Brokeback Mountain (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)  

Favorite

Rave Reviews (100)*

• 1) Ennis and Jack

  by MICHAEL ACUNA on December 15 2005
    1600+ helpful votes

  Love has no rules. It happens when we least expect it, often when we don't want it, many times when we can't handle it. It often times scares you, surprises you, shakes you down to your very core. Ennis Del Mar (a remarkable Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (an emotionally available Jake Gyllenhaal) find themselves thrown together because of a job: forced to spend many hours together alone in the wild, tending to sheep in a remote region of Wyoming....on Brokeback Mountain. They fall in love: a love that they soon realize only lives and breathes on the mountain.
  It's 1963, pre American involvement in the Vietnam War, post Korean War: a time in the USA when life was simple, straightforward and the lines between the sexes and sex roles were crisply drawn and severely delineated. It was a time when men and women were pigeon-holed into unrealistic modes of behavior and anyone who ventured outside of these boundaries was thought of at best, weird at worst... perverted and in many states, criminal. Ennis himself, at an early age was witness to the ugly, disgusting results of a hate crime perpetrated on a Wyoming farmer who had lived many years with his partner. In most societies he would be venerated but in 1950's Wyoming... he became a target.
  Director Ang Lee begins this film as both Ennis and Jack are waiting outside of a building, both looking for work, both down on their luck, both avoiding each other's eyes. We know, or those of us who have read the story know, what is to happen and so unfortunately we read more into that simple scene than there really is. But with all that aside, this scene of Ennis and Jack avoiding each other, dodging each others looks, staring at the ground, kicking up the dirt is nonetheless rife with sensuality and tension.
  Ennis and Jack are inexorably drawn to each other through their proximity, loneliness and through a shared lack of tenderness and emotion in their lives: they are emotionally, physically and psychically bonded almost from the start. It is inevitable. It is Fate.
  And so begins a Love affair that transcends social mores, time, marriages, children, extra-marital affairs and divorce.
  Despite all that is going on in their lives, Ennis and Jack meet several times a year up on Brokeback mountain and rekindle and thereby re-ignite their emotional and physical attraction: there is no one around, they are free from their regular lives...they can love.
  Much has been made of Heath Ledger's performance as Ennis and he gives what is without a doubt one of the finest performances of this year. Ennis is a quiet, stoic man and he is troubled and frankly scared by how deeply he feels for Jack. As he showed us first in "Monster's Ball," Ledger is capable of digging way deep down into his gut and imbuing his performances with an unflinching frankness and truth that we can neither ignore nor help to be moved by.
  Gyllenhall's Jack is the younger of the two: he's fun, he's a little crazy and unfortunately he wants a lot, lot more than Ennis is able to give him. Gyllenhaal's hang-dog, frisky puppy of a performance is full of warmth and light: the kind of transcendent light that shines out from a soul full of love, understanding and acceptance.
  "Brokeback Mountain" is devastating in both its presentation, its performances and its tragic denouement. This movie is not for everyone. But if you are willing to open up your heart and mind a bit to let in its beauty, emotionality and sensuality you will not be disappointed. In fact... you will be renewed.
  

• 2) Tears at your heart

  by Cambel on December 22 2005
    890+ helpful votes

  After watching this movie friends and I spent the next few hours discussing it. It is a well done film no matter the subject, it is the story of two people in love who ache for each other and yet are forced to be apart. Add to that the fact that both are men and the time is 1963 and you get the added story that makes this film particularly wrenching. Jack and Enis meet when they are both hired to spend the summer up on Brokeback mountain tending to a herd of sheep. Enis is quiet to the point of seeming almost mute and Jack is the more lively of the two. One frozen night when huddled in the tent from the cold their supressed passion for each other becomes an irrisistable force and the two spend the remainder of their time on the mountain happy, or at least as happy as Enis's character can be. Their summer ends with Jack saying that they could still be together and Enis being overcome with rage at the mere suggestion. They last see each other as Jack is driving off and Enis is nonchalantly walking down a dirt street. It is after Jack is gone that Enis breaks down in an unexpected and powerful scene, hiding in an ally-way so nobody will see. Over the next several years they both marry and become fathers. The scene of their reunion 4 years later has so much emotion, longing and passion that it will take your breath away. They way they look at each other and that first kiss is one of the most powerful I've seen onscreen and I have to comend both actors. This movie however is not just about Jack and Enis, but also shows the effect on their wives, Michelle Williams of Dawsons creek does an amazing job of playing the wife of Enis who discovers his secret but stays quiet because she sees no other option and Anne Hathaway saying Good-bye to her Princess Diary character with a flirty agreesive character and a topless scene as she sets her sight on Jack. I won't go into the ending other than to say that the scene where Jacks parent are introduced is nearly as moving as their reunion scene and will leave you feeling wrung out.
  This is a film that will keep you invloved until the last credit on the screen goes blank and kudos to Ang Lee for putting such a memorable film onscreen.

• 3) Brokeback Mountan sure got us good

  by Film Lover on March 19 2006
    210+ helpful votes

  First off let me just say, wow, everyone was right, as a straight male I can truly say this movie touched me in a way no other film ever has. BBM definately deserved the Best Picture Oscar, and what makes me mad is that I really liked Crash, but thanks to the Academy I cant watch it without thinking, how could they choose this over a masterpiece like Brokeback.
  
  So most of you already know the story so I'll tell you about how this film affected me. My girlfriend wanted to go see this movie last week and I was actually pretty excited. I saw the previews and thought wow finally something original from Hollywood after a year full of crap. So we went and after the movie was over there were of course people crying but I didnt know what to feel, I thought the ending sucked but the acting was pretty good.
  
  Then I found myself thinking it over on the ride home, and all night I dont think I said more than two words to my family, and then as I was getting ready to go to sleep I started to tear up, I called my gf and she had the exact same reaction. Brokeback is a movie that definately touches you, not because its a gay romance, but because its a beautiful parable about loneliness, love, and what it means to be a man. I was reading a review about BBM and what it said was true. BBM was needed because the gay community has become a joke in this country, sure shows like Will and Grace and Queer Eye are out there but it just reinforces the stereotype that all gay men are fashion obsessed, feminine, and funny. Well I have gay friends, and most of them are just like me, theyre regular guys who do manly things and who just so happen to be attracted to other manly man because God made them that way. BBM definately does a lot of good in showing a more realistic side to the gay community.
  
  So like I said I hated the ending at first, then I went back to see it this week because I couldnt stop thinking about it, and it was even better the second time, I realized that by ending the way it does BBM shows the courage and strength that gay men have to go through to come out. I found myself asking that if I were gay would I have had the courage to give up everything I ever knew to be with the person I loved. Honestly I dont know if I could, I can sympathize with Ennis because I grew up in his situation, my father and mother have always preached against the sins of the world, including homosexuality, I dont know how Id ever be able to tell them if I were gay. Likewise almost everyone has that doubt that Ennis has, that wish that you had done something to make you happy instead of making everyone else happy, wheter its pursuing a relationship, career, or dream, we all have our regrets in life. What gets to me the most and what caused me to become one of those weeping audience members at the end of the second viewing was that Ennis does what he does in order to protect Jack, and unfortunately it kills him. I truly believe it wouldve been different had Ennis & Jack bought that ranch.
  
  The acting is phenominal, Heath Ledger gives one of the greatest screen preformances in history as Ennis Del Mar. Phillip Hoffman won the Oscar this year and I really liked his preformance, but Heath has so little to work with and yet is so heart wrenching. He's able to convey so much by just saying "Jack, I swear" than most actors could show in a whole film. Expect this role to pop up on AFI's list of greatest preformances sometime very soon. Michelle Williams is also a revalation, that scene where she sees Ennis and Jack kissing and essentially sees her world crashing down is so powerful without being showy, and Academy I have a serious complaint, Rachel Weisz, WTF? To say that her preformance was better than Michelle's in Brokeback and Amy Adams in Junebug, you have got to be kidding me, guess being pregnant buys you some serious points doesnt it. Now as for Jake Gylenhaal, the first time I saw BBM I actually didnt understand him, he didnt seem to have any sadness at seeing Ennis go that summer except for when hes in his truck, than I realized why, he was being strong for Ennis, he was essentialy saying im your rock. Its a tough preformance that you have to see more than once to truly appreciate but Jake nails it perfectly. Anne Hathaway as Lureen isnt really given much to work with, but that phone call with Ennis shows shes way more than just a one note actress.
  
  Yes, im rambling but its because BBM touched me so much its hard not to praise this film. For all those giving it one stars, you obviously havent watched the movie, because its so much more than two guys having sex, which by the way probably consists of 30 seconds of screen time and almost no nudity save for a shot of Jacks butt which if you cant handle that than how did you ever get through the gym class locker room. Also for all those saying homosexuality is a sin, and BBM glorifies it, the characters end up heart broken and alone, if anything its an anti-gay film, or at least would be if the scenes between Jack and Ennis didnt show that these two men obviously love each other completely, and I was raised Catholic, I believe god loves every one of us and gay people are born that way, and I think theyre put on this earth to teach us what real love is.
  
  Brokeback is definately an instant classic, and will go in my DVD collection right next to Citizen Kane and Million Dollar Baby as my all time favorites. And for those who felt it got shafted at the Oscars, dont worry, Citizen Kane, the greatest movie of all time got 1 Oscar for its screenplay, theres no doubt in my mind that BBM will be remmembered far longer than Crash, and that it will be way up on the AFI's list of the greatest movies of all time.

• 4) THE POWER OF LOVE

  by J. Abercrombi on January 28 2006
    80+ helpful votes

  "Brokeback Mountain" is the story of two all-man cowboys that find love in each other. The film is unique because it is not the typical gay stereo-type; perhaps it is the first mainstream film ever made on this topic?
  
  Ennis Del Mar (played by the very talented Heath Ledger) is a very quiet and rough around the edges kind of man. He doesn't show his feelings very well and is somewhat of a loner. Jack Twist (played by the equally accomplished Jake Gyllenhaal) is more vocal about his feelings and emotions, but can still be pushed around (although I did enoy it when he stood up to his bigoted father-in-law).
  
  What makes this tale so bitter is that their's is a forbidden love. It is reminiscent of "Titanic" or Romeo and Juliet. Please keep in mind that the picture took place during 60's, 70's, and early 80's, in Middle-America where no one was openly gay, much less a cowboy. But, despite all their differences and personal demons both men loved each other more than life itself.
  
  Anyone with connected eyeballs can tell that Ennis and Twist were deeply in love (this was not an affair, rather it was a serious relationship that lasted over two decades). It was proof that Twist loved Ennis when they were on the hill getting ready to leave after he playfully lassoed and punched Ennis. Twist looked so sad to have intentionally inflicted pain on his lover. But Ennis holed off and punched him, because no one was gonna make Ennis his fool. And it was evident that Ennis loved Twist when he sobbed like a baby on the street after they departed Brokeback Mountain separately.
  
  The cinematography in this picture was absolutely stunning. The soundtrack is also amazing. I am certain that this picture is very Oscar-worthy.
  
  I saw this movie about a month ago and I still can't get it out of my mind. It is a very full-toned and haunting picture. To say that it was the very best film that I have ever seen would simply trivialize it, because it is much more than just a movie.
  
  
  
  

• 5) If only I should come to feel a love like that...

  by J. Lee on March 30 2006
    70+ helpful votes

  This review might contain spoilers.
  
  This movie is brilliant. The first time I saw Brokeback Mountain, I left the movie theater in a dazed state, trying to digest what I just had seen. Wondering through some crowded streets of NYC on a cold, windy winter night, I never felt more alone. I hurried home. Many movies have left me excited, intrigued and sad. But none have left me as emotionally devastated as Brokeback has. It's as if the movie insinuated itself around my very soul and wrapped its grief around my unsuspecting heart - leaving it heartbroken ever since. The beauty of this movie is that it makes the characters seem so real, so live and their pain so raw, that the sorrow that permeates the story - hinted at first in the display of the most beautiful desolated sceneries, together with a melancholic music score, sneaks in your head, and unknowingly but quite forcefully takes hold of your body and soul and never seems to let them go.
  
  A few weeks later, after countless sleepless nights, unable to shake myself off this stupor, I saw BBM again. This time I left feeling better because it became clear to me that what I had just witnessed was one of the most beautiful love stories ever told. It doesn't matter for me that it happened to be between 2 men. Because there is something so refreshing, so innocent, so lovely about how the story unfolds, that it literally turned this quite jaded, a bit cynical New Yorker, inside out. But I gather that this movie is not meant for everyone. Considering the state of our world today, how we are brought up to fend for ourselves and how we are taught to never let our guards down, we shield our fragile selves from any hint of perceived emotional threats. And we shut down. But I guarantee 100% that if only you could keep the cynicism at bay for the length of this movie, it will transform you. Like I mention before, this movie really makes you hurt, a heartbreaking SOB of a love story that just kills you, but it can be life changing.
  
  Both Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger are phenomenal. Period. This movie wouldn't work if either one of them didn't give his heart and soul completely. What a remarkable screen performance these two give - a performance dug directly from the heart. Amazing. Some criticize that the characters don't develop enough rapport before that first scene in the tent. Nonsense. Haven't you ever heard of something called instant chemistry? And both Heath L. and Jake G. deliver throughout the movie. I bow my head to these guys. Of course the movie wouldn't work either without the great, touching performances from Michelle Williams, Anne Hathaway and Roberta Maxwell.
  
  This was a wonderful work from Ang Lee. To portray this movie in such a delicate, sensitive way merits all ovations it gets. During an interview, Ang Lee said that when casting, he decided to go after young and innocent. That choice has really paid off here because in a way that's why the movie works: because to find love when one is so young, so innocent, that is the purest kind of love. When tragedy hits later on the movie, and somehow we kind of expect that from the start, the only thing that remains out of this now flawed, resentful relationship is a sense of love. But Jack and Ennis' souls have been irremediably broken.
  
  Alas, this is the price these doomed individuals pay for living a life denied and full of lies. The soul dies first before physical death occurs. We see it happen in Jack's case, his soul dying, so touchingly captured in his mournful, dead blank eyes at their last fateful meeting when he watches Ennis' truck speed away. He bitterly tells Ennis: "We could've had a good life together...but YOU didn't want it...so Brokeback is all we got" finally letting all his resentment spill out on their most unsatisfactory relationship. To which Ennis replies, accusingly, angrily: "It's because of you Jack...that I'm like this...I'm nothing...I'm nowhere" before collapsing to the ground as if the weight of this impossible affair suddenly becomes too heavy a burden for him to carry. Jack rushes back to comfort him, and they hug mightily, desperately clinging to one another for they know that they have reached some crossroads in their hearts - their relationship hanging by a thread, they cannot help but watch it slip away.
  
  To his part, Ennis fares no better. When we last see him, alone in that empty, desolated trailer, surveying those shirts that he now tenderly guards, he swears love to a man that no longer exists but in his dreams and memories - a late cry of acknowledgment for what he always had felt but never dared to verbally express during those long 20 years. And like the emptiness of his trailer, Ennis' soul, so long tormented about a crime he saw as a child and so terrified by the notion that the love of his life was another man, cries in despair for a love forever lost, and it is now destined to wither away in solitary confinement.
  
  Thus, the tragedy and paradox of Brokeback Mountain: Love can help save a man from destroying a life that could have been but a man cannot save himself if love is left buried and hidden in the deepest corner of the human heart. Something has to give. So Jack and Ennis: if only I should come to feel a love like that, God help me, but I for one will not hold back. Thank you for showing me the reason why.
  

• 6) A shot at the heart: a true masterpiece.

  by Negri Gianfranco on March 25 2006
    70+ helpful votes

  Absolutely amazing!
  
  This movie hit me like a shot to the heart.
  
  It's a beautiful story about deep and genuine love, denied by society.
  
  How could some - luckily, very few - critics slap the easy tag of "gay cowboy movie" on this film, I wonder?
  
  "Brokeback Mountain" made me think about my own life, about the force of genuine feelings: those who are lucky enough to find true love in this - short - life should keep it like a treasure because this is ultimately what it counts.
  
  This film also made me think about the cruelty of some people, and the iniquities that homosexual people have suffered in different parts of the world, in different ages.
  
  I don't accept some criticism, according to which the characters are immoral because they are homosexual and cheat on their wives. Who said so didn't understand much of this film.
  
  Ennis has no tools to come to terms with his feelings and sexual attraction to Jack. He was brought up with a sense of horror towards homosexuality, which he considers as an aberrant condition to be ashamed of and repress: this is unfortunately what was taught to him. The social background he comes from doesn't enable him to cope with this situation.
  
  He literally swallows his feelings and hardly ever expresses them (well, he hardly ever speaks). He desperately tries to forget about Jack and Brokeback Mountain and live a "normal" life with his wife.
  
  But, as the movie poster tagline states, love is a force of nature, and you cannot resist to it: why should one's life be hell, just because they received a wrong education, subdued to religious dogmas or social conventions, I wonder?
  
  All the characters, including the two wives, are ultimately unhappy and defeated. But whose fault is it? Ennis's?
  
  I found his character deeply moving and absolutely realistic.
  
  Ang Lee's intent, however, is not to deliver a "J'accuse" movie, but just to recount a tragic and vivid love story between two human beings, like it was in the original Annie Proulx short narrative.
  
  This is Ang Lee's best film by far, and one the best movies I have ever seen; at least, the one which struck me the most.
  It may sound pathetic, but I must confess that it's been the very first time I cried for a film...
  I can't get out of my head its intense images, the laconic, unforgettable lines, its haunting music.
  
  The pacing is calm: the writer of the original short story, Annie Proulx, and the two screenwriters, McMurtry and Ossana, managed to depict this peculiar and, at the same time, universal American story (which is set in 1963-1983 Wyoming) with few but incisive masterstrokes.
  
  What makes this movie great is its perfect mixture of strong and poetic images (it's hard to believe they gave the Oscar for best cinematography to "Memoirs of a Geisha"!), its melancholic music, the meaningful silence and facial expressions of the characters, the scarce mighty lines...
  
  There are no long dialogues: this would have been unrealistic, since it's ultimately two young (and later mature) uneducated cowboys, grown in the narrow spaces of a provincial rural society.
  
  The actors' performances are absolutely stunning: Heath Ledger is in my opinion the best of all, and it's a real shame he didn't get the awards he deserved! His astounding portrayal of Ennis does smack of loneliness and alienation.
  
  I was very disappointed too when I saw that the Academy Awards didn't give "Brokeback Mountain" the Oscar as best picture: I think this is outrageous and proves that the Academy Awards do not - too often in my humble opinion - mean quality, but, on the contrary, are just the result of unpredictable marketing strategies or old-fashioned "ideologies".
  
  In this case, I think many of the voters acted out their prejudices against a still controversial theme, that is, gay love and homosexuality, in the secret of their voting booths.
  
  Yet, I am glad this masterpiece received dozens of other accolades, among which the "Leone d'Oro" (the golden lion) at the Venice Film Festival, back at the film's world premiere in September 2005: being Italian myself, I'm proud we paved the way for such an amazing and moving piece of art.
  

• 7) With Me Still

  by Qzsoo on March 16 2006
    70+ helpful votes

  I have never written a movie review, but then, I have never seen a movie like Brokeback Mountain. It was after the Oscars that I went. I asked my husband if he wanted to see it, and understood when he said, "Maybe in the privacy of our own living room." I went to a matinee in our small town, and was the only person in the room--it was divine. From the first close-up I was entranced--Ang Lee promising me that I would really get to know these characters. He kept his promise.
  
  You know the story; I'm not here to re-tell it. What I would like (need, actually) is to relate is how it affected me:
  
  For days afterward, Ennis would whisper new insights to me: "Did you get that when she asked to move to town, she was asking me to give up ranch life, which was all that I had?" No, Ennis. I missed that. Thank you.
  
  And then, "Wasn't it considerate of Jack not to tell me that the Brokeback boss had seen us [intimately] together?" Oh, yes, Ennis. It was. He loved you that much.
  
  I talked about the movie a lot with my husband, and he listened. I assured him that if he decided to see the film that it must be on the big screen. Some things are just too good--too big--to be first-viewed on DVD.
  
  Together, we went to Sunday's matinee. My partner of nearly 40 years was moved more than either of us would have imagined. In his own sweet way, he had been waiting for me to test the waters, then allowed me to lead him in. I am thrilled that we were able to share the experience, and it continues to spur much, soulful conversation between us.
  
  I didn't cry the first time I saw Brokeback, but Sunday, after Ennis's final line, and all through the credits, tears came in a way I have never experienced--a tear at a time, alternating eyes. I swear, I would lightly dab the corner of one eye, then the other, and so on, feeling like I could have done it for hours.
  
  This film not only made me proud to be a writer and gave me a deeper understanding of my beloved gay friends from my theatre days, but has restored my faith in humanity. It is a visual masterpiece. Pure, cinematic genius. A hauntingly beautiful love story that expands and enlivens the heart. These dear, dear characters will walk beside me for a long, long time.
  
  My deepest gratitude to all involved for getting this love story told.
  

• 8) Too good. I hate it.

  by Soul Searcher on April 27 2006
    70+ helpful votes

  
  I hate films like this. It is very moving and it feels very heavy. I didn't know I was that deep watching until I realized that I was in tears with Ennis in the scene when Jack said to him, "I wish I knew how to quit you." To which he replied, "Why don't you just let me be? It's because of you, Jack, that I am like this." The feeling-- it cannot be described. Love-- it's the force that stops you, sets you free, makes you somebody, makes you a nobody, makes you see things, makes you blind, gives you hope.
  
  I burst into tears again upon seeing "DECEASED" stamped on the returned postcard Ennis sent for Jack. I couldn't stop my tears even after the ending credits of the film. It made me think of the things that I should have done. It made me reflect on what factors should I base my life's big decisions on-- friends? Town folks? Tradition? Family? Happiness? Love? I certainly hope that it's not too late... For a movie that has no "specific message" to convey, Brokeback Mountain gave me lots of thoughts about life and love, and surely, it renewed my hope. "I swear..."
  .
  .
  .
  (Two weeks and a few days later...)
  .
  .
  Brokeback Mountain had me write what I have written above (originally posted on April 12, 2006, unedited, useful to 54/62) right after seeing the movie for the first time. That was my initial reaction. I was greatly moved by the movie and I was inspired to write. Under the influence of such overwhelming emotion, I even wrote some spoilers (my apologies). Brokeback Mountain-a movie about two cowboys who falls in love with each other in the early 60's amidst the conservative, religious and strict society-is such a great film that motivates people. Seeing other people's reviews here makes me shed some tears because I completely understand their feelings in what they have written. It made me feel like doing something about it. I am not a writer so I could not make a good review of the film. But for me, a good film is not about how big the production was. It's not about the monetary budget. It's not about the stunts. It's not about the special effects. It's all about telling a good story and how that story reaches the heart and mind of the audience. How the movie affects people-that's the way I evaluate a film. This "review" basically reveals how the movie left me a lasting impression.
  
  I liked the whole movie but there are others who question some parts of the movie, like, the growing love between Ennis and Jack in the mountains was not evidently shown. I would say that these people missed that part. The conception of the love between Ennis and Jack was clearly developed and was even symbolized by the scenery. The mountains, the sheep, the weather, the rivers, all of these are not just serving as natural background. They are also symbolic. Director Ang Lee used them to symbolize the passage of time and how Ennis and Jack were spending their time together. The grandness of the landscape and the simplicity of the sheep in the area controlled by cowboys also symbolized our big world and the little souls living in it constrained by the society's norms and values.
  
  By the time the guys came down from the mountains, Ennis was (another spoiler?) already deeply in love with Jack. This was shown in the scene when they went on to their own separate ways-when Jack was already gone, Ennis began sobbing in an alley and hitting the wall. This was a perfect illustration of his love left undisclosed to Jack. Why the sobbing? Because of a true love which was "not supposed to be." I should know-I wounded my fist when I was in the same predicament some years ago. I still have the scars on my knuckles.
  
  I had mixed emotions happening at the same time in some parts throughout the movie. Especially when Ennis and Jack was first reunited. While I was deeply sympathetic with Alma looking over the window at Ennis and Jack getting in the pickup, at the same time I was also happy for the two guys being together again. Proving that their love for each other still exist after all those years.
  
  As others mentioned that this movie was slow and too long, I tried to watch it for the nth time on DVD, and I skipped some scenes. It didn't work for me. Ang Lee knows what he was doing. Some scenes were thoughtfully placed here and there to break the tension and the emotion building inside the viewer. That's the reason why some people find this boring. However, as the movie ends, the emotion reaches to its climax. And at the last frame of the film, you would not want it to end. That's how I felt.
  
  This movie is brilliant, if not perfect. However, if I am brutally forced to find something wrong about it, I can think of one scene. That is when Aguirre came over to tell Jack about his sick uncle. Jack was chopping wood into pieces with the axe. He positioned a piece of wood on the chopping table then turned around to face Aguirre. They talked in close up shots. When Aguirre left and Jack turned back to the chopping table, the piece of wood was already gone and so he was picking up another piece of wood instead. Who moved the wood? Irrelevant, but I call it "the vanishing wood" scene. But hey, that's just a needle in the hay.
  
