Box office
The film received a limited release in the United States on December 9, 2005,[42] and grossed $547,425 in its first weekend.[43] Over the Christmas weekend, and beginning of January 2006, the film expanded into more domestic theaters. On January 20, the film opened in 1,194 theaters, then 1,652 theaters on January 27, and 2,089 theaters on February 3, its widest release.[43]
Brokeback Mountain was released in one theater in London on December 30 and received a wider release in the United Kingdom on January 6, 2006.[44][45] The film was released in France on January 18, to 155 theaters, expanding to 290 by the third week. In its first week of release, Brokeback Mountain was in third place at the French box office. In Italy, the film grossed more than €890,000 in three days and was the fourth highest-grossing film in its first week.[43] The film was released in Australia on January 26, where it ranked fourth place at the weekend box office. Brokeback Mountain was released in many other countries during the first three months of 2006.[46] During its first week of release in Hong Kong, Brokeback Mountain was ranked first place at the box office, earning more than US$473,868 ($22,565 per theater).[47] The film opened in Lee's native Taiwan on January 20. The film grossed $83 million in North America and $95 million internationally, for a worldwide $178 million. It is the highest-grossing release for Focus Features.[43][48]
International distribution
The film has been given different titles in accordance to different languages and regions. For the film's release in French and Italian, it was titled Le Secret de Brokeback Mountain and I segreti di Brokeback Mountain (The Secret(s) of Brokeback Mountain), respectively.[49][50] In Canadian French, the title is Souvenirs de Brokeback Mountain (Memories of Brokeback Mountain).[51][52] The film received two Spanish titles: Brokeback Mountain: En terreno vedado (In a forbidden terrain) for its release in Spain[53] and Secreto en la Montaña (Secret in the mountain) for its release in Latin America.[54] In Hungarian, the title was Túl a barátságon (Beyond friendship).[55]
I think they are genuinely happy to see a Chinese director win an Academy Award with good artistic value. I think that pride is genuine, so I would not think that's hypocritical at all [...] I don't know how to describe it, it's just something else. So what can I say?
—Ang Lee, responding to being celebrated in China for winning the Best Director Academy Award, although the film was not released there.[56]
The film was met with mixed responses in some regions, particularly China and Islamic nations of western Asia. According to reports, the film was not shown in theaters in China, though it was freely available in bootleg DVD and VHS. The Chinese government said the audience would have been too small; the foreign media accused the government of censorship.[57][58] The word "brokeback" (Chinese: 断背; pinyin: duànbèi) also entered the Chinese lexicon as a slang for homosexuality.[59] The film was dubbed "the gay cowboy movie" by the press, a term that was propelled into the American vernacular.[23] The film was also released in Turkey.[60]
In the Middle East, distribution of the film became a political issue. Homosexuality is considered a crime in most Islamic nations and is taboo in the few countries where it is legal. Lebanon was the only Arab country to show the film, although in a censored format. The film was officially banned from screenings in the United Arab Emirates; however, the DVD of the film was permitted to be rented from stores such as Blockbuster Video.[61][62]
On December 8, 2008, the Italian state-owned television channel Rai Due aired a censored version of the film, removing all the scenes with homoerotic references. Viewers protested, saying the deletions made the plot hard to follow. The Arcigay organisation accused the channel of homophobic censorship.[63] The state-owned television network RAI said the Italian film distributor had mistakenly censored the film. RAI showed an uncensored version of the film on March 17, 2009.[64]
Home media
Brokeback Mountain was the first major film to be released simultaneously on both DVD and digital download via the Internet.[65] It was released in the United States on April 4, 2006.[66] More than 1 million copies of the DVD were sold in the first week, and it was the third-biggest seller of the week, behind Disney's The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and King Kong.[67] Although the ranking fluctuated daily, by late March and early April 2006, Brokeback Mountain had been the top-selling DVD on Amazon.com for several days running.[68]
The DVD in Europe was released in the UK on April 24, 2006.[69] This was followed by France in July, and Poland in September, a considerable time after the theater release in both countries.[70] Brokeback Mountain was re-released in a collector's edition on January 23, 2007.[71] On the same day, it was also released in HD DVD format.[72] The film was released on Blu-ray in the UK on August 13, 2007, and in the U.S. on March 10, 2009.[73][74] The Blu-ray contains special features including interviews with the screenwriters, director and a short documentary about composer Gustavo Santaolalla.[75]
Critical response
Brokeback Mountain was released to critical acclaim.[76] On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 88% based on 252 reviews, with an average rating of 8.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "A beautifully epic Western, Brokeback Mountain's love story is imbued with heartbreaking universality, helped by moving performances by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal."[77] On Metacritic, the film has a rating of 87/100 based on 41 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[78]
David Ansen of Newsweek gave the film a positive review, praising the faithful screenplay. He adds, "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."[79] Writing for The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw praised Ledger and Gyllenhaal for their complementary performances. Bradshaw thought the film was "extremely moving, tragic even, and sensitive towards the feelings of the simple wives who attempt to understand their troubled husbands."[80] Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post was equally positive, opining that the two lead actors' performances were unforgettable. In particular, she thought Ledger was impressive in his portrayal of a reserved and emotionally affected Ennis. Hornaday also praised the costumes and sets, writing "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."[81]
