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

TOTW 16/07: Did Alma Jr. know Ennis was gay?

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Artiste:
Thanks Jeff, and thanks others too!!

Jeff, you say this: 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.


...

...

Alma Jr. was not heartless like her mother was, and accepted her father's life as a bi or gay man; so, she got that her father will go to her wedding! There is a strong difference to her and her mother... because she educates herself!

You think so too?

Hugs!


Edit by Penthesilea:

I deleted a part of this post which was a multiple post and additionally was completely off topic in this thread. You can read the deleted part here: http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php/topic,15268.0.html

jstephens9:

--- Quote from: Marge_Innavera on November 29, 2007, 10:47:36 am ---If you were reading the Bird, that must have been Hotlanta in the 1970s.   :D

She probably hadn't done any travelling other than Wyoming communities in the same region, such as Caspar. But I find it difficult to impossible to believe that a 19-year-old in the early 1980s would never have watched television and never heard the word "gay" used in a sexual orientation context on TV at least.  Riverton might not be a metropolis, but it isn't an Amish community or a monastary.  From your account, it sounds like you at least knew what the word 'gay' meant by the 1970s and I expect Alma Jr did too, even if she didn't know many details.

--- End quote ---

You do have a point there since I lived in a small city in the south and I had heard of the word. I didn't exactly know what it all meant, but I had a feeling it had something to do with me. And of course I was familiar with television and even then there were episodes of shows or movies that dealt with the subject. I remember a show called "Family" that had an episode where the son had a friend that came to visit who was gay. I loved that episode. I wish I knew where I could find it now since I would like to see it and see what I thought of it now. There was also a movie where this boy was visiting his father in San Francisco (I remember the cable cars  :) ). The father had a male lover and the boy was all upset. I'm not sure what the name of the movie was. And then of course there were the questionable music groups and singers such as Elton John, David Bowie, etc. So in thinking more about it I can see that Alma Jr. would have had to at least known of "gay" issues.

So you know of "The Bird?" At that point in time I considered Atlanta the biggest city in the world  ;D And what is funny is that there are many people here that still consider Atlanta and Charlotte as the biggest cities in the world. Back then Charlotte was nowhere near as large as it is now. However, of course, neither are that big when you compare them to other places. Many people here don't do a lot of travel. Some have never left the county  :D In fact some from the outlying areas consider Asheville to be "the big city." I had culture shock the first time I visited my sister in Houston  :laugh: I've come a long way since I can now visit and walk through New York City by myself  ;D

Jeff Wrangler:

--- Quote from: atz75 on November 30, 2007, 02:50:35 pm ---
Hi Jeff,

Yes, I agree and understand the point you're making. 

And at the same time, I still find the end enormously frustrating (personally).  I'm not really even critiquing BBM for presenting the ending in this way...  I'm just expressing my own, probably very personal reaction.  For me, personally as a gay viewer, I still find it difficult that a movie that focuses on a gay love story as its main theme concludes with a resolution that focuses on a conventional marriage.  I'm sure this frustration is part of the point.  And, I'm sure many viewers (gay, straight, bi-, etc.) will see this whole scene very differently depending on their own issues and personal viewpoints.

--- End quote ---

Well, we all do bring our own issues and viewpoints to this film, that's for sure. I see the point, but I'm afraid it really isn't an issue for me. I don't see Junior's wedding as the focus. I see the focus as Ennis is now making himself available to his daughter--something he didn't do in the scene in the pickup, after the date with Cassie, where Junior asked to come live with him. (BTW, I know I've written on this somewhere else, but for me, the whole point of the scene in the pickup is to set up the final scene with Junior.)

Jeff Wrangler:
Like so much else in this film the sequence with Junior, Cassie, and Ennis is so rich.

Junior is clearly in a disappointed mood--at best--in the bar when she talks to Cassie. Clearly, she was anticipating some quality time alone with her father, and you can see her visibly deflate--you can almost hear the unspoken groan--when the pickup drives up and she sees Cassie in the passenger seat.

Her remark that Cassie is "good enough" for her father is certainly insulting to Cassie, but it doesn't say much about her father, either.

jstephens9:
I agree Jeff. Junior is certainly not very happy at all about Cassie being in the pickup. That is clearly not what she expected or wanted her time with her father to consist of. As far as that scene goes, I don't think it would matter whether her father was gay or anything else. She was certainly not overjoyed with Cassie. She was also not at all happy that her father brought Cassie along.

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