  Not a fan of any of the performers but I think the characters in the movie were all believable. Anne Hathaway-although I didn't believe her appearance, her acting showed that she's grown from being a cute princess to an actress. Michelle Williams-if only her role was a little longer, the best actress award was hers. Jake Gyllenhaal-way, way up higher than I expected. Heath Ledger-he created an unforgettable character whose silent and mostly non-verbal expressions of internal conflict and pain shouts an ocean deep of emotion. My choice for best actor (over the guy who imitated another person who talks a lot and that talking just seemed to cover up what lacked in the acting itself).
  
  A peaceful movie with a more universal theme should have won the best picture at the Oscars (especially if this organization is trying to impress the world as the leading and "international" film award giving body) instead of the one that I find "too American." I find Brokeback Mountain as having a more widespread but ignored theme, more applicable to more people's lives in different societies across the globe. The lead actors did a great, convincing job that if I happen to meet them personally I'm afraid that I would give them a big hug in tears, still believing that they are the doomed Ennis and Jack.
  
  The simple yet powerful music is not to be ignored as it enhanced the dramatic scenes of the movie. And what else can I say? Brokeback Mountain is too good that every time I watch it, it always penetrates into my heart. I hate that. I don't want to be vulnerable. I am a guy, and "it should not be." So what exactly is the message that we are looking for here? Nothing specifically. It's out there in the open. If this movie is not a love story, then what is it? If the theme is not universal enough, then what is? In other words, this movie offers a lot of meaningful interpretation. Have an open mind, see this movie and let your heart find the right answer for you.

• 9) Prejudice, Pure and Simple

  by Moviebuff on March 07 2006
    70+ helpful votes

  I rarely watch the Oscars because the show is too drawn out. I made an effort to see it last night because I wanted to see history being made with Brokeback winning best film. Needless to say, I was totally disgusted.
  
  It's not so much that Brokeback lost, than it is for the obvious reason it lost. It lost due to prejudice.
  
  Everyone knows that prior to the Oscars, Brokeback won every best picture award available, except one. Just one. There must have been upwards of a dozen wins. If Crash was as good a film, or better, wouldn't one expect that IT would have won some of those awards along the way? It won only ONE...
  
  Add to that bit of reasoning the reports that many of the academy voters didn't even want to see the film due to the content. Well, even if they did eventually see it, that stated desire to not see it defines a prejudice that would prevent them from voting for it no matter how good it was.
  
  To me it's incredible that they would even voice such an opinon.
  
  I don't care that Brokeback Mountain lost if people really felt another film was better. I care that, based on all the awards won, Brokeback was obviously the better film, and lost because of personal prejudices.
  
  Any voter who voices a desire to NOT review any film nominated for Best Picture should be dismissed. They have no business being a voter on the academy if they can't watch the films nominated, even a gay themed film. Voicing their desire to not even see the film was shameful.
  
  I lost a lot of respect for the Academy. I doubt very much I'll want to watch the show again. There just comes a time when enough is enough. It's bad enough that we have to face all the prejudices we do in this country without having the Academy boast on one hand about making and supporting movies that advance social justice and equality, while then passing up the opportunity to choose the best film that is doing just that - all because of their own prejudices.
  
  Today, homophobia is a far greater societal evil than racism. Only radical fringe groups such as the Aryans and the KKK would do harm to racial minorities... and they are not supported by mainstream America at all... But mainstream America - the church going hypocrites they are (mostly), still think it's perfectly okay to be as nasty and cruel to us as they can be (be it personal or societal). And they justify their actions by the same Bible that promotes slavery, and the subjugation of women. As I said.. Hypocrites.
  
  The academy had a chance to pick the best film, and send a very needed message. The film will do wonders anyhow, and as time goes on, Brokeback will be the one film remembered most for 2005...
  
  For those of us who love the beauty of this film, at least we'll always have that..

• 10) THE POWER OF LOVE

  by J. Abercrombi on March 20 2006
    60+ helpful votes

  "Brokeback Mountain" is the story of two all-man cowboys that find love in each other. The film is unique because it is not the typical gay stereo-type; perhaps it is the first mainstream film ever made on this topic?
  
  Ennis Del Mar (played by the very talented Heath Ledger) is a very quiet and rough around the edges kind of man. He doesn't show his feelings very well and is somewhat of a loner. Jack Twist (played by the equally accomplished Jake Gyllenhaal) is more vocal about his feelings and emotions, but can still be pushed around (although I did enoy it when he stood up to his bigoted father-in-law).
  
  What makes this tale so bitter is that their's is a forbidden love. It is reminiscent of "Titanic" or Romeo and Juliet. Please keep in mind that the picture took place during 60's, 70's, and early 80's, in Middle-America where no one was openly homosexual, much less a cowboy. But, despite all their differences and personal demons both men loved each other more than life itself.
  
  Anyone with connected eyeballs can tell that Ennis and Twist were deeply in love (this was not an affair, rather it was a serious relationship that lasted over two decades). It was proof that Twist loved Ennis when they were on the hill getting ready to leave after he playfully lassoed and punched Ennis. Twist looked so sad to have intentionally inflicted pain on his lover. But Ennis holed off and punched him, because no one was gonna make Ennis his fool. And it was evident that Ennis loved Twist when he sobbed like a baby on the street after they departed Brokeback Mountain separately.
  
  The cinematography in this picture was absolutely stunning. The soundtrack is also amazing.
  
  I saw this movie over a month ago and I still can't get it out of my mind. It is a very full-toned and haunting picture. To say that it was the very best film that I have ever seen would simply trivialize it, because it is much more than just a movie.
  

• 11) Reconnecting with your heart

  by mwk06 on March 09 2006
    60+ helpful votes

  "Brokeback Mountain" is not a movie that offers scenes after scenes of exciting action or those lame, comic situations to give instant gratification. It is made not to entertain, but because it is "a story that has to be told". It doesn't line up with the usual box office hits, so I'm quite surprised that it has been as well received by the general public apart from the film critics. To do Ang Lee's films justice, one needs to sit back and remain focused on the screen. It requires more work and patience than most movies.
  
  Following the typical Ang Lee approach, "Brokeback Mountain" is an extended film that begins with a languid pace, tracking the relationship between Ennis and Jack that spans twenty years. It refrains from hammering a message into the viewers' head, but allows the story to unfold and speak for itself. Silently, the film reaches out and seeps under your skin, and before you know it, "Brokeback Mountain" has found the rawest part of your heart and pierce right through it.
  
  "Brokeback Mountain" is a heartbreaking love story made more tragic by the extra dimension of homosexuality. While other star-crossed lovers like Romeo and Juliet have to struggle with external pressures of filial loyalties and social boundaries, Ennis has been taught to hate the very core of his own identity. His self-loath has petrified his ability to love. His self-deceiving denial of his true feelings causes him to lash out in bouts of violence. Gradually, Ennis alienates the people who care for him and pushes himself towards the edge.
  
  More tragically, there is a chance that Ennis and Jack could've spend their lives together in happiness, although it would mean severing their ties with the world. But Ennis is too afraid of society and of himself to seize it. Only when he has lost Jack does Ennis realize how much their relationship means to him, and that he would've risked it all to build a life with Jack. But by that time, it is too late.
  
  Most of us can recall those ineffaceable regrets we now have from choosing the easier path, the "what ifs" that come back to haunt us during a sleepless night.
  
  But Brokeback Mountain also offers hope and redemption in the finals scenes. The now-famous blood-stained shirts worked together as one is a powerful symbol of their love that cannot be denied. Jack's mother, who invites Ennis to visit Jack's room and discover the shirts, shows that she has known about their relationship and chooses to accept them despite the hateful hostility of her husband.
  
  Finally, we witness the evolution of Ennis, who is empowered to slowly reach out to those who love him. Though he initially tries to bail out of his daughter's wedding, he steers himself in the opposite direction and accepts her invitation even if he has to quit his job. The very last moments of the film, which I'll not reveal here, is simply genius.
  
  I encourage viewers to see the movie at least twice. One can better appreciate the many nuances and acting after you know how the story develops. For those who are willing to open themselves to "Brokeback Mountain", it will tell you a beautiful love story that lingers with you as you leave the cinema. Perhaps it will inspire you to reconnect with your own heart and soul and become better people.
  

• 12) The Poor Wives!!!

  by Billy Bob on February 10 2006
    60+ helpful votes

  The Wives! The Wives...... the poor wives...
  
  This seems to be the cry of many who wanted to dislike Brokeback Mountain. It's one thing to be gay, but it's another to cheat on your wives..... an assertion that entirely misses the point the movie is trying to make.
  
  I'm actually aware of a leader of some Catholic group stating on radio, that she would think respectable gay men wouldn't like this movie because of the infidelity these gay men engaged in.
  
  Most of these people don't believe the word homophobia describes a legitimate social force. Or one that they would care about. For if it is a legitimate social force, they see it as something that only affects gay men. A term created by political activists for the "gay agenda."
  
  And countering that idea is the message of the movie... Homophobia affects far more than gay men.
  
  If Ennis (and so many more) hadn't been raised in such a hostile environment, he could have accepted himself for who he was. He and Jack could have been honest about themselves, and lived safely together their entire lives.
  
  Because of homophobia, they couldn't. Many can't today. The familial and societal pressures for men to marry and have children are great. It is expected. So many gay men have been advised by their religious leaders to solve their homosexuality by marrying a woman. I myself was advised that by a Mormon church leader in the early 80s. He said to me, "Sex with a woman is so wonderful, that once you've experienced it, you'll never think of another man again." Fortunately, I knew deep down that would never be true. I asked him, "But what woman would be willing to take a chance on me as some kind of experiment." And I swear to God, he said, "Why tell her? It's a sure thing sex with her will change you, so why jeopardize it by telling her?"
  
  Well I never did marry (thankfully). I did join the Air Force, and won nearly every award open to me. That didn't work either. I left the Air Force to go through the Mormon Church's program to change me. A total, laughing joke. The idea was that by learning to play masculine sports like basketball and baseball with carefully selected straight men, we would now capture the male bondings we lacked in adolescence and "grow" out of homosexuality. I knew right then it was a farce because I'd always played masculine sports - football (quarterback), baseball (shortstop), and track, etc. I bonded fine.
  
  Of course, not one person was changed... and after a few months, most quite attending these useless meetings, and silly sports events. As time passed, it wasn't uncommon to run into other `graduates' down at one of the gay bars.
  
  In that church group, there were numerous married gay men who were now in the stages of divorce, and who were losing contact with their children. Wives forbidding them to see their kids. Many of these men were suicidal. It was pitiful. And the entire legal system of the Mormon state of Utah was against them. They had absolutely no chance to have their rights recognized or considered.
  
  It turns out, at that time, there were two large support groups for Mormon women who found themselves married to gay men. Several chapters were written about it, or were authored by members of it, in the groundbreaking book, "Peculiar People: Mormons and Same Sex Orientation." These people described their experiences, and the education they received about putting your faith in the church leaders as opposed to facing reality.
  
  Before Peculiar People was published, a famous Mormon poet, Carol Lynn Pearson, wrote a book "Goodbye, I Love You," about taking care of her gay husband as he died. Another woman whose life was changed because homophobia kept her husband from being able to be what he was. And so he tried to be what his church wanted, and married her..... but could not deny his nature.... and she so lovingly took him back when he was ill, and cared for him until his death.
  
  In the early 90's, before I left the `land of Zion,' a newspaper article appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune, about the alarming number of faithful Mormon women who were turning up HIV positive. Turns out their husbands were stopping off in public restrooms on their way home for a quickie with men, or steam rooms at gyms, or gay bars... or wherever. And then the virus was passed to them. But what if those men had never been pressured to marry women? What if they had the institution of marriage to anchor them into a monogamous union with one other man? It's a damn good chance neither these men or their wives would have been infected.
  
  Any of these people know that the culprit in all this isn't homosexuality - which is a part of nature and always has been. Nor is it the expression of homosexual sex, as sex is a gift from God to all of us. It wasn't the gay men who didn't know better, and so they put their faith in their ignorant religious leaders, believing that marriage would change them. It was simply that ignorance coupled with fear that was at fault. And ignorance coupled with fear is the very basis of homophobia.
  
  Homophobia made victims, not only of the men, but of their wives and children. Homophobia assured those homes would be broken before the marriage vows were ever taken.
  
  Alma and Lureen were as much the victims of homophobia as Jack and Ennis. Only Jack and Ennis had their personal safety to worry about, unlike the wives. And Ennis had such internalized homophobia he couldn't even face himself.
  
  In this day, when we have politicians from the president on down, going around crying out that they have to `save' marriage by denying homosexuals equal opportunity in marriage, they are using this same homophobia for political gain. Have you ever heard George Bush explain just how his and Laura's marriage would be affected if a Jack and Ennis were given the legal rights marriage offers? Of course you haven't. And you never will because there is no threat to the institution of marriage just by extending it's benefits to gay and lesbian citizens (who also pay taxes by the way, and who were also born under a constitution that guarantees them the right to the pursuit of happiness, which would include having a family).
  
  Imagine Jack and Ennis living in Canada today, instead of Wyoming during the 60s. They could get married. They would have legal protections. There would be no wives being cheated on. All of them could have a happy life. What is so wrong with that?
  
  That is the message of this movie. Homophobia destroys. Being allowed to be what you are, openly, and with same rights as others brings on a life of happiness.
  
  So for those of you who are so concerned about the wives, and feel to criticize the movie because these guys cheated on their wives because they couldn't deny their nature.... understand what is truly responsible. Then lend your support for the Jack's and Ennis' and Alma's of the world. Support gay marriage.... Let's create a reality where people can be what nature made them to be...
  
  And for the reviewer who wrote the last two negative reviews (obviously the same individual), there was no "rape" in the tent scene. Do you know what rape is? It is forcing someone to have sex against their will. Jack initiated the encounter. It was not against his will.
  
  And to reviewer J.E Barnes, thanks for all the insights about the symbolisms. I caught some of them, but you pointed out others that really make the film even more interesting.

• 13) Outstanding and unforgettable

  by Vato-Curandero on March 31 2006
    60+ helpful votes

  Before reviewing Brokeback Mountain, I must dismiss some of the absurd and ridiculous statements circulating about the movie. First, this film does NOT contain a bunch of gay sex scenes! This film is NOT anti-family values (what the hell are "family values," anyway?), and this movie does not promote the "gay agenda!"
  
  I am heterosexual. I am not gay, none of my friends are gay (at least that I know of), and I have no gay family members that I know of either. One should not have to make this disclaimer, but anti-gay activists are accusing those who like this movie of having an agenda. Having said that, I thought Brokeback Mountain was fantastic. This might possibly be the best film I've seen in the theaters so far in 2006, and after watching the film, I spent weeks on end thinking about the content of the film. Great movies have a way of making viewers do that.
  
  Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhall first meet in Wyoming in 1963 when both are in their early 20s looking for summer work. They end up finding employment with a local sheep herder, and in the process, find out a thing or two about themselves. The two develop feelings for one another, but under the anti-gay socialization each has been raised with, quickly attempt to suppress these emotions.
  
  At the end of the summer, each man returns to his hometown to pursue his respective life. Ledger gets married and has two daughters, while Gyllenhall returns to Texas and meets a cowgirl at a tavern. They get married and have a son.
  
  However, Ledger and Gyllenhall end up meeting up again several years later. Emotions are rekindled, leading to complications in their relationships with their respective families and each other.
  
  This movie shows the mental anguish and emotional turmoil that results from being forced to live a double life at the hands of society. The film actually made me rethink and reconsider a lot of the stereotypes that I held towarards homosexuals, and Brokeback Mountain is an important and timely film.
  
  Everyone I know who saw this film in the theater thinks it is phenomenal. There is great acting, and the cinematography is breathtaking: herds of sheep flocking about the screen, the mountains and lakes of the Rocky Mountains, and the rugged terrain and cornfields of Texas. At the end of the day, Brokeback Mountain is as much or even more a Western film (not a "gay film" that its bashers would have us believe) than anything else. The plot is fantastic, and the movie is an overall success. Watch it.

• 14) Simply brilliant :-)

  by Little Miss Cutey on June 12 2006
    60+ helpful votes

  Brokeback Mountain is a unique, brilliant and well acted movie. I wasn't sure if I would like it, but I found myself loving it. How could you not. There was stunning scenery and a fantastic score, amazing script and last but not least, some of the best acting we've seen in many years.
  After working together on Brokeback Mountain, these two cowboys find more than just a friendship - they find forbidden love. Their first meeting happend in 1963 where homophobia would have been far worse than it is today. What follows is a moving story of two men trying to come to grips with their feelings for each other and their family life at home with their wives and children.
  This is a must see for everyone. You may not think you'll like it, but you will be blown away. It's one of the best movies I've seen in such a long time and this was thoroughly enjoyable.

• 15) Still on my mind months later

  by Alka on May 01 2006
    50+ helpful votes

  I first saw this movie in January and still can not get it out of my mind. I see lots of movies that get great reviews and sometimes they're deserved and sometimes not. I admit I didn't immediately see how great this movie was at first. I didn't cry at all and came out of the cinema confused, not sure of what I had seen, and wondering things like: why did Ennis punch Jack on that last day on the mountain? how did Jack actually die? where did the shirts come from? Then surprisingly I found myself thinking about the movie over the next few days so I decided to read the story, which cleared up some things, and went to see the movie again. This time the true greatness of the movie really hit me and I cried a lot. I think this is really a rare case where all the stars aligned in terms of story, directing, acting, music, cinematography, etc. I'm really glad I didn't read the story until I'd after I'd seen the movie so it was all new to me. I truly had no expectations beyond knowing that it was about a relationship between two men.
  
  I'm also really glad I wasn't living in the US and having to deal with the hype and constant jokes. Thankfully there was none of that in the UK. This is not a movie about "gay cowboys". When asked what drew Ennis and Jack together, Heath Ledger said in an interview that he felt that Ennis' soul fell in love with another soul, and that soul came in the form of a man. I think that's right on target, because Ennis never seemed interested in anyone after Jack, not in other men, his wife, or the waitress. Jack and Ennis were very lonely people and that only changed when they were together. They had very similar backgrounds and it's sad to think that this was probably their first real friendship. It's striking that during those four years they're apart, one time that they're clearly thinking of each other is when the issue of loneliness comes up, even though neither is alone at the time. How can anyone think their relationship was about lust? They carried on for 20 years and Jack drove 14 hours each way just to see Ennis a few times a year...a lot of trouble for just a few rolls in the hay. I admit the first time I saw this movie the love between them wasn't so obvious and the first tent scene mostly seemed to come out of nowhere, but after repeated viewings and paying close attention the love is very clear. These are very undemonstrative people and they are not going to be giving each other candy and flowers and declaring their love. But scenes such as Ennis holding Jack from behind in front of the fire and humming make the love blazingly clear, I frankly wish it had gone on as long as suggested in the story!
  
  And that's heartbreaking and the reason I think this movie has stayed with me for so long. You see them at the beginning, 19 years old with their lives ahead of them, and you see them become frustrated and sadder and going through the motions in life with the passing years, and 20 years later one is dead and the other is doomed to be alone and full of regret the rest of his life. You don't have to be gay or a cowboy or even a man to understand this movie. I am none of those things. I think everyone can understand being lonely and question whether they've made the right choices in life or will be full of regret at the end. You hope you'll find that one person your soul connects with and not end up alone. However, this story absolutely needs to take place between two men and I don't understand how people can say that this story could take place between a man and a woman. The point is that Ennis hates himself for being in love with another man and that's why he makes him and Jack live the way they do. Yet although they talk about their relationships with women, he goes ballistic at the thought of Jack sleeping with other men. Jack probably knows this, and I think this is why at their last meeting Jack says he's carrying on with the ranch foreman's wife rather than the ranch foreman, and rather sadly jokes about being shot by Lureen or her husband. Ennis learns the truth after Jack dies from Jack's father and finally has to realize that he may have finally driven Jack away.
  
  I have only one complaint about the story. Many people have said they like the scene at the end where Alma Jr. comes to tell Ennis she's getting married, but I don't. This scene isn't in the story and I think it was an attempt to make the audience feel a bit more hopeful that Ennis has changed because he decides to quit his job and go to the wedding. In the book Ennis is alone and haunted by dreams of Jack the rest of his life, which I find far more believable considering that he's full of regret, although even more heartbreaking than the movie's ending if that's even possible.
  
  Though I don't particularly like country music, I did buy the soundtrack for the score but was disappointed that it contains so little of it. I hope they release the rest of the score and some of the other music mentioned in the credits. Although I've bought the DVD, I'd gladly buy a director's cut with commentary, deleted scenes, etc. The trailer contains some scenes that were not in the movie such as a scene where Ennis and Jack are in a car together. I'm surprised that the trailer wasn't on the DVD, that's fairly common. Being able to watch the DVD with subtitles is great because I realized that I missed some dialog even though I saw it in the cinema many many times, notably during the second tent scene.

• 16) Best Film of the Year, Possibly Ever

  by Anonymous on December 09 2005
    50+ helpful votes

  "Brokeback Mountain" is simply a stunning, beautiful piece of art that should be adored for the ages. It is a enduring lovestory and a heartbreaking one at that. It begins with the tale of two young men, Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger)are hired as ranch hands to herd the sheep, one watching them and the other bringing food. The two seem to get along well enough until one night when it is freezing and Jack shares his tent with Ennis. After the two sleep for a bit, Jack initiates a heat of passion with Ennis. Neither of them will name their relationship, because they are simply two people who deeply love and understand one another. After the summer ends, the two part ways and find themselves married in different areas with wives and children. Then, four years later Jack returns and the two are able to be together again. This happens for many years, where they go to the old Brokeback Mountain. Each year it is harder to spend time apart. When one year Jack proposes that the two move away and have their own ranch, Ennis says no due to a childhood incident when he saw a gay man murdered for living with another man. Ennis still cannot display his feelings openly for jack, while jack is much more comfortable and relaxed about it. The story ends tragically but is beautiful to watch. It is painfully sad to see the world refuse to allow them to be together. Be prepared to bring plenty of tissues.
  The directing is astonishing. Ang Lee has done an amazing job with his sensitivity and insight to life, given that we deal with these struggles still today. The fact that people refuse to allow gay marriage is evident of this. Hopefully this movie may cause people to think about this and change their minds to be more tolerant. The acting is superb. Heath Ledger delivers the best male performance in years and is astonishing. He is most powerful without words, just seeing his pain and longing for jack is hard to handle. He must be nominated for an oscar and he completly deserves to win. I have seen Philip Seymour Hoffman's performance in "Capote," which was great and a strong film, but Brokeback mountain is superior in every way. Heath had to create his character from scratch and is a revelation. Jake Gyllenhaal is also great as Jack Twist. Jake was also great in "Jarhead" but here his chemistry with heath is undeniable and does an excellent job. Michelle Williams is also great as Ennis's wounded wife when she spots the two kissing. Anne Hathaway is strong as Jack's cold wife. "Brokeback Mountain" in my book deserves to win BEST PICTURE, BEST ACTOR (HEATH LEDGER), BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR (JAKE GYLLENHAAL, BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS (MICHELLE WILLIAMS), BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY (LARRY MCMURTRY), BEST DIRECTOR (ANG LEE) AND BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY. This is the best film I have ever seen and possibly the best film ever made. I know that sounds like a stretch, but very few films have the ability to resonate with you and stay in your mind a bit after you have seen it. The last film to inspire such longing was "Boys Don't Cry," which had an excellent cast and was a great film. I saw Brokeback at an advanced screening and I am still thinking about it. I read the story before the movie and I loved it. This is what filmaking is all about, to inspire others to think about it as well as enjoy it. PLEASE DO NOT LABEL THIS AS A "GAY COWBOY MOVIE." This is a story about two people in love, because we cannot control who we love, but can ignore our desires to be with the person. These are two loving, caring and wonderful people who love each other beyond words and cannot deal with it because of how terrible people treat other people. SO, See the movie and then decide. If you choose not to see it, fine, it's your choice. BUT, do not judge it or label before seeing b.c. that will be your loss. This is a beautiful love story on every level and if you can't be open minded enough to see it, you truly are not a human being.

• 17) Brokeback broke my heart

  by D. A. G. McGarry on March 07 2006
    50+ helpful votes

  I was invited to see this movie at the request of a coworker. Little did I know that I would leave the theater a changed person. I have subsequently seen it on two other occasions, once alone, so that I could just sit there in privacy and absorb the enormous flood of emotions that flowed from the characters. Never has such a movie touched so many. All around the world, I write to others who have been altered by this film. Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhall embodied the souls of every person denied the freedom to love.
  
  This is not a gay movie. My husband and I are both "straight" yet were profoundly effected by its message of the power of love.
  
  Since I have seen it, I can't stop thinking about it. It haunts my every dream.
  
  How unfortunate that some members of the Academy refused to see the movie. Never before has a film that won the Golden Globe and so many other awards been bypassed for the Oscar. Somehow it seems unfair to the point of being suspicious.