Roger Ebert gave Brokeback Mountain a rating of four out of four stars in his review. Ebert was impressed with the level of attention to the characters, and thought that the film was as observant as the work by Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman.[82] Writing for The Sydney Morning Herald, Sandra Hall praised the screenplay and called Ledger and Gyllenhaal "finely tuned". Noting that it is a slow film, Hall thought the filmmakers had adapted Proulx's story without missing any nuances.[83] USA Today's Mike Clark observed that Brokeback Mountain was directed and photographed with restraint, and praised its old-fashioned quality, and "unassuming but people-oriented" nature.[84] The film also received a positive reaction from Christianity Today; the reviewer gave the film 3 out of 4 stars.[85] In a mixed review, Ed Gonzalez of Slant magazine thought the film was too long,[86] and the critic from Time magazine felt that the story became less intense towards the end.[87] Conservative radio host Michael Medved described it as "extremely well done" and that as a film, it was "better than the agenda".[88]
Several conservative political pundits, including commentators Bill O'Reilly, John Gibson, and Cal Thomas, shared Medved's view of the "agenda". Gibson made jokes about the film on his Fox News Radio program for months after its release. After the death of Ledger in 2008, Gibson was criticized for mocking the deceased actor, and later apologized.[89] Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh has referred to the film as "Bareback Mountain" and "Humpback Mountain".[90] Don Imus referred to the film as "Fudgepack Mountain".[91] Several conservative Christian groups, such as Concerned Women for America (CWA) and Focus on the Family, criticized the film for its subject matter. Following the success of Brokeback Mountain, Capote, and Transamerica at the Golden Globes Awards in 2006, Janice Crouse, a CWA member, cited these films as examples of how "the media elites are proving that their pet projects are more important than profit", and suggested they were not popular enough to warrant critical acclaim.[92]
Film critic Gene Shalit, of The Today Show, described the character of Jack Twist as a "sexual predator" who "tracks Ennis down and coaxes him into sporadic trysts."[93] The LGBT media group GLAAD said that Shalit's characterization of Twist was like calling Jack in Titanic a sexual predator due to his romantic pursuit of Rose.[93][94] Shalit's openly gay son, Peter Shalit, wrote an open letter to GLAAD: "He [Gene] may have had an unpopular opinion of a movie that is important to the gay community, but he defamed no one, and he is not a homophobe."[95] Gene Shalit later apologized for his review: "I did not intend to use a word that many in the gay community consider incendiary... I certainly had no intention of casting aspersions on anyone in the gay community or on the community itself. I regret any emotional hurt that may have resulted from my review of Brokeback Mountain."[94]
Some commentators accused the filmmakers for hiding content about the film in advertising and in public events, such as press conferences and award ceremonies. New York Daily News writer Wayman Wong, Dave Cullen and Daniel Mendelsohn argued that the director, cast, and publicists avoided using the word gay to describe the story, and noted that the film's trailer did not show a kiss between the two men but showed a heterosexual love scene.[96][97] The film's significance has been attributed to its portrayal of a same-sex relationship focused solely on the characters; it does not refer to the history of the LGBT social movements.[98] It emphasizes the tragic love story aspect, and many critics have compared Ennis and Jack's drama to classic and modern romances such as Romeo and Juliet or Titanic, often using the term star-crossed lovers.[99][100][101]
Proulx praised the film as "huge and powerful", adding, "I may be the first writer in America to have a piece of writing make its way to the screen whole and entire. [...] I was astonished that the characters of Jack and Ennis came surging into my mind again".[102]
Critics' lists of 2005
Brokeback Mountain appeared on numerous American critics' lists as one of their favorite films of 2005.[103]
- 1st – Stephen Holden, The New York Times
- 1st – Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal
- 1st – Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald
- 1st – Ruthie Stein, San Francisco Chronicle
- 1st – Scott Tobias, The A.V. Club
- 2nd – Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
- 2nd – Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly
- 2nd – Noel Murray, The A.V. Club
- 2nd – Desson Thompson, The Washington Post
- 2nd – Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times
- 2nd – Mike Clark and Claudia Puig, USA Today
- 3rd – Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
- 3rd – Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
- 3rd – Shawn Levy, Portland Oregonian
- 3rd – William Arnold, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
- 4th – David Ansen, Newsweek
- 4th – Keith Phipps, The A.V. Club
- 4th – Michael Atkinson, Village Voice
- 5th – Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
- 5th – Mike Russell, Portland Oregonian
- 5th – Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune
- 6th – Alison Benedikt, Chicago Tribune
- 6th – Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly
- 7th – Nathan Rabin, The A.V. Club
- 7th – Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
- 7th – Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper[104]
- 8th – Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
- Top 9 (listed alphabetically) - New York Film Critics Online
- 10th – Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
- Top 10 (listed alphabetically) – Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
- Top 10 (listed alphabetically) – Steven Rea, The Philadelphia Inquirer
- Top 10 (listed alphabetically) – Peter Rainer, The Christian Science Monitor
- Top 10 (listed alphabetically) – Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times
The film was picked as one of the 400 nominated films for the American Film Institute list AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition).[105] Entertainment Weekly put it on its end-of-the-decade, best-of list.[106] In a 2016 international poll conducted by BBC, Brokeback Mountain was ranked the 40th greatest film since 2000.[107] In 2019, The Guardian ranked the film 66th in its 100 best films of the 21st century list.[108]
Legal issues
On January 6, 2006, Utah Jazz owner Larry H. Miller removed the film from theaters at the Jordan Commons entertainment complex in Sandy, Utah. Miller said the film's content had no resemblance of a traditional family, which he believed is "dangerous".[109][110] Focus Features threatened legal action and announced it would no longer do business with him.[110]
On March 23, 2006, Randy Quaid, who portrayed Joe Aguirre in the film, filed a lawsuit against Focus Features for misrepresenting Brokeback Mountain as "a low-budget, art house film with no prospect of making any money", in order to secure his role for a cheaper rate.[111] On May 4, Quaid's publicist said he dropped the lawsuit as the company agreed to pay him a settlement; the company denies this, however.[112]
