I have always wondered about the significance of the term, Brokeback Mountain. I am just starting to have some insight. This fictional mountain exists in the Rocky Mountains near the Continental Divide, which divides North America, as well as Wyoming, in two. One way of interpreting the story is on a sociological level: BBM is a "western" which embraces the duality of west and east (the director is Asian), rural and urban, modern and primordial, gay and straight, sheepherders and cowboys, family farms and towns/businesses. The two main characters had many similarities, but they came from opposite corners of the state. Wyoming itself is a state of contrasts. The northeast portion is flat and boasts the richest deposits of coal in North America in the Powder River Basin. The western portion is mountainous and devoted primarily to agriculture, including ranching and livestock.
There is a part of the story left out of the movie which gave me another clue to the naming of Brokeback Mountain. As Jack and Ennis relax together at the motel after reuniting, Jack tells Ennis why the Army "didn't get him" and he got out of rodeoing: "Got...a stress fracture, the arm bone here....Even if you tape it good, you break it a little goddam bit at a time. . . . Had a busted leg. Busted in three places. . . . Bunch a other things, f**kin busted ribs, sprains and pains, torn ligaments." Not only is Jack's body broken, but in the end his ashes were divided up, never to be made whole again, and far from Brokeback Mountain.
