Reviews of Brokeback Mountain have been coming fast and furious since the first week in December 2005. I've quoted from some of the key reviews, listed all reviews I'm come across and, of course, compiled the reviewers Hall of Shame. Check out the critics awards too. You'll also find related articles in the cultural and social commentary.

If you find a new review, please post it in the discussion forum.

Selected Reviews

As a tragic evocation of the costs of homophobia - not just to closeted gay people but also to their families and loved ones - Brokeback Mountain is indeed a watershed movie, an airing of taboos and secrets that can only be seen as welcome and deeply humanist. (And, in its depiction of the violence that threatens Jack and Ennis should their relationship come to light, it's a sensitive, empathic homage to those who have died of hatred, including Matthew Shepard, who seems to haunt the production from his Wyoming grave.)

If "Brokeback Mountain" were just about that love story, which culminates in the year's loveliest metaphor, it would be a great, impeccably acted movie. But "Brokeback" also recognizes that when you're afraid to be yourself, it damages every relationship you have. "Brokeback's" compassion extends to the men's parents and their wives, who are placed in impossible positions and who respond with the confusion and hurt you'd expect.

Part of the deep poignancy of this film is that it is a portrait of two men who have never had time to be young, so that the bond between them is this thing which co-exists with a set of responsibilities that they tend to embrace unquestioningly as a form of slavery. Ang Lee has turned his back on razzle dazzle Youth Culture America so decisively that Brokeback Mountain looks like the product of another time. Apart from anything else Ledger and Gyllenhaal are expected to age, in the course of the film, the better part of 20 years and they manage this - in a way the film manages to make look effortless - by the way they are weighed down by the constancy of their sorrows and their unswerving sense of something so central to them that it would be sentimental to call it happiness.

What "Brokeback Mountain" does is show homosexuality in a light not normally seen. On the screen, we see people much like ourselves who struggle with who they are and who they are forced to be. We see the portrayal of the unspoken homosexuals who live among us that are far from the comical portrayal of the flamboyant gay guy that is so typical in our media culture. It is easier to justify the denial of basic equality when you view other relationships as inherently unequal. In order to change, people need to see something similar to themselves in order for them to better understand it. "Brokeback" gives them that something.

Upon entering the nearly packed theatre, I noticed most of the audience were straight young couples. What would the reaction be when the two cowboys kiss? What would my reaction be to the audience reaction? The cowboys kissed – absolute silence in the theatre. As the film progress I could hear muffled sobs. Upon leaving the [theatre] I intentionally eavesdropped on people's conversations. I did not hear a negative comment. Please go see the move....

Lee takes the classic contrast between nature and civilization and uses it in a new way, as an implicit argument that the love between Ennis and Jack is a natural thing subverted by the arbitrary rules and definitions of manhood of their society. This might sound pretentious, and in many other hands it could be, but the beauty of Lee’s technique is its simplicity, its directness and lack of pretense, its ability to suggest without overplaying. He’s assisted by the somber elegance of Gustavo Santaolalla’s guitar-and-fiddle score, which evokes Country-Western music without quite entering its twangy domain and fits the moods Lee creates without overselling them.

Ultimately, once you've actually seen this story unfold, you'll never call it "that gay cowboy movie" again. There have been so-called "gay" movies made in the past that celebrated homosexual lifestyles, reveled in gay relationships and forwarded the cause in plainly rhetorical terms, but Lee's film is not one of those. Rather, the director tells a story about two people who have found love, but don't know what to do or how to deal with it, which is something that anyone gay or straight once did, does, or will eventually deal with in their lives. Brokeback Mountain offers a long-overdue road map into territory often traversed but seldom properly documented - namely, the human heart.

I have received a profound gift. Call me obsessive, but I have seen the movie Brokeback Mountain six times already. It is haunting me like no other movie I can remember. Something transformational is happening because of this movie. I'm not just talking about possibly many hearts and minds being changed among the straights that see this movie. Something deeper and more personal is also happening for many, and I am speaking as a gay man here. Friend after friend is haunted by this movie. In a group of friends, we repeatedly talk about how much this film is deeply affecting us personally. So much grief, so much loss, so much recognition. We call each other in the middle of the day to discuss the waves of emotion that are surfacing even days after seeing the film. It is as if this movie appeared at this point in time in part to facilitate a massive transformational healing among the gay men and others who see it. Why is this healing happening? It is the transformational power of shamanism – the true gift of acting.

