Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
Was Mexico all about revenge or about need?
Jeff Wrangler:
Tell you what, I think that Jack's trip to Mexico that we see after the Ennis divorce debacle was his first trip to Mexico, but I don't think it was his only trip to Mexico.
As much as I love Jack, as much as I hurt for him after the post-divorce scene, to some extent his going off to Mexico makes me think of a little kid who hasn't gotten his way. In that sense I agree with Momof2's "I'll show him" comment.
However, I've also come to feel that there is more than one layer to Jack's eventual remark to Ennis, at the lake, that he can't make it on a couple of high-altitude fucks once or twice a year. I think Jack means this literally--he has a stronger need for male-male sex than Ennis, who is able to wait for his meetings with Jack--and thus I think Jack's trips to Mexico continued over the years, after the one we see following Ennis's divorce. But I also think the deeper meaning of the remark is that Jack needs the emotional intimacy, and he's not getting this from one or two fishing trips a year with Ennis. I think is what is behind Jack's comment the night before the confrontation that sometimes he misses Ennis so bad he can hardly stand it.
Marge_Innavera:
--- Quote from: Toast on August 29, 2006, 09:40:51 am ---He was lonely, rejected and in need of a friend, even if he had to pay for the friendship. When I see that scene, I always hope that the Mexican was a good listener. Because I can see Jack talking more than fucking that night.
--- End quote ---
My take on that scene is that it was partly out of anger, but even more a need for at least imagined intimacy. The world's so-called oldest profession (probably flint-knapping in reality) wouldn't exist without that kind of need, although that's more blatant in prostitution's middle and upper classes.
There was probably sexual frustration there too, though if he did take up with Randall those Mexico trips probably ended around 1978. But if anger was a factor it isn't surprising - whatever his motives Ennis essentially turned him away "like a door-to-door salesman", to quote a fanfic. That's the point where their relationship starts to go downhill fast.
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: moremojo on August 29, 2006, 10:03:53 am ---Except I find it hard to even go for the sex--sex without an emotional connection feels so empty to me. What I really yearn for (as Jack did) is male intimacy, involving the spiritual, emotional, and physical planes, and this kind of connection is relatively rare. Jack's loneliness and isolation is an aspect of his character with which I strongly identify.
--- End quote ---
Me, too.
Hey, Scott? Will you marry me? ;)
What really frustrates me is that I seem to know an awful lot of gay men who don't get this and don't understand how I feel. As long as they're getting laid, they're happy. I admit that there are times I envy them their emotionally uncomplicated lives, but such is not my lot in life. :-\
moremojo:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on August 29, 2006, 10:53:07 am ---What really frustrates me is that I seem to know an awful lot of gay men who don't get this and don't understand how I feel. As long as they're getting laid, they're happy. I admit that there are times I envy them their emotionally uncomplicated lives, but such is not my lot in life. :-\
--- End quote ---
I wish I could be more carefree in my sex life than I so far have been, because physical intimacy is a kind of intimacy, and is valuable. But there's just some inner part of me that resists no-strings-attached sex--I've tried it, and I either end up feeling hollow and lonelier than before, or emotionally/psychically bruised.
Now, I wish to affirm that I do not judge others who pursue this path, and like you, even envy such folks at times. And, as some here may know, I enjoy pornography and actively consume that form of entertainment, and such product is replete with people enjoying sex without necessarily feeling emotional attachment to their partner(s). And what they are creating really feels like a gift--they are giving some pleasure to the rest of the world. So I bless these folks, and thank them, but at the same time realize that I would probably never feel comfortable following their example, either onscreen or in my own private path.
mvansand76:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on August 29, 2006, 10:13:14 am ---However, I've also come to feel that there is more than one layer to Jack's eventual remark to Ennis, at the lake, that he can't make it on a couple of high-altitude fucks once or twice a year. I think Jack means this literally--he has a stronger need for male-male sex than Ennis, who is able to wait for his meetings with Jack--and thus I think Jack's trips to Mexico continued over the years, after the one we see following Ennis's divorce. But I also think the deeper meaning of the remark is that Jack needs the emotional intimacy, and he's not getting this from one or two fishing trips a year with Ennis. I think is what is behind Jack's comment the night before the confrontation that sometimes he misses Ennis so bad he can hardly stand it.
--- End quote ---
I agree, I always saw through that 'high altitude fucks' remark, it being more about the company of Ennis that he misses, this was just Jack's way of making Ennis understand what he needs, the companionship, the emotional intimacy as you call it (that everybody really looks for), that it's not just about the sex. Funny way of putting it of course, but that's Jack for you...
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