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

TOTW 18/08: The lines from the trailer

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shortfiction:
Technically, it perhaps should read "There are places we can't return to" (yes, it's okay to have a prepostion at the end of a sentence sometimes), but I can see why they did it without the "to."   

optom3:
It was a friendship that became a secret.

I am not so convinced by that one. Initially I would agree,but Jack knew the 1st year after BBM that they had been observed.At  the reunion Ennis and Jack are observed by Alma.Also although not in the film but in the S.S ,Jack tells Ennis he thinks they may have been observed on BBM.
Ennis thinks  people look at him funny and guess, not about him and Jack but certainly regarding his sexuality.
I am sure that Lureen has guessed and also OMT and Mrs.T  infer that they knew, at that fateful meeting.
So I agree that initially as far as Jack and Ennis were concerned it waS a secret,but little by little as the film unfolds,it becomes apparant that more and more characters are aware of "the secret"

I often feel, considering OMT knew, how much easier to set up together it could have been,than Ennis was thinking.They would have been right out in the middle of nowhere,licking the ranch into shape.With OMT there ,I doubt they wiuld have suffered the fate of Earl and Rich.

Every time I watch that scene,where it becomes apparant that both the Twists knew,I wonder what goes through Ennis's mind.He now is aware that Jack was serious enough to talk to OMT about it,although I suspect not in full detail. Ennis then discovers the shirts,does he think,maybe Jack was right,we could have done it, way out here in the middle of nowhere, and these  two shirts would have people in them still.

It is interesting that OMT never says ,over my dead body or something like,he just says "like most of Jacks ideas it never come to pass." You would think if he was such a homophobe and so against it,he would just have told Jack in very plain terms what he could do with that idea.

BlissC:
That's a really good point.

Even before Ennis finds the shirts in Jack's old room, there's something terribly tragic about that whole scene at the Twists' - from how Mrs T on more than one occasion seems to be wringing her hands, and that pleading look in her eyes, the sparseness of the whole house when you think that Jack could have been there breathing life and joy into the house, and that even maybe Jack and Ennis could have been there. Even OMT seems to have a resigned sad look about him that suggests he's hurting too, and then when OMT makes it clear he knew about their relationship and that Jack had talked about taking Ennis there, just for an instant Ennis looks as though he's physically taken a blow, as though it's hit him after all those years that maybe Jack was right.

I don't think it's right though that their friendship was a secret - Lureen certainly knew about Jack's "fishing buddy", Alma obviously did (and the rest), and Ennis's girls knew about his fishing trips ("Bring me a fish, Daddy, a big fish"), hell, half of Riverton probably knew Ennis went fishing. Maybe it's splitting hairs, semantics, but their friendship wasn't a secret - the secret was the nature of their relationship, but as Fiona says, even their secret wasn't really a secret, because as the years went on, more and more characters know "the secret" or suspect it.

Monika:
For me "There are places we can´t return" summarizes the whole movie. To me it means different things to Ennis and Jack.
To Jack: that he cant return to what he and Ennis shared on Brokeback Mountain, like he constantly wants to do.
To Ennis: that he can´t return to the life he had before Brokeback Mountain, like he seems to be trying hard to do.

and also about the line "love is a force of nature" - I have never understood it´s relevence to BBM. First of all it sounds a bit cheesy, which BBM never is. Secondly, to me the movie is about that there actually are things more forceful than love, since they never end up together.

As for the line "It was a friendship that became a secret". They never mention that it´s only Ennis´s and Jack´s secret. A secret can be shared by several people after all. I think that even if Alma and maybe Lureen knew, it was still a secret.  I doubt it that either woman ever told outsiders about what the knew or suspected. Alma also kept her knowledge a secret from Ennis for a very long time, and I doubt that Lureen ever got to tell Jack if she indeed knew. "The friendship" became a secret all-around.

loneleeb3:

--- Quote ---and also about the line "love is a force of nature" - I have never understood it´s relevence to BBM. First of all it sounds a bit cheesy, which BBM never is. Secondly, to me the movie is about that there actually are things more forceful than love, since they never end up together
--- End quote ---

I think it's very relevent to the movie.
Love is a force of nature. Against all sense and logic, you can't help who you love. You may be able to fight against it and deny it but it doesn't change the truth of the matter. It's like trying to hold back the wind or a raging river.
A dam may be able to hold the water back for a time but eventually it has to be let out. Even little bits at a time or it will eventually over flow and consume everything in its path.
The fact that they never wound up together doesn't negate the fact that they loved each other.

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