Sublimely Honest and Painfully Emotional (WESTERN UNION posted on IMDB, Mike Schulz, 11-Jan-2006)

Ennis and Jack are unable to control their desires, and the glory and tragedy of Brokeback Mountain is that neither they nor audiences necessarily want them to; like all great, doomed screen romances, Ennis’ and Jack’s love (a word that neither man ever utters) is a force of nature, too powerful to be ignored yet, ultimately, too fragile to survive. Despite the emotional toll their relationship takes on Ennis’ and Jack’s wives and children – and the movie is subtly gut-wrenching in showing how the men’s love, kept secret, makes them treat those who love them horribly – you want desperately for them to find happiness; Brokeback Mountain makes the ineffable mystery of romance come alive in a way that audiences might find themselves quite unprepared for.

Ledger, Gyllenhaal Unforgettable in 'Brokeback Mountain' {5 of 5} (AMERICAN CHRONICLE, Peter Kreysa, 09-Jan-2006)

Prisoners of their time and place, Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) stuggle valiantly – but futilely – to fulfill society's, and their own, expectations of heterosexual marriage, but ultimately find themselves irresistably drawn back to one another, compeled by their burning passion and inexplicable desires. Brokeback Mountain is genius and triumphant in its heartbreaking portrayal of two young men tormented by a Tantalus-like love they feel for each other at a time when societal norms keep them from taking the risks necessary to couple. Brokeback Mountain will be long-regarded as one of the greatest love stories in film history.

Is there a real place called Brokeback Mountain ? I wonder, cuz the name so perfectly evokes misery and pain and loneliness and all those other tragically romantic heartbreaky emotions that twist your gut into a knot in the best love stories (And this is one of the best, like, ever). The Jacks of the world, they suffer, but they let the rage out. The Ennises? They just get eaten up inside and wither away. And that is unbearably heartrending, and we should all be ashamed of ourselves that we are the engineers of such wretchedness.

'Brokeback' Packs Real Passion reports high school junior TEEN SCREENS reviewer Matthew Alverez (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 11-Jan-2006)

Interestingly enough, however, "I love you" is never exchanged in the film. This was skillful direction on Lee's part. The words would be completely unnecessary because it is clear they are in love. Compare a three-word sentence to a lifetime of commitment and passionate love. Now that's unconventional Hollywood melodrama. Love is certainly overused today, both as a statement and a defense. "Brokeback Mountain" is a rare film that has the potential to conquer you. If only you let it.

Brokeback Mountain (DIGITAL SPY [UK], Daniel Saney, 08-Jan-2006)

Dispelling the perception of being simply a "gay western", the film doesn’t really wholeheartedly fit into either category. Although it is socially important that a gay love story is enjoying a mainstream airing rather than being an arthouse film, it transcends the issue of sexuality. Rather, it is an excellently-told tale of two lovers whose love cannot be fulfilled, which can be universally related to and enjoyed by anyone regardless of sexual orientation. stomach.

Brokeback Mountain (TIMES [London, UK], Jonathan Romney, 08-Jan-2006)

A freezing night sparks the guilty drama. Jack invites Ennis to share his tent. He places Ennis’s hand on his crotch and they squirm in frantic intimacy. [Later] what makes the split so painful is the way the film plays with real fire: the evasion, the fear of discovery, and rampant homphobia. Randy Quaid is terrific as the sour local boss who accidentally sees far more of the boy s than he is prepared to stomach.

‘Brokeback Mountain’ Queer eye for the country guy (THE INDEPENDENT [UK], Jonathan Romney, 08-Jan-2006)

The film begins with a wonderful piece of laconic scene-setting. Ennis Del Mar (Ledger) and Jack Twist (Gyllenhaal) silently wait outside a trailer to sign on for a job: they cautiously glance at each other, stare at the ground, kick a little dirt. You start to wonder about certain signs.... The signs may be evident if you're already habitually inclined to "out" a scene between two handsome men by a campfire, but Lee brilliantly points up the men's reluctance to give themselves away. In an extraordinary shot, Jack hangs his head while Ennis washes naked in the background in a soft-focus blur: we sense that Jack is aware of him, but he in no way registers Ennis's presence, and that speaks more eloquently than any gaze of unbridled desire.”

