Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
Broken in Two
bbm_stitchbuffyfan:
These are all really interesting... From the train passing by to the Continental Divide to Jack's ashes being separate, that is a really haunting idea.
Unfortunately, I cannot add much else yet.
Front-Ranger:
We haven't even started on the people who were broken in two in this movie, and I don't know if I have the strength to delve into it. But TJ's post about Native Americans reminded me of something I wanted to bring up: Various tribes regarded gay people as a combination of man AND woman and therefore a double dose of humanity. So in a way, straight people were considered to be just half a person. They had various terms for gay men and women and they had a special role in the tribe. The only openly gay character in a Western movie before BBM was a Native American in "Little Big Man."
alec716:
What backs are not broken in this story? :( Jack's "vertebrates" (as mentioned), the backs of two marriages, the innocence of 3 childhoods (five, if you count Ennis and Jack's difficult upbringings and experiences with their fathers), and, ultimately, the backbone of the central relationship in the story -- Jack lost his very life, as we all know. Jack was the backbone of the relationship -- made many early suggestions of togetherness, made the first physical advances, made sure that they reconnected after 4 years, formulated plans for a day-to-day future together, traveled far and wide on Ennis's schedule for 2 decades' worth of the famed fishin' trips, and even cradled Ennis when he collapsed during their last meeting (despite the fact that Ennis first pushed him away a mere moment earlier). How ultimately symbolic that Jack's physical spine was not allowed to remain intact -- it was cremated and (as referenced earlier in this thread) the ashes divided between two locations. Sadly, I see Jack as the utlimate "brokeback" in this story.
just my rant for the evening ... ;)
Meryl:
Very nice thread, Lee. I think there are a lot of opposites in this movie, and you've touched on some important ones in your first post.
For another take on this question, this seems like a good place to share a comment from a thread I started at IMDB, and my reply to it:
--- Quote ---By nonon99_99
I suspect the almost unhumanly precise symmetry structuralism with its imploding is the cause of Brokeback Mountain's nearly physical hurting emotional affectability. Everything there is Ennis, then Jack, then again Ennis, then again Jack, etc.. Suddently at one moment, Jack is no more, the grand structure is destroyed, BROKEN. We audiences suddently woke up from a dream and faced the reality that a part of our viscera is being taken out by violence. In viewing the last twenty minutes of this movie, I would say if some scenes last two seconds more I need to call emergency. But then the unbelievable structural balance works again, those scenes last right to what you can barely bear and the structure gradually rebuilt/extened itself (Jack's Mother, Ennis's daughter, 'I swear').
Hence I think the title, Brokeback, is a precise description of the film in an abstract way.
By meryl_88
What a beautiful description, nonon, and all the more impressive since it seems that English is not your first language. You're right about how we are "broken" by Jack's violent exit, and the scenes that follow are indeed a slow, painful mending of that break, a coming "back." There's something deeply moving, too, about the Mother and Daughter figures being so important to that healing. They love Jack and Ennis unconditionally, and we can do the same through them. Thank you for that insight.
--- End quote ---
Front-Ranger:
Thank you for sharing that exchange with nonon, Meryl, it is very moving.
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