Brokeback Mountain is a Golden Globe Award-winning 2005 film directed by Ang Lee. The film, which has been a commercial success and critical favorite, stars Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Williams, Anne Hathaway, and Randy Quaid. Its frank depiction of a same-sex relationship, including its physical and emotionally romantic aspects, has generated praise as well as some controversy.

The short story on which the film is based was written by American novelist Annie Proulx. It first appeared in the The New Yorker in October 1997, and was later included in a published anthology entitled Close Range: Wyoming Stories (1999). The screenplay was written by Diana Ossana and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Larry McMurtry.

Brokeback Mountain tells the story of Ennis Del Mar (Ledger) and Jack Twist (Gyllenhaal), two poor young men who meet and fall in love on a sheep herding job on Wyoming's (fictional) Brokeback Mountain in the summer of 1963. The film follows their lives over the next two decades and documents their complex emotional and physical relationship, which continues after both marry women and father children. Jack wants to try to create a life together, but Ennis, who is haunted by a childhood memory, fears being ostracized by his family or killed by members of the community if the nature of their relationship is not kept completely secret. Often, they are only able to contact each other by sending each other postcards. Through it all, Ennis and Jack struggle with societal and family pressure, and their own fears that prevent them from fulfilling the love that captured them both during their first summer together.

The film was shot primarily in Alberta, Canada, and not in Wyoming. Ang Lee usually shoots his pictures in the exact locations that they are set (another notable exception being Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which had its Wudangshan scenes shot at another Taoist monastery), but decided that Alberta would be a perfect place to shoot because of its lush landscapes, lower production costs, and the willingness of production companies in Canada to assist with the project.

Professional movie critics have heaped praise on Brokeback Mountain. The film won four Golden Globe Awards, including Best Motion Picture-Drama, and was nominated for seven, leading all other films in the 2005 awards. It has won the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival, as well as the title Best Picture from the Boston Society of Film Critics, the Dallas Fort Worth Film Critics Association, the Florida Film Critics Circle, the Las Vegas Film Critics Society, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the New York Film Critics Circle, the San Francisco Film Critics Circle, the Southeastern Film Critics Association, and the Utah Film Critics Society. Brokeback Mountain was given two thumbs up by Ebert & Roeper, the former granting a rare four-star review in the Chicago Sun-Times. Currently, the film holds a 90% rating of "Fresh" on RottenTomatoes.com and received 'circumspect' positive reviews from the Catholic News Service and Christianity Today.

Most gay and lesbian cultural commentators have praised the film, although a few critics, such as David Ehrenstein, believe that the film's cultural impact is being overplayed at the expense of other groundbreaking films and the challenges that openly gay and lesbian actors still face .

On January 3, 2006, Focus Features' parent company, Universal, announced that Brokeback Mountain was the most honored film of 2005. The independent website criticstop10.net backed that assertion, reporting that Brokeback Mountain was the most frequently-selected movie on reviewers' year-end "Top Ten" lists of 2005.

The warm review by the Catholic News Service caused a controversy in itself when it labeled the movie "L" for "appropriate for limited adult audiences". A few days after the original post praising the film, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Office for Film and Broadcasting changed the rating to "O" for "morally offensive," in part due to the reaction of conservative Catholic organizations, such as LifeSite. On December 29, 2005 the review was completely removed and replaced with a review that contained Catholic teachings against persons in same-sex relationships and called the two male characters "scarred."

Journalist and political pundit Andrew Sullivan speculates that the Catholic Church now sees the power of the film as a threat in that it might lead Catholics to see the "affliction" of "deep-seated homosexual tendencies" from Church teachings as "deep-seated homosexual love" or "deep-seated human love" instead.

Controversy notwithstanding, one large Catholic private school in Utah, Juan Diego, had its students attend a field trip to a local movie house to view the movie for a humanities class. The school principal defended the action stating it would broaden the students' understanding and humanity.

On January 6, 2006, Utah Jazz owner and Latter-Day Saint Larry H. Miller pulled the film from his Jordan Commons entertainment complex in Sandy, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City, at the last minute after entering into a contract to show it and heavily advertising for it. He reneged on his obligations approximately two hours before the first scheduled showing upon learning that the plot concerned a same-sex romance. Other R-rated films, such as the pot-smoking comedy Grandma's Boy and the violent horror film Hostel were still allowed to be shown.