• 18) The mountain has wings

  by A. Hickman on March 31 2006
    50+ helpful votes

  There is absolutely nothing left to say about this film that hasn't already been said. Yet I feel compelled to add my five cents, if only because of the slight it received at the Academy Awards. Simply put, this is the most important American film of the past twenty-five years. It is provocative, it is breathtakingly beautiful, and it is flawlessly acted, but it is also a movie with a heart, and I defy anyone with the sensitivity of a snail not to be moved by Jack and Ennis' tragic love story. The movie has received its share of criticism, but bear in mind that most of that has come from people who refuse to see the film. I'm including Tony Curtis and Ernest Borgnine, among other Academy voters, who allowed their bigotry to stand in the way of their seeing the film. They cast their votes in ignorance. Go figure. But none of that has stopped "Brokeback" from becoming possibly the most honored film in the history of cinema. It has won fourteen Best Picture awards that I know of, beginning with the Vienna Film Festival Award and including the recent GLAAD Award for best picture. It is a film that will continue to be viewed and studied, both for pleasure and for pure love of cinema for decades to come. I place "Brokeback" in the same category as "Romeo and Juliet" or "La Traviata"--one of the great love stories of all time. As Emmy Lou Harris sings on the sound track, "A Love that Will Never Grow Old." Hats off to Ang Lee, to Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossawa, and to Heath and Jake, but a special bow to Annie Proulx, whose short story started it all, when it originally appeared in the New Yorker magazine in 1997. The short story and the film are indisputable masterpieces.
  

• 19) Brokeback Mountain

  by Mimi Testen on January 03 2007
    50+ helpful votes

  This is one of the most beautiful and heart-breaking love stories I have ever watched. It haunted my mind for days after seeing it - really touching and not to be missed.

• 20) A heartbreaking tale of love denied

  by Dean Backus on March 23 2006
    50+ helpful votes

  "Brokeback Mountain" is, of all things, not dissimilar to "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" or "The Sixth Sense," in that it casts its spell so deliberately and carefully, you have to pay extra-special attention to it during the set-up. Some will react with impatience, finding the opening scenes between two taciturn ranch hands meeting and not saying much to each other over a long summer herding sheep in the Wyoming mountains (actually filmed in Canada) too deliberate. But when the dramatic moments come, they come like a prairie thunderbolt, and you realize with a shock how carefully Ang Lee and his brilliant cast (all sensational, but Ledger and Gyllenhall are iconic) have set up your expectations, have hooked you so throughly that you are hit as if it were a sucker punch. The longing glances, the quiet moods, the mournful soundtrack, the pristine vistas all contrast with moments where the characters' passions explode--into love, into violence, into heartbreak. Jack and Ennis' tragedy spills over into the lives of almost everyone they touch, due to societal pressures and the overwhelming suffocation of silent conformity; when, late in the picture, one realizes what his life has been come to and what has been lost, it's a 3-handkerchief moment. Yes, there's about 1 minute of implied sex--much less explicit than your average PG-13 movie with a male-female couple--but it's the moments before and after the coupling that haunt you: Ledger getting the first kiss of his life, and finally realizing that someone truly loves him; Gyllenhall's amazing tenderness and strength as he tries to corrall a man who's even more resistant than the wild horses and bulls he futilely tries to tame. Again, this is a movie that fits Ang Lee's oeuvre of charcters at war between their inner passions and desires and a community that encourages conformity and self-denial; it will make you work, and demand much from a filmgoer. But after a cautiously positive reaction seeing it the first time, I found myself seeing it again and being overwhelmed by its emotional impact, to the point where I actually think/thought about the characters as real people. Oscars or no, the 22+ organizations that named this the Best Film of 2005 weren't wrong: it wraps around you like a pair of strong arms encased in a warm flannel shirt, and doesn't let go. This is a love story for the ages.

• 21) A MASTERPIECE!

  by Joey Cant on March 17 2006
    50+ helpful votes

  Trying to state my feelings for this film as simply as I can so here goes:
  Yes, "Crash" is a great film but "Brokeback Mountain" goes beyond mere strips of celluloid. It is quite simply a Masterpiece from it's first frame to it's last. It is not anything as trivial as THE gay cowboy movie. If anything it is about two bisexual men but it is so much more than that. I will probably get heaps of unhelpful votes for the following statements but that is fine. Last I heard America still had freedom of Speech so here goes; Brokeback Mountain lost the Best Picture Oscar because the voters were afraid of it's theme and because of political pressure. Remember, "Citizen Kane" lost Best Picture because of the pressure put on the academy from the Hearst regime back in the 1940's. Most people don't even remember what won that year but how many top ten lists does "Kane" still appear on over 60 years after it's release? "Brokeback Mountain" will go on to this type of cinematic glory...I'll stake my last breath on it.

• 22) Lessons Learned on Brokeback Mountain

  by DKBB on April 11 2006
    50+ helpful votes

  Wow...this one was a gut-punch. Breathtakingly devastating... devastatingly breathtaking. Bored into my soul in a way no movie has in decades. It is such a harsh and sad story of love and dreams unfulfilled. And really, there is nothing sadder than that...because at the end of it all, no one wants to have "what if's" in their life.
  
  While the love story is the at the core, what I got from BBM was the lesson of dreams denied. When we deny or suppress our dreams and desires and just "settle" because we feel we must or we are made to, we wind up living a life that is less than complete...less than true. And in so doing, the lives we touch and interact with like ripples in the water are not made fuller by our touch but are made less, are diminished by our touch, in a way. This movie has caused me to delve deep within myself and rediscover my dreams, and it has set me on a path to pursue those dreams and to become true. For that, I thank all involved with this wonderful, deeply touching story.
  
  The acting in this movie was gobsmackingly fantastic. I had never paid a whole lot of attention to either Jake Gyllenhaal or Heath Ledger before this, aside from noticing what cuties they were, and they both blew me away. Heath Ledger WAS Ennis Del Mar - he crawled inside Annie Proulx's creation and wore him like a second skin...his performance was achingly wonderful. Jake Gyllenhaal was the perfect balance of exuberance and dreamer...his portrayal of Jack's firm belief of the ability of his and Ennis' love to triumph if just given the chance was heartbreaking. Michelle Williams was spot-on...Alma's discovery of her husband's true love was realistically painful and difficult to watch. Anne Hathaway was the perfect Texas wife - I do think she was channeling a woman my family knew back in the day - she had the look and the sound down pat.
  
  I'm a Wyoming native, born and raised, and though just a bit younger than the characters of the movie, I did grow up in 1960's - 1980's Wyoming (the era of the story) and I grew up with those types of people - ranch and small town folks who worked damned hard just to make ends meet, drank too much beer, didn't ever show their feelings (regardless of what those feelings were), and just kept eeking out a stark existence day in and day out...worked hard, fought hard, played hard, but rarely smiled and never talked about things.
  
  The grand vistas of Wyoming (yeah, I know it was filmed in Alberta, Canada, but it was set in Wyoming), especially of Brokeback Mountain (which I interpret as being in the Big Horn Mountains), formed the perfect backdrop for the heart of the love story. Surrounded by the majesty that Brokeback is, love just IS - no boundaries, no pre-set definitions or conventions, it just IS. And, trust me on this, that is really how it is in those Wyoming mountains....love just IS....it lives on its own in the majestic bosom of the mountains - the pull of those mountains is strong...it lasts a lifetime - but taken out of that safe place, love becomes a fragile, and sometimes even ugly, thing. That is why they had to go back to the mountains...never to Brokeback itself, for that would be too real and too scary for them...but into the mountains, where the beauty of that world shone a soft, safe light on their relationship. The harsh glare of their home territories (Riverton, Childress) would have torn what they had apart, burned it to ashes...but in the mountains, they could hold it close and keep it safe.
  
  The ultimate "lesson" of BBM for me is that when you deny your dreams, you deny yourself...and sentence yourself to a life less than true. Moral of the story: ~Be true to yourself...be true to your dreams...be true.~

• 23) The Unsung Masterpiece

  by CB on March 23 2006
    50+ helpful votes

  When I saw Crash early last year, I felt throughout 2005 that it was one of the best films of that year. However, when I saw Brokeback Mountain late in 2005, I was convinced that it was not only the greatest film of the year, but the most unforgettable film of my lifetime, and if you allow it to, this film can and will transform your life. The performances, the haunting music, and breathtaking cinematography are the most genius I've ever seen on film. Every movie I've seen since Brokeback Mountain has paled in comparison. To truly understand and appreciate this work of art in cinematic history, you need a certain level of intelligence and sensitivity. Unfortunately, we don't all have that, and we can't open our minds wide enough without being afraid. When I left the theatre, I felt completely devastated, but soon, this was replaced with a passion for life that I'd never felt before. And if you watch with an open heart, it will do the same for you.

• 24) A melancholy masterpiece

  by Jerry on March 15 2006
    50+ helpful votes

  Since I had read and enjoyed the original short story by Annie Proulx, was an admirer of director Ang Lee as well as actors Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal it was pretty much a no brainer that I was going to like this film a lot. Even I was a little surprised at just how flawlessly the cast and crew pulled this one off though. There's not a wrong note in it anywhere and it's probably the only film I've ever seen about which I can say that it actually enriches the original source material into an even more impressive accomplishment. Yet, it all started with Annie Proulx's short story and the basic elements that make it work so well are there from the beginning.
  
  I never comment on other reviews but I will in this case note that there are basically two types of reviews for this film you will find. Those that acknowledge it as the great work that it is and a small but noticeable minority who attack it as the antichrist of modern times because it is a gay-themed film that happened to make it past the art houses into a widespread theatrical release not to mention popular culture at large. Quite simply, the very reviews and comments you will read from homophobes vindicate how truthful Brokeback is, especially for the time and place it transpires, a time and place even less friendly to those who were "different". Usually, on the Internet Movie Database a films ratings will tend to clump together within a few grades of each other but with Brokeback the vast majority rate it a 10 with a minority slamming it with a 1. Because of this minority, the film will never break into the IMDB Top 100 which is kinda sad when you consider all the cheesy nonsense that does.
  
  I was one of the few who loved Ang Lee's previous Western, the much derided Ride With the Devil. That was a dour, bleak film...too dour and bleak for many. Brokeback is in some ways equally grim but it does have a leavening humor during the first half as well as the glorious love between the two leads to offset the darkness. Gyllenhaal and Ledger are simply spectacular and their chemistry on screen sizzles. It's probably the most romantic film since The Notebook and frankly, more emotionally truthful.
  
  It's difficult to convey my disappointment at the academy for passing on not only the two lead performances but the film at their Oscar ceremonies. The film was clearly the best of the year not to mention one of the most gutsy (so much could have gone wrong in translating it to screen) yet the academy took the safe route and voted for an obvious social issue melodrama, Crash. It chose the film covering much-trod territory over a film covering uncharted territory. This in spite of the fact that Brokeback won Best Picture from virtually every critics group and prestigous awards show around the world. Thank you to Annie Proulx for writing the story, Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana for one of the best screenplay adaptations ever, Ang Lee for pushing forward with his vision of the material and Jake and Heath for performances that are for the ages.
  
  It's difficult to talk about this film without acknowledging the powerful emotional effect it has on audiences. There is one particular moment toward the end (you'll know it when you get to it) that practically had me weeping in the theater. And unlike many films that grab at one's emotions the feelings don't dissapate over time and just thinking about the film at work got me teary eyed for a week afterwards. The best analogy I can make is that Brokeback Mountain is for gay men what Saving Private Ryan is for WW2 vets...it honors their struggle with brilliance and power...and it loses Best Picture (as Spielberg's film did also) to a lesser work.

• 25) Best Picture 2005. Subtle, powerful & stays with you. If you didn't get the fuss, look closer - 2nd viewing is like a new movie

  by Glenn Camhi on December 27 2005
    50+ helpful votes

  Brokeback Mountain is a rare film that can offer you a different experience each time you see it -- it's good the first time, but amazing the second. That's usually when people who didn't get the fuss GET it. Like me.
  
  It's easy to miss a lot the first time. One doesn't usually expect such subtleties and intricacies from a drama/romance, but the revelations and new understandings you get from a second or even third viewing of Brokeback are greatly rewarding. This is partly because of the tremendous nuance in the story & performances, and partly because of the clever order in which things are revealed. Because so much is masked and unspoken among the characters, the whole truth or underlying emotion of many moments are veiled from us until long afterward. I strongly recommend seeing it again.
  
  Some folks have praised or panned Brokeback merely for its subject matter, but both agendas belittle the greatness and scope of the film. It's an expertly told and gorgeously shot subtle drama about the irrepressible power of both love and fear. I'd say it's also about the clash of idealism vs. rigidity, responsibility vs. desire, and deep emotion vs. a particularly masculine inability to express emotion. It's also about scraping out a life in the rural American West, as much a tale of the characters as the landscape, which is at once jaw-droppingly beautiful and stark as all hell. Sure, the subject matter matters, but it's much broader than most headlines suggest.
  
  A recurrent theme you'll find among many people who love Brokeback is the curious way this movie about things unspoken can work on you: it sinks in slowly, plays over and over in your imagination until you find yourself thinking about the characters as if they were real people. Like many, I actually found myself tearing up more the day *after* seeing it, and even more upon watching it again.
  
  If you prefer films with every emotion gushingly spelled out in on-the-nose dialogue, with overblown scores to guide you and protagonists free from major flaws, this film will either be a revelation or a bore. Go watch Titanic again (yeah, I enjoyed that too). This one's a more mature drama that unfolds believably and honestly, at a pace that lets you discover rich nuance and emotion between the lines.
  
  Heath Ledger's aching performance is mesmerizing. The New York Times rightly compared it to the best of Brando and Penn. There's more brewing beneath the surface in his Ennis del Mar than we'll ever truly know -- and that restraint is what allows us to discover new layers each time we see the film. It's as if he capped a volcano and never lets more than a wisp of steam out here and there, yet we always sense the smoldering in the depths. Few actors have evoked so much with so few words -- and at times so little of his face, as Ennis likes to hide his eyes beneath the safe brim of his hat, making his direct glances all the more potent. Add to that the subtle ways his voice and body change as he ages 20 years, and you have a performance that I suspect will go down in film history as one of the greats.
  
  Jake Gyllenhaal, whose Jack Twist is a little less hidden, also delivers a stellar performance of alternately bottled up pathos and spurts of idealism. Michelle Williams and Anne Hathaway shine equally bright as Alma and Lureen. Williams' silent reaction to witnessing something she can't process can instantly turn your initial laugh into a heart-sinking whimper. Hathaway's transformation from spunky young rodeo barrel racer to the near-40 year old Texas businesswoman shuttering her emotions behind a stoic veil is just as gut-wrenching.
  
  Not a false beat exists in this movie. Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana have so faithfully adapted and artfully expanded Proulx's story in their Oscar-winning screenplay that Proulx said she felt like they (and the other filmmakers) had reached inside her head.
  
  The Oscar-winning score by Gustavo Santaollala (whose score for 2004's The Motorcycle Diaries is another of my favorites) is spare, haunting, and beautifully evocative. He packs more emotional punch with a single guitar than another composer could have with the London Philharmonic. I do wish it were longer, but it's all the film needed and is definitely worth buying once you've seen the movie. Brings it all back. Rodrigo Pietro's cinematography is gorgeous, from the breathtaking mountain expanses to the muted indoor scenes wherein the light is as simple and evocative as the story. Judy Becker's production design is so dead-on it's hard to imagine it's not all real.
  
  To my surprise, I cannot think of any drama that has ever held me in its grip quite like Brokeback Mountain has. While this reaction obviously isn't universal (no piece of art affects everyone the same way), it seems to be common. Like Proulx's original story, the film powerfully knocked me out of my own life and has haunted me ever since. Only Faulkner and a couple others on the page have done that to me before.
  
  But don't let all the praise lead you to expect it to be anything but a simple, quiet tale about a handful of average folk. Because it avoids easy and false catharsis, it can leave you wanting more. Which is another reason that a second or third viewing is more powerfully moving than the first. It does not easily let you go when it's over.
  
  What greater wish could a film lover have?
  
  In a year of some great contenders, Brokeback Mountain still stands out to me as the best film of 2005 -- the one that will probably last with me the longest. It won more Best Picture awards in 2005 than any film in cinema history, and was the best-reviewed film of the year, on more Top 10 lists and rating #1 on more lists than any other American film (it was even #1 on the world-renowned Sight & Sound Top Ten list of world critics' picks -- the ONLY Oscar-nominated film on the entire list of 14 films, including ties; A History of Violence was the only other highly honored American film on the list).
  
  In the end, the impact of Brokeback Mountain on me was that it made me treasure love more.

• 26) My Difficult Climb Up Brokeback Mountain

  by Bob Arr on January 21 2006
    50+ helpful votes

  I went to see the movie in response to the reviews and accolades it was getting, but I had never read Annie Proulx's story. Consequently, I didn't know many of the details before I went.
  
  As the movie began, it seemed obvious that the circumstances could readily develop into a long relationship between the two young men. That it would become sexual I knew from the reviews.
  
  But I seldom felt much of anything lovable in either one. True, they both worked hard and helped each other. What many reviewers described as Jack's furtive glances at Ennis didn't look at all libidinous to me. I thought he often looked sullen and morose. I did not see tenderness or fondness, and to this minute I don't understand what those reviewers saw that I didn't.
  
  (Perhaps I project my own prejudices into the story. My experience is, that love builds slowly, by baby steps. A pleasing attitude, a caring demeanor, perhaps a small act of compassion observed discretely from afar - these sort of things can trigger an interest. Then comes getting to know each other. At some point, as time together increases, shared experiences unaccountably become moments to be remembered. You get the idea; back to the story.)
  
  Weeks of virtual isolation may indeed make any man horny, and if either one or both of the protagonists is homosexual, the result seems predictable. But their first sexual encounter simply looked to me like opportunistic sex, not love. A few reviewers have commented similarly, but went on to say that "it grew into love." I only saw two short scenes that I interpreted as love growing.
  
  Distressingly, the first was seen through the binoculars of their boss, Joe Aguirre, as the young men cavorted on the bare slope of the mountain, in a rough and tumble game of love tag, hugging and kissing, unmistakably enthralled with each other. The other occurred many years later, during one of their "fishing trips," when they jumped, naked and exhilarated, from a high bluff into the lake. I felt their joy in both scenes.
  
  Trouble was, their love had been fully formed years before the swim scene, so it doesn't count as a stepping stone to love. That leaves the first scene as the only early scene that suggested growing love. But in fact, even it occurred after the tent scene.
  
  The entire story rests on their love. If their attraction was only sexual, I don't think it could account for the ultimate, overwhelming tragedy. The author, Annie Proulx, and the screenwriters Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, postulate that the young men are in love, profoundly, unfathomably and unspeakably in love. By the end of the movie, I agree it was so. But somehow, I didn't see love start; I didn't see love grow where I thought it should have.
  
  Still, many of the reviewers said it was there. What I didn't know (and wanted to know) was, did these reviewers sense it from watching the movie, or simply accept it as a given? It seemed to me that there was only one way to find out, so I bought the book and read it.
  
  Well, the missing love development is in the book, plenty enough to satisfy me. So what was wrong? I went and saw the movie a second time.
  
  I was wrong, thankfully wrong. Virtually everything in the book is in there, and I must admit, done to perfection. I simply hadn't understood much of what was said in the first viewing, particularly in the early scenes where Ennis and Jack get to know each other on the mountain. And of course I hadn't read the book at that point. Reading the book made all the difference in the world.
  
  In the book, after Ennis and Jack have swapped duties as herder and camp tender, Ennis comes into camp one night for what Annie Proulx calls "a high-time supper." A big meal, followed by smokes and whiskey, and then talk. Annie, whose prose is amazingly lean, ticks off a whole page of things they talk about. They must have talked for many hours (far too long for the movie). Annie says, "They were respectful of each other's opinions, each glad to have a companion where none had been expected." Finally, it's time for Ennis to return to the flock:
  
  "Ennis, riding against the wind back to the sheep in the treacherous, drunken light, thought he'd never had such a good time, felt he could paw the white out of the moon."
  
  That was the line, just a single line, that opened the door enough to let me glimpse Ennis's heart. After an impoverished, loveless life, someone had opened up to him, made him know his feelings were important to them. I don't know how it could have been displayed on the screen (it was not). It was, after all, just his feeling, riding alone in the moonlight. To me it was the touchstone, the first baby step to love.
  
  I found many other small steps after that, benefiting greatly from having read the book. When the tent scene happened, it fit the story, at least in my mind.
  
  I was surprised by my own reaction in the second viewing. Jack came through much more powerfully and sympathetically. I actually didn't like him much the first time.
  
  And the anguish that first overwhelmed me seemed not quite so intense. Someone, in one of these posts, makes reference to "..the moment when Ennis decides to stop hiding from life in his work, and agrees to attend his daughter's wedding." I wish. That was a bone tossed by the screenwriters to the movie audience. Annie Proulx never wrote it. What she wrote was, "That was about the time Jack began to appear in his dreams. Jack as he had first seen him, curly-headed and smiling..." Make no mistake, Annie's Ennis is sentenced to haunted dreams and regrets for the rest of his life.
  
  The movie surely stands on its own, and that tiny ray of hope that Larry and Diana sent us doesn't seem to be a match for the enormity of the tragedy. I said it was not so intense the second time, but just writing about it brings it flooding back to me. No, I'm not over it yet.
  
  By the way, if I forgot to mention it, this is the finest movie I've ever seen.
  
  Bob Arr

• 27) One of the best films I have ever seen

  by willow on March 27 2006
    50+ helpful votes

  I put off seeing this film, unsure how the subject would be handled. What a mistake! This is absolutely one of the best films I have ever seen. It is superbly acted - Heath Ledger puts forth the best acting I have ever seen, and I've seen plenty! Direction, music, cinematography - all amazing. It left me wrung out and haunted. It portrays such an intense, palpable love, yet as I thought about it afterwards, I don't believe there is a single "I love you" uttered in the entire film. Made me think about how talk is cheap! I am strictly a "renter" when it comes to movies, but I am buying this one because I know I'll want to see it many times. While some think that the the story ignores the pain of the families of the two men, or that their love is used as a justification of the pain they cause, I say "au contraire" - you've got it backwards! The pain is deeply felt - however the CAUSE of the pain is NOT the relationship between the men. It is caused by a society where people are forced to deny their true feelings and are obligated to lead "acceptable" heterosexual lives.

• 28) . . . a cathartic, visceral, beautiful, unforgettable love story

  by Cinema Paradisio on April 19 2006
    50+ helpful votes

  I loved this movie. it touched a fiber of my being that resonates days later and probably always will. i found it visually and emotionally beautiful, all the accolades bestowed upon it richly deserved, and probably more. i know i will never ever forget ennis' and jack's story. After seeing it the first time, i had such an emotional catharsis that i have never ever before experienced with any work of art; i basically had to walk away and try to absorb my feelings and the meaning behind the sense of loss i personally felt. it was well, all i can say is when a medium like film can move a person to tears and to stir up inner emotions so, that is a special thing. like others, i feel protective of the movie, of these two boys, who could be to any one of us a son, brother, father, friend.
  
  brokeback mountain is like a beautiful piece of music that becomes part of your soul. i have seen it four times in two days, and my eyes swim with tears every time, even thinking of it. . . driving to work today a song came on, and the movie fresh in my mind, i wept silently in the privacy of my car. for jack and ennis, for loves that all of us have had at one time or another in life that we lost.
  
  others here have already and more eloquently than i described the movie and its principals. i don't know if any observations I, a thirtysomething married white female could proffer would mean anything to anyone, so i will keep them brief. some things that still stand out to me days later:
  
  their reunion scene. absolutely visceral and real. the raw emotion and hunger for one another. it's shocking in its intensity, but anyone who has ever had a love of a lifetime absolutely gets that moment for them, when time stands still and the only people in the world that exist are the two of them.
  
  jack flashing back to their first summer on brokeback at what is to be their last meeting. as ennis gently cradles him from behind, rocking slowly with him, the look of peace and serenity on jack's face and the longing loving look as ennis rides away, blows me away. has ever so much been conveyed by two people? the regret as he comes back to the present and ennis' is driving away, what could have been. you feel the same sadness and loss for what could have been, so beautifully effectively done.
  
  thank you heath ledger and jake glyenhaal (sp?) and ang lee . . after months of being curious amidst all the buzz, seeing is believing. i will never ever forget nor fail to be moved profoundly by your movie. bravo. i only hope this movie can be a bridge to understanding for ignorance and hatred. only then can all the pain and despair suffered by the (?) fictional jack and ennis ever be not in vain.

• 29) "Jack, I swear...."

  by Kevin S Currie on April 11 2006
    50+ helpful votes

  Those are the last three words spoken in Brokeback Mountain, the tear-jerker directed by Ang Lee and starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gylenhaal. (Don't worry; I am not going to say any more about the ending.) Ever since I've heard those last three words - and I've heard them twice - it has been hard to extract them, and all that leads up to them, out of my head.
  
