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

TOTW 28/08: All them things unsaid...

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Mandy21:
Fiona, having been born in Oklahoma in 1966, I can't speak fully about 1963 Wyoming culture.  Only thing I can add to your post is that the words "I love you" were never, ever spoken in my house, up until 1984, when dad was driving me away to college, and that was the first time in my life that I said it to my mom, on the front porch.  She looked shocked, but happy, to hear it, and she said she loved me too.  I think there are certain, more stoic, families and places in America, where words just get left unspoken by choice.  It's unthinkable to say such things that might get you into trouble or get you in deeper into a situation.  It's just understood from day one, that you don't say certain things.

I would have to agree with Sue/Katie77 that those three words between Ennis and Jack that were never spoken in the film, were indeed expressed in other ways.  All it takes is one look between two people to tell that they're in love forever.  And we, as viewers, got to see that look time and time again, starting from the bar scene, to the Jack and filly scene, to the Ennis looking up at the sky scene, worried, and so on and so on.  Words are just words.  They come and go, and can be taken back, and apologized for, and regretted.  They can be true or false, or half-lies, or half-truths. 

But the eyes never lie...

Katie77:
Yes.....being a child of the fifties and sixties too, I remember the words "I love you" were not said, as commonly as they are today...and maybe that was because our parents did not have it said to them as they grew up in the twenties and thirties.

Family and friends are much more outgoing with the feelings towards one another these days. Maybe we have seen too many people regret not saying those words until after their parent or partner have passed away.

The sixties were the start of the LOVE generation....music was telling us to love our fellow man, love our friends....flower children, were out there openly expressing love to everyone. We became more aware of our mortality, and wanted to let people know how we felt before it was too late. Then when we became parents, we told our kids every day that we loved them, and then they in turn told their kids.

Ennis and Jack would not have heard those words spoken around their homes when they were young.

Mandy21:
Hey Sue, I would agree completely.  My dad was born in 1927, mom in 1928, both in the middle of nowhere in Kansas, during the Depression.  Mom lost both her folks before she was 10, and dad lost his sister around the same age.  All there was at that time (kind of like now) was survival.  Who in the world had time for such frivolity as love???  From Annie's story, I got the distinct feeling that those two young men grew up in a world very similar.  I mean, can you possibly imagine OMT saying ILY to the Mrs.??????????   And we never get to know if the DelMar's, before the one curve in the road, said it, but I doubt it highly.

Front-Ranger:
I believe that Jack wanted to tell Ennis that he loved him and would have said it many times but a look or just a vibe from Ennis stopped him from saying it. And then it became part of the unsaid pact between them. This was hinted at in the story which says there were many sounds but "not a word was said."

They also had a secret language of code words "normal and all?" "boys like you" "nobody's business but ours" and so many others. "Jack Fuckin Twist" was a code name and also a Freudian slip, don't you think?

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