95 out of 118 people found the following review helpful:

A different approach from Ang Lee

Sarah from Brighton, UK, 7th January, 2006

I live in Brighton, and there's a big wave of excitement about this film over here, as you can imagine. So obviously I was tempted to be one of the first people to see it. I was skeptical that it would be nothing more than a poor attempt at a love story between two people of the same gender, but I was very mistaken. This film is convincing, tender and warming. The story is a hard one to portray, especially for the big screen, but Ang Lee has achieved it beautifully. The film itself is fairly slow moving, but never is it boring. It starts in the 1960's, with the story of two poor cowboys looking for employment. They are given the hard task of herding sheep across the Brokeback Mountain, and are thus thrust together through their work which involves living, eating and sleeping on the mountains together. They quickly form a friendship, which subtly turns into something more. The story then relays their lives together and apart, and the struggles that their forbidden love creates. This story is incredibly convincing, amazingly acted and gripping the whole way through. I am not one to spoil stories so will not say anything more other than to say that everyone must see this film! If not at the cinema, then definitely rent it out. I believe that even those of you less prone to enjoy this sort of genre will atleast recognise the boldness of this film and it's modest portrayal of homosexuality.

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65 out of 85 people found the following review helpful:

A Masterpiece

GreenwichPaul from , 21st February, 2006

Forget the reductive 'gay cowboy film' tag as this is the masterpiece that Ang Lee has been threatening to make for a few years now.

The film, about two men who fall in love on Brokeback Mountain, and then find it impossible to ever recapture that moment of fleeting joy is a masterclass in filmmaking. From Lee's sensitive and unobtrusive directing through the actors' beautifully nuanced performances to the stately cinematography the film has all the hallmarks expected of great cinema.

All the performances are wonderful but Ledger and Gyllenhall are simply outstanding and let their looks of longing and torment say more than words ever can. The script avoids overly poetic flourishes and thereby gives the the actors the space to convey the emotions and propel the story.

The film has more in common with the classic cinema of the 70's like 'The Last Picture Show' than it does with most of the pap flung out of Hollywood these days and hopefully its success will encourage studios to spend more time on intelligent films like this.
Do not miss this one!

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58 out of 77 people found the following review helpful:

A lovestory to be appreciated by all

simbo from London, 9th January, 2006

Probably the most romantically painful film you'll ever see. It's beautiful cinematography will leave you breathless as well as the incredible performances by Jake Gyllenhaal and in particular Heath Ledger.

Set in the wilds of Wyoming and Texas it follows the love affair of two very different people who long to be together yet are forced apart by society. Only nature is forcing them back together. The torment is torrential.

Besides being very sexy young cowboys there is an element of empathy that you cannot help but feel for the both of them and can fully understand how and why they conducted their affair as they did.

Although over 2 hours long it effortlessly flows into a torrent of emotions on all parts. The whole film did upset me from previous experience and up-bring ing and took me a good couple of days to calm down afterwards.

All praise be to Ang Lee that will hopefully change a lot of attitudes with this film and break down even more barriers.

You will not be disappointed with the film you will not forget.

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52 out of 68 people found the following review helpful:

2 men mounting

Mbub from Westbury, Wilts, 22nd May, 2007

This film is about 2 bi-sexual cowboys and the way they try and deal with their emotions. My wife wanted to see this film and I knew it wouldn't be for me, but at the end even she said that it wasn't that good. A very over-hyped movie, that was really only watched because it was about 2 bi-sexual cowboys. The story was boring and didn't hold any substance. The acting was ok, but not oscar standard, the moustache that came into view part way through the film gave a better performance. I feel the over-hyping good reviews of this film was because people feel they have to give good reviews because its expected, but sorry not for us. The 2 stars were for the fair acting.

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brokeback mountain

frantastic01 from , 16th March, 2010

not a lot of story line! wouldn't recommend it, give it too stars for effort! and heath ledger rip.

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Words can not describe how good!

blackgal from , 13th March, 2010

One of the best films I have seen this year! Very touching love story which brought me to tears! Get your tissues ready and enjoy! I strongly recommend this film, definately a must see!!!!!!!

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Excellent moving film

A Customer from London, 28th February, 2010

A beautiful film and very moving. So glad that I watched it. It beautifully protrays the extreme difficulties of being gay in that time and that place. Heart breaking.

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grossly over-rated

A Customer from Stockbridge, 26th February, 2010

Well are you ready for some heresy ? Sure, we're all supposed to love this movie for being audacious enough to show homosexual love. And yes it's audacious in that respect. But if you strip away the sympathy aroused for the fact (as we are asked to believe it to be) that open homosexuality causes problems for the protagonists in the milieu they inhabit (though there are plausibility problems here, given that the setting is the very recent past), and remind yourself that they had each chosen to live this particular lie, you are left with pitifully little, apart from some great scenery. And that certainly isn't enough. One really struggles to find a reason to feel sympathy for such fundamentally selfish and unappealing characters, men who have comprehensively made their own beds, with their eyes wide open, caused devastation to those around them as if they were a coincidental irrelevance. So now they must lie in the beds they made. Big deal. Love ? Sorry - but so unconvincing. Inarticulacy and clumsy silences just don't cut it. We must have some sounder bedrock for such an emotion. Moving ? How can you be moved by the self-inflicted plight of two such unloveable characters, so short of redeeming features ? This film is grossly over-rated, to the extent that - I move from heresy to something more like blasphemy here - one can't help supposing whether all those gushing plaudits, which forced us to belive we couldn't possibly miss this one, aren't the product of a kind of generic p.c. guilt; a fear of accusations of homophobia; a craven desire to appear broad-minded. How sad that it has come to this. Take the homosexuality out of this movie (and replace it with some other source of social prejudice if you like) and you would be left with a big, unconvincing, unappealing nothing, a total non-starter. What a monumental disappointment.

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