  Brokeback Mountain may look, on first blush, to be a 'gay cowboy' film. Believe me when I - and other reviewers - tell you that it is infinitely more than that. It is a story of two people (yes, of the same sex) who are hopelessly in love....in secret. Jack Twist is the sensitive and optimistic one. Ennis Del Mar is the quintessential cowboy - the silent and guarded one. When thse two meet in '63 on Brokeback Mountain, they do not realize how each will change and help shape the other for the better part of the next 20 years.
  
  If you are only familiar with Heath Ledger as the Aussie sex symbol of Cassanova and A Knight's Tale, then you have only seen part of him. His evocation of Ennis Del Mar are spectacular. While it is too early in this young actors career to go too far out on a limb, I predict that when all is said and done, this may be the role he is known for! It is obivous that he knows this character well. This is not to discount Jake Gyllenhaal's perfect-fit performance as Jack Twist. It is just to say that Jack lacks the delicate nuances of Ennis.
  
  The cinematography is fantastic! If you are reading this review, then you have probably missed your chance to see this on the big screen and that is a shame. Whatever you do, see this on a nice, big, widescreen tv. The shots of the Wyoming (actually, Canadian) landscape are awesome, and match the film's emotional beauty with physical beauty.
  
  As said, this film is about a 20 year love affair that tests its characters to their limits. Two characters are forced to come to grips with their homosexuality (bisexuality?) in a time, place, and occupation that does not allow such a thing. They must keeep the identity of their one true love a secret from their female lovers, who can't help but pale in comparison. It is love story that is (unlike every other love story) not at all cliche as it adds this extra dimension.
  
  Yes, the film is a character film and as such, it moves slow. It is approximately 2 1/2 hours but - at least to my eyes - this is time well spent. Every minute of this film is there for a reason; to give you as true and unadulterated a glimpse into these two characters as is possible. The dialogue is sparse (as most dialogue between cowboys - private people - is). Alas, it is all worth it.
  
  "Jack, I swear..." Everything culminates into these three lines. Did tears run down my face? You bet; both times. Will tears run down yours? I don't know, but don't you think it is worth finding out?
  

• 30) Brokeback Leaves You Brokenhearted

  by Jack L. Aiello on March 06 2006
    50+ helpful votes

  Well, it's the day after the Academy Awards and while I'll never begrudge Crash for winning Best Picture, especially since it was a very good film, it was Brokeback Mountain that truly spoke to me and resonated in a way that Crash didn't.
  
  Adapted from the short story by E. Annie Proulx, Brokeback Mountain tells the gut wrenching story of two young ranch hands who fall in love in the early 1960s. Ang Lee maps out their relationship up to the early 80s and actors Heath Ledger and Jack Gyllenhaal who play Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist respectively, create fully formed characters each conflicted with demons, and each making different choices with equally devastating consequences.
  
  Debate around this movie swirls around the fact that it carries the "sinister" liberal agenda to finally demarginalize the gay lifestyle and bring it to the mainstream. Brokeback Mountain, if you really look at it, is a statement about how you decide to live your life in the face of social strictures. And it provides no uplifting answer. If you try to live your life without apology like Jack, you run the risk of physical harm and if you choose to bottle it up like Ennis, you implode from the weight of your own longing. And the film isn't just about Jack and Ennis, but how their relationship causes a ripple effect throughout the other people in their lives.
  
  Frankly, Brokeback Mountain is a movie whose time has come and it saddens me that Hollywood didn't fully capitalize on the zeitgeist by bestowing the film its best picture prize. Even in the face of the Academy's snub, Brokeback Mountain still tells its powerful story. It's beautifully shot, unfurls very slowly but surely to its hearbreaking end and slightly optimistic coda. Ultimately, by the end, the viewer will understand the cost of what it takes to be oneself in spite of the world, and sometimes in spite of oneself.

• 31) People missing the point...

  by Jose Antonio Area Portaba on March 30 2006
    50+ helpful votes

  I've noticed a few reviews mentioning that the film isn't saying anything relevant about social tolerance and that it wouldn't have received the attention it has or considered "groundbreaking" if the story was about a man and a woman falling in love instead of two men. Those people are not only wrong, but they're also missing the entire point of the film. If the story was between a man and a woman instead of two men, there simply would be no Brokeback Mountain; there would be no story to tell because the whole subject and theme of the film lies within two MEN who fall in love and the conflict of their own feelings towards each other. Besides being a love story (a beautiful and profoundly moving one at that), Brokeback Mountain is also (as the Amazon reviewer accurately puts it) a social study about the "ripple effects" that the denial of this love has not only on Ennis and Jack, but also on those close to them. Being forced to live a life of lies, secrecy, doubt and emotional disconnection because the people around just don't understand what you're going through. And that's what makes the film so powerful and insightful.
  
  I've read other reviews condemning Jack and Ennis' affair because the film supposedly wants to sympathize with two men cheating on their wives. Again, people missing the point. As mentioned early, that is one of the "ripple effects" of Ennis and Jack not being able to fulfill their love. You see, if society was fully accepting of homosexual relationships at the time (not that they completely are now) the film is set in, Ennis and Jack would've never been forced to marry women and live a life of lies, secrets and unfulfilment. Not only wasn't homosexuality not accepted by society at the time, but gays were also MURDERED just for being gays, as the film points out in Ennis' flashback. So basically, these men just couldn't live as they were, so they had no choice but live "normal" lives.
  
  That brings me to the other theme the film tackles, which is self-acceptance. Within their social context, Ennis and Jack didn't see themselves as gay because they simply didn't accept it or even approached the concept. So when they realize how they feel for each other, they just don't know what to make of their feelings; they deny and even reject their own nature ("I ain't queer"). It's not only about society not accepting their "kind" of love, it's about THEM not fully accepting and giving in to each other; especially Ennis, whose fear and complete inability to accept both himself and Jack's love is what ultimately dooms them, which makes the love story even more devastating.
  
  Anyone who can't understand what the film's message is and what it's aiming for either needs to have a moral and conscience check, or is simply beyond help.

• 32) Brokeback Mountain: A Straight Guy's Perspective

  by WLP on February 21 2006
    50+ helpful votes

  Well, where to begin...
  Dear reader, I'm sure that with the amount of reviews available, that my one will probably not have a great impact. Nevertheless, this review serves also a selfish purpose, it is cathartic. So here goes.
  
  I've never been moved as much by a film than I was with BBM. I hadn't really heard of it, other than the (awful) epithet "the gay cowboy movie". Having seen the film, I had to own the book and read the short story. The film carefully follows the storyline and elaborates only where necessary. The book, as well, complements the film. There are only minor discrepancies. However, having both read the book and seen the film, this review is based on both.
  
  Let me get this straight. I'm not a fan of love stories, and Titanic was a boring session to me. I've never been a chick flick film goer. Which is why I was so surprised and confused at the same time by my reaction to the promotional trailer to BBM. The trailer connected with something deep within me (and, no, it wasn't the part of wanting to have sex with a guy), but it was the fact that it genuinely purveyed a different take on masculinity. Because yes, this film is 100% a study about masculinity, if not machism. So, I wanted to enlighten myself as to how men can be different, yet still manly nevertheless. It was very refreshing to see something different in regards to homosexuality than Will and Grace. I love the fact that this isn't about two guys who meet up in the local gay bar whilst dancing away to Madonna.
  
  The key issue is the masculinity of the main characters' sexuality. As one critic accurately put it, we don't know whether Ennis and Jack (the main characters) are gay because the love each other, or whether they love each other because they are gay. Heath Ledger described Ennis as a homophobic man in love with another man. Jake Gyllenhaal even said he thought this was a film about two straight guys who fall in love with each other. Of course, this quote isn't entirely unproblematic, but I have sympathy for it. Their masculinity defines their sexuality, and they love all things masculine and being masculine themselves. In essence, this is a story about men who prefer the company of men as opposed to women, and there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, I dare postulate that the only way this story is different from a story about two very good male friends is the fact that they have sex. According to Annie Proulx's short story in the story to screenplay book, it was common practice to send two ranch hands out at the same time, so that if they couldn't poke at the livestock, at least they could poke at each other. Usually, what happened on the mountain stayed on the mountain. Yet Ennis and Jack fall in love subsequently, which complicates thins altogether.
  
  However, the real novelty is that the story is available to the public at large. We see/read things that usually wouldn't be shown in public. Such as the more tender occasions, for instance the embrace by the fireplace, where the issue is not so much sex, as it is emotional connection. This, in my opinion, is far more intense on the reader/viewer than any sex scenes, and far more novel (dare one say controversial, even?). And yet, why is it so strange to society at large to see two guys share a moment of tenderness? Women do it all the time; they kiss, hug, sleep together (not in a sexual manner), cry together, go to the toilet together etc. This is not so with men. But why shouldn't it be between good friends or family? And I can't see why it should be something that might label someone as being gay, because in my view, people are only gay if they desire somebody of their own gender sexually. Women who hug and kiss aren't necessarily lesbians for that matter, so why should men think that they are?
  
  These are some of the more interesting questions about men and women that the story offers. It has definitely led me to review my own position on masculinity and what it is to be a straight guy. And also, the story has cemented the fact that masculinity is not reserved solely for straight men. Über-gay macho men aside, such as the Village People, gay guys can be as rough-spoken, stoic and reserved as any.
  
  The symbolism of the story is also great. The names alone are a subject onto themselves: "Ennis del Mar", meaning "island of the sea", Jack "Twist", where a "twist" is apparently rodeo lingo for a well developed ham string muscle. "Alma" means "soul". The word "Brokeback" is open to many an interpretation. My own favourite is the one that underpins the tragedy of the story; that the events that took place on the mounatain between Ennis and Jack metaphorically broke their hearts (and backs) afterwards.
  
  This story is amazing. It's a wonder it hasn't been written before, but my praises go to Annie Proulx for having the courage to write it. There will never be another like it.

• 33) Haunting love story that will last through the ages

  by Tanya Shewmake on May 11 2006
    50+ helpful votes

  This film has stuck with me more than any other film I have ever seen in my life. I watched it 5 days ago and simply cannot stop thinking about it. I wanted to immediately watch it again once it was over. I just didn't want the story to end, especially the way it did.
  The characters Ennis and Jack, superbly played by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, the absolutely stunning directoral work done by Ang Lee, and the heartwrenchingly beautiful musical score by Gustavo Santaolalla, have all been swimming in my head and heart nonstop these last few days and nights. I have been profoundly affected by this film.
  I plan on seeing it again and again and listening to the original score and reading the story over and over again as well. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves a good love story.

• 34) Almost too painful to watch..But You SHOULD

  by Kirk L. Wood on April 06 2006
    50+ helpful votes

  As a 46 year old rancher in very rural Oklahoma who is very far in the closet..I wanted to see BBM for a very long time. In my part of the world, BBM never played at our movie house. I had to travel over 3 years one way to see it firsthand. I sat alone in the dark theater for the 2+ hours watching every frame of this beautiful film thinking that when I left things would never been quite the same again. I was right. The film is a whole world of emotions..love, hate, fear, pride, saddness, longing, lust, anger and many many others all wrapped up in one. The story is very very real. Trust me...I know the story by heart having lived most of it. The actors are beyond excellent as is the story and script. Ang Lee's direction is pure art unto it's self.
  BBM is a film that will always haunt you once you see it. Many months after seeing it I still find myself (more than once a day) thinking about it and rolling it over in my mind. It is not about being "gay". It is about life. Plain and simple. Everyone loves, hurts, laughs, cries, etc. The sex of the characters is just window dressing. Being gay does however add more salt to the wounds the subjects of BBM must face. I think this film will hopefully change the way the "real" world sees all gay persons. I think Lee and the writers made sure of it with a piece of work that touches all who see it.
  It is a VERY hard film to watch...But you should. It will make you think and make you feel. When Jack is murdered and Ennis is finally told. No one with any amount of heart in their body or soul should be able watch and not feel the need to either turn away or cry. This film is that real.
  Some will dismiss BBM as hype or an agenda film set out to advance gay issues. No..sorry....BBM is a film set out to advance the human heart. Not many other films can boost such an achievement.
  WATCH it and think about it. You will be a better member of the human race if you do.

• 35) A Great, Epic, All-American Love Story - (DVD Review)

  by A Music Fan on March 22 2006
    50+ helpful votes

  Everyone is reviewing the movie - it's incredibly hard NOT to, but having bought an advance copy of the DVD today (legal), AND having seen the movie, I'm glad to say the DVD transfer is gorgeous - they did it right. Rodrigo Prieto's cinematography is breathtaking and spectacular, while at the same time being almost Zen-like in its unhurried beauty and tranquility. "Brokeback Mountain" is destined to be among "Dances With Wolves," "The English Patient," "Out Of Africa," "At Play In The Fields Of The Lord" and other sweeping, epic visual classics. This film deserves to be watched on as BIG a screen as possible for its sheer, scenic beauty alone. I haven't seen "The Memoirs Of A Geisha," (which won the Oscar for Cinematography), but they should have declared it a tie. I was a little disappointed to discover that the film was shot at some of the highest points in Calgary, Alberta (Canada) - couldn't director Ang Lee find the same majestic beauty here in the good ol' U.S.A.? And, if Universal Studios is listening, though the Dolby Digital 5.1 sound is excellent, DTS sound on this DVD would have been outstanding. I'm sure the out-takes would have been a lot of fun to see as well! A few music videos (the score won an Oscar), could have been included. Maybe all of these and more in the "Special 2-DVD Collector's Edition?"
  
  Since we're in Oscar territory, having seen both "Capote" and "Brokeback Mountain," while Philip Seymour Hoffman's performance was undeniably brilliant, (IMHO), Heath Ledger deserved to win Best Actor for his remarkable, INCREDIBLY understated and restrained portayal of Ennis Del Mar (still, all the while ticking underneath like an emotional time-bomb.) Larry McMurtry (co-writer of the screenplay), wrote to Ang Lee and mentioned (between actual cowboys), "how important the non-verbal communication was just as important as what is spoken." Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal GOT that completely - and they DIDN'T learn it from "Cowboy Boot Camp," where they both actually went to prepare for their roles. Their commitment was bringing the script to life (and the love between their characters contained within), as often what is NOT spoken between them means as much as what IS - for example, the tender way Ennis embraces Jack from behind by the fire, quietly telling him, "You're going to fall asleep like a horse standing up," then gently rocking and humming to him. Scenes like that are repeatedly and each time beautifully conveyed not only by them, but by ALL of the outstanding actors. Michelle Williams as Alma (Ennis' wife), deserves special mention - a superb "quiet storm" throughout, the look on her face when Ennis is about to "go fishing" with Jack the first time is worth a thousand words. When he closes the door to leave, you can see AND feel all of her hurt and pain as her world (and the man she thought she knew), is literally turned upside-down.
  
  Next, on a lighter note, let me put to rest the answer to a burning question on MANY people's minds, "Was that Jake and Heath jumping off the cliff (naked?)" Upon careful frame-by-frame inspection, the answer is no, they were BOTH doubles. (That's okay. Some things are better left to the imagination!) :-)
  
  In the DVD extras, it was very interesting to discover that screenplay co-writers Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry were trying to get this film made for years (since the debut of the short story in 1997), "but no one would touch it." (It was known as "The Greatest Unproduceable Screenplay Ever Written.") Focus Films producer James Schamus also said (when he was an independent producer), "I wanted to produce this film for years, but the world wasn't ready for it." And how Diana and Larry used virtually EVERY sentence in Annie Proulx's thirty page short story of "Brokeback Mountain" in their screenplay, then "fleshed out the characters' lives," to bring it to fifty pages - and then had to "make up the rest," as they needed twice as much for the movie (and the flawless job they did winning them a well-deserved Oscar.) What was most touching though, was what they said upon its release: "We are stewards of the story. It's like raising a child, you hope the child is accepted and successful, and you send it out into the world and it ceases to be yours. It becomes everyone's story."
  
  The DVD interviews show it was so very obvious how EVERYONE involved in this film TRULY viewed it as a labor of love, and what drew everyone to it was the honesty of the characters in the script that made every perfectly cast actor want to bring their role to life (so brilliantly, I might add - after seeing it, you can't imagine ANYONE being anyone else but who they ARE in the movie!) As Heath Ledger said, "I always like to try and bare my soul a little bit." Jake Gyllenhaal added, "I'm always looking for films that go after an emotional journey." When Ennis DOES bare his soul - when Jack leaves him at the end of their first season on Brokeback, and he doesn't expect the rush of feeling of emptiness he feels; when Jack tells him, "I wish I knew how to quit you, Ennis Del Mar," and Ennis tells him to "go ahead and LEAVE me alone," then completely and totally breaks down, emotionally and physically, because that's the LAST thing he wants Jack to do; when he visits Jack's room, then discovers how much and how deeply Jack always loved him (and in its symbolism, always wanted to protect and take care of him), to name only a few, are nothing short of completely DEVASTATING, and in these moments YOU are experiencing the same "emotional journey" Jake Gyllenhaal so accurately described without even THINKING about it. To become so enamoured with these characters (their lives and their surroundings), that you didn't even know you were being seduced - therein lies the real beauty of "Brokeback Mountain" - and a testament to the labor of love from everyone who brought it from thirty pages to the screen.
  
  In this epic, all-American love story that knows no preferences, boundaries or gender (only that of love itself), everyone can take that "emotional journey" that Jake and everyone succeeded in making with this timeless, outstanding film and DVD release. Not only will Heath Ledger (who tragically left us all too soon in 2008), be remembered for an Oscar-worthy performance and one that will always remain a legacy of his, "Brokeback Mountain" is destined and deserves to become an American classic and legacy that thankfully, the world finally seems ready for.

• 36) finally saw it and got my heart broken for my effort

  by WAMophile on July 23 2006
    50+ helpful votes

  I was a reluctant viewer. All those raving reviews. The oscar hype and best picture (not getting it) controversy. The gay theme. The cowboy theme. The Ledger mumble. And so on. I feared both the good and bad hype--foolish me.
  
  It started beautifully with some deliberately iconic scenes and poses, set to frame it within the context of but to shatter the Gary Cooper/Shane mystique. That set piece of Ledger leaning against the wall, Gyllenhall leaning against the car, the surreptitious yet almost lusty glance from JG's character; the glance he throws HL through the driver's mirror as he's shaving. This was an AL shout that either it would be a spectacular failure or a great film.
  
  The much vaunted cinematography is beautiful, but does not slap you over the head with it as did such films as Lawrence of Arabia, making it that much more powerful in its quiet restraint, which to a large extent describes this film. But who was it who said the violence contained under silence is more devastating than all the fire on the surface. Elegant as it is, this film slowly, in the course of a little over 2 hours, systematically tears you apart, leaving you feeling as barren, ragged and yet moved as the characters.
  
  The acting from every single character is true. I think Michelle Williams' performance is a spectacular revelation, who knew that a second banana from a teen melodrama series could act with such depth and restraint and emotional power. The shattering of her illusions is at least as souldestroying as that of the main characters. And Anne Hathaway has a tremendous moment towards the end; in a few minutes she injects 20 years of tamped down pain and bitterness, yet through that pain, she projects a sympathy for someone else's tragedy which is unexpected, yet still in character. The performances in this film are truly the best I've seen by a group of actors. Each of the characters breaks your heart, one by one.
  
  And I am forever grateful to each of them, the cast & crew, for bringing me two of the most humanizing hours of my life.

• 37) Many meanings, many messages in this elegant fable.

  by C. B Collins Jr. on March 13 2006
    50+ helpful votes

  Ang Lee's film, Brokeback Mountain, is one of those rare events that impacts not only the entertainment industry and its supporters, but also impacts our society by revealing truths of the human heart that may run counter to society's prescriptions and rules.
  
  It is a love story beween two men that emerges out of a totally unlikely place, the cowboy world of windswept Wyoming in 1963. Yet from those first dusty scenes where Ennis del Mar (played by Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (played by Jake Gyllenhaal)are hired to herd sheep, we begin to see a beautiful world of high mountain pastures on Brokeback Mountain, where the pressures of society and civilization can be left behind and gradually these two men can shed the confines of prejudice and social roles and experience first physical and then emotional love for each other. To a certain extent, high above the world of civilization, in a more natural state, these two young men enter an Eden. It is a Garden of Eden first in its natural beauty and then second in the love that is allowed to flourish there. I use the term Eden because throughout the film, Ennis and Jack try to return there - to recapture the young love they felt for each other, and to meet their sexual needs.
  
  But civilization calls, and these two young men return to the lowlands, collect their pay, and painfully part ways. Ennis hits a brick wall with his bare fist in a hidden alley, for he is a man who is more comfortable with physical pain than emotional pain. Jack returns to the worksite the following year, eager to relive the experience, but stopped by Randy Quaid, the foreman, as well as Ennis' decision not to show up again.
  
  Both men marry. Ennis marries a vulnerable country girl reared from the same strong stock of no-illusion people from which he was reared. Jack almost starves until he is picked by a rich cowgirl who has been denied nothing by her father. Anne Hathaway plays the wife of Jack. What is it about the man who desires other men that appears mysterious and unobtainable to some women? Part of the dynamic between Anne and Jack is that she is a young woman who has been given everything, yet she marries a man with a hidden ability to love inside that she will never be able to touch, she will only always remain aware that it is there and it is not meant for her.
  
  Michelle Williams plays Ennis' wife, Alma. Some of the most painful scenes of the film involve Alma as she gradually begins to learn the secrets of the silent man she has married. After 4 years, Jack writes a postcard to Ennis, asking if he would like to get together. Ennis responds and a date is determined. On the day that Jack is supposed to arrive, Ennis is a bundle of bad nerves, pacing, sad and fearful of a no-show, restless, depressed as a way to deal with his repressed longing, energized, agaitated at the kids, and this odd state of mind/body is certainly observed by his sensitive young wife. When Jack arrives, Ennis runs out of the house to greet him, pulls him from his truck, and the two men kiss with a flood of repressed love and lust and longing. Yet Alma opens the front door and observes this embrace and knows that this is a passion she has never experienced with Ennis.
  
  Jack Twist, played superbly by Jake Gyllenhaal, emerges as the character that is most emotionally available. He makes himself available to Ennis and is the most open to these two men divorcing their wives and becoming life partners. He is aware of his needs and has sex with other men beside Ennis. He is the one who continually pushes Ennis to experience the hidden rumblings of the heart.
  
  Ennis del Mar, played perfectly by Heath Ledger, is an emotionally more complex and stunted character. Yet it is the character growth of Ennis that in some ways is the real trajectory of the story. The trajectory of this story is not boy meets boy, boy loses boy, boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy finally find boy again. It is rather a more complex path of self awareness where pain is the surgical tool that reveals Ennis to himself. He does lose Alma, he does lose Jack, but in the end we see a changed man. When an available attractive young woman begins to seduce him, he is pulled into her orbit due to his need for comfort from his loses. HOwever, he realizes he will never be happy with this young woman and she will never be fulfilled with him. He ends the budding romance in a way that tells us he has gained in wisdom and self knowledge. In the end we see Ennis as a wounded and broken fellow, destined to mourn the love he could have nourished and experienced, and yet we see him begin to celebrate the budding love of his eldest daughter.
  
  This is mature matter. We all make poor or uninformed or unconscious choices. We all treat life as if it would go on forever and we don't need to make hard choices because we will always get a second chance. These two men were not especially strong heroic fellows, they were victims of societal pressures and their own emotional boundaries and awareness. Sometimes we do our best to understand ourselves and the world and it still comes out a tragedy. Knowing this, we must be grateful for those times of communion of the heart, which come to us like grace, like an unsought gift, but which transforms us forever.
  
  

• 38) 'Brokeback Mountain' Casts A Soul Across The Screen

  by J. E. Barnes on February 08 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain (2005) is certainly a film about a passionate love relationship between two men, but it's equally about loneliness, isolation, lack of self-acceptance, fear, betrayal, the inability to communicate effectively, and the destructive results of broad but deeply ingrained social prejudices.
  
  As such, Brokeback Mountain is a film of enormous universal appeal, which no doubt explains why the film is profoundly touching diverse audiences everywhere. Most people, regardless of orientation or background, have experienced some or all of these difficult elements in their own lives.
  
  Though not technically perfect, the film actually achieves much more than being a mere exercise in cinematic polish: it is genuinely moving, deeply compassionate, poignant, tender, gripping, and superbly intelligent. Brokeback Mountain is about two men who fall in love with one another in the early 1960s--two people--two human beings. It tells its sometimes unpleasant story in three vibrant dimensions, and, in doing so, casts a soul and a shadow across the screen.
  
  Brokeback Mountain in also incredibly nuanced in every manner possible--there are more than dozen scenes, both major and minor, which can be broadly interpreted; at least one pivotal scene remains almost entirely open to audience interpretation.
  
  The film also gains from repeated viewings, as scene after scene seem to take on new dimensions and meanings.
  
  What does the slaughtered sheep Ennis discovers after his initial intimate encounter with Jack symbolize? What else might the sheep's mutilated carcass remind him of? Is Ennis, semi-consciously or unconsciously, planting an idea in Jack's mind when he says he's "had no chance to sin"?
  
  Why does Ennis lose control of himself while he and Jack are play-wrestling? Why does Lee choose to frame Ennis against a night sky of exploding fireworks during a Fourth of July celebration? Does Jack's mother invite Ennis up to view Jack's room with a special goal in mind? Why does she nod subtly when Ennis returns to the central room, and have a paper bag waiting for him nearby?
  
