Brokeback Mountain
Academy Award × 3·National Film Registry
Rent/Purchase
In 1960s Wyoming, two men develop a strong emotional and sexual relationship that endures as a lifelong connection complicating their lives as they get married and start families of their own.
What critics thought
Brokeback Mountain landed as one of the most acclaimed films of 2005, with critics singling out Heath Ledger's internalized, physically guarded performance as the film's emotional core and praising Ang Lee's restrained, observational direction. The few dissenting professional voices found the film overlong and felt its emotional pitch sagged toward the end, while the louder controversy came not from film critics but from conservative commentators and advocacy groups who objected to the subject matter itself — a distinction worth keeping in mind when reading the broader discourse around the film.
“There's neither coyness nor self-importance in Brokeback Mountain—just close, compassionate observation, deeply committed performances, a bone-deep feeling for hardscrabble Western lives. Few films have captured so acutely the desolation of frustrated, repressed passion.”
David Ansen·Newsweek
“extremely moving, tragic even, and sensitive towards the feelings of the simple wives who attempt to understand their troubled husbands.”
Peter Bradshaw·The Guardian
“The Wyoming vistas are flawlessly manicured, Ledger and Gyllenhaal perfectly costumed and coiffed; even Ennis and Alma's sad little apartment over a laundromat seems to have been designed to death.”
Ann Hornaday·The Washington Post
Genres
Drama, Romance
Cast & Crew
DirectorAng Lee
StarringHeath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Williams, Anne Hathaway, Randy Quaid
ComposerGustavo Santaolalla
Brokeback Mountain
Academy Award × 3·National Film Registry
In 1960s Wyoming, two men develop a strong emotional and sexual relationship that endures as a lifelong connection complicating their lives as they get married and start families of their own.
What critics thought
Brokeback Mountain landed as one of the most acclaimed films of 2005, with critics singling out Heath Ledger's internalized, physically guarded performance as the film's emotional core and praising Ang Lee's restrained, observational direction. The few dissenting professional voices found the film overlong and felt its emotional pitch sagged toward the end, while the louder controversy came not from film critics but from conservative commentators and advocacy groups who objected to the subject matter itself — a distinction worth keeping in mind when reading the broader discourse around the film.
“There's neither coyness nor self-importance in Brokeback Mountain—just close, compassionate observation, deeply committed performances, a bone-deep feeling for hardscrabble Western lives. Few films have captured so acutely the desolation of frustrated, repressed passion.”
David Ansen·Newsweek
“extremely moving, tragic even, and sensitive towards the feelings of the simple wives who attempt to understand their troubled husbands.”
Peter Bradshaw·The Guardian
“The Wyoming vistas are flawlessly manicured, Ledger and Gyllenhaal perfectly costumed and coiffed; even Ennis and Alma's sad little apartment over a laundromat seems to have been designed to death.”
Ann Hornaday·The Washington Post
Genres
Drama, Romance
Cast & Crew
DirectorAng Lee
StarringHeath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Williams, Anne Hathaway, Randy Quaid
ComposerGustavo Santaolalla
Rent/Purchase