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Movies / On DVD / Brokeback Mountain
Brokeback Mountain

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Brokeback Mountain (2005)

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Reviews Counted:226

Fresh:195

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

US 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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Reviews for Brokeback Mountain

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61 - 80 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 >> >|
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Ledger is extraordinary here, so still and constant and beaten...

Full Review Source: Flick Filosopher | comment Comment
01/10/06
MaryAnn Johanson
MaryAnn Johanson
Flick Filosopher

...a courageous, transcendent film that may prove to be a landmark down the line in the Hollywood landscape.

Full Review Source: FromTheBalcony | comment Comment
01/09/06
Bill Clark
Bill Clark
FromTheBalcony

Lee strips away all the pizzazz for something that is much more pure - a rough and tough emotional journey.

Full Review Source: Oregon Herald | comment Comment
01/09/06
Mark Sells
Mark Sells
Oregon Herald

[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.

Full Review Source: Blogcritics.org | comment Comment
01/09/06
Alan Dale
Alan Dale
Blogcritics.org

Ang Lee continues to astonish.

Full Review Source: New Republic | comment Comment
01/09/06
Stanley Kauffmann
Stanley Kauffmann
New Republic

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.

Full Review Source: Juicy Cerebellum | comment Comment
01/08/06
Alex Sandell
Alex Sandell
Juicy Cerebellum

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.

Full Review Source: Goatdog's Movies | comment Comment
01/08/06
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
Goatdog's Movies

[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.

Full Review Source: Worcester Telegram & Gazette | comment Comment
01/07/06
Daniel M. Kimmel
Daniel M. Kimmel
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Reasonably effective portrayal of gay love, but with the regulation unhappy ending

Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews | comment Comment
01/07/06
Louis Proyect
Louis Proyect
rec.arts.movies.reviews

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.

Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City | comment Comment
01/07/06
Jeff Vice
Jeff Vice
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

Director Lee, whose movies range widely through history and around the world, gives this one the heartsick, soulful ring of truth.

Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review | comment Comment
01/07/06
Jim Lane
Jim Lane
Sacramento News & Review

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.

Full Review Source: ViewLondon | comment Comment
01/07/06
Matthew Turner
Matthew Turner
ViewLondon

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.

Full Review Source: Observer [UK] | comment Comment
01/07/06
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw
Observer [UK]

When Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist are together, it's simply about human beings in love. Two men. Now get over it.

Full Review Source: San Diego Union-Tribune | comment Comment
01/06/06
Lee Grant
Lee Grant
San Diego Union-Tribune

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.

Full Review Source: Sacramento Bee | comment Comment
01/06/06
Carla Meyer
Carla Meyer
Sacramento Bee

One of the most deeply affecting movies of its day.

Full Review Source: Rochester Democrat and Chronicle | comment Comment
01/06/06
Jack Garner
Jack Garner
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

Lee takes a setup that could easily slide into tragic self-parody and instead steers it confidently toward the moving and transcendent.

Full Review Source: Orlando Weekly | comment Comment
01/06/06
Steve Schneider
Steve Schneider
Orlando Weekly

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.'

Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel | comment Comment
01/06/06
Roger Moore
Roger Moore
Orlando Sentinel

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.

Full Review Source: Charlotte Observer | comment Comment
01/06/06
Lawrence Toppman
Lawrence Toppman
Charlotte Observer

a monotonous and often inadvertently campy romance that rivals The Hours as the most overrated movie of the decade

Full Review Source: Lawrence Journal-World | comment Comment
01/06/06
Jon Niccum
Jon Niccum
Lawrence Journal-World
 
 
61 - 80 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 >> >|
all

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...

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