‘Brokeback Mountain’ A Tragic Love Story Between Two Men and Their Wives (DATELINE HOLLYWOOD, Bruce Strong, 09-Jan-2006)

Sadly, most of my fellow critics are almost as guilty as the movie’s villains in rushing to describe a film about healthy male buddies as “gay.” Don’t believe the hype. “Brokeback Mountain” is the perfect viewing experience for men who, like me, live perfectly normal lives with a wife and kids despite several dozen experiences that bigots might label “homosexual.”

Out West (THE NEW REPUBLIC, Stanley Kaufmann, 08-Jan-2006 for publication in the 16-Jan-2006 edition)

Brokeback Mountain does not contain the slightest suggestion that its purpose is to chronicle a case or a social problem. (It has provoked a blizzard of articles on the subject of cowboy homosexuality, most of them paying little attention to the film's art.) It simply treasures two human beings who, unlikely as we may have thought it for these men, find themselves fixed in a discomfiting yet thorough passion. ...nonetheless they seem secretly fortified by their fate.

'Brokeback' dares us to take heart (DENVER POST, Diane Carman, 08-Jan-2006)

"It's easier to hold on to very negative viewpoints or attitudes if all you ever let yourself see of that world is a stereotype you don't like," he* said. "If you were to allow yourself to see two very masculine, straight-looking men in love with each other, it could shake your belief set." So, like it or not, see it or not, "Brokeback Mountain" lays bare our homophobia. It forces us to confront our fears. It dares us once and for all to understand. [*Dr. Robert Davies, associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center]

Brokeback World (NPR's FRESH AIR, John Powers [Vogue], 06-Jan-2006)

While most gay viewers respond warmly to Brokeback Mountain , it has produced some unexpected reactions among those who aren't gay. Some straight critics have complained that there's not enough steamy sex, a charge they didn't level at Titanic. The critics at several Christian media outlets have, to their great credit, reviewed Ang Lee's film as a film, not as a culture war manifesto, praising it for its artistry and emotional power, even as they took issue with the characters' homosexuality. ...all these abstract arguments overlook the most striking thing about seeing Brokeback Mountain : it makes a lot of people cry. I've never been to a press screening that left more people in tears, myself included.

Brokeback Mountain: An elegy to lovesick cowboys (THE INDEPENDENT [UK], Anthony Quinn, 06-Jan-2006)

As Lee's aria of regret nudges past the two-hour mark I thought it was out for the count, but it picks itself up and delivers a surprise double bodyshot whose concerted force will possibly floor you. It got me, first in the casual reunion of Ennis with his teenage daughter (played with tenderness by Kate Mara) and then in an achingly elegiac shot of, no kidding, an old checked shirt, the memory of which tugs a thread from an earlier part of the story. In fact, thinking about it right now, my throat seems to have constricted and my eyes gone all blurry. No, I'll be fine... Just give me a minute, will you?

That gay-cowboy movie you’ve heard so little about is even more startling than expected (NEW YORK MAGAZINE, Ken Tucker, 12-Dec-2005)

If I’m making it sound as though Brokeback Mountain is a downer, it’s actually a serious piece of art in which great joy can be taken in witnessing the small-miracle performances of Ledger (so eloquent in his mute despair) and Gyllenhaal (so meticulously agonized by his daily compromises). Ang Lee conveys maddening delirium rendered in the way one man’s eyes gaze at another’s, and then look away, and the looking-away amounts to the murder of two souls as surely as if they’d drawn guns and hit each other in the heart.

The Current Cinema: New Frontiers (THE NEW YORKER, Anthony Lane, 05-Dec-2005)

This slow and stoic movie, hailed as a gay Western, feels neither gay nor especially Western: it is a study of love under siege.

Brokeback Mountain {4 of 4 stars} (ROLLING STONE, Peter Travers, 01-Dec-2005)

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, who bring deep reserves of feeling to this defiantly erotic love story about two Wyoming ranch hands and the external and internal forces that drive them from desire to denial. Directed with piercing intelligence and delicacy by Lee, the film of Annie Proulx's 1997 short story -- the unerring script by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana is a model of literary adaptation -- wears its emotions on its sleeve.

