Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum

TOTW 12/07:Is Brokeback Mountain a 'universal love story' or a 'gay love story'?

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ifyoucantfixit:



          I have to say my ideas on this have gone back and forth over the past two years..  At first I thought it was
a gay love affair.  That turned into gay love.  I thought that Jack was gay, knew he was gay, and fell in love with
Ennis..  The idea I had of Ennis was that he was bi-sexual.  He never attached the feeling of love to what they
did.  He was homophobic so therefor scared to ever make that move toward anyone else..Jack had to make
that move, for the relationship to happen...He never had the nerve to approach any other man..He did however
like what they did..having sex..This is to me the story of the book.  He would have gone on with his life like it was even before the divorce, if Alma had not herself made that choice..He was not a doer. He was a follower.. 
           The movie I believe made a different view of it.  It showed the men as falling in love, but fear of the
societal influences, including his fathers intervention, made Ennis afraid to admit how he felt, until Jack was dead.
I dont know if he ever let himself believe it was love.  So I guess I am saying the movie made it a universal love story,  unfulfilled and the book a story of gay love unfulfilled.

jstephens9:
Janice, you make some very good and interesting points. I can see both sides of where you are coming from and like you say both the book and the movie end up with love unfulfilled. It is interesting to wonder if Ennis really ever did attach the idea of love to the relationship until after Jack was dead. He certainly did know how he felt, but like you say I'm not so sure he could ever admit it to himself. During their last meeting the idea of admitting to himself what he felt for Jack seems to hit the strongest other than at the end of the movie when he discovers that Jack is dead. I also think you are  right that it may have been he would have never divorced or changed anything with Alma had she not been the one to force the issue. In some ways it is even surprising that he saw Jack at all. Would he have ever sought Jack out? Again, it may be that if Jack had not pushed the issue Ennis may have just pushed the whole thing into the back of his mind never to be discovered.

Brown Eyes:

I actually do think it's primarily a gay love story and of course that does fit into the wider category of a "forbidden love" story given the circumstances that we see in the film/ story.  I think anyone regardless of personal sexual preference is capable of finding any good love story compelling and emotionally engaging.  Gay people go to films about straight couples all the time and find those stories moving and important and in this case the reverse happened for the straight audience for BBM.  Ennis's issues particularly are so wound up with the particularly gay dilemmas of being closeted and of dealing with internalized homophobia and to me this seems to indicate that this really is a film/ story about being gay on very complex levels.  BBM delves into deep issues of gay identity in more complex ways than I think I've ever seen in film.  And the Lightning Flat scene and the last scene in Ennis's trailer... both being all about the metaphor of the closet/ what's in the closet, etc. seem to thematize gay issues too.

That said, I think there are many themes and issues within BBM that can be teased out and made very general, broad and perhaps even universal.

delalluvia:
I'm on the "universal love story" bandwagon.

It's universal because it's about two people who meet, fall in love, but the circumstances of their lives and/or society keep them apart and from expressing that love openly.  This basic tragic theme can fit almost anyone anywhere at any point in time and indeed makes up a great deal of romantic literature modern and historical from all over the world.

nic:
It is about love & love is universal, so it is a universal love story first & foremost.

It is also not just about romantic love in the J & E relationship - there is the love of a wife or unfulfilled partner, and the love (& lack of it) between parent & child.

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