  Why does Ennis change his mind about attending a pivotal event in his daughter's life in the film's last scene?
  
  Heath Ledger gives one of the greatest and most understated performances ever presented in an American film. Note how Ledger doesn't require any dialogue to express Ennis' deeply conflicted, gravely isolated psyche: he conveys it through the manner in which Ennis walks, mumbles, hangs his head, and, in one grim scene, forks his way listlessly through a slice of apple pie in what appears to be an off-hour bus depot.
  
  The manner in which Ennis and Jack express their passion for one another is incredibly moving, since their attraction is primarily an expression of emotional desire and deep longing rather than a matter of strictly physical attraction. Jake Gyllenhaal does his best work in the film when illustrating Jack's tenderness for Ennis in three key scenes: on the occasion of their second intimate encounter, on the afternoon they leave the mountain, and during their last meeting; and tenderness expressed between men is a thing rarely seen in American cinema. Additionally, adult love has seldomly been depicted in film as convincingly as it is in Brokeback Mountain.
  
  It's probable that Brokeback Mountain's brief last line, hauntingly delivered by Ledger, will go down in film history, since it allows Ennis to finally express, as best he is able, everything he has felt for Jack over several decades in three terse, surging, terribly sad words.
  
  With the exception of children, Brokeback Mountain is a film for all audiences. It's a grand thing to actually discover a mature, intelligent film that is 'adult' in the best sense of the word, which is also profound and highly enjoyable. Brokeback Mountain has proven to have a kind of healing power over its many of its viewers, and thus is a film all audiences potentially gain from seeing.
  
  
  

• 39) Homosexual love same as heterosexual love...

  by FredCritic on June 05 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  
  Love between two men is expressed the same way as love between a man and a woman. The dynamics are exactly the same. I didn't really understand that until I saw this movie. More proof there's nothing deviant or weird or perverted about homosexuality. It makes homophobia that much more difficult to comprehend. And if love is the foundation of marriage, and love is the same whether it's between two people of the same sex or between a man and a woman, then where are the anti-gay marriage people coming from...? I don't understand. I just don't understand.

• 40) Changed my view on homosexual

  by Frank Kennedy on May 28 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  Growing up in a Catholic family, I have always been taught that homosexuality is evil, and even when I started my own family, I always passed this idea down to my children.
  
  So imagine the shock I endured when my wife bought, not rented, Brokeback Mountain home for family movie night.
  
  I watched nevertheless, to show that I do keep an open mind about the subject. But by the end of the film, even I had tears in my eyes. I believe that books and movies on romance now should not categorize Homosexuality to its own category, but as "Romance" where they are suppose to belong
  
  This film changes you, and after watching it, you will never be the same person again.

• 41) Modern Tragic Masterpiece

  by Brett Martin on April 14 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  At its core this film is not about sexuality; it is about profound loss and about not living a true life. Not one character comes though the other end of this without loss. And why? Not easily answered. An intolerant society and a rigid masculine template jump to mind. This film is hard to characterize, though. From its opening shot to its final one, there is an overwhelming sense of isolation and loneliness. Time passes but the outside world rarely infiltrates; some songs, some hairstyles, some newer cars but rarely the news of the day. This remoteness makes the film and its ultimate conclusion a tragedy. If there is ever a place to live a truthful and fulfilling life it should be Brokeback Mountain, but neither Jack Twist, nor especially Ennis del Mar, can truly live the life they fundamentally desire. As it stands, theirs is a mingled life that spans many years and yet still seems empty and devoid. I cannot say truthfully that the actions of these men are without criticism especially with how they affect others in their lives but nothing they do to other people compares to what they do to each other. While theirs is a timeless love, both physically and spiritually, they also are haunted with melancholy and emptiness; a troubled human conflict that will shake most loving people to their core.
  
  As a film it is remarkable. Ang Lee's direction is a masterly and will be studied. Every image, every performance and edit is delicately and masterfully maintained throughout. The performances are amazing and for some will be career defining. Ledger is revelatory and I would stand his performance alongside any of Brando's early ones. You know Ennis. You love him and are angry with him and Ledger is never false in his portrayal. Gyllenhaal is just as amazing. Jack is the yin to Ennis' yang and Jake nails him. Without his character's love for life, the final scenes would not carry as much emotionally. Jake's performance is focused in his eyes and the sparkling flame within them. Watching that flame diminish over time is heartbreaking. Michelle Williams' Alma has deservedly received accolades and she is raw and real. Just as noteworthy is Anne Hathaway and I must say she really surprised me. In what could have been a mannered and arch character, she brings Lureen startlingly to life, most notably in her phone conversation with Ennis. The photography and music are beautifully intertwined and will stir your emotions and haunt you for days.
  
  That this film is subjected to trite and hateful degradations by some is saddening. It seems at conflict with the truth and compassion that these "moral" people aspire to. To spout vitriol about this film seems so misplaced if anyone has truthfully seen it. It is this hate, however, that hits to the core of what Ennis believes. That no matter how fundamentally real Ennis' and Jack's feelings are for one another, there will be those that hate them and being hated is a more unspeakable horror than living alone.
  
  

• 42) A Review of the Reviews

  by Rainbowman on March 04 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  As I've read down through the numerous reviews on this movie, I have encountered a few (precious few) reviews that had thoughtful criticisms. And I've even found myself agreeing with some of them. I do wish there had been more affection displayed between Jack and Ennis to support the idea of them being in love. Though I will say the 2nd tent scene, when Ennis gets up and goes into Jack was pretty tender and loving. Still, the complaint is a valid criticism.
  
  But nearly all of the rest of the negative reviews, in my opinion, are not valid. Too many have tried comparing the story with one about a man and a woman, saying if it were about a man and a woman, nobody would care about it. Granted, they wouldn't. But if a man loved a woman in 1962, it wouldn't have been a big deal, would it? There would be no threat to their lives. Can you see that a fair comparison isn't possible? Can you admit that it's not?
  
  Can you understand that it is this vital difference that makes the movie important?
  
  Another viewer claims there was anal rape, which is just idiotic. This poor individual has no clue what rape means, and as a result, I doubt many will consider his review helpful. For even those who didn't like the movie would know that rape was not a part of it.
  
  Another said Gyllenhaal and Ledger's characters in the movie just wanted sex, didn't matter from who. Is that really fair? Gyllenhaal's character wanted to be with Ennis, who was too afraid. And only from neglect did Jack turn to other men. Similarly, Ennis only was intimate with his wife, and Jack. He later took up with a waitress, but she lassoed him. Do you think if he was so afraid of being found out he was gay, that he would dare reject her efforts? What might that indicate about him to others? Yet, when she finally said goodbye, you didn't see him trying to talk her out of it. All he said was, "Well I was probably no fun anyhow." He seemed relieved. He had an image he felt he had to uphold for his own safety. It doesn't mean he wanted sex, no matter who it was from. Painting these guys as promiscuous users is totally unfair to their characters, and the realities each dealt with.
  
  Then we had those few nasty reviews that labeled the movie, "decadent, liberal scum," "liberal social propaganda," and "liberal fluff." In making the charge that this movie had an agenda (and by using the language they used), the reviewers only showed that they themselves have an agenda. And it's not a very nice one. Basically, any portrayal of gay people as happy, or loving, or human, or broken, or anything other than sick, is considered propaganda to these folks. Well my friends, we do have happiness in our lives, and we do love, and we are often broken (just as you are), and sometimes more broken because of your cruelty. Portraying our lives accurately and fairly is not some `liberal fluff.' I feel really bad for those of you who cannot stand to see any honest portrayal of gay characters. You're really going to have a hard time of it during the coming years when gay marriage, and ENDA, and other measures pass, assuring us the rights we are guaranteed by our constitution. And they will pass.
  
  Next in the lexicon of irrational statements is that this movie is the product of a liberal Hollywood obsessed with politics. Actually, the story was authored by a native writer in Wyoming who is not part of Hollywood. One reviewer claimed that "Once again, Hollywood is beating down our morals." No, the movie is challenging you to see more than the black and white of this situation, but it apparently was not possible in your case.
  
  Then we have what at first seems to be a fair and accurate criticism... that they cheated on their wives, and destroyed their families. A really good review was posted on February 9th by "Billy Bob." The wives were the victims of homophobia, just as the husbands were. All you straight guys, close your eyes and imagine that you live on a planet where the majority was homosexual. Anyone with attractions to women were considered inferior and a spiritual abomination. Realize that if you are found out, it could cost you your life, or at least a lot of harassment. So you marry a man because it is expected of you. Are you going to tell me that if you met a woman who came onto you in the mountains that your nature wouldn't express itself? That you wouldn't get away as often as possible to be with her? If you think you wouldn't, you're not being honest - or fair. Your husband would be a victim then, just as Alma and Lureen were victims. And you would be a victim of that prejudice too, just as Jack and Ennis were in this movie.
  
  Neither man shirked his responsibilities to his children, as some have claimed. As poor as Ennis was, he refused to get together with Jack that last August because he had to work to pay his child support. Those who said they abandoned their children need to watch the movie again.
  
  One person wondered if it had been a man and a woman, if "all this deception and cheating would be as overlooked as it is here?" Please watch "Bridges of Madison County," with Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood. Or, just about any movie with romance as the theme. Deception and cheating are what sells movies..
  
  The same person who declared Hollywood is beating down our morals (wait! didn't Hollywood make `The Passion of the Christ?), also said, "Come on! Gay cowboys?" LOL. Ah yeah... We are fully represented in all lifestyles available.. there are also gay doctors, gay lawyers, gay teachers, gay politicians, and on and on and on..... And God help us all, there are even gay conservatives.
  
  "It's a movie about cheating on your spouse, regardless of the time period it's placed in."
  No, it's a movie about two men who fell in love unexpectedly, and never would have had spouses if they had the freedom to be what they were.
  
  One misguided individual even tells those of us who liked the film to `wake up.' Apparently we aren't aware the silly critics are `blowing smoke up this film's ass.' Then he tells us to `think for ourselves.' Gee, I thought I was. I'll bet most everyone who posted one way or the other thought for themselves, except maybe those with an agenda (who maybe had their opinions tainted by the Jerry Farwell's and Pat Robertson`s of the world). Do you really think that your views are so right that you have to tell everyone else to wake up and agree with you?
  
  "All I could think of the whole time was how terrible they were. People think they were being `brave`, but in reality it doesn't matter that they were gay and in love - because they were destroying other people's lives and it's not fair or noble in any way." Could they have been faithful and noble if they had been allowed to be together? Could they have experienced their nature in a noble way if society treated homosexuals in a noble way?
  
  Someone claimed John Wayne must be rolling over in his grave. I doubt John Wayne would be too shocked by it. He undoubtedly knew gay men, and probably gay cowboys. But if he were so shocked about it that he'd roll over in his grave, then let him roll. Those of us who are gay are under no obligation to hide in a closet so that he or anyone else can be at ease in their prejudice.
  
  Okay.....I've responded to all the remarks that I felt needed responding to.
  
  As for the Oscars? I doubt Brokeback will win best film. It surely should. But my feeling is the politics ABOUT the movie will prevent it. I hope I'm wrong.

• 43) Simply heartbreaking and beautifully done

  by Jutta on May 24 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  I skipped this movie at the theatre. Gay cowboys, what a weird idea I thought. Some remarks of friends of mine made me curious, so I gave it a try. What can I say?
  Ang Lee did a great job, portraying these two guys in love. He did it so masterfully that I totally forgot that the two leadings are men. It appeared so natural, that I felt, that they were made for each other and no one else. Ang Lee is simply a genius.
  
  The acting is another strength of this movie. Roberta Maxwell as Jake's mother is perfect. Look at her facial expressions when she realizes who Ennis is. You can see her pain, when Ennis leaves, because she knows that another part of her son is gone now forever. Absolutely heartbreaking.
  Ledger did most challenging job and he was definitely the right one to do it. Who would have ever thought what a great actor he is? He played this Ennis del Mar so perfectly and nuanced that you actually think he IS Ennis del Mar! Bravo! I will never forget the scene, when he asks his daughter, if her husband loves her. Just for a few seconds you can see all his sorrow and regret in his face. I had tears in my eyes.
  
  Bokeback Mountain is one the saddest but at the same time one the most beautiful movies I have seen in my life. If you see it and like it, I encourage you to watch it twice. There are so many details I missed upon the first viewing that the movie got better the second time I saw it.
  

• 44) Not just a "gay cowboy" movie

  by Ana on May 14 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  The last thing I expected to find on a Monday night was a small, indie movie theatre sold out of tickets to see what has been termed the "gay cowboy movie". Yet, when I went to see Brokeback Mountain last night, I found myself one of the last moviegoers to find a seat in a theatre overflowing with people from all walks of life.
  
  Upon first hearing of this movie, I considered it laughable to have an entire film set around two cowboys falling in love, for it seemed, at best, to be a chick-flick with a political agenda. However, my predication's were quickly discarded. This film is much undeserving of it's "gay cowboy" stereotype, as it cannot convey the emotional aspect which will inevitably overcome the most callous of moviegoers. For what this movie provides is a heart wrenching tale of two thoroughly complex men, struggling with societal pressures and their desire to be themselves.
  
  The story told in this film is of two men, who meet while working one summer herding sheep on top of, what else, but Brokeback Moutnain. Ennis Del Marr (played by Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (played by Jake Gyllenhaal) find themselves with idle time and only each other to fill it. They spend days riding around on horses and nights sitting around a campfire, talking and drinking whisky. Ennis rarely speaks, and when he does, his words are simple. Jack, on the other hand, is more outgoing in nature. At this time, his spirit seems playful, yet experienced, making for a sharp contrast with that of Ennis. In a surprising turn, for both the viewers and the characters themselves, Jack and Ennis find themselves filled with a primal urges which fuels their first sexual encounter which is void of seduction. They next morning,they both assert that they are not "queer", yet continue with the relationship, never speaking of their bond, perhaps because they knew no words to define it. When it comes time for them to part, you can see anguish on both character's faces, believing that they will never see the other again. Both characters marry andestablish families before they meet again. When they find each other four years after their work on Brokeback Mountain, they are instantly drawn together again and establish a relationship where they meet a few times a year, for fishing trips where no fish is ever caught. Their story spans 20 years, culminating in a hauntingly tragic ending.
  
  Credit must given to the actors in this film, who truly gave the meaning to each and every character. Much attention should be paid to Heath Ledger, an actor with potential who could never seem to break away from the teen demographic for which his prior films have been marketed. His portrayal of Ennis Del Marr is heartbreaking. With few words, he was able to reveal a array of emotions. With just one look, he could communicate more then words could ever describe. His performance is the reason I cannot get this film out of my mind, a full day since I was present in the theatre. Ledger has found the small intricacies which make this character come to life. The low, rasping voice which seems to come from it's disuse, as well as the slight hunch which hides Ledger's height and conveys his characters venerability. A simple shot of Ledger's soulful eyes can tell the viewers all they need to know about his emotional duress, and will surely leave every onlooker teary-eyed. The way in which he clings to a shirt of Jack's, still upon it's hanger was able to say all that Ennis could not express with words, and was one of the most poignant scenes in the film. In supporting roles, Michelle Williams (as Alma), Anne Hathaway (as Lureen), and Jake Gyllenhaal all do incredible jobs as well, each bringing an intense believability to the roles in which they portrayed. The melancholy nature with which this film concludes, does so, in part because of the exquisite changes each actor brings to their character.
  
  It has been a day since I experianced this movie, yet I can still feel it's ramifications churning in the pit of my stomach. The heartache felt by Ennis Del Marr has yet to leave my being, as my mind reels. This film brings to life a story which will not quickly leave me, one which was so realistic in manner I feel almost as if I had experianced it all myself. Do not be quick to write this movie off as just one of "gay cowboys," or a movie with a political agenda. This is a movie with heart, compassion and lose. This is a movie not to be forgotten

• 45) A triumph of understatement

  by MartinP on April 30 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  This film tells the story of two Wyoming ranch-hands getting a job together and eventually finding themselves in love with each other. The impact of this impossible love on their further lives is laid bare in agonizing detail, resulting in a heartbreakingly poignant conclusion that leaves not a single winner. Those who prefer happy endings are well advised to stay away, though they will be the poorer for it.
  
  The brilliant opening scene has you riveted right away. The main protagonists appear in the shot, yet all there is is silence. It takes ages for anyone to say anything, and when the first full sentence is spoken it is by neither of the boys, but by the man they are seeking a job from. It is typical of the film: enormous suspense and terrific emotional charges build up through silence and lack of action. The smallest gestures and the tiniest, mumbled phrases gain huge significance: Ennis squatting naked in the background, washing himself, and Jack in the foreground, very actively NOT looking. If you don't have an eye for such detail, this movie will mean nothing to you. If you do, the characters will speak to you in an unprecedented way, and you'll even find an occasional tongue in cheek joke adding some comic relief to this tragic story (e.g., Jack driving a tractor of the 'Versatile' brand). In this context, the few emotional and aggressive outbursts of course pack a tremendous punch.
  
  And then there is the sheer beauty of the images. The sweeping landscapes of Wyoming (actually Alberta, Canada) lend a Walt-Whitmanesque power to the relationship of the two men, and heighten the contrast with the hideous little towns where they conduct their obligatory marriages - which after a promising start recede into joyless dreariness, until, as Jack puts it, they can be conducted over the phone. Prieto's cinematography is simply breathtaking, and a random collection of frames from this film would make a great photobook.
  
  The lead actors carry the movie, and take the skill of acting to new heights. From Gyllenhaal this is no surprise, as he had already proven himself to be an actor of extraordinary calibre and versatility. His Jack Twist, notwithstanding his obvious imperfections, is instantly loveable, and his descent into increasing anger and bitterness painful to watch. It is, however, Ledger's performance that is the big surprise and the crowning glory of this film. Author Annie Proulx observed that he understood Ennis's character better than she herself did, and if ever an actor got under the skin of his character, it is here. His Ennis is like a coiled-up spring, the tremendous tension inside palpable throughout. Ledger certainly has come a long way, and more than makes up for silly excursions like 'The Brothers Grimm'. Interestingly, in a way he comes full circle with the start of his acting career, when he appeared in an Australian teen soap as a cyclist on a sports academy, struggling to come to terms with his homosexuality. Michelle Williams and Anne Hathaway also give sterling performances as the tormented wives. Alma's Thanksgiving outburst and even more Lureen's telephone conversation with Ennis are acting feats of rare power - it is impossible to think of Hathaway returning to "Princess Diaries" after this, though apparently she will. Roberta Maxwell appears only briefly as Jack's mother, yet projects so much intensity into her few lines and all her facial expressions that you feel you could write a novel about the woman.
  
  Hollywood has come a long way in finally admitting a film like this to the mainstream. All the fuss surrounding it remains shocking, though; rightwing zealots and "christian" bishops would have you believe you're in for some gay hardcore flick, but BBM actually contains no more than the barest minimum of necessary man-on-man lovescenes. In comparison to straight-themed movies (or even to the straight lovescenes in BBM itself), there is still a long way to go.
  
  It is even more shocking that the will and the courage were still lacking to award BBM the ultimate prize it so very clearly deserved - some Academy members, like good old Tony Curtis (didn't we see him in a dress once?) refusing to even view it, thus further devaluating the meaning of the Oscar system. Good as Crash is, it has nothing of the tautness, tension and sheer personality of BBM, and even less of its raw beauty and sad, haunting atmosphere.
  
  In all, this is one of the most consistently beautiful, meaningful, and emotionally draining films I've seen in a long time - and this comes from somebody who generally cares very little for Wild West movies, the Sixties, or C&W music. This intimate, universal tale of loss and regret puts every Hollywood megabudget production of the last three decades to shame. If it leaves you unmoved, you might want to visit your GP to check whether your heart is still in place.

• 46) Movies this good don't come along often

  by Julie on April 30 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  I didn't know what I was getting myself into when I walked into the multiplex to see the much appraised Brokeback Mountain. I vaguely remember seeing the trailer a few weeks back, and even then didn't take much of an interest (guess the trailer didn't do it much justice). I was trying to make myself comfortable, peering over my shoulder to have a look at the 'audience', which were pretty normal people - what the heck was I expecting!
  
  The opening scene is among the most humbly beautiful things I've seen in movies and really sets the scene for the time and place, which is Wyoming 1963. The tension and attraction between the characters Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist is developed so realistically; I was drawn into their world from the start - the line between reality and movie magic just faded to hell because the acting here is nothing I've ever seen before and that's saying something for a 21 year old jaded to the movie screen. These are strong men, as straight as they can get: roughly spoken cowboys straight out of an old western - the epitome of masculinity itself.
  
  Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist take up a job together one summer herding sheep up on Brokeback Mountain. It isn't long before they become great friends and soon an unexpected love developes between the two men, even though one of them, Ennis, claims "I'm not queer", and the look on Jack's face before he reluctantly and resignedly agrees. At this point so early in the film, I couldn't understand why I was experiencing a physical, palpable pain in my heart.
  
  Inevitably, both of them leave Brokeback Mountain and go their separate ways, gets married (which deteriorates), have kids. However, both are unable to forget one another, and their reunion scene (after 4 yrs) is so powerful I still have to compose myself even now just thinking about it. That scene, and among others, such as the post-divorce reunion, where Jack mistakes Ennis's divorce as a chance for them to finally be together, driving miles just to see him. I won't explain the rest, as no doubt most of you have seen the movie and know, so I digress...
  
  The story of Brokeback Mountain unfolds before you with great subtlety; never going down that cliched road of being over-the-top, outrageous or try to push a view onto anyone, and for that, I admire. The almost electrifying tension between the characters is so palpable you would not believe and just proves that not all movies succeed by being loud and blunt. It is gentle and satisfying, yet deeply tragic. Who knew that one look could say so much? Not everything is for scenic purposes either: the film contains lots of symbolism, most you might not notice until second viewing.
  
  Nothing prepares you for this achingly beautiful, honest and profound movie that surpasses being a "movie", and to be frank, becomes a life force that will embed itself forever into your memory. I may not have known what I was getting myself into when I sat down to a screening of it, but I'm sure as hell glad that I did. Movies this good don't come along often.
  
  For those who berate the movie because either they reckon it promotes infidelity or because they, like the media, typecast it as being the 'gay cowboy movie': put aside your biases for a damned second. Brokeback is first and foremost a story about love, about things that we humans never get around to doing and the regrets that ensue furthur down the line when yes, we realize (in the very words of Jack Twist) that "there ain't never enough time, never enough."
  

• 47) The Unforgettable Masterpiece of Our Era

  by Pyotr Rusakova on March 26 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  To miss out on seeing "Brokeback Mountain" is to miss out on the most brilliantly-made miracle of a movie ever made. It is a story that every person on earth can relate to - and will feel a kinship with.
  
  The story is so real, you will relate to it immediately, no matter who you are. We have all known these characters, and as a result, we know that what we are seeing is real. What we are seeing is actually every day life - things in OUR OWN world - which is why the tragedy of the story has such a tremendous impact upon everyone who sees it. The fact that Jack & Ennis are cowboys is inconsequential; this story takes place with different characters across the globe, in Wyoming, in Kenya, in Nepal, in Poland, in Uruguay...
  
  I recommend that you see this film at LEAST twice. Even if you do not blink throughout the movie, you will miss things if you only see it once. Ang Lee has packed so many details into every frame that it is impossible to pick up on everyone in one viewing.
  
  Books and doctoral dissertations will be written about this film. There is THAT MUCH brilliance put into it. The comparisons to Homer's Aeneid and to Plato's Banquet, the yin and yang of Ennis driving across the mountainous expanse in one direction at the beginning of the film and then riding in the other direction at the end, the meaning of the color blue in the film, the astonishing camera-work in the final scene between Jack and Ennis, the stunning scene in which Ennis discovers the shirts in Jack's bedroom, and so much more will be written about and studied for decades to come.
  
  "Brokeback" is a must-see also for at least 7 of the most brilliant acting performances ever put on film. Heath Ledger's career and life will be transformed forever by the unforgettable brilliance of his portrayal of Ennis. Even author Annie Proulx has indicated that Ledger understoof Ennis better than she did, and she created the character! Jake Gyllenhaal and Michelle Williams also moved into the Big Leagues of Acting with their brilliant performances, which will delight and haunt you. Anne Hathaway is superb as the beautiful gal who becomes more blonde and stilted with every year of her loveless marriage. The actors who play Jack's parents will leave you stunned with the perfection of their brief yet terrifying look into the world of the Twist family, and Linda Cardellini is extraordinary in her role.
  
  The film is very true to the story. I highly recommend that you read the story before seeing the film. It will greatly enhance your understanding of what takes place.
  
  Everyone who sees "Brokeback Mountain" is haunted by it for days. Prepare for an unforgettable experience. You will be a better person for it.

• 48) A powerful, honest, and beautiful film

  by Wei S. Teng on March 08 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  When the film was first released, somehow I thought all the praises and wonderful reviews were just hype. After seeing this movie on Yahoo's box office chart for ages, I've decided to watch its trailer, and wept.
  
