[T]he movie plays like any soap opera about a love that cannot be--the weeper mechanism is entirely familiar from hetero movies.... Brokeback Mountain isn't a gay western, it's a gay Back Street.
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work ![]()
Reviews Counted:225
Fresh:194
Rotten:31
Average Rating:8.1/10
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
Get This Movie
Rent DVD
Click on the "ADD" button to put this movie into your Netflix queue.
Buy DVD
Reviews for Brokeback Mountain
Brokeback Mountain is a beautifully filmed and superbly acted picture. It's a romance for the ages and it's ready, willing and able to break your heart.
Ledger carries the film. His performance is a symphony of reserve ... he seems to be torn between exploding in anger and frustration and folding up into a fetal position.
[C]hange the names and genders as you wish. This is the sort of adult drama that people can relate to if they have any sort of romantic regrets.
Reasonably effective portrayal of gay love, but with the regulation unhappy ending
Ang Lee takes his time developing the characters and situations, making the proceedings credible. And Rodrigo Prieto's photography captures the magnificent Wyoming settings by emphasizing natural beauty, as well as the feeling of remoteness and isolation.
Director Lee, whose movies range widely through history and around the world, gives this one the heartsick, soulful ring of truth.
Nothing in Ledger's string of previously wooden performances can prepare you for how good he is here - the deep seated sense of heartfelt longing he conveys is devastating to watch.
The whole movie is a rich, spacious, passionate way of showing, not telling, feelings that dare not speak their name -- and doing so with superb intelligence and magnificent candour.
When Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist are together, it's simply about human beings in love. Two men. Now get over it.
What really sets the film apart from most movie romances is not its same-sex theme but its visual grandeur and exquisite powers of observation.
Lee takes a setup that could easily slide into tragic self-parody and instead steers it confidently toward the moving and transcendent.
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.'
Any of us can imagine a forbidden passion so sweeping that it carries us off at flood tide, never allowing us to question it. Whether the object of our affection would carry a purse, a lariat or both is beside the point.
a monotonous and often inadvertently campy romance that rivals The Hours as the most overrated movie of the decade
Begins in a picturesque nowhere of tall mountains and big skies, where the only stone wall here is the real thing, with nothing political muddying the mortar.
It's a hackneyed, underdeveloped melodrama disguised as serious art house fare.
It's that it's the very powerful, very real love story of two men that gives Brokeback its quality and universality -- and scares the hell out of its detractors.
Latest News for Brokeback Mountain
November 13, 2009:
James Schamus talks Taking Woodstock - RT Interview
James Schamus might be a workaholic. If it's not enough that he's the head of Focus Features -- the independent imprint of Universal -- he's also an established producer and... More...
November 12, 2009:
Five Favourite Films with Ang Lee
The rule that no two Ang Lee movies are ever the same is confidently kept intact with the release of his latest, Taking Woodstock, a comedy about the true story behind the... More...
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...
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 15% 15% | The Ugly Truth |
| 98% 98% | Up |
| 36% 36% | G.I. Joe: The Rise of … |
| 52% 52% | The Taking of Pelham 1… |
| 45% 45% | Ice Age: Dawn of the D… |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 36% 36% | Angels & Demons |
| 68% 68% | Funny People |
| 25% 25% | Four Christmases |
| 45% 45% | Shorts |
RT On Current TV
DIRECTV 358 | Comcast 107 | DISH Network 196 | More...
What’s Hot On RT
Other News
CloseSponsored Links
Around The Network
- Brokeback Mountain at Rotten Tomatoes
- Brokeback Mountain at IGN
- Brokeback Mountain at AskMen
Fresh Links
Featured

The director talks about puppetry perfection and his film, Fantastic Mr. Fox

Hollywood.com ponders whether or not an animated film could win Best Picture.

Richard Corliss previews the season's best offerings and hottest tickets.

The AV Club's Mike D'Angelo airs his beefs with Alfonso Cuaron's Children of Men.
Promos

Get the latest Tomatometer updates on upcoming movies!



Top Critic



