Momentous win for Brokeback Mountain at the Golden Globes

Ang Lee at the Golden Globe Awards

Other top prizes went to the corporate and government corruption thrillers Syriana and The Constant Gardener, the terrorism drama Paradise Now and the White House series Commander in Chief, while the Johnny Cash film biography Walk the Line won three honors.

The four Globes for Brokeback Mountain, the story of old ranch-hand buddies who conceal an ongoing homosexual affair from their families, included the directing award for Ang Lee.

"The fact that Brokeback Mountain has found eager audiences across the country, including the conservative heartland, shows that Americans are willing to embrace stories of love in all forms," Lee said.

Felicity Huffman (of Desperate Housewives fame) won the best dramatic actress award for her remarkable transformation in the road-trip tale Transamerica, in which she plays a man preparing for sex-change surgery.

"I know as actors our job is usually to shed our skins, but I think as people our job is to become who we really are, and so I would like to salute the men and women who brave ostracism, alienation and a life lived on the margins to become who they really are," Huffman said.

Philip Seymour Hoffman was honored as best dramatic actor for his role as author Truman Capote in Capote. Joaquin Phoenix as country legend Cash and Reese Witherspoon as the singer's soul mate, June Carter, earned the lead-acting prizes in a musical or comedy for Walk the Line. The film also won for best musical or comedy.

Political thrillers picked up both supporting-acting Globes, George Clooney winning for the oil-industry saga Syriana and Rachael Weisz for The Constant Gardener, a tale of government and corporate corruption centered in Africa.

The Palestinian film Paradise Now, a dark tale of two Arab friends enlisted to carry out a suicide bombing in Israel, won the Globe for foreign-language film.

Source: AP