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

19 or 20?

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chowhound:
Up until now, I've assumed that Ennis and Jack were both nineteen when they first meet on Brokeback in the summer of '63. Indeed, the timeline I created for Brokeback partly depends on this assumption. The assumption was based on the short story:

""It would be Jack Twist's second summer on the mountain, Ennis's first. Neither of them was twenty."

Earlier today I was revisiting an interview that Ang Lee had with Charlie Rose a few days before the movie's initial release. At one point, Charlie Rose asks Ang Lee to outline the story for him and in so doing Ang says that it's a story about "two ranch hands - one age of 20, one 19" - who first meet on Brokeback Mountain. Ang Lee's specificity puzzled me until I went back, not to the short story but to the screen play. There, in introducing Ennis, it's stated that he is "about twenty". Jack, on the other hand is quite definitely described as "twenty". So it looks as though Ang and presumably his actors had decided to make Jack slightly older than Ennis with Jack at twenty and Ennis nineteen.

Does it matter if Jack is that bit older than Ennis? As Ang Lee is so specific about the difference in their ages when he's introducing them, it seems that it mattered to him. Maybe he perceived Jack as slightly more "experienced" than Ennis not only in having been on Brokeback the year before but in other matters as well. Any thoughts on this?

Clearly, when I have the time, I should revisit that timeline. Some alterations will probably have to be made, if it's to be, as I intended, a timeline for the movie rather than the short story.

Brown Eyes:

Interesting!  I never thought of either of them being anything but 19 in the beginning.  However, it would fit the theme of Jack being slightly ahead in almost all things (experience on the mountain, seeming acceptance of his sexuality, possibly sexual experience, being at the front of the flock, being in front on the way to the bar early on, leading the sheep and Ennis across the stream when they go up the mountain, etc. ).

Monika:
Doesn´t Jack die in 1983 when he is 39?
That would make him 19 in 1963.


Maybe he was older than Ennis still. Maybe Ennis was 18?

brokeplex:

--- Quote from: Buffymon on August 23, 2010, 04:46:24 pm ---Doesn´t Jack die in 1983 when he is 39?
That would make him 19 in 1963.


Maybe he was older than Ennis still. Maybe Ennis was 18?

--- End quote ---
correct, Lureen told Ennis when he called about Jack's death, that "he wasn't yet 40". so, Jack had to be 19 in 1963, but Ennis could have been younger.

Monika:

--- Quote from: chowhound on August 23, 2010, 04:25:05 pm ---
 Maybe he perceived Jack as slightly more "experienced" than Ennis not only in having been on Brokeback the year before but in other matters as well. Any thoughts on this?



--- End quote ---
sorry for going OT but often when I read the passage where Pa Twist pees on Jack, the thought that he might have abused Jack sexually crosses my mind. It just seems as sucha perverted thing to do.
I'm just curious whether anyone else ever has made this association?
To me this might explain Jack's apparent "know-how".

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