Brokeback Mountain {Grade A} (ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, Owen Gleiberman, 30-Nov-2005)

Brokeback Mountain is that rare thing, a big Hollywood weeper with a beautiful ache at its center.

Brokeback Mountain {Telluride Report} (VARIETY, Todd McCarthy, 30-Nov-2005)

That most chameleonlike of directors, Ang Lee, pulls off yet another surprising left turn in "Brokeback Mountain." An achingly sad tale of two damaged souls whose intimate connection across many years cannot ever be properly resolved, this ostensible gay Western is marked by a heightened degree of sensitivity and tact, as well as an outstanding performance from Heath Ledger.

Riding the High Country, Finding and Losing Love (NEW YORK TIMES, Stephen Holden, 09-Dec-2005)

THE lonesome chill that seeps through Ang Lee's epic western, "Brokeback Mountain," is as bone deep as the movie's heartbreaking story of two cowboys who fall in love almost by accident. It is embedded in the craggy landscape where their idyll begins and ends. It creeps into the farthest corners of the wide-open spaces they share with coyotes, bears and herds of sheep and rises like a stifled cry into the big, empty sky that stretches beyond the horizon.

Hello cowboy: Ang Lee's award-winning gay western is the most important film to come out of America in years (THE GUARDIAN [UK], Ruby Rich, 23-Sep-2005)

Every once in a while a film comes along that changes our perceptions so much that cinema history thereafter has to arrange itself around it. Think of Thelma and Louise or Chungking Express, Blow-Up or Orlando - all big films that taught us to look and think and swagger differently. Brokeback Mountain is just such a film. Even for audiences educated by a decade of the New Queer Cinema phenomenon - from Mala Noche and Poison to High Art and Boys Don't Cry - it's a shift in scope and tenor so profound as to signal a new era.

* Keep up-to-date on NPR's Brokeback commentary and reviews...
* An Elegant Thoroughbred Of A Movie (FUTURE MOVIES [UK], Jan-2006)
* The Older the Eyes...The Finer the Film, an extraordinary user review of Brokeback (YAHOO, 10-Jan-2006)
* Western Special: Lonesome Cowboys (BRITISH FILM STITUTE [UK], Roger Clarke, Jan-2006)
* Brokeback Mountain {5 of 5 stars} review (VIEW [UK], Matthew Turner, 10-Jan-2006)
* WFAA (Dallas-Ft. Worth) video review of BBM (Jan-2006)
* Brokeback Mountain: In the Shadow of the Tire Iron Alan Dale of BlogCritics.org contrasts Annie Proulx's story with the movie and draws disagreement in return. (09-Jan-2006)
* AllMusic's review of the music from Brokeback Mountain (Thom Jurek, Jan-2006)
* The National Review: One thing is clear. The gifted Ang Lee is focused on telling a story, not on preachy moralizing (Thomas Hibbs, 06-Jan-2005)
* The Guardian (UK) reviews Brokeback Mountain {5 stars} (Peter Bradshaw, 06-Jan-2006)
* Sacramento Bee: 'Brokeback' showcases scenery, Ledger's performance (Carla Meyer, 06-Jan-2006; via The News Tribune [Tacoma, WA])
* Tennessee WBIR: Brokeback Mountain a flawless, timeless love story (Josh West, 02-Jan-2006)
* Ashville, North Carolina, Mountain Express {5 Stars} (Ken Hanke)
* NUVO (Ed Johnson-Ott, 28-Dec-2005)
* Stylus (Alfred Soto, 27-Dec-2005)
* about.com (Rebecca Murray, 23-Dec-2005)
* Ebert & Roeper (10-Dec-2005)
* Empire (UK)
* Hollywood Reporter (Ray Bennett, 06-Sep-2005)
* NPR's All Things Considered (Bob Mondello, 09-Dec-2005)

The Stinkers

* Will 'Brokeback Mountain' Finish First? (BUSINESS WEEK ONLINE, Ronald Grover, 10-Jan-2006)
* Slate (David Edelstein, 08-Dec-2005)
* New York Observer (Choire Sicha, 21-Nov-2005)

And More...

* 'Brokeback Mountain' article doesn't do justice to film – reader takes on critic at SouthCoastToday.com (10-Jan-2006)
* Peter Shalit writes to GLAAD about his dad (THE ADVOCATE, 09-Dec-2005)