly. Ennis is a closed-up person from the beginning but as the story progesses he becomes more and more closed on his true self, in the end going into obscurity. Convinced that living fully as a human being, on his own terms would bring a disaster, he only has regrets to be left with and say "Jack, I swear", meaning that he tried but wasn't strong enough to confront the fear and decide to take off with him. Ironically, he is the one who "survives", and who could safe this unique relationship from the beginning. He ends up in despair, unknown to anybody, never being understood, not even by Jack since he never really gave it a chance.

    In the second, much darker part of the picture, the true themes of the story start to come up to the surface, one after another: a sense of dissidence, a fear of dissidence, judgement-- how, by the power of shameful secret, guilt and social ostracism cause us to label ourselves... by our very selves. But McMurtry doesn't forget to fill the picture: he attacks a small-mindness and redneck thoughtless radicality. And he attacks them with class. By showing, just showing. How two people torment themselves and each other, in complete lonleiness, being slowly eaten to the bone by possible attack from their surroundings. But in the end, Jack and Ennis, each for his own, are their worst enemies.

    With dissidence always comes a sense of isolation, but also a sense of guilt of not being able to fully belong even though one wishes to, more than anything. The story of Jack and Ennis is a universal one. Why then looking at it so narrowly? What about mentally ill? Physically ill? Ugly, unpopular, scarred? Even Jews, if we look even wider. In the end, it's one powerful sense of a gap between one man and all the others. But in case of gays alone? Sure that's a tough one. Because how can a man live fully if he feels the need to come out with something of utmost privacy because our culture made him feel as if he has to in order to be true to himself and to them and right then rejecting him, hating him, mocking him for it? And how to live if he knows that admiting to who he really is may be one of the worst things he can do to himself? He wants it and at the same time he hates that he wants it. No wonder why some of us feel that humanity shows no progress. And after all the crying, punching the walls, tearing the hair out, the overwhelming sense of wanting to belong - no matter of what sexuality, illness or nationality - and being treated like any other human being and not getting it must feel like a curse...

    ...And as I'm ending this review Winamp pops up the classic Jefferson Airplane's song in which one line feels like a warning: "You better find somebody to love..."
  • jookidsmagz1
    November 20, 2009
    jookidsmagz1
    this movie change my paradigm about gays. now i see them as human. but Ennis Del Mar & Jack Twist are great story. i love them.
  • ythelastman89
    November 18, 2009
    ythelastman89
    I really enjoyed the acting and the chemistry between Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal. The time line was waaay too spread out for me and I felt cheated out of the whole story. I think if they centered around a specific point in the story, it would have been more emotional and ef...( read more)fective.
  • bronzlox1
    November 16, 2009
    bronzlox1
    Just too long and slow.
  • PirateHatsRock
    November 13, 2009
    PirateHatsRock
    I have never cried so much at a film before in my entire life.
    I cried three times in it.
    Then for half an hour afterwards.
    And now I can't concentrate on anything because it was so emotional and sad and.....
    and innnccccreeeeddddiiibbbblllle film.
    watch it now.
  • nohemizorayacruz
    November 12, 2009
    nohemizorayacruz
    Q TAL. Q TAL.... UUUUYYYYY EL AMOR ,EL AMOR.......BIEN

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Critic Reviews

December 20, 2005
Colin Covert, The Minneapolis Star Tribune

It has become shorthand to call Brokeback Mountain the 'gay cowboy movie,' but it is much more than that glib description implies. This is a human story, a haunting film in the tradition of the great ... full review

December 20, 2005
Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle

A film about love and the cost of lying that's exquisite in its beauty, painful in its truths. full review

December 15, 2005
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

The filmmakers have focused so intently and with such feeling on Jack and Ennis that the movie is as observant as work by Bergman. full review

December 9, 2005
Marcy Dermansky, About.com

Brokeback Mountain is an epic love story about gay cowboys and that, in itself, is something. Otherwise, the film is not one to get particularly excited over. full review

December 8, 2005
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com

Brokeback Mountain takes great pains to be a compassionate love story; but the filmmaking itself, self-consciously restrained and desiccated, is inert and inexpressive. full review

December 8, 2005
David Edelstein, Slate

Ang Lee's formalism is so extreme that it's often laughable, and the sex is depicted as a holy union: Gay love has never been so sacred. full review

December 8, 2005
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

[The film] is directed by Ang Lee in a style that pays attention to the nuances of expression, to the thoughts and emotions being articulated between the words and in the pauses. full review

December 5, 2005
Anthony Lane, The New Yorker

Its beauty wells from its sorrow, because the love between Ennis and Jack is most credible not in the making but in the thwarting. full review

November 30, 2005
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

Ang Lee's unmissable and unforgettable Brokeback Mountain hits you like a shot in the heart. It's a landmark film and a triumph for Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal. full review

View more Brokeback Mountain reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments

  • pius1845
    October 25, 2009
    pius1845
    i havent yet viewed this movie hope somebody could make it possible..hehe..
  • shemale317
    December 19, 2008
    shemale317
    i still love this moveie the muastd !!!
  • rbevanx
    September 14, 2008
    rbevanx
    Very good film. Watched this because this was the only thing on TV and was very suprised how good it was. I totally understand now why people say Ledger should have won an oscar for this film. Reminded me alot of the film "Boys Don't Cry" where Hillary Swank won a Oscar.
  • estefiop
    August 16, 2008
    estefiop
    Can anyone explain me why Ennis say "Jack,I swear" at the end? please tell me!
  • ma780101
    May 21, 2008
    ma780101
    many weird comments about this movie. some people just donīt seem to have gotten it.

    Like someone commented that she thought it was strange that they both married...wow. Did you even watch the movie?

    Or all the people commenting on they dondīt liking the movie because itīs about two gay men...

    I feel sad..

    The movie is about love. About how societyīs expectations and prejudices keep two human beings from each other. Its a beautiful, haunting story that hasnīt left me since I first watched it two years ago.
    The acting is superb and so is Ang Leeīs direction.
  • balmalidia
    May 13, 2008
    balmalidia
    hello to all fans of this movie, I am very sad that died one pair to my great actor Heath Ledger was my favorite and I am much charm to this movie was my best, not only what I liked is that their partner died in the movie and I am only what was more, and I charming landscape of the mountain until I thought I was there with my boyfriend, may he rest in peace my beloved actor and your soul with this diosito and enlighten you with its light, (though has really doubt that died LoQ ue nose is only that they found dead in his house).
  • TexasHorn
    March 10, 2008
    TexasHorn
    what the f*ck, 2 gay cowboys in love with eachother, thats kinda disturbing
  • vivi13072
    February 29, 2008
    vivi13072
    This movie was really good I thought...R.I.P. Heath Ledger
  • vengeance41
    February 10, 2008
    vengeance41
    i like this movie alot, i do cried alot at the end of coz the death of jack twist, it's so sudden n unbelievable. Now, knowing that heath's gone, remembering this movie for me seems like the story came out into reality. the same loss and denial.
    though i've never been a fan of heath ledger n i've never followed his career before, the news of his death has more than enough to put me in tears. he has so much to go through, n i believe he'd receive an oscar some day.
    i can't pretend if i could stand to watch this movie again from the beginning til the end...
    farewell, heath...u'll be missed forever
  • xFEARxMEx
    February 3, 2008
    xFEARxMEx
    HEATH!JAKE!I LOVE YOU!*fangirl scream*
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