Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
TOTW 16/07: Did Alma Jr. know Ennis was gay?
brokeplex:
--- Quote from: delalluvia on November 29, 2007, 10:59:03 pm ---I think we're giving Junior a bit too much credit. I didn't see anything particularly "intelligent" about her.
She acts like a typical teenager from a small town.
She wants to leave her mother/stepfather's home because - gasp! - they're too strict!
She thinks marrying a roughneck at the age of 19 is a good idea with a good future.
She has a poverty-stricken father ("Daddy you need to buy some more furniture"). And seeing how meanly he is living is suddenly happy that he's going to quit his sole means of income job just for her!
Ouch! How self-absorbed is that?
No, Junior isn't the sharpest pencil in the box.
Yes, I imagine there were shows from Hollywood on TV about gays by the late 70s early 80's, but I'm sure Alma and her husband did not allow them to be aired in their home. And Junior most certainly lived at home.
And honestly, does Ennis act like any of the gay stereotypes that might have been seen on TV way back when?
As for magazines and books and newspapers...let's just say Junior doesn't look like the reading type. 8)
--- End quote ---
What a condescending characterization!
I don't think that there is evidence one way or the other as to Alma's intellectual abilities or her chioice of reading materials . Just because someone is not quoting
Proust or making up cute Haiku verse on screen, that doesn't make them a dummy. She was a reticent young woman who would soon be finding her own way in life. She wanted her Daddy, whom she loved, to be at her wedding. She related to him in a way that convinced him to quit his job cowboying in the Tetons and attend her wedding. I'd say she was a very skillful young lady, even Jack couldn't always get Ennis to quit his job in order to see him!
Give Alma, Jr a break!
oilgun:
--- Quote from: LauraGigs on November 30, 2007, 02:00:59 am ---I definitely agree there, Marge. But there's a huge difference between hearing gayness mentioned on the TV or by giggly highschoolers, and making the leap that your big, macho, stoic father has been faking straight since before you were born, you know?
--- End quote ---
I agree, there isn't a chance in helll that she woul suspect her father to be gay. Just because he had a close friendship with one other man is not enough of a clue. A lot of straight men prefer the company of other men.
Artiste:
Even if straight men like other men as friends, Alam Jr. saw that her father was bi or gay!
The clues seem to be there.
She must have thought that it was strange or OK for her dad to be with Jack as good friends! So, she had to have a thought about her father liking ONLY one man! She is not anti-gay like her mother!
Hugs!
Brown Eyes:
I think with both Alma Jr. and Ennis we're supposed to perceive something along the lines of the old saying "still waters run deep." My sense, is that the audience is meant to see both of them as very observant and smart in an introspective way (while neither is probably particularly well-educated in a formal/ official way). I think we're also meant to see them as having some unspoken forms of communication between themselves (they way they're shown talking in Ennis's truck, etc.). And, again, I think how an audience member views their modes of personal communication greatly impacts how the last scene of the movie is interpreted.
I do agree with the part of delalluvia's post suggesting that Junior's happiness at hearing that Ennis will quit his job in order to attend her wedding is a bit self-absorbed. It honestly really is a lot to ask of a person who is impoverished. It's not too much to hope/ expect that her own father would be at her wedding, of course. But, the point here is that she's happy he's quiting a job to do this (that aspect of the situation seems a bit extreme). Still, maybe she's been raised to expect Ennis to quit jobs at the drop of a hat (since he clearly did this a lot in preparation for meetings with Jack).
Her glee at her own new-found love and upcoming, sanctioned heterosexual union also comes across as hard to take (for me personally as a viewer) knowing what Ennis has had to struggle with in his relationship with Jack. Of course, Junior, probably doesn't understand the full context of all of this... so I don't hold it against her. But, I always think the moment when Ennis looks to the side and pauses a bit during the conversation and almost seems to tear up, probably has a lot to do with him contrasting his own situation with Jack to the circumstances now surrounding his 19 year old daughter at the beginning of her own relationship.
Jeff Wrangler:
Do we really know that Ennis is "quitting" his job to go to the wedding?
I mean, sure, he could be, and perhaps we are supposed to assume that he is. We know that he's told Jack that when he was younger he quit jobs to go away with Jack, but maybe he quit those jobs not because he wanted to quit but because the ranch owner or foreman wouldn't let him take time off and then come back to work.
I'll admit I know next to nothing about the ranching industry today or in 1984, but it still strikes me as pretty heartless to tell somebody he can't take time off to attend his own daughter's wedding.
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