  I went to watch BM the day after the Academy Awards, and felt that for me, it was the best film of the year. Although the movie was based on a short story, they've enriched the characters so much that made you felt like you've loved for a lifetime as well.
  
  What surprised me the most was that although I went in to the movie with my own expectations and thoughts about some scences, while watching the movie, I did not once find myself thinking and analyzing. The emotions seeped out from the screen in waves and circled me into its realm, and I appreciate this element very much. I walked out of the theater feeling that I understood a bit more about how others live, have lived, and that particular sentiment will not be forgotten easily.
  
  Ang Lee said he only wanted to make a love story. What a love story he made.

• 49) narrow-mindedness

  by T. Pitcher on March 29 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  I must admit that seeing this movie with my girlfriend and her mother made me skidish, and there were sections of the movie that expressed physical passion which made me, feel somewhat uncomfortable. However, if YOU the reader are willing to expose yourself to fresh material, and original characters, the film is beautiful. It would not have worked in any other setting (I felt the scenery was a third character). I agree with those who feel that cheating on their wives and children were wrong in any capacity, but that is not the point. The point is that the two characters are not allowed to be who they truly are and would have been together forever had it not been for society's stigma towards homosexuality ("case and point" all of the brokeback jokes flying around, and crazed "top 10" religious reasons why this movie is a sin). It truly deserved to win an Academy Award, and it not winning (partly because some Academy voters never even saw it) is just another "case and point" example of narrow-mindedness!

• 50) A Happy Movie Would Be Sad

  by Just Jeff on June 07 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  I didn't feel a need to review this movie because there are plenty of positive reviews. From the reviews (all 900 of them) it is apparent that you either love this movie or hate it. There is a lot of gushing by the 5-star-ers. The negative reviewers say it's boring and bizarre. I think both camps are missing the point. I grew up in rural Utah, which is similar to rural Wyoming. I relate to the poverty of life and poverty of feeling. Rural guys in this area really do act like those in the movies. They mumble and don't talk much. The interaction between two guys who aren't well acquainted is often mostly just avoidance. The initial sex scene was very believable. These guys really needed an excuse to show their feelings. The alcohol and freezing cold broke down their inhibitions. They crumbled suddenly like a fortress built on sand. The pacing of the story fits the rural pace of life. They were so oppressed by their upbringing and environment that their infrequent trysts in the wilds was actually very brave. That they finally let circumstances crush them is very depressing. This really is a sad movie without a lot of joy. But that often is how life is.
  

• 51) Unforgettable Movie, which touched my heart

  by Violet Moon on March 22 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  After reading quite a bit reviews, I think the character of Jack was less analyzed and less understood compared to Ennis. Although Ennis is the main character of the movie, based on my understanding, Jack is the actual powerhouse in their relationship. It was Jack who followed his heart and
  initiated their first sex encounter, which marked the beginning of their 20 years courtship. It was Jack who realized the depth of their love and accepted it with joy and pride. It was Jack who has been consciously protecting Ennis again his own will, although he endured and suffered his whole life because of it.
  
  In their first sex scene, Jack initiated the move, but Ennis was the one who enjoyed it, Jack even didn't have the opportunity to release his love. When the camera showed how peaceful and content he was in his sleep the next morning, I began to feel he had a great and self-sacrificing strength to love. The next day, when Ennis showed up at the tent to make up with Jack, instead of rushing into sex, Jack was so tender calming Ennis down and
  assuring him it's ok to be the way they were, I was totally drawn into the movie from that moment. The story kept developing and their love has growed from just physical attraction and emotional companionship to steely bonding and commitment, lovers physically and soul-mates psychologically. They found the beauty of life together. Jack, being the more open and sensitive person, loved Ennis for who he was, and alway loved Ennis in the way Ennis liked it, and when Ennis liked it. Knowing the social pressure Ennis felt, Jack didn't want to reveal his emotion first the first time they met after four years apart, because Jack was not sure about Ennis' attitude and he didn't want to disturb Ennis' life. However, after Ennis couldn't help but kissing Jack at the stairs, Jack kissed back so hard like an earthquake eruption, that he almost torn apart Ennis' blue strip shirt. After Ennis rejected Jack's proposal to have a life together, Jack's eyes were full of hurt and frustration, yet he still nodded to accept Ennis' rejection. He was the person who's rather starve and hurt himself than letting his loved one down. In Jack's whole life, he only mentioned once how hard his life was without his loved one by his side. But when Ennis collapsed to the ground crying for the unsolvable relationship, Jack forgot his own pain right away and hugged Ennis and said 'I love you'. Jack's love is not like the modern day fast-food style lust, which is mainly out of emotional emptyness. His love is like the brokeback mountain, manly, pure, deep and long-lasting. At the end of the movie, Jack was killed because he planned to get out of the box and lived with another guy. Some movie goers blame Jack for disgracing his love with Ennis. But I truly believe Jack did this out of his own protection of Ennis. It was life-threatening to being a gay at that time, and Jack totally understood Ennis' responsibility and love of his two daughters. Jack didn't give up his love on Ennis, and he just sacrificed his own life for being who he was, but protecting Ennis from all the possible harm. The love, acceptance and protection was what Jack meant when he put those blood-stained shirts together and he kept his own unspoken promise. While he was alive, Jack loved Ennis consciously. But only after Jack's death, did Ennis finally wake up from his self-denial and accept this unusual romance in his life. For the last scene, I think Ennis was trying to say 'Jack, I swear you are always in my heart'.
  
  Although I disagree with his trips to Mexico for pure physical pleasure and marrying Lureen for monetary reason, Jack is still a man full of love toward his parents, his son, and Ennis. As to Lureen, she loved Jack. She admired Jack for being a fun and lovable person so she laid out all her heart to him. Even her parents'd like to pay Jack to get lost because Lureen didn't want to leave Jack herself. But Jack didn't belong to Lureen although she waited for him for 20 years. That's a chain-reaction tragedy caused by social prejudice and cliche.
  
  Jack is a fictional character. But I still wish his soul has found peace on the brokeback mountain.

• 52) In all my many years.........

  by N. Kenna on February 13 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  I hardly know where to begin. Words are useless, it seems, in describing this story. There ARE none to explain the gut-wrenching feelings in my heart. I am a 67 year old grandma and I have NEVER felt like this about any other movie. Brokeback sits in my heart...like NOTHING else ever has. I saw this movie three weeks ago and I can't get it out of my mind. I've tried...believe me. It's brought forth the lost loves in my life...the pain and torture I've felt and the warmth I feel when reminiscing. Every emotion I've ever felt has been SLAMMED back into my heart and soul. Ennis...was ME!! 'Words always escaped me...I was always unable to voice my thoughts and feelings. Love would slip through my fingers because of my inability to hold on....FEAR...RAGE...LOVE...and sadness. Heath Ledger has accomplished, in this movie, what no one ever has before. He conveyed all these emotions without the inane chatter that most actors depend upon. And Jack...what can I say about Jack? He was all my loves...wrapped into one. Loving, caring, open, honest, wanting but not 'getting'. Broken hearted and SOOO hurt by Ennis' inability to open up to him. It matters NOT that Ennis and Jack were men. What matters is...the LOVE between two human beings. Everlasting and true!! I've never been so effected by a movie...EVER. It will sit in my heart forever. Thank you Ang Lee..Heath...Jack..and all the others for bringing this forth.

• 53) study in loneliness

  by M. FUSCO on May 02 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  One of the truly great American films has been made by a Chinese director, an Argentinian composer, and an Australian lead actor.
  
  Ang Lee has captured the loneliness, intolerance, and violence of the American west as no one else has. There may be a few tiny false notes, mostly in plot devices fleshing out the short story, but Mr. Lee has created an intimate, genuine, masterful, epic film which portrays a region, time, and two star-crossed lovers who find each other in 1963.
  
  The film follows their passionate, private, and devoted friendship for 20 years. Jake Gyllenhaal is extraordinary as rodeo cowboy Jack Twist, who begins as a sweet, soft-spoken, sensuous young man, and grows into a loving, self-assured man who knows what he wants. Heath Ledger paints a deeply moving portrait of the taciturn ranch hand Ennis Del Mar, whose still waters run very deep, indeed. Yet he cannot satisfy anyone -- himself least of all. Torment is etched on his face, but can be verbalized only in extreme circumstances. His passive/aggressive character triggers all the major and minor tragedies of this multi-level, heart-breaking story.
  
  The musical score is gorgeous, and perfectly complements the magnificent photography and scenery. Be sure to watch the credits, because Rufus Wainright's beautifully simple accompanying song sums up the entire film with remarkable sentiment and heartfelt aplomb.
  
  

• 54) An American Masterpiece

  by inhighspeed on April 11 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  I don't think I could add anything to the well-deserved praise this film has already received. Let me just say that Brokeback Mountain is the best film I've ever seen, and I don't expect to ever see one that will surpass it in my estimation, admiration or esteem. This movie was a transcendent experience for me, and I will never be the same. It should have won the Oscar, Heath Ledger should have won the Oscar, Jake Gyllenhaal should have won the Oscar, Michelle Williams should have won the Oscar. Posterity will never forgive the Academy, and neither will I.

• 55) Pair of deuces going nowhere

  by Edward Aycock on April 04 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  It's unfortunate that so many people were not willing to see this movie, whether they thought it was "anti-family" or "glorifying a depraved lifestyle" or other such nonsense. It's unfortunate that film reviewers like Michael Medved went on the air and, channeling his inner eight-year-old girl, said "Ieeewww" when asked about this movie, or that over the hill Hollywood actors like Tony Curtis and Ernest Borgnine saw fit to proclaim they'd never vote for a movie like "Brokeback" for Best Picture. It's unfortunate because "Brokeback" is an excellent film, and it's an incredible story of heartbreak and loss.
  
  "Brokeback Mountain" is both epic and intimate. Set against the openness of the West (gorgeously photographed by Rodrigo Prieta who does double duty playing a Mexican hustler in the film), "Brokeback" is no allegorical love story; it's the painfully realistic tale of Jack and Ennis, the "pair of deuces going nowhere". Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger, especially Ledger, do an excellent job portraying two men who fall in love, even if they can't really understand or want to understand what they're feeling.
  
  All the actors are well cast, but again, Ledger steals this movie away as Ennis del Mar. The final shot of Ledger's face is as haunting as that of Giulietta Masina's in "Nights of Cabiria". This is one of those movies where everything just comes together so well, (the music, the cinematography, the acting, the mood) that your faith that good movies can still be made is renewed.
  
  I really hope that everybody who said nasty things about this film (and turned the movie into a national punchline) will take advantage of the relative anonymity of home video and see it. It may not change any minds, but the devil ya know is better than the devil ya don't; the only thing they have to lose is the rental fee.

• 56) Amazing Film with Spectacular Performances

  by Gregg Hillier on March 20 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  If you peel away the controversy, look past the fact that this film should have won the Best Picture Oscar, and forget the late-night Comedic jabs, you indeed are left with a wonderful, quiet film. Devoid of any exploitation and containing little violence, "Brokeback" emerges as a wonderfully written, skillfully directed story of two men, circa 1963 that are unable to share their love openly. The performances range from excellent (Jake Gyllenhaal and - especially Michelle Williams) to the amazing, career-defining performance of Heath Ledger as Ennis Del Mar. Known beforehand as a pretty-boy Austrailian Actor, Mr. Ledger masterfully keeps Ennis Del Mar's emotions as tight as a balled-up fist as he is incapable of to show Gyllenhaal's Jack Twist the depth of his love. The final 30 minutes of this film are as wrenching and honest as anything committed to film. Don't miss this film

• 57) A great American Western

  by Tom Krüger on May 04 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  I was always wondering what these guys were doing in the wilderness without a woman at hand. The fresh air must have been very stimulating. I have never expected it to be that romantic though.
  In his latest masterpiece Ang Lee takes us to a place, where no one ever dared to go before: Brokeback Mountain. Here the place where Ennis and Jack's love is born. A love so clear and beautiful, so endless and eternal like the sky at the beginning of the movie.
  
  Brokeback shows us the romantic side of the Wild West. It's a great American story that had to be told and it's a master class in subtle direction. It's a triumph for Ang Lee and Heath Ledger and most of all it is one of the best Love Stories ever!
  
  There are no words in no language I know that could describe the beauty of this movie.
  

• 58) Making the impossible happen....

  by LadyArmand on March 20 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  Annie Proulx did something other's thought was impossible when she sat down and wrote the Spartanly written, yet beautifully haunting and heartbreaking short story Brokeback Mountain; she reinvented the American Cowboy. She gave that distinctly American icon a whole knew sensibility and dimension here to date unheard of or at least not talked about out in the open. Some have venerated her for it, while others have called what she wrote and act of blasphemy. However you want to approach it, one cannot dismiss it.
  
  The same year it came out in the New Yorker (1997) Diana Ossana read it and brought it to the attention of her writing partner the venerable Larry McMurtry the writer of an epic novel about the friendship of two men and the lengths each man would go for the other in the remarkable Lonesome Dove. Together Diana and Larry wrote the screenplay that because the foundation for the film Brokeback Mountain. They shopped this screenplay around for years with people telling them it was a great script with heart and pathos and yet ultimately couldn't be made in Hollywood because of it's subject matter.
  
  That is until 2004, when Focus came into the picture and decided to take a chance, even in today political climate. And with Ang Lee the director of the Ice Strom and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon directing what could go wrong? In the leads he cast up and coming stars Heath Ledger as the brooding, repressed Ennis Del Mar and Jake Gyllenhaal as the open and optimistic Jack Twist.
  
  Many have stated that this is a grand or epic love story. Which while being the truth isn't the whole story. It's more complicated than that. It speaks in a small still voice to what happens when people are told who they love, how they love and how they want to live is wrong. It's about the cause and effect that social morays can have not just generally but specifically. And while Brokeback Mountain isn't a political film with a political agenda it does however speak to the political atmosphere both of the time it's set in and unfortunately of today as well; because for all that has change, more has stayed the same.
  
  This film isn't for everyone, the subject matter may be hard for some to digest, and impossible for others. It may shatter the illusions some have of the west and or what some consider the Cowboy influence on our culture. The truth of the matter is, as much as some don't like it, it's also part of who we are. Gay, straight, or other, Brokeback Mountain, touches on something we can all understand and empathize with - the human condition - the human heart - the need to be loved - the need for human contact. It speaks to the human heart and its capacity for love - hate and the repressing burden of self loathing. It speaks to what can happen when what we need is starkly contrasted by what society says we can have.
  

• 59) Stifle Yourself!

  by Jay Marriott on March 24 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  Archie Bunker's command to stifle YOURSELF! was and is society's command to all those in every walk of life who won't/can't "conform" and are forced to choose between destroying themselves in order to "fit" or literally and figuratively being cast out. Brokeback Mountain clearly shows the tragic price exacted not only from the lovers but from all the characters involved. The story, mirrored by the magnificent setting, was both wonderful and chilling because of it's undeniable truth.
  Brokeback Mountain is a rare, unsettling, jewel of a movie.
  Go see this Movie!
  

• 60) God, this film makes sense!

  by Wendell on January 13 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  I'm not really sure what else I can say about this movie. There are some intelligent reviews here that cover much of what I'd like to say. At some level, I guess, it's just a matter of adding my affirmation to what others have said. My most enthusiastic affirmation. This is a great film. It's not great just because the acting is good. Though it is. It's not great just because the cinematography is wonderful. Though it is. It's not great just because it puts a taboo subject on the big screen at a time when Americans need to face a whole variety of realities about themselves. Though you bet it does that too.
  
  It's great because the story just makes sense. Annie Proulx has looked into an unfortunate aspect of American culture - our reticence to acknowledge that love and affection doesn't fit into easy, cultural-correct cubicles - and she's told a story that in one way or another must have been lived and relived again and again by a great many people. All the characters in this movie get full and sympathetic treatment. Yes, that begins with Ennis and Jack, but it goes beyond them to include everyone unfortunate enough to be caught up in the repressive society this film details. They're all victims - wives and children included. And it just makes sense! You can totally understand why people would live the lives these characters do, unable to love themselves or those around them naturally, because of pressures from a close-minded, fearful society.
  
  I came home from this film wondering if other actors could've done a better job than Ledger and Gyllenhaal, only to find an old Mel Gibson movie on the box. I was painfully aware of how poor an actor someone like Gibson is in comparison to these two young, talented men. I was also painfully aware of how brave they are, and how someone like Gibson would never have done a film like this. It actually makes me - usually a cynic when it comes to Hollywood - enthusiastic about the future of mainstream American filmmaking. Every now and then we get something right. Brokeback Mountain is one of those times.

• 61) Dear What's the Big Deal...

  by volleyballrazz on March 31 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  How is it, that the rest of the world can see how beautiful this movie is and you can't? Brokeback Mountain instantly became my favorite movie before I had moved from my seat to leave the theater. The scenery is amazing, Ang Lee creates a masterpiece. I might say the same thing as you and ask what the big deal was, if there had ever been a love story between two cowboys before. Westerns and their cowboys are a huge part of cinematic history, and the epitome of a man. To take that persona and show the story of two who dare to be different, is one of the bigger things that make Brokeback Mountain so great. Second, the acting is not mediocre at most. It's brilliant, and if you had ever seen Heath Ledger or Jake Gyllenhaal act before, you might realize this movie represents incredible breakout performances for both. I think the movie is easy to fall in love with, powerful in the way it's love story unfolds, and an all around inspiring movie.

• 62) Gay agenda... what exactly does that mean?

  by aljohnpa on January 25 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  Both my parents were Pentecostal ministers. My father was gay and my mother's mission in life was to save/change him. At one point around the age of 14 or 15 I babysat for my father's boyfriend's son. My father died a deeply depressed, broken unfulfilled man still blaming my mother for protecting me from him and preventing our relationship. The marriage was what they thought God wanted... a marriage of duty not love. I came out to my parents at 18. My father knew I was gay but never sat and talked honestly with me about his situation. Around the age of 26 I became depressed and my mother swooped in hoping to succeed where she had failed with my father and talked me into entering a (teen challenge) sponsored program that claimed they could change gay men. For one year I worked hard, did as I was told, read or viewed nothing from the outside, memorized scripture, abstained from sex of any kind, fasted for 11 days while cooking for 16 people and prayed. After one year they told me I was changed and released me into the world. I was being encouraged to marry a girl from my parent's church but no one asked if we were in love. After a few months of honest reflection I ended the relationship and went on my way to live my life as intended.
  
  Gay people are accused of having an agenda. Just read the above and tell me honestly who really has the agenda. The gay agenda is to end the lies, hate, bondage, brutality and destruction.
  
  I went to see Brokeback Mountain last weekend. At first I was stunned... then overwhelmed with sadness as I saw my father's life decisions repeated in front of the world. The sadness turned to empathy and understanding of the terrible anguish my father went through trying to change. My thoughts then turned to my mother's pain caused by her misguided mission of beating her head against the stone wall of my father's orientation. Again the sadness set in as I realized what a destructive force this misguided agenda to suppress gays is to entire families. Then I felt something lift from me realizing that so many people would see the destructive forces at play in our society. The rug is being lifted and the dirt of silence and oppression underneath is being exposed. There was a time when mixed race love was treated the same way. Thank you E. Annie Proulx, Ang Lee and all those with the courage to be involved with this project. Thank you for exposing the truth and wreckage.
  
  I am 52 now and have been in love with and living with the same man for 27 years. There are many things the laws and lack of equal rights deny us but nothing can keep us from loving each other. Jack Twist was right... It is possible to be gay, in love and happy.
  

• 63) DEVASTATING

  by R. Penola on December 13 2005
    40+ helpful votes

  There is not one single wasted word, image, or sound in this bracingly beautiful love story. Like all of the best, it rips at your heart with a wrenching, soulful ache that will not end with the credits. Heath Ledger is simply perfect, as are virtually all of the actors in this film; Ang Lee again nails a place and a time (Sense & Sensibility) with razor-sharp attention to the detail. I so hope that people everywhere will see this movie - it is much bigger than a "gay romance" - it is about holding things in; about all of the things that keep us from what we want and who we love; it is about all of us. And don't fight the choke in your throat, just cry. It's one of those rare things in life that is truly - cathartic.

• 64) By Far the Best of 2005

  by Clifton Snider on March 10 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  Amazon.com review, 9 March 2006
  
  "Brokeback Mountain" came as a long overdue movie exploring the lives and love of characters whose story has not been told before in a major motion picture, and the comments have been many. I have to say I was extremely disappointed that "Brokeback" lost the best picture Oscar to "Crash," a fine but far inferior movie. Whereas "Brokeback" reveals a story that had never been told in literature until Annie Proulx published it in "The New Yorker," and never in film, "Crash" explores issues that are extraordinarily important but that have been explored before, albeit perhaps not in the same innovative way. Furthermore, unlike "Brokeback," whose plot is poignantly and painfully real, the plot of "Crash" is so filled with coincidences that they nearly mar its message (and it is a message film, not one that tugs at the heart like "Brokeback"). I believe the Academy won't have another opportunity to vote for a film similar to "Brokeback" for years, if ever. That is a terrible shame.
  
  But to "Brokeback." For once the hype lives up to the film. The performances of Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal are equally well done--beautifully understated with an understanding of their characters and the love they share. Surely they deserved Oscars for their incredible work. And the love they portray is not a love based only on sex. Their long absences heighten the sex, but their love is based on mutual attraction and compatibility: mutual ways of life, mutual interests, comfort in each other's company,--just as any love is based on these things.
  
  Having read the story before I first saw the movie, I knew about the tragic ending. However, the most moving part for me was the climax when Jack tells Ennis they could have had a life together. Because of his lack of self acceptance, Ennis had long ago ruled that life out, and the regret Heath Ledger as Ennis expresses in his final scene is heartbreaking and even more moving the second time I saw the film. I've known too many like him in my own life as a gay man.
  
  The picture is directed and filmed beautifully. The gorgeous Wyoming (Canadian) mountain scenery matches the love Jack and Ennis express there, just as Ennis's squalid apartment and trailer match the sad, alternative family life he creates in the one and the barren life his own self denial and timidity create in the other. The symbolism fits well. A magnificent movie at every level, a lasting testament to all the artists involved, from Annie Proulx, Diana Ossana, Larry McMurtry, and Ang Lee to everyone else, including Rufus Wainwright, the openly gay singer on the soundtrack.
  
  "Brokeback Mountain" deserves all the awards it has won and all the Academy Award nominations it received and the three it won.

• 65) Moving and life-changing

  by Nicole Bradshaw on December 22 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  Brokeback Mountain is the tale of two cowboys, Ennis and Jack, who ranch sheep together one summer in the 1960's. One cold night, the two men huddle together in a tent to keep warm, and an explosive physical relationship erupts. They both agree that the night was a "one-shot deal," but somehow the two men keep finding one another again, throughout the summer. After the ranching gig ends, both men nonchalantly tell each other goodbye, but the separation is painful for both. Cut to four years later - the men have gone their separate ways, married, had kids. But when they happen to see each other again, old feelings almost violently assert themselves, leading to a 20-year relationship that is by turns passionate, furtive, and tortured.
  
  First of all, performances by Heath Ledger (Ennis) and Jake Gyllenhaal (Jack) are unbelievable. I cannot adequately describe the performance work in this film. Ledger, who I'd only seen in fairly superficial roles - teen movies, not-so-great romantic comedies - totally transforms himself for this role. Tight-lipped, sun-baked, and shamed, his Ennis provides the tension in the film that powers the plot through to its final, saddening conclusion. Gyllenhaal plays Jack, the more honest, self-accepting of the two men, with an emotion that is strong enough to be real but restrained enough to epitomize the tough guy image of a Western. Both lend a haunting quality to the various ways in which Ennis and Jack try to live their lives, denied of the one thing they truly want.
  
  At the end of the day, Brokeback Mountain is a love story, the tale of two people who love each other but can't be together. This is not untrod territory in Hollywood. However, hanging this familiar storyline on a less-than-mainstream social topic for the movies - homosexuality - proves to be very powerful. The intensity of the two men's feelings for one another, and the delayed gratification that is the bedrock of their relationship, bring their experience into sharp focus for the viewer. Beautiful scenes of mountainous countryside and a strong, simple acoustic guitar accompaniment add to the poignancy. I just cannot recommend it highly enough. It will haunt you. It will make you think. It will move you.
  
  Fair warning - there is one brief sex scene between the two primary characters. If you don't warm to that idea, I recommend getting the film on DVD and fast-forwarding through that part. It is not worth missing the movie over.

• 66) I agree with Cheerupper "Andy".....

  by aspiring mathematician on June 07 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  PURPOSE: Validate the conjecture that a happy movie would be sad.
  
  GOAL: Show that a happy movie would be sad, using "Brokeback Mountain" as an example.
  
  DEFINITION: happy movie - one that invokes happiness or satisfaction within the viewer so as to cause him/her to reward it with no less than 5 stars.
  
  THEOREM: "Brokeback Mountain" is a happy movie.
  