On January 9, 2006, he also canceled his agreement to show Transamerica, a comedy-drama about the life of a pre-op transgendered person, which had been scheduled to open on January 20. However, on January 20 he did not interfere with the screening of another film with gay themes, Capote.

Miller was heavily criticized by Equality Utah, Focus Features, and local residents who had arrived to purchase tickets only to find it had been canceled without notice. The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Community Center of Utah has called their fellow Utahns to "vote with your hard-earned dollars" and "avoid" Miller’s holdings in response, including the Delta Center, his two theaters and several car dealerships. Focus Features has threatened to sue him and announced it will no longer do business with him. In a statement it added, "You can't do business with people who break their word."

Gayle Ruzicka, of the Utah chapter of the conservative national organization, the Eagle Forum, commended Miller's decision: "I just think [pulling the show] tells the young people especially that maybe there is something wrong with this show," she said.

Brokeback actor Heath Ledger called the cancellation "unnecessary", noting: "Personally I don't think the movie is controversial, but I think maybe the Mormons in Utah do. I think it's hilarious and very immature of a society." Comedian Jay Leno and MSNBC news anchor Keith Olbermann both made jokes about the decision. Utah talk-show host Doug Wright, who reviews movies for KSL Radio, which is owned by the LDS Church, has said that if he were Miller he would not have pulled the movie.

Brokeback Mountain has been successful at other Salt Lake City-area theaters. The Broadway Theater placed the 10th highest per-screen average nationwide during the New Years holiday, and in terms of total grosses it ranked number one while only showing on one screen at the Century 16. A poll aired on KSL television found 40% of all Utahns disagreed with Miller's move, as did a majority of Salt Lake County residents, where his complex is located. KSL found that the 60% who agreed with the film's removal had larger families and less disposable income compared with those who disagreed. A spokesperson for Focus Features added, "Given the gigantic grosses already being posted in Salt Lake City for Brokeback Mountain, this is their loss."

Several political pundits on Fox News, including commentators Bill O'Reilly, John Gibson, and Cal Thomas, accused Hollywood of pushing an agenda and told their viewers that the Christian-themed Chronicles of Narnia has more merit for "best picture of the year." On December 23, 2005, the network reported that Brokeback Mountain was facing "Brokeback Burnout," citing a fall in revenues from Sunday, December 18, 2005, to Monday, as well as subsequent falls during the week as evidence. Others have pointed out that nearly every movie faces declining business during the transistion from weekend to weekdays.

On December 29, however, the news organization reported that the movie was a box-office success, leading all other movies in terms of per-theater gross during the Christmas weekend, while Narnia was top in overall weekend gross (showing on 3,636 more screens than Brokeback Mountain)

The film critic for the U.S. morning show The Today Show, Gene Shalit, called Jake Gyllenhaal's character a sexual predator who "tracks Ennis down and coaxes him into sporadic trysts." This caused outrage in the gay and lesbian community. After gay media watchdog groups complained that it would be akin to calling Leonardo DiCaprio's character in Titanic a sexual predator because he is romantically interested in the role played by Kate Winslet, Shalit apologized, saying: In describing the behavior of "Jack" I used words ("sexual predator") that I now discover have angered, agitated, and hurt many people. 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."

Several religious fundamentalist groups, such as Concerned Women for America and Focus on the Family, lambasted the film before it was released.

Following the film's release, some critics have suggested that there is no actual controversy, but instead media outlets have sought to create one by purposely interviewing anti-gay public figures. An article in the Miami Herald by Neil Giuliano suggests that, "The real story is that many people, straight and gay, have an interest in seeing this film. Not everyone, of course. But there is no real controversy, despite the headlines that a major debate is raging. It's the kind of culture war engagement that conflict-addicted media love to cover. And they're clearly willing to provide it a little nudge when it has trouble getting started on its own." Some anti-gay groups have explicitly dissuaded their supporters from protesting the movie, for fear of generating additional publicity for the film.