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Brokeback Mountain (2005)
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Reviews Counted: 223
Fresh: 193
Rotten:30
Average Rating: 8.2/10
Consensus: A beautifully epic Western, Brokeback Mountain's gay love story is embued with heartbreaking universality, helped by the moving performances of Ledger and Gyllenhaal.
Runtime: 2 hrs 15 mins
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:Dec 9, 2005 Limited
Box Office: $82,970,165
Synopsis: From Academy Award-winning filmmaker Ang Lee comes an epic American love story, based on the short story by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Proulx and adapted for the screen by the team of... From Academy Award-winning filmmaker Ang Lee comes an epic American love story, based on the short story by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Proulx and adapted for the screen by the team of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana. Set against the sweeping vistas of Wyoming and Texas, the film tells the story of two young men – a ranch-hand and a rodeo cowboy – who meet in the summer of 1963, and unexpectedly forge a lifelong connection, one whose complications, joys and tragedies provide a testament to the endurance and power of love. Early one morning in Signal, Wyoming, Ennis del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) meet while lining up for employment with local rancher Joe Aguirre (Randy Quaid). The world which Ennis and Jack have been born into is at once changing rapidly and yet scarcely evolving. Both young men seem certain of their set places in the heartland – obtaining steady work, marrying and raising a family – and yet hunger for something beyond what they can articulate. When Aguirre dispatches them to work as sheepherders up on the majestic Brokeback Mountain, they gravitate towards camaraderie and then a deeper intimacy. At summer's end, the two must come down from Brokeback and part ways. Remaining in Wyoming, Ennis weds his sweetheart Alma (Michelle Williams), with whom he will have two daughters as he ekes out a living. Jack, in Texas, catches the eye of a rodeo queen Lureen Newsome (Anne Hathaway). Their courtship and marriage result in a son, as well as jobs in her father's business. Four years pass. One day, Alma brings Ennis a postcard from Jack, who is en route to visit Wyoming. Ennis waits expectantly for his friend, and when Jack at last arrives, in just one moment it is clear that the passage of time has only strengthened the men's attachment. In the years that follow, Ennis and Jack struggle to keep their secret bond alive. They meet up several times annually. Even when they are apart, they face the eternal questions of fidelity, commitment and trust. Ultimately, the one constant in their lives is a force of nature – love. -- © Focus Features [More]
Starring: Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Williams, Anne Hathaway
Starring: Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Williams, Anne Hathaway, Randy Quaid, Linda Cardellini, Anna Faris, Valerie Planche
Director: Ang Lee
Director: Ang Lee
Screenwriter: Larry McMurtry, Diana Ossana
Producer: Diana Ossana, James Schamus
Composer: Gustavo Santaolalla
Studio: Focus Features
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Release:
Jun 14, 2009
DVD Features:
- Region 1
- Snap Case
- Anamorphic Widescreen - 1.85
Audio:
- Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround - English, French
- Subtitles - English (SDH), French, Spanish
Additional Release Material:
Featurette:
- 1. ON BEING A COWBOY
- 2. DIRECTING FROM THE HEART: ANG LEE
- 3. FROM SCRIPT TO SCREEN: Interviews with Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana
- 4. SHARING THE STORY: The Making of BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
Reviews for Brokeback Mountain
Arguably Ang Lee's best film, this swooning, achingly sad near-masterpiece offers a universal love story that lingers long in the mind.
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.
At its core, Brokeback Mountain is not a gay love story%u2013it is simply a love story.
It has the simplicity and clarity of a fable, wedded to the gnarled and taciturn physical realism of the Western.
Annie Proulx's beautiful, delicate short story...has been transformed into a beautiful, delicate movie under the masterly direction of Ang Lee.
Just a well-made, well-acted melodrama that is quiet and reflective instead of big and bombastic.
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.
it could have been real campy, if it weren't so well-crafted as to be Oscar material
A gallery of worthy performances, crisp direction and a quietly graceful script make Brokeback Mountain something of a landmark in Hollywood's 2005 slate of movies.
A gorgeous meditation on the sorrow of finding everything you want and not knowing how to keep it.
Behind its convenient (and infuriating) designation as "the gay cowboy movie," this is as universal as any love story Hollywood has produced in recent times.
[A] powerful and moving film, a smart study of relationships that could but can’t and never will be.
The approach is dry as the Wyoming landscape, and while it occasionally threatens to pull the film out of shape, it's still the right one for these men.
A jaundiced portrait of maleness in crisis… extending not only to… the central characters, but also to the validity of manhood as exemplified by every other male character in the film.
There is very little in the cold, clear air of Brokeback Mountain that isn't first rate [although] its argument may, for many of us, already seem strangely under- and overdone.
The first quarter of Brokeback Mountain plays like a silent movie version of Waiting of Godot, but starring two Marlboro Men instead of Vladimir and Estragon . . .
Beautifully photographed and well acted, but also slow moving and episodic
This is a beautiful movie, and a brave one -- and not in a grandstanding, PC kind of way. Ledger stands revealed as an actor of breath-taking gifts.
Latest News for Brokeback Mountain
January 29, 2008:
No Country for Old Men Takes Top Honors at SAG Awards
Blessed with a waiver by its striking brethren in the Writers Guild, the Screen Actors Guild was able to turn Sunday's SAG Awards ceremony into one of the only "real" awards... More...
January 22, 2008:
Heath Ledger: 1979-2008
Heath Ledger, star of films including Brokeback Mountain, 10 Things I Hate About You, and the forthcoming The Dark Knight, was found dead this afternoon. He was 28. More...
September 11, 2007:
Toronto Film Fest: Ang Lee's Lust, Caution Reviewed
Among the higher profile entries in Toronto, Ang Lee's Lust, Caution had a particular notoriety coming in; not only were fest-watchers waiting to confirm or contradict the early... More...
September 07, 2007:
TIFF Blog: Why Toronto Is Hot, Roger Ebert, Lust, Caution, and Darren Lynn Bousman
The weather forecast for tomorrow in sunny Toronto, Ontario is 90 degrees with about a billion percent humidity, so it is from only the most devoted reaches of our Tomato-strewn... More...
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