  PROOF: Let us assume that "Brokeback Mountain" is a happy movie, then from our definition of happy movie, it follows that the viewer must reward it with no less than 5 stars. This implies that the movie has invoked happiness or satisfaction within the viewer. The viewer has awarded "Brokeback Mountain" with no less than five stars. This shows that "Brokeback Mountain" is a happy movie and our proof is complete.
  
  REMARK: The proof of our theorem that "Brokeback Mountain" is a happy movie only refers to a single viewer. However, this result of this proof is also applicable to multiple viewers. Furthermore, we can strengthen its validity if we use the fact that "Brokeback Mountain" has currently garnered over 900 customer reviews, a significant majority of which are no less than five stars. This implies that the movie has invoked happiness in not a single viewer, but multiple viewers.
  
  LEMMA: "Brokeback Mountain" is a sad movie.
  
  PROOF: Suppose that a sad movie is defined as one containing sad events or a sad ending. "Brokeback Mountain" is a movie containing a sad ending. From our definition of sad movie, it follows that "Brokeback Mountain" is a sad movie. This completes our proof.
  
  To show that "Brokeback Mountain" is a happy movie that would be sad, we can use the results of our proofs of the theorem asserting that "Brokeback Mountain" is a happy movie and the lemma asserting that "Brokeback Mountain" is a sad movie and combine their resolutions. For instance, we can use the fact that "Brokeback Mountain" is a sad movie containing a sad ending. which has garnered over 900 reviews from customers, the majority of which have five-star ratings. In spite of this, it contains a sad ending. The fact that "Brokeback Mountain" is a sad movie containing a sad ending further implies that such a movie is what is necessary for a movie to invoke happiness or satisfaction within the viewer(s), as demonstrated by the hundreds of five-star reviews that it has received from customers. This validates our conjecture that a happy movie would be sad, using "Brokeback Mountain" as an example.
  
  REMARK: Although we have shown that "Brokeback Mountain" is a happy movie which would be sad, we need to clarify any significant ambiguity concerning the nature of a sad movie. Recall our definition of sad movie, that is, one containing sad events or a sad ending. Examples of sad events or a sad endings can are inclusive of, but not limited to, the following: the death of a main character, a terrible epidemic that wipes out a majority of the characters featured in the story, instances of unsolved poverty, inevitable warfare, natural disasters capable of invoking widespread famine, etc. We leave it to the potential viewer of the film to investigate further examples of sad events or sad endings found in "Brokeback Mountain," lest we spoil crucial plot details.

• 67) Two Cowboys, Multiple Lives

  by Bryan Carey on May 20 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  "Brokeback Mountain" is a film based on a story of the same name, written by author E. Annie Proulx. This controversial film received quite a bit of talk when it was first released and it was the subject of many jokes by comedians of all types. The idea of two cowboy types who fall in love while working at a mountain ranch was just too irresistible to many and it made Brokeback Mountain the common [...] (no pun intended) of many jokes.
  
  Today, many months after its initial release, much of the hoopla has died down. Brokeback Mountain has now been released on DVD and this provided me my opportunity to watch this movie and see what the fuss was all about. I already knew the film received rave reviews and it was nominated for many Oscars, taking home three of them before the Academy Awards wrapped up the 2005 awards evening. But would Brokeback Mountain live up to the hype, I wondered, or would it be an idiotic mess of unrealistic events, stupid one- liners, and a case of "pushing" an issue (in this case, gay themes and rights) on the viewer?
  
  Now that I have watched this movie in its entirety, I am happy to report that Brokeback Mountain contains none of the negative qualities I described above. Director Ang Lee presents a movie that is tastefully made and that doesn't push any social agenda. Yes, the film does portray many adult scenes (like gay sex and straight sex), but it is done in as tasteful a way as possible. What takes place in this movie is probably not very far- fetched at all for the time period that it covers (1963 to 1981) and there are likely many viewers who will be able to relate directly to the plot of this movie and the confusion and frustration felt by its lead characters and their families as they struggle to sort out their feelings. Ennis and Jack have obvious feelings for each other but they feel they must keep their affair secret. They have families to support and they want to be seen as "normal" by those around them. Jack is more aggressive and he pushes Ennis to join him and start a permanent relationship. But Ennis resists and the strain it places on them and their respective families is significant and the emotional pain on the screen is openly visible.
  
  Ang Lee does a superb job directing this film and its no surprise that he won the Oscar for Best Director. The cinematography is excellent, with great scenes of the vast Rocky Mountains as they majestically pierce the bright blue skies above them. The direction he takes this film is nearly flawless as it follows the two main characters on their path from lustful attraction, to emotional involvement, to resistance and beyond. Intertwined are the problems experienced on the home front. Both men get married and start families, in spite of their obvious attraction to each other. Like many people during that era, they probably did this because it was assumed to be the right thing to do. But the difficulties it causes their two families are obvious, with Ennis' character experiencing the greatest domestic turmoil of the two. Not only does Ennis get divorced, he even allows himself to get involved in another relationship with a woman; this, in spite of the fact that he knows where his true interest and feelings lie.
  
  Heath Ledger plays Ennis Del Ray and his performance is near perfect. Ledger is only twenty- six years old but he plays the part of a man who is (at the end of the movie) in his forties. The make- up, the talk, and the attitude that Ledger projects into this character are very real and it's easy to see why he, too, was nominated for an Oscar. It took me a while to get used to Ennis' voice because he talks like someone with a hunk of chewing tobacco in his mouth. I had to replay some of the scenes to pick up on what he was saying. But the character was like this for a reason, most likely to make him similar to those who work in this type of occupation. Jake Gyllenhaal's character, Jack Twist, is very different from Ennis. He is more of a straight talker who says exactly what is on his mind and proceeds to work toward his goals. Gyllenhaal's performance isn't quite as good as Ledger's but it is still notable and still memorable.
  
  One thing I noticed about Brokeback Mountain is that it took me some time to warm- up to the main characters. They seemed so distant and casual about the whole thing at first that it was difficult to care what was going on. I found myself feeling more sympathetic toward the families who had to deal with the volatility of their respective fathers/husbands on a daily basis. However, as the film nears its end, the frustration felt by Jack and the stubbornness of Ennis got me more involved with the characters. I just wanted them to finally make up their minds one way or the other and it was much easier at this point to feel the frustration felt by Jack as he tried to persuade his friend that he wanted their relationship to be more than just a seasonal fling.
  
  Brokeback Mountain is a very good motion picture that will be remembered for years as one of 2005's best pictures. The cinematography, the performances, and the directing are all top- notch and the story of forbidden love is engaging and vivid. The film will likely remain controversial for its subject matter but regardless of your own personal feelings on this type of subject, "Brokeback Mountain" is a film I recommend watching. It presents a realistic look at what people who lived this life often experienced back when alternative lifestyles weren't as accepted as they are today.
  
  

• 68) Unexpected

  by Richard A Schauer on April 18 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  I cannot tell you anything about this film that you do not already know from earlier reviews. I can only tell you how the movie affected me.
  
  I grew up watching Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Hopalong Cassidy, and all the other classic western stars, so the idea of watching a film about two cowboys in love with each other just did not seem to be a road I wanted to travel. It didn't feel right; especially as I was born into a time when same sex relationships were really looked down on. Or not acknowledged. But the script was by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, Ang Lee was the director, Heath Ledger has become a very interesting actor, and the rest of the cast was fine. So I picked up a copy of the film.
  
  No matter how you try to adapt and rethink your position as you age in a changing world those old devil hang-ups and prejudices sneak up on you. It took me three days to watch the first half of the film. Other than some nice scenery and a surprisingly good score it was very difficult to watch the growing bond between these two men. The first half only lays the groundwork for the second half of the movie and that is where you will see why all the acclaim and awards. I couldn't stop watching.
  
  After a long introduction of the characters the second half begins to show them as people with a problem - and it was a problem for who they were and in that time - and how they dealt with it. The first half is necessary, but it is the second half that shines. If you have an ounce of soul you will feel the pain and the love as it builds to a final fifteen minutes that is as good as filmmaking gets. It will squeeze your heart.
  

• 69) We who had our own Brokeback Mountains

  by S. A DUNN on April 17 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  This movie is the touchstone for those of us who had our own brokeback Mountains sometime in our lives.
  
  I had my Brokeback Mountain when I turned 16 in the outskirts of Pocatello, Idaho. There are things you know, things you do not want to know, and things you force from yourself like the plague, lest the truth peeks out and you then face the fact that you just might be "one of them."
  
  Southeastern Idaho in 1970 was not much different than Wyoming in 1963. In a Mormon dominated country culture, roles are die-cast, and anything divergant was an abomination. In the "Jack" Mormon culture of bars, railroading and redneck cutter racing, there were "Us," "The Hippies," and of course, there were "Them." And noone in their right mind would ever want to be concieved as "one of them."
  
  Yet there were those of us who lived the Ennis del-Mar and Jack Twist story. It was "us" who suffered through all the unwritten rules, mores, and bigotries of the culture who portrayed a gun slinging John Wayne as the acme of "what a man should be." Stereotypes abounded on what "they" were and how "they" acted and "behaved." Brokeback mountain shatters these perceived stereotypes. We, as Jack and Ennis learned early to fight what came natural to us, as we strove to fit in, keep silent and deny what was really going on in our minds and hearts.
  
  The real tragedy is that we became little more than robots, and although we fooled ourselves into believing we were straight, we were really little more than jointed wooden images in our traditional marriages. See how both Jack and Ennis act so wooden in their marraiges and how they come to life only in each others arms, and you will see what I mean.
  
  If only I could once again meet Terry on my Brokeback Mountain, after 35 years have past! Today I would have the guts to do what I couldnt do back then: Look him in the eyes and tell him what I REALLY felt.
  
  After surviving the Atomic Wars of divorce, estrangement by immediate family, I got my reward. I am LIVING my own Brokeback Mountain in Washington State with my beloved Eddie. So in reality, Ed and I are LIVING what Jack or Ennis could never live!
  
  Bravo for bringing to light the "Love that Dare Not say it's Name!"

• 70) It's about time...

  by Steven Cain on April 02 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  Bravo, to all the fine men and women, gay and straight, who have stood up for this beautiful movie.
  
  While there have been many excellent movies about relationships between men, they have often been semi-obscure art movies. With Brokeback Mountain, we are seeing the same level of intelligence and sensitivity in a mainstream movie. The fact that the two main characters are cowboys, a traditionally masculine image, makes this all the more powerful. Yes, you can be gay and macho at the same time.
  
  This is a long overdue, stereotype-breaking movie. While this was initially set in the early sixties, we still live in a society in which there are definite limits to 'acceptable conduct', based on gender. Even today, if two men greeted each other with a kiss in a supermarket setting, the way women often do, they would be seen as nancy boys. Traditionally, men are only allowed to be affectionate with each other on the sports field or on the battlefield.
  
  Full marks to the writer, the cast, and Ang Lee above all for their courage and vision.
  
  

• 71) A transcendent gem of a film!

  by John Parkinson on March 24 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  This is one of the most beautiful, emotionally honest, and heartbreaking films I've ever seen. I've long admired Ang Lee (the director), but he's now become a hero of mine. That this film "played in Peoria" as well as to sold out crowds in San Francisco is a tribute to its artistry and powerfully universal message: that real love transcends emotional conflict, bigotry, and even death.

• 72) I saw it-loved it-lived it!!

  by Gary Jostandt on March 23 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  My partner and I were both married at one time and met each other, while married. We decided not to continue in a straight setting as the movie stars in this movie did, we divorced and lived happily ever after-32 years now. Our prospective families and children love us both. No regret,no mistake! We made the right choice and the movie is the right choice!!!!Unlike hiding love and loosing that love without resolution as in the movie, we will be buried together and God loves us too. I don't think I'll see people who hate and judge (as only God is impowered to do} in heaven. Buy the movie,open your eyes, you MIGHT JUST GROW IN LIFE!

• 73) Beautifully photographed and moving story about love released on special edition DVD April 4th..

  by A. G. Corwin on March 22 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  Brokeback Mountain, one of 2005's top films and certainly the decade's boldest in terms of plot, is coming to DVD on April 4th in a special edition that is certain to please fans of the movie.
  
  A beautiful, tender, and raw story of unlikely love developing between two men during a Wyoming summer, Brokeback is an big movie that watches like an indie, and is honest and true to life. Ang Lee did an phenomenal job bringing Annie Proux's story to life, using scenery, camera angles, and colors to enhance the amazing acting by Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhall, Michelle Williams, and Anne Hathaway. This is probably the most beautifully photographed film in recent years, certainly on par with Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line or The New World in terms of artistry.
  
  There are so many messages in this film, each time you watch you can see another subtlety or deeper meaning, or catch a glance that says so much that you missed previously. There are those who will dislike the subject matter, or be uncomfortable with the "gay cowboy" issue, but this movie is not really about sexuality. Brokeback Mountain is a story that strongly says that love is a bond that society, time, and prejudice can weaken but never truly destroy. Being true to your feelings can bring you happiness, but trying to hide them can cause pain for you and those around you.
  
  The DVD release will contain the following special features: "On Being A Cowboy" featurette, an Ang Lee featurette titled "Directing From the Heart", a "From Script to Screen" feature including interviews with Larry McMurtry & Diana Ossana, and a "Sharing the Story" making-of feature. No cast or crew commentary is included, not all that surprising considering the quick release date. Expect a 2-disc SE with many more features towards the end of November or early December, but for now, this is a DVD release that provides value for the money and a chance to own a great film that is still in theaters. Highly Recommended.

• 74) Best Director and (for me) Best Film

  by Jelly David on March 06 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  It is disheartening to see homophobic people in the media, and here, mocking or denouncing "Brokeback Mountain", but quite typical. It's a common symptom of the sexual insecurity which a lot of Americans wear so proudly, further evidenced in the fraud of male genital mutilation, euphemistically known as "circumcision".
  
  It takes a lot of consideration for me to pay for a film at the cinema, and I can usually tell if a film is going to be any good, or at least something to which I can relate or enjoy. I usually don't care for country/western genre films. However, given that, the simplicity and honesty of this film simply astounded and forced me to see past the country element. The story is poignant (look for the brilliant symbolism). The ending is classic. Anyone who has truly fallen in love from a distance can relate to this story. The distant and rural scenes of this film illuminates the sense of loneliness and longing within the characters. It's not often to find a soul mate and sad when one is forced to live a double life to express love for that person, especially from a distance. If Jack and Ennis hadn't been in love, they wouldn't have bothered, given the inconvenient and unruly nature of their culture, or lack thereof. Their relationship isn't only about sexual expression, it's about the journey they take as a result of their love for one another.
  
  "Crash" technically was chosen, and maybe it's a good film, but I hadn't even heard of it until a week ago. England's more free and open society is why "Brokeback Mountain" received the BAFTA, and rightly so. It's a higher honour than the Oscar. I'm buying the DVD.

• 75) Not surprised.

  by Francois Truffaut on March 06 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  I'm not surprised that the Academy Awards didn't have the guts to give its Best Picture award to "Brokeback Mountain." Back in 1967 it didn't have the guts to give it to "The Graduate" although Mike Nichols, who directed "The Graduate," won the Oscar for Best Director. Sound familiar? Besides Ang Lee, the director of "Brokeback Mountain," winning the Best Director Oscar, a racially diverse movie called "In the Heat of the Night" won the Best Picture Oscar. History repeats itself.
  
  It's too bad that the Academy Awards still haven't grown up or matured in any shape or form. People keep talking about how stuffy the English are. Well, I'll tell you this. At least England voted for a woman as their Prime Minister (Margaret Thatcher) unlike America. And at least England or BAFTA voted for "Brokeback Mountain" as the Best Picture unlike America. America may think it's open-minded, but it is actually the "stuffed shirt."
  
  I'm also not surprised that the Academy Awards didn't have the guts to give the Best Foreign Language Picture award to "Paradise Now."
  

• 76) Unforgettable

  by Michael T. Rognlien on December 19 2005
    40+ helpful votes

  It's funny to me that on the cusp of the year 2006, there are those who still feel the need to water down the point of this movie in order to make it more palatable to the general movie-going public.
  
  This IS a gay movie, and it's about time. Having sat through hundreds of variations on My Best Friend's Wedding or some other 'chick flick' with both straight female friends and gay male friends, I can honestly say that this film has been a lifetime in coming for me. I suppose that if you're not a gay man you can't relate to this very important point, but after a lifetime of having to rewrite hundreds of movies in my head after leaving the theater to dream what it would be like to see a movie about love between two men, especially one starring two headlining straight men, it is a seminal moment.
  
  This is not a chick flick; there are no dashing leading men and there is no clearly defined happily-ever-after.. but what there IS is the indelible impression of the hell-and-back reality that many thousands of gay men have gone through while traveling the slow road to acceptance. 40+ years after the story in this movie started, the journey continues. The making and the success of this movie, in my opinion, is one of the milestones on that road.
  
  I've never quite felt like I felt when I left the theater after seeing this movie, but I am so thankful that it was made, that it was made WELL, and that if only one non-gay person out there has the lightbulb moment that we love and lose and love again just like everyone else, it will serve more than as just a greaet cinematic experience but one that opens the eyes and the hearts of others.

• 77) A well made, heartfelt drama with a profound and powerful message. This is one movie you need to see

  by Brian on May 14 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  Somebody here recently penned a review claiming rather curiously that this breathtaking and profoundly heart-wrenching motion picture offered him nothing new. Having taken in the film for myself, I can testify to you here and now that this is quite simply not the case.
  
  Ang Lee has crafted the one film that audiences will be talking about for many long years to come. The buzz it generates, contrary to what some may otherwise believe, will not cater to the media's recent and over-exaggerated abuse of the words "bravery" or "courage." Especially not as such terms relate to Jake Gyllenhaal or Heath Ledger and their joint decision to star in this production. More specifically, I tend to believe that most of the discussion "Brokeback Mountain" promotes will more than likely entail just how openly honest and heartfelt its story of true love really is. Director Lee is the one who should be labelled brave. He, working directly from the Annie Proulx short story, has given us a revolutionary firsthand view of a deeply-rooted romance that was, for the time period it was set in, considered strictly taboo. The year 1963, one must remember, was far and away removed from the much more tolerable climate of today's modern society. This is why we can so strongly identify with the harsh inner conflict facing Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist. We feel their angst, the sheer emotional passion they have for one another and, ultimately, the genuine frustration of realizing they can never fully or openly embrace their mutual attraction.
  
  My spouse and I were in a theater, way out in the suburbs, on opening day to experience this film amongst a packed house with varying cross-sections of other people young and old alike. Not a single one of them, I should mention, got up and left throughout the entire showing. There are simply no sufficient words for me to adequately describe just how powerful and totally touching this movie's driving message proved. I cannot, in my entire life, recall a time I ever saw so many members of the crowd as positively touched as they were by "Brokeback Mountain." This is clearly one feature film that everybody should award its proper due. It may not change the minds of those who unfortunately shun homosexuality in general. But, I can almost certainly guarantee, that it will open many eyes to a truth that those in higher authority still choose to ignore. Love, no matter how you may look at it, is what it is.
  
  I am recommending this movie to everybody I know. It deserves every one of the nominations it has received and is a definite contender for Best Picture. Ang Lee, Ms. Proulx, take a bow and thank you both very much.

• 78)  An amazing trip to the Heartbreak Mountain!!!

  by Part-Time Dreamer on March 28 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  I've seen over 130 movies of 2005, and Brokeback Mountain was clearly the BEST for me. This movie is groundbreaking, beautiful and incredibly haunting. I can't get this movie out of my head for an entire week after I saw this movie, and I was moved & touched so profoundly & deeply.
  
  The acting of this movie was fabulous, Jake Gyllenhaal & Michelle Williams both did a great job, and Heath Ledger, all I can say is WOW! I never knew he was this amazing before I saw this movie. His magnificent performance is miraculous. He seems to tear it from his insides, and he breathes his character so truthfully & brilliantly. His performance in this movie will be watched and admired for years to come as a landmark in acting. Bravo!
  
  Another strength of this movie is the simplicity and strong symbolism of the way the story is told. The story-telling is so genuine, like the characters' feelings for one another, you won't realize how powerful it is at first. But by the conclusion, with its definitive, heart-wrenching portrayal of what will always be divided and what can never be, you will realize that the story has entered its souls.
  
  The cinematography was mesmerizing, those images were so beautiful, and they just keep coming back to reassure you. The music score was also remarkable, and it captured the essence & emotion of the film flawlessly.
  
  This adaptation stays true to the original short story and the two lead actors fit the roles perfectly. Solid work all around and with Ang Lee's vision, they have created an amazing piece of cinema that should not be missed by anybody. Kudos to the phenomenal director of this film - Ang Lee. Thank you so much for making this wonderful masterpiece.
  
  This is a powerful movie that totally worth checking out. Besides, this film will live with you for a long, long time. As for me, it will live with me FOREVER!

• 79) Haunted...

  by A. C. Tills on March 17 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  My title gives you a hint of what you will feel after seeing this movie for the first time-and a few days later. Watch it again and you will notice things you didn't see the first time-and feel it for days after. I come from a place where there is understanding and I am allowed to be happy, but this was not so for our young lovers in the country in the 60's (and probably today as well). Enis and Jack had the love of a lifetime but never got to live a life together. This story of love (yes they are gay and cowboys-BUT it is a love story) will leave you aching for them long after you turn the "off" switch to your dvd player. Please watch this film and tell me you don't feel anything for these two. I do feel cheated that the Academy didn't feel it was the best film of 2005, but I will take the other 65 organizations that say it was (including the Hollywood Foreign Press, DGA, PGA, WGA and so on) and know this film will go down as one of the greatest ever-AFI will have it on the list someday. Again, please watch it and cherish those you love and rejoice in the fact you can be with them. Thank you.

• 80) Best Picture of the Year

  by John C. on March 24 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  Brokeback Mountain is the kind of movie that stays with you long after you have stopped viewing it. Ennis and Jack, the two main characters, are thrown together in the summer of '63, tending to sheep on Brokeback Mountain. One thing leads to another and both are forever changed. I know some have completely oversimplified this movie as a "gay cowboy" movie, but that is so far from the core of it. BBM is a love story, an epic one, which has never been done in gay themed movies (usually movies with gay characters as the focal point do not span anywhere near 20 years). It deservingly is the most acclaimed film of the year and should've been named best picture of the year by the academy, but who cares what they think. The performances are amazing. Heath Ledger is breathtaking. He totally became Ennis Del Mar. The same can be said for Jake Gyllenhaal, who is brilliant as Jack Twist. The supporting cast is also great. I would recommend this movie to anyone, not just fellow members of the gay community, but those who enjoy a movie that is heartbreakingly beautiful and will move you to tears.

• 81) Unescapable

  by Porter on March 23 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  I believe that true love, when it is discovered, is unescapable. I also feel the same about great movies. Sometimes in life an experience will come along that will change, if not define, an individual's life. Regardless it's content a deeply moving experience will forever rest inside the individuals soul, as will Ennis' love for Jack and this movie will for me.
  
  'Brokeback Mountain' is one of the finest American love stories I have encountered in some time. It's passion is intense and palpable. The character's of Ennis and Jack, as portrayed brilliantly by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, are caring, passionate, loyal, and tortured souls. Where Jack is more willing to accept his feelings and spend his life with the one he loves in this case Ennis, whom he falls in love with while watching after sheep on Brokeback mountain, Ennis lives with the fear and frustration of knowing such a courtship will not be accepted by the masses in Wyoming.
  
  Instead they go on with their lives, doing the proper things; get married, have kids, work hard long jobs. Their only solace coming from an annual fishing trip that allows them time alone to share their true emotions. The two men age and their lives fall apart around them, only their feelings for one another remain.
  
  I've choosen not to give too many details away about the story and the film. I recommend any one interested to see for themselves. 'Brokeback Mountain' is one of the most moving and haunting films of the past few years. It's a true work of beauty about love, loss, and the human spirit.
  
  'Brokeback Mountain' is many things to many people. Most of all it is an unescapable example of a love void of boundaries.

• 82) "Brokeback Mountain" is Unforgettable

  by mljkb on March 14 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  Gay cowboy movie or not, you will not be able to shake the pull of "Brokeback Mountain" once its' through. The acting is too strong, the writing is too perceptive, the direction is too smart and the cinematography is too spare and beautiful to just flow away into indifference. Director Ang Lee pulls off one hell of a love story that transcends sexuality. It's about two people who truly fall in love. One summer Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) meet in the Wyoming Mountains to herd sheep, a job both expect little out of. What they don't anticipate is that both share deep commanalities, such as broken homes and dreams of a better life. What they really don't expect is too fall for each other. Both leave the mountain, and eventually continue on with their lives the way society has told them to. Ennis marries his sweetheart Alma (Michelle Williams) and Jack marries a rodeo chick (Anne Hathaway), but neither of them finds the happiness that they felt with each other that special, innocent summer. Jack eventually finds the bravery to push for what he wants, but Ennis, closed-off and emotionally inexperienced (Ledger gives a performance of epic emotional intensity), can't bring himself to acknowledge what he knows, whether it is love for Jack or his paternal need to be with his daughters. And he learns too late what it is he really wants.
  
