Well I've been reading through the posts in this thread, trying to figure out just why after two years, the impact of the movie on me hasn't lessened (if anything it's got me worse now) and just why I'm so obsessed with the story and the characters, except they're not just characters, because I see Jack and Ennis as real people, and the whole BBM
thing. I'm still no nearer to coming up with an answer to the million dollar question - why we've been consumed by every aspect of it, while others maybe merely enjoyed the film, or thought it was good from an artistic point of view.
The movie's a universal story, that's been told many times in literature in many ways over hundreds of years, there are things we can all relate to in the movie/story through the different characters, so in a way I guess it is like a mirror...there are so many reasons we can use to rationalise our obsession, but to be honest, I don't think it's something we will ever pin down - there's just an indescribable
something about it that raises it from a great piece of cinematography, a great piece of literature, and that's it's magic (though I did have a chuckle over the idea that Ang had put a single frame subliminal message in some copies of the movie
). Maybe we aren't meant to know - maybe that would break the magic.
I find myself insanely jealous of the love and passion between Jack and Ennis and I wish I had even a little bit of that passion for myself. Don't get me wrong - I love my husband immensely ... but the passion of that reunion kiss is unmatched in my relationship!
Maybe there's a bit of that in it for me. A couple of weeks ago I remember getting incredibly mad at Ennis (crazy huh? getting mad at someone who though I think of him as real, isn't a real person) and thinking that if I had a "Jack" I would move heaven and high water to be with them.
Sometimes I also get mad
because I'm so obsessed and because I'll happily spend hours reading all things BBM or debating and "wasting" hours when I should be doing RL stuff. Last night I found myself looking at the movie poster I've got on the wall in my spare room "office" and telling Jack and Ennis "It's because of you I'm like
this!", and then laughing at myself because it suddenly twigged that yet again I was quoting the story/movie.
Quote from: Penthesilea on June 16, 2006, 07:00:38 pm
Heya, this is a really interesting thing to note. I'm the exact same way. No one in my "real life" has any idea that I'm this obsessed with BBM....A few friends know that I love the movie and some even know how many times I've seen it in the theatre, but they don't really know about the whole world of Brokie-dom. I find it sort of fun to keep it a little secret.
That's kind of how I feel about it. Only my friend Jane who I originally went to see BBM with has any inkling of my brokie-obession, and I feel as though even she thinks I'm slightly crazy sometimes, though I haven't even told her about Bettermost. I kind of like having it as my little secret. I popped in here earlier today though just to lurk in my lunch-break at work, and when I left the office to go down to the library where we have a networked PC we can use in our lunch-break for non-work related browsing, one of the girls I work with asked where I was going. I just said, "Bettermost, Wyoming", and off I went leaving them looking at each other very puzzled, but the girls I share an office with think I'm slightly crazy anyway for practically living online, so they're used to me coming out with strange things and didn't ask for any further clarification of my strange statement. lol!
Just after I got the BBM DVD I remember posting a review on Amazon, and it ended with the line "It gets in your head, and stays there". At that time though I never dreamt that two years later I'd still be just as obsessed, in fact probably more so, and that I'd find myself in a community debating characters' motivations, themes and sub-plots, symbolism and imagery, and every little nuance of the story and movie! (not that I regret finding this place - as I said when I first arrived - it feels like I found home
)
Brokeback sure got me good!