Brokeback Mountain

Based on the short story by Pulitzer Prize-winning author E. Annie Proulx, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN is the tragic and moving story of two cowboys who unexpectedly fall in love while working together one summer in 1963. When the film begins, rodeo cowboy Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) and ranch-hand Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) are strangers meeting for the first time. As the more outgoing one, it is Jack who must initiate a friendship with Ennis, a man so tight-lipped and self-consciously macho he refuses all facial expression. From this strained beginning, Jack and Ennis gradually begin to bond on cold, lonely nights over a fire in the mountains of Signal, Wyoming. One particularly chilly evening, Jack invites Ennis into his tent, where a sudden awkward embrace sends their relationship in a new direction. Though each man stubbornly defends his heterosexuality, the spark between them cannot help but grow, with that initial summer on Brokeback Mountain becoming their reference point for happiness during the rest of their lives.

Spanning 20 years, the film moves at an impressively slow pace that really captures the detailed and unhurried style of Proulx's story. Seeing each other a few times a year at best, Ennis and Jack spend the rest of their time halfheartedly living up to society's expectations by marrying and having kids. When the lovers do meet, there is a sense of love so palpable and frustrating it often manifests itself in physical violence. Gyllenhaal shines as the film's hopeful light, and Ledger gives a powerful performance as the emotionally blocked Ennis. Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee captures the natural beauty of Wyoming and Texas with camerawork that, while beautiful, never feels imposing. Gustavo Santaolalla's simple yet haunting score helps to complete a beautiful portrait of wasted chances and regret.

"[I]mmaculately made...with career-making performances by its two reluctant lovers, Gyllenhaal and Ledger....Count them both in at nomination time." - Film Comment

4 stars out of 4 -- "[O]ne of the truly convincing movies about romantic love to come along in years..." - Premiere

"BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN is that rare thing, a big Hollywood weeper with a beautiful ache at its center. It's a modern-age Western that turns into a quietly revolutionary love story." -- Grade: A - Entertainment Weekly

4 stars out of 5 -- "Ang Lee's unmissable and unforgettable BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN hits you like a shot in the heart. It's a landmark film and a triumph for Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal..." - Rolling Stone

"[I]t's a nuanced and complex study of desire, loneliness and the ambiguities swirling beneath the accepted codes of rural life. And, as such, one of the finest movies of the year." - Uncut

"The lonesome chill that seeps through Ang Lee's epic western, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN is as bone deep as the movie's heartbreaking story..." - New York Times

"It's a heart-wrenching portrayal of unfulfilled Wyoming love....The movie soars for the duration..." - USA Today

"[T]he screenplay is a model of sensitive adaptation....The screenwriters' most significant contribution is their investment in well-defined, plausible female characters." - Sight and Sound

Ranked #11 in Uncut's Best Films Of 2005 -- "A beautiful, elegant, elegiac movie, directed with great sensitivity and enhanced by outstanding performances." - Uncut

Included in Entertainment Weekly's Top Ten Films Of The Year -- "[A] quietly revolutionary weeper..." - Entertainment Weekly

4 stars out of 5 -- "[A] beautiful movie....The wide-open spaces of Wyoming, with its jagged, snow-dipped peaks and too-puffy-to-be-true cloud formations, linger long after the credits have faded. There's also a fragile, internalised beauty..." - Total Film

"Stellar performances, a haunting Oscar-winning soundtrack, and beautiful cinematography make for an unforgettable story." - Widescreen Review

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