  Both Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal are emotional knockouts and the actors who beat them for the Oscars had better have given superhuman efforts to best them. You don't find two performances like these just anywhere. The same goes for Michelle Williams and Anne Hathaway, who hit grace notes that almost any other actor would have overlooked. Credit director Ang Lee for obsessively scanning the small things that make a good actor great, and a good movie a classic. A movie about gay cowboys it may be, but it's the humanity and love between Ennis and Jack that make "Brokeback Mountain" universal. You won't be able to forget it.

• 83) That Gay Cowboy Movie

  by L. Perry on December 30 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  I wasn't sure about this movie-a couple of friends said it sucked. But I went ahead and watched it for myself. And was completely amazed at how great this film is. Forget the whole "gay cowboy" thing and just watch good cinema!

• 84) Can we already call this film a "Classic?"

  by Jenny J.J.I. on July 14 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  I believe we can. This movie will be remembered for years and years to come due to its superb acting, majestic cinematography, incredible dialog, intense emotion, cogent storyline, and the excellent score converged into making this two-hour-plus movie one of the great landmarks in the history of the cinema. I agree with those who say that this movie will be discussed and studied, along with the great ones: `Casablanca,' `Citizen Kane,' etc......
  
  Heath Ledger's rough-and-tough-but-tender-and-vulnerable performance is so believable that very little make-up was required in order to try to convince the audience that he is aging right before our eyes. As you watch him, you really do believe that this taciturn young roughneck is actually becoming a middle-aged man who is coming to terms with day to day responsibilities, family life, and an ever-present, nagging, burning need to hold onto a love that will not let him go (Sorry, couldn't resist that phrase). Can't say what has already been said regarding Michelle Williams, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Anne Hathaway because we all know they gave excellent performances.
  
  The last twenty minutes of the movie comprise some of the most gut-wrenching and emotionally painful experiences I have rarely encountered in a movie. This film is really hard to forget even though there is a gay context to this film it contains universal themes of love, intense longing, disappointment, infidelity, passion and sexual desire, all of which are applicable to all people, everywhere and anywhere.
  
  Ang Lee has done another amazing job putting this film together that was well deserved.
  

• 85) Great American story that is deeply heartfelt

  by Lewis Ferragamo on May 09 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  Take the west, its majestic views and quiet nights. Its hills and mountains and rivers and valleys. A place that does not change much. A frontier that often more than not, sees the beauty of nature far more than the ugliness man can sometimes bring to it.
  Now take that setting, and put man there. Then in the center put two individuals who are proof as gods creatures, all are created equal, although they will never be treated that way by fellow man.
  The evil starts to slip in. It starts to envelope the goodness of the heart and the heart says "I must hide". The mind says "I must turn away". And the man at the mike says "whoaaaah!!" Gotcha, you see the real ignorance behind this movie is not the movie, or the people who were disappointed with it. Its the people who are trolling here voting negative to every single person who has something to say about the movie that isn't crooning over it like its the next Casablanca of film. Real prejudice and ignorance lies within, within people who are not willing to accept all gods creatures for who they are. That is evident on this movies reviews. People come on here and give it four stars and list a couple of minor faults and get 112 negatives to 23 positives? That is messed up. However, perfect in every way, for it shows that even the people who think they are open minded are in fact the ignorant ones. Why not listen with an open mind? You tell people to watch the movie with an open mind but then chastise anyone who disagrees with you deeming it a five star diva meant for the hall of fame. I give the movie
  five stars, but I know that still wont stop whoever is out there trolling to negate it into never never land because I defend people who are honstley being constructive and intelligent in their crticism of this film. These people are not the ones who took a tire iron to Jacks face, so stop treating them like they are, otherwise you are the one with the iron in your hand, on the side of the road. My regards, Lewis

• 86) THE SORROW AND THE LONGING

  by Timothy C. Wingate on May 06 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  This superb and superlative movie is one of the saddest and most uplifting I have seen in a very, very long time. The acting by all involved is exemplary and Ang Lee's direction is understated yet emphatic at the same time.
  
  I saw the first matinee of Brokeback Mountain here in Ottawa, Canada and at the end there was much sobbing and wimpering - mostly from the WOMEN in the audience. That is how affecting this movie is to viewers of all sexual persuasions. For that reason I believe the Academy Award for Best Picture was stolen from Brokeback Mountain because of the hidden homophobia still present in Hollywood, of all places!! There must be more gays and lesbians per capita there than any other place on earth but it is the producers and the power elite who ultimately decide - in their own minds only - what is palatable and acceptable for the American "unwashed". We must not forget the "casting couch" and the crypto-fags who produce and cast movies but are married with children yet still DEMAND sexual favours of all persuasions and perversions from aspiring AND established actors in order for them to get the parts.
  
  As a Canadian I was very proud of the cinematography of Banff and Jasper National Parks which stood in for Montana and the film is a glowing advertisement for the breathtaking scenery of those locations. The rise in the tourist trade from the US of A must have skyrocketed after Americans realised the natural splendours
  existing north of our common border.
  
  The acting by Gylenhaal and especially Heath Ledger is outstanding. Ledger carries the movie with his anguished non-communicativeness and the scene at the end with Jake's family will tug at your heart and your mind. Ledger's subdued and stylish acting there and at the very end is one of the best performances by an actor I have seen in a very long time. HE should have gotten the Academy Award for Best Actor but then Philip Seymour Hoffman's portrayal of Truman Capote was very tough competition indeed. It is too bad there was not a tie vote because they both demonstrated their consummate mastery of the art of acting.
  
  The female stars are also very good and since this is basically a family movie about love, longing, and lust their presence is essential.
  
  Every aficianado of fine cinema should run out to get this DVD and you don't have to be gay to appreciate its qualities. It is a movie for everyone and speaks universal messages.
  
  Very, very highly recommended for ALL sexual persuasions.
  
  TIMOTHY WINGATE Ottawa CANADA

• 87) Most touching movie I have ever seen

  by J. Davis on March 30 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  I've seen thousands of movies, but this incredibly made movie from a simple story of love transcends all boundaries. This movie is dedicated to all of us who have loved someone in our lives who we couldn't have or show how we truly felt. There are no walls up in this movie. That's a first. Truly powerful, touching, beautiful. The only tragedy is that it was snubbed by the Oscars for a much lesser film, even though it had won best picture from all of the dozens of other award shows and film critics. Get this DVD. This is a historic movie. Can't say that about any of the other ones released in recent memory.

• 88) Sleepless in Seattle

  by WayupNorth on March 30 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  
  Some are awake before they see it.
  
  Some are awakened by it.
  
  Some are still asleep.

• 89) A masterpiece!!

  by R. Schwartz on March 30 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  "Brokeback Mountain" is a masterpiece of a film. Everyone involved deserves kudos for bringing this brilliant film to the screen.
  
  The Academy Awards showed Hollywood's ugly side when it did not name "Brokeback Mountain" best picture.
  
  Most of the praise for this movie has gone to Heath Ledger and his brilliant performance. However equal praise needs to go to Jake Gyllenhaal for his amazing work in this movie. Many people have only given Jake's performance a brief mention, including Amazon editor, Mark Englehart. Well, I say pay equal attention to Jake. His Jack is the heart of this love story. He is especially amazing in their final scenes. He captures the words of Annie Proulx in their most tender scenes. While some may think it is easier to play the less intense character, I say that is not true. Jack's love, hurt, pain and bitterness come through in equal measure. He says so much with his eyes it is heartbreaking. Also, the Jack character should get attention because he is brave and is willing to live his life with the person he loves. He is not afraid of his feelings and that is so important. And while some think his aging job was not good, it is exactly accurate to the time period. And praise needs to go to Anne Hathaway. While her role is not as big, it is very important and her last scene is fantastic. Along with the wonderful Michelle Williams and her heartbreaking Alma.
  
  Overall a brilliant film that deserves all the accolades and awards it has received. Heath and Jake both make this heartbreaking and beautiful love story come to life.
  

• 90) A Masterpiece of Modern Cinema

  by J. Perrotta on June 17 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  Spectacular! There are no words to describe just how moving and honest and real this film is. The bottom line here is a message that transcends all barriers; gay or straight, male or female, rich or poor. The message is that love comes in many forms and if you are ever lucky enough to find a love so deep and strong, you must hang onto it regardless of all other outside factors. And when you don't, you very well could end up with nothing just as Ennis DelMar does. This is not a gay cowboy movie. It is an honest look at love and how two people who have the world against them try to follow their hearts but succumb to the pressures of a society that doesn't understand that love must transcend all.
  
  I've read a lot of the other reviews and it seems that everyone has a different take on Jack and Ennis's relationship. But this is how I see it: Yes, they were both gay and they were both in love, not in lust, with eachother. Lust doesn't last 20 years and the fact that they did go on to have so-called "normal" relationships with the women they married was not because they were bisexual but because they were doing what they thought they "had" to do. They tried hard to deny who they really were inside and married women, had families, then girlfriends but this was all part of the social pressure they felt to be "normal". Jack had more guts than Ennis did and was desperate to have a life with him because he needed him and loved him so badly, but Ennis was too uncomfortable with his love for Jack, was too embarrassed by it and couldn't have followed his heart because he was too consumed with the murder of the gay man he'd witnessed as a child. It isn't until the end, when Jack is gone, that Ennis comes to the realization that he let the love of his life slip through his hands. His daughter has found love and is getting married, Alma has remarried and Ennis finds himself alone with nothing to love or hang onto because he let his fears and insecurities about who he was come before his true love for Jack. The lesson is a hard one but the message is simple: No matter who you are or who you love, don't let anyone tell you who you should be. If you have love to give, give it freely and to whomever you wish. Never, never, never deny your heart.

• 91) A haunting film that stays with you a long long time.

  by Craig Parsons on March 25 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  An amazing film of an amazingly written story. The adaptation of the story to a screenplay was genius, and the film was as beautiful as it was depressing. You have to be a pretty hard hearted individual not to be touched and angered at the story presented here. We all get only one life, and who we choose to love is our own business and no one elses, no matter how much they wish it to be.

• 92) A truly wonderful film..

  by Nova on March 19 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  Brokeback Mountain is a rare achievement in film making. Where the intention of the writers, along with the vision of the director and dedication of the actors marry into a wonderful and honest piece of work.
  This is a story of 2 men who struggle with their identities as they find love in the least expected of places. They try to fulfill the roles they were supposed to fill in society, but when love is denied it creates tragedy for all. The story is encompassing and quite remarkable in it's depth. The film is quite breathtaking to watch with it's open ranges and wide scope,balanced with claustrophobic alleys and tight rooms. The acting is stellar, and awe inspiring. You see the characters pains struggles and doubts in their mannerisms and tears.
  I thought i would write this film off when i first heard about it as simple a novelty act. I am pleased to see i was absolutely wrong. This was an example of exactly what movies were always meant to be, an extraordinary story telling.
  Due to the material i'm sure there will be plenty of people spewing hateful reviews without having seen the film. I can only state someone secure in their own beliefs and sexuality should not be threatened by a 2 hour film. Nor should they feel the need to share their insecurity and immaturity with people who are just looking for suggestions on a good film. If you are curious about this film at all, i recommend judging for yourself. it's not a message film, it's a love story. A gut-wrenching affecting heart pounding love story. One that i think everyone should see.
  

• 93) I am absolutely livid.

  by Your Worst Nightmare on March 06 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  I am extremely angry that "Brokeback Mountain" lost at the Academy Awards to that shallow stupid film "Crash." Ang Lee's powerful masterpiece should have gotten the award because it is uncompromising, revolutionary, and wholly original. At least Ang Lee got Best Director so it's not a total loss. But shame on the Academy for wimping out. Shame on them!

• 94) Stark, Raw and Beautiful

  by Jeremiah Jake on April 12 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  I am sure that Brokeback Mountain was a real eye opener for many people. Never before has a film forced its audience to see the heart wrenching state of those who have taken a separate path in life and the consequences suffered dealing with stringent societal constraints and an established moral code.
  
  This film will always be remembered by anyone who viewed it. It has already become a classic unto itself and will be critically reviewed over and over again in years to come.
  
  If I had had a vote at the Oscars, in addition to the three Oscars awarded, I would have given the film, Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal top honors with Oscars. I am heartened that BAFTA awarded Jake best supporting actor in London.
  
  I was not satisfied with the "soundtrack" CD nor did I purchase it. It is my hope that the real sound track will be released in the near future.
  
  I would like to think that regardless of the paths people have chosen in living there lives that we are all God's own.

• 95) It was real to me....

  by R. Hammond on April 06 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  I know some people think Will and Grace is a great thing for the gay community, but as a sloppy, unclassy gay man, I've never really identified with Will (or Grace...) Artsy-fartsy stuff bores me, and I'd rather go to the dentist than watch "the classics".
  
  But Brokeback Mountain was different for me. Yeah, it was slow at times. The sheep go up the mountain. The sheep come down the mountain. But it wasn't the scenery or "subtle nuances". The words Jack and Ennis said could have come from my own mouth. I can't explain how it feels to watch a movie where you feel like someone you don't even know is telling your story. As for those who say Ennis' character wasn't real or well-developed, I beg to differ. As someone who grew up gay and terrified in a rural area where you know that "if this thing" comes over you at the wrong time and in the wrong place, you could wind up dead, it was pretty authentic to me. The way he hated himself and tried to shut himself down to stay in control, his constant fear of discovery, his shame, and his concern that people were looking at him funny-- to close off from life so tightly that even speaking is a painful act. It's not just the 60's....is there a rural born gay man alive who didn't hear about Matthew Shephard being beaten to death and think "It could have been me..."?
  
  I thought the movie was beautiful and it makes me ache inside. And even though I find it pretty depressing, somehow, it gives me hope. Love can catch you by surprise when you're looking in the other direction. This film may not be something you can relate to, but as for me, I didn't just watch this movie, I lived it.

• 96) Discover for yourself the magic of Brokeback Mountain

  by Bruce J. Simpson on March 18 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  Never has a movie so moved me as Brokeback Mountain. It is not a gay cowboy movie but a universal love story about two people in love and the price that is paid for that love. It is about conforming to society instead of being true to oneself and the consequences to that for all the people involved in lives such as those portrayed. Ledger and Gyllenhaal pulled it off in spades. You actually feel for the characters they have created and feel the love they have for each other. This movie should have won best picture at the academy awards but lost due to unfair prejudice by members of the academy that refused to see this brilliant movie. It has moved people by the thousands and improved lives....Discover it for yourself, you'll never be the same again.

• 97) Truly Love is a Force of a Nature

  by Kenneth S. Wheelock on March 13 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  I was extraordinarily disappointed at the failure of nerve displayed by AMPAS at the Oscar's Ceremony to give so many Oscars to such less deserving "winners." Brokeback Mountain deals with so many of life's profound mysteries on so many different levels it is hard to summarize it in a short review. Heath Ledger, whose creativity in bringing Ennis del Mar to life monumentally surpasses the achievement of any other actor in 2005, was upstaged by an actor who was recognized merely for his ability to impersonate. At least BAFTA recognized Jake Gyllenhaal's outstanding performance as Jack Twist. "Best Picture" Crash deals with issues of racism. Would racism be an issue if everyone were treated equally regardless of race? Gender? No one chooses to be born different from everybody else. No one chooses to be born disadvantaged, handicapped, or gay. Regardless of what we are born with, we make of life what we can and we play the cards we are dealt. The tragedy of life is that some of us play our cards better than others and clearly some of us are dealt better hands than others. Thats what makes Brokeback Mountain timeless - Ennis and Jack had no choice in who they were, who they loved or when and how they discovered they were different and this movie reflects that poignantly, beautifully, tenderly and with a quiet honest respect for its subject. Here in 2005 we think we have more choices, but clearly the reaction to this movie indicates many people are still as crippled emotionally today as people were in 1963. Growth comes slowly and emotional growth is fraught with pain. All of us can look back at choices made and regretted. Annie Proulx said she wrote her short story about homophobia. She did, but like all great art it was predicated on an underlying truth: love is a force of nature. Ang Lee, Diana Ossana, Larry McMurtry and everyone who worked on this movie transformed a New Yorker short story into one of the centuries' epic morality tales. It is not a morality tale for red or blue states, heterosexuals or homosexuals; it is not a morality tale of what is right or wrong - its moral is love or die, and the corollary to that moral is God gives you no choice in whom you love because we are commanded to love everyone as yourself. If we all did that this movie would never have been made. It is worth seeing over and over and over again. This movie will be on the 100 best list for centuries.

• 98) A Revelation of Human Love.

  by John Primavera on March 13 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  I went to see "Brokeback Mountain" on the advice of a friend. I didn't know what to expect. Heath Ledger was a
  mystery to me. But ever since childhood days cowboys fascinated
  me and I sort of became addicted to westerns, particularly
  Randolph Scott. The opening scenes moved slowly and there was
  Ledger...quiet, mumbling, in a way reminding me of James Dean
  in "Giant" with that simple presence. Then came the tent scene.
  Wow!...was I seeing things? Had the wrong movie get turned on
  by mistake? No...this was really happening on the screen. Here
  were these two rugged macho guys...cowboys up there doing what
  makes men tremble at the thought of doing: making love. I managed
  to stay in my seat...then came the ride on the stallion, the
  foreboding sky, the journey to tend sheep but really only God
  knew where to. My eyes misted thinking what the cowboy must have felt seeing that butchered sheep. I suddenly thought of lots of
  things, like what the rest of the movie was like, thought of my
  friend and why he kept the sex scene a secret, but mostly I
  thought of an old admonition I'd heard about how a man isn't supposed to have a romantic interest in another man. Yeah...
  I'd hoped the movie would show the two cowboys turning into
  standard creeps for whom I could have no sympathy for. But I was
  not so lucky, for by the time the movie was over my cup ran over
  with empathy for these two. Something touched me and my eyes misted over by film's ending and Ennis sad.
  I left the theatre in no mood to shop. I decided to drop
  in on my friend. He was busy developing film, but listened anyway
  as I asked him why he didn't warn me about you know what. "Cause
  if I did you wouldn't have gone, am I right?" Yeah...I had to
  admit he was right. I am just the type who avoids the strange.
  Then he said "Now tell me what you liked?" Then I unloaded and
  told him the directing reminding me of George Stevens. The
  music breath-taking...the scenery gorgeous. Then, saving my best
  for last, told him of Jake Gyllenhaal's Jack with doe-like eyes
  that worked so well for him, making his character easy to read.
  That look of devotion he gives to Ledger...so convinced me he'd
  wait around forever! Then there's the amazing Heath, a virtual
  treasure trove of talent. The look, the gesture, that walk of
  his, even his grunting...they'd be crazy if they didn't give
  him the Oscar. He has all these and he breaks your heart with
  them. His scenes at the end were brilliant. He could open up a
  school for acting any day. In his quiet moments he does more with
  less than anyone acting today. My friend smiled and then casually
  asked me if "Brokeback Mt." changed me in any way. I didn't know
  what to say. Suddenly something hit me, something that had been
  looking at me that I'd not wanted to recognize since I left the
  theatre, thinking it would go away.
  "Well?" my friend asked. I said it may sound funny...but
  I was sure Randolph Scott was looking at me. My friend let out an
  enormous laugh. Yeah...like he's waiting for something from me.
  Like what my attitude was towards Ennis and Jack. Would I approve
  of them riding along the chisolm trail with him? It's dumb, I know, but since they've been through so much misery that maybe...
  maybe we'd show our hearts are in the right place and allow them
  to come? I even remembered my childhood toy gun and holster and
  cowboy hat...one that had puff balls like fringe around the crown. My mom bought me that hat. Yeah, maybe this movie held
  objectionable things in it when examined using the head. Yet
  some things and some movies should be looked at with the heart
  more than with the head. This movie is one like that.
  

• 99) Moved me beyond words.

  by J. Smith on March 10 2006
    40+ helpful votes

  Normally, I hate short reviews on here. But everything I could ever say about this phenomenal film has been said already on here, and more eloquently than I could ever say it.
  
  Brokeback Mountain a powerful, insightful look at the glory and tragedy of love.
  
  It is a movie that will stay with you for days, years, possibly a lifetime.
  
  I encourage any fan of the ART of film to see this masterpiece.

• 100) Stellar Performances and Great Direction.

  by thornhillatthemovies.com on December 13 2005
    40+ helpful votes

  1963. Two loner cowboys show up at a small office in rural Montana looking for work. Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) has worked for Joe Aguirre (Randy Quaid) before, and knows the routine. Take the flock of sheep up to Brokeback Mountain for the summer, watch over them, keep them safe, and return them at the end of the season. But Jack can't do the job alone and Joe hires Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger), a quiet, brooding fellow to run the base camp. Soon, the two men begin a relationship, finding companionship in each other's arms. At the end of the season, Jack thinks that maybe next year, or the year after, they can get a ranch together, and work it, making a nice life for themselves. Ennis is more concerned about public perception and reaction and can't make the jump into a relationship with Jack. Each gets married, Ennis to Alma (Michelle Williams) and Jack to Lureen (Anne Hathaway), and starts a family. One day, Jack rolls into town and the two lovers share a romantic weekend. Jack still wants them to run off together and start a ranch, but Ennis seems content to have these occasional weekends as he battles with his feelings about his true love.
  
  "Brokeback Mountain", directed by Ang Lee ("Sense and Sensibility", "The Ice Storm", "Hulk") and written by Larry McMurtry ("Lonesome Doves") and Diana Ossana, based on a short story by E. Annie Proulx, is a very good film, with a lot of great things going for it.
  
  Perhaps the best things about the film are the performances by the two leads, Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal. If you have read any of my reviews of previous Heath Ledger films ("The Brothers Grimm", "Lords of Dogtown", "A Knight's Tale"), you know I am not a huge fan. But in "Brokeback", he is able to create a fully realized character, a character we can believe in and identify with; from the first moments, when he can barely look anyone in the eye, to his gradual acceptance of his partner, to actually talking to Jack we see Ennis develop and grow before our eyes. As the relationship and their lives become more complicated, Ledger helps us understand why Ennis believes the way he does. The relationship he builds with Jack starts as a confused coupling due to need and grows into something more profound and deep, at least through Ennis' eyes. The character is very complicated, and interesting to watch, and a lot of this is due to Ledger's performance. Based on his previous work, I would never have believed he was capable of such a performance. It is intense, interesting and riveting.
  
  Jake Gyllenhaal is also very good. Jack seems to be the more accepting member of the couple; he seems to have an inkling of who he is and what he needs, before the night they share in the tent. When that happens, Jack is also concerned and confused, but his love for Ennis allows him to have fantasies of them starting a ranch together. He is clearly disappointed when this doesn't happen, but moves on, getting married to Lureen in the process. Quickly, we see Jack has married Lureen primarily for the lifestyle she affords; her dad owns a large farm equipment dealership. After this point, whenever Jack and Ennis get together for a "fishing weekend", it is clear Jack is the better off financially, but his heart is also breaking away because he can't be in a relationship with the man he truly loves. Gyllenhaal's performance is so good because it hints at things we never learn for sure. Has Jack had male partners before? Is Ennis his first love?
  
  Director Ang Lee has an impressive resume of films. Each film is very different, yet explores the common theme of a relationship between two people. If you look at his diverse group of films, you realize that he is willing to try to new things and (usually) does them very well. From Jane Austen's England, to New England in the 80s, from modern day San Francisco to modern day New York, he seems to have a real sense for the time and place in each film's narrative. Yes, he did make "Hulk", a misguided effort, to say the least, but his other films have been exemplary in every regard. He uses great actors, great writing and great cinematography to fully realize each film. "Brokeback Mountain" is no exception. Equally stunning, equally challenging, and very different from his other films.
  
  The screenplay by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, based on a story by E. Annie Proulx, captures the dialogue of the time and place brilliantly. As mentioned, Ennis doesn't talk a lot and much of his dialogue is grunted, but when he does speak, it is easy to see his speech is subdued by confusion, upbringing and the morals of the day. Jack is more vocal, but also confused. His dreams of living a happy life with Ennis are all the more heartbreaking, because we realize they will never happen. In an interview on NPR, McMurtry and Ossana discussed adapting Proulx's story to the big screen, leaving much of her dialogue and description intact. What they added was an elaboration on the domestic life of Ennis and Jack, detailing what life is like for each when they aren't together. Ennis' life is the more captivating of the two because we recognize how troubled and horrible his life with Alma is. Alma isn't a bad person, but the life they build together is hard to watch. Perhaps the best moment in the film happens when Alma realizes what Jack and Ennis do on those "fishing trips".
  
  I think the one thing missing for me is any scene depicting the intimacy they share for one another. Their first coupling is more of a `wham, bam, thank you, man' type of encounter, in their tent during a cold night. Later, after they reunite, they kiss forcefully, due to hunger, yearning. Throughout the course of their relationship, which runs twenty years, we see them together a few times, but few of these portray the intimacy they must have shared. Yes, they hug; one scene even shows them in bed together, talking, yet, there seems to be a lack of intimacy. Even in the time and place, despite their confusion, they still manage moments alone, yet we don't really get a sense of the physical side of their love.
  
  "Brokeback Mountain" is a film filled with great performances, outstanding dialogue and beautiful cinematography. It will surely earn a handful of Oscar nominations.