Opening

87% Star Trek Into Darkness May 16
22% Erased May 17
93% Frances Ha May 17
44% The English Teacher May 17
42% Black Rock May 17
77% Pieta May 17
—— Populaire May 17
21% 33 Postcards May 17

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78% Iron Man 3 $72.5M
50% The Great Gatsby $50.1M
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56% Oblivion $4.1M
69% The Croods $3.6M
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8% The Big Wedding $2.5M
60% Oz the Great and Powerful $1.1M

Coming Soon

—— The Hangover Part III May 23
79% Fast & Furious 6 May 24
—— Epic May 24
94% Before Midnight May 24

Brokeback Mountain (2005)

tomatometer

87

Average Rating: 8.2/10
Reviews Counted: 234
Fresh: 203 | Rotten: 31

A beautiful, epic Western, Brokeback Mountain's love story is imbued with heartbreaking universality thanks to moving performances by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal.

91

Average Rating: 8.2/10
Critic Reviews: 46
Fresh: 42 | Rotten: 4

A beautiful, epic Western, Brokeback Mountain's love story is imbued with heartbreaking universality thanks to moving performances by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal.

audience

77

liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 483,899

My Rating

Movie Info

Ang Lee's adaptation of E. Annie Proulx's story Brokeback Mountain stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger as young cowboys named Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar. Each of them is hired to corral sheep on the title location and they soon bond very closely. Their platonic relationship explodes into a physical one, but eventually the two are separated when their job comes to an end. Although the two follow different life paths -- one becoming a father of two and the other marrying into a successful

R,

Drama, Romance

Larry McMurtry, Diana Ossana

Apr 4, 2006

$83.0M

Focus Features - Official Site External Icon

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Cast

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All Critics (234) | Top Critics (46) | Fresh (212) | Rotten (31) | DVD (38)

Like all great love stories, Ang Lee's is one of tragic romance, strongly acted by Heath Ledger as the most buttoned-up of cowboys, and Michelle Williams as his betrayed and enraged wife.

January 13, 2006 Full Review Source: Newark Star-Ledger | Comment (1)
Newark Star-Ledger
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Ang Lee continues to astonish.

January 9, 2006
The New Republic
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Both [Gyllenhaal and Ledger] embody what that old Waylon and Willie song taught us -- 'Cowboys ain't easy to love, and they're harder to hold.'

January 6, 2006 Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel
Orlando Sentinel
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Lee has taken a story of gay love and placed it where it should be -- in the mainstream. He's delivered a beautifully crafted film to boot.

December 22, 2005 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
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A sweeping, solemn, self-serious chronicle of their relationship over several decades.

December 20, 2005 Full Review Source: Washington Post
Washington Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It stays with you after you've seen it, like a haunting strain of music; both love song and elegy for what might have been.

December 20, 2005 Full Review Source: Seattle Times
Seattle Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

An important and original romance that really and finally portrays the homosexual romance as two humans falling in love and never plays it for clichés...

August 2, 2010 Full Review Source: Cinema Crazed
Cinema Crazed

A romantic western with a twist, Brokeback Mountain is a haunting and well acted exploration of a forbidden and secretive love affair between two cowboys.

July 6, 2010 Full Review Source: Matt's Movie Reviews
Matt's Movie Reviews

Brokeback Mountain is ultimately about the paralysis of regret and how it fractures the lives of not just those afflicted by it, but everyone else around them.

December 6, 2009 Full Review Source: Cinemalogue.com
Cinemalogue.com

Lee can't tell the difference between criticizing oppression and turning out an oppressed work

August 30, 2009 Full Review Source: CinePassion | Comments (7)
CinePassion

Arguably Ang Lee's best film, this swooning, achingly sad near-masterpiece offers a universal love story that lingers long in the mind.

November 21, 2008 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comments (3)

If you have the patience to sit through a slow-moving romance and you lack the vanity to be put off by explicit cowboy on cowboy relations, you'll greatly appreciate the light at the end of Brokeback Mountain, a work of art that's more than just a movie.

November 20, 2008 Full Review Source: Hollywood.com
Hollywood.com

Mature, emotionally complicated film -- not for kids.

July 10, 2008 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media

At times feels as ancient and familiar as any well-worn piece of American legend, even if its content could set John Wayne spinning in his grave.

May 10, 2008 Full Review Source: Style Weekly (Richmond, VA)

At its core, Brokeback Mountain is not a gay love story%u2013it is simply a love story.

February 28, 2008 Full Review Source: BrandonFibbs.com
BrandonFibbs.com

It has the simplicity and clarity of a fable, wedded to the gnarled and taciturn physical realism of the Western.

August 11, 2007 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com
eFilmCritic.com

A masterful telling of star crossed love, with all the complications of any affair. Neither gratuitous nor shying away from the hidden pasion, Lee crafts a sublte and quite beautful film.

June 21, 2007 Full Review Source: Film Scouts
Film Scouts

Annie Proulx's beautiful, delicate short story...has been transformed into a beautiful, delicate movie under the masterly direction of Ang Lee.

February 22, 2007 Full Review Source: Film Journal International
Film Journal International

The 2-disc collector's edition includes a docu about the making of the film; the parodies inspired by the story; music from the mountian, in which composer Santaolalla talks about his score; and stars Ledger and Gyllenhaal discussing their preparations.

January 22, 2007
EmanuelLevy.Com

Brokeback got us good on DVD--not once but twice. Look for a third DVD in eight months with a scratch and sniff case made out of Jack Twist's denim shirt.

January 18, 2007 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine

Just a well-made, well-acted melodrama that is quiet and reflective instead of big and bombastic.

December 30, 2006 Full Review Source: NYC Film Critic
NYC Film Critic

Though presented as a story of thwarted love -- of ache and longing and regrets -- it's ultimately a story about the relationships that shape us -- for better and for worse.

September 22, 2006
Christianity Today

it could have been real campy, if it weren't so well-crafted as to be Oscar material

September 10, 2006 Full Review Source: Movies for the Masses
Movies for the Masses

Film with much religious and mystical imagery.

August 22, 2006 Full Review Source: Classic Film and Television
Classic Film and Television

Audience Reviews for Brokeback Mountain

Umm, why did i put off seeing thes great movie for two years? Stupid, stupid, stupid!

Standing in the aisles applauding wildly great!
June 27, 2007
brooklynspo

Super Reviewer

Faultless in its sheer power and emotion
October 14, 2012
Louis Rogers

Super Reviewer

    1. Ennis Del Mar: Jack, I swear.
    – Submitted by Jean R (45 days ago)
    1. Ennis Del Mar: Jack, I swear...
    – Submitted by Shishuraj K (5 months ago)
    1. Alma: Don't try to fool me no more, Ennis! I know what that means! Jack Twist... Jack Nasty! You didn't go up there to fish, you and him...
    – Submitted by Mariam M (7 months ago)
    1. Ennis Del Mar: If you can't fix it, Jack, you gotta stand it.
    – Submitted by Alex K (8 months ago)
    1. Jack Twist: I wish I knew how to quit you.
    – Submitted by Cathy D (8 months ago)
    1. Ennis Del Mar: If you can't fix it, Jack, you gotta stand it.
    – Submitted by Brandon R (9 months ago)

Discussion Forum

Topic Last Post Replies
Fracturedvertebrae Mountain 2 months ago 1

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Foreign Titles

  • Le Secret de Brokeback Mountain (FR)
  • Brokeback Mountain. En terreno vedado (ES)
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