Brokeback Mountain
The one that broke through, and broke everyone.
Twenty years on, the shirts still do it. Should have won Best Picture.
- 2005
- 134 min
- 88% on Rotten Tomatoes
- 7.7 on IMDb
- #nostalgic
- #romance
- #drama
Our take
Two ranch hands in 1960s Wyoming spend one summer together and the next twenty years failing to have a life. Ang Lee shoots it as a western, which is exactly right — the landscape is enormous and the men are given almost no language, so everything has to happen in what they cannot say.
Heath Ledger’s performance is a masterclass in compression; Jack is the one who wants more and Ennis is the one who cannot, and the film is honest that this is a kind of violence too. It lost Best Picture to Crash, which remains the single most-cited grudge in queer film. The last shot, and the shirts in the closet, are why.
Where to watch Brokeback Mountain
Stream
Hulu
Rent
Amazon Video
Apple TV Store
Google Play Movies
YouTube
Fandango At Home
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Buy
- Amazon Video
- Apple TV Store
- Google Play Movies
- YouTube
- Fandango At Home
Streaming availability data provided by JustWatch. Availability changes often and is checked daily — confirm on the provider before paying for anything.
Scores
Ours
- Jibbi Score — 5 out of 5 rainbows. Twenty years on, the shirts still do it. Should have won Best Picture.
Everyone else’s
- Rotten Tomatoes — 88%, via OMDb.
- IMDb — 7.7 out of 10 from 414,080 votes, via OMDb.
- Metacritic — 87 out of 100, via OMDb.
- TMDB — 7.8 out of 10 from 7,645 votes, refreshed daily.
The plot, officially
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.
Synopsis and poster via TMDB.