Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
Why the Lie?
opinionista:
It's funny because, apparently, Jack doesn't tell Lureen either, except that is his favorite place. He never says what he did there or where it was. Obviously Jack wasn't goint to tell her about all the sex he had up there with Ennis, but could've told her about the job herding sheep, no? I don't understand either why the lie.
Brown Eyes:
--- Quote from: latjoreme on May 26, 2006, 02:30:33 am ---Tar-spreading scene: The guy Ennis is working with reminds Ennis in a negative way of Jack (he's neither cute nor fun), and also of how Ennis himself could very well wind up in 20 years. Ennis is wearing a blue plaid shirt (Jack's colors). The big clue is the other guy says something like "the wife said I would break my back working blah blah blah" and it's those words that trigger Ennis to stand up and look wistfully off to one side into the distance, as he always does when thinking of Jack.
--- End quote ---
WOW!!! I love this. It's something I've never considered before either. I missed and/or forgot about this discussion from the old board too. By the way, the "he's neither cute nor fun" comment just made me laugh so hard that my cat woke up from her nap and looked at me with great alarm.
Penthesilea, this is also brilliant. It answers the question really well.
--- Quote ---So it would have been normal/usual to share at least some stories about what happened during the months they were apart. Even for taciturn Ennis. I'm sure Alma asked him about it. And it would have been natural to tell your fiancee about your coworker/compagnion, especially if you refer to him later as a friend. But Ennis didn't do this.
So Brokeback dropped out as possible explanation for who Jack was.
--- End quote ---
It is really interesting that both Ennis and Jack never mentioned the fact that they were on Brokeback together that summer to there respective wives. Maybe this has something to do with Ang Lee's statement that he sees their relationship as "something private and precious and they cannot articulate..." Primarily here both Ennis and Jack (on their own) make gestures to keep the circumstances of their summer as private as possible to preserve the precious feeling about it. (Try saying the last half of that sentence 10 times fast. lol). So, clearly they can't articulate anything about this for a huge number of reasons (either to their wives or in their own heads often)... and all of this emerges in the form of Ennis's little lie. "We were fishing buddies." It's amazing how something so seemingly simple can become sooo complex.
Awesome contributions to this thread everybody! Thanks!
Penthesilea:
Thanks for liking my idea, Amanda.
--- Quote ---Maybe this has something to do with Ang Lee's statement that he sees their relationship as "something private and precious and they cannot articulate..."
--- End quote ---
Yep. And I hear the words from the trailer: . "It was a friendship.......that became a secret...."
Not only their relationship became a secret, but the whole summer.
So secret they didn't want anybody to know the least tiny bit about that summer.
I guess for more than one reason:
- to avoid further questions ("How was your coworker? Was he a nice guy? Did he share work equitable with you? Where's he from? blah, blah, blah...)
- out of paranoia (at least Ennis, the guy who asks Jack 20 years later: "You ever get the feelin', I don't know, when you're in town and someone looks at you, suspicious... like he knows.")
- to keep those memories precious and all by themselves (what Ang Lee said, and this is certainly a BIG reason)
- to be able to pretend to themselves that nothing had happened respectively trying to forget about it
And I don't think the last two aspects are contradictory. Well they are, but people's feelings are contradictory, too.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: atz75 on May 26, 2006, 08:41:31 pm ---WOW!!! I love this. It's something I've never considered before either. I missed and/or forgot about this discussion from the old board too. By the way, the "he's neither cute nor fun" comment just made me laugh so hard that my cat woke up from her nap and looked at me with great alarm.
--- End quote ---
I love it too, and since for once I can actually remember someone to credit, let me add that it was Casey Cornelius' thread. (I think starboardlight may have participated also.) I was so blown away by it because it was still fairly early in my Brokeback career. Before that, I had seen that tar-spreading scene as pretty much just a quick way to what kind of jobs Ennis was taking over the years. And when they started pointing to all the little clues about what this or that meant, I felt like a whole new world was opening up (and like my time on the board should qualify me for a graduate degree in film studies!).
By the way, I remember one funny line from that discussion. This time I can't remember who said it (maybe jshane?) but anyway. Someone said Ennis was probably thinking about Jack when he stared off into the distance, and the other person said, "Are you kidding? I'M thinking about Jack when I stare off into the distance. There's no doubt he is!"
tiawahcowboy:
When she mentioned the post card (in the movie), Alma asked Ennis this about Jack, "Is he somebody you cowboyed with or what?
While he was looking at the post card, Ennis answered, "No, Jack, he rodeos, mostly. We was fishin' buddies!"
In the west, to "cowboy" is also a verb, meaning to "do the work of a cowboy."
I think that it could have been possible that Ennis never told Alma that he had herded sheep on Brokeback Mountain in the summer of 1964.
One has to consider the fact that in the West, including Wyoming (and also in the case of screenplay writer Larry McMurtry's home state of Texas), a "real" cowboy would never admit that he had ever worked with sheep in the first place.
I would say that Ennis is sort of a double-thinker (or did double-speak), he added the part about "fishin' buddies" since Alma probably knew that Ennis had participated in rodeos; because he certainly would not say, "We was sheep herdin' buddies!"
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