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

A different viewpoint

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HerrKaiser:
In spite of my overall tendency to criticize Jack's role in the reletionship, his 20-year desire/wish for the relationship to be something other than it was--and staying with Ennis--is a testament to one of his strong, good traits. Since about the time of the setting of the film's opening (mid 60s), we have been a 'throw away' society, and that includes people. I have tons of theories why such occurred, and grew, but fact is that injest's experience is not uncommon. Jack continued to choose to view the 'glass is half full' but more and more, as freedom (not the 'americana' sense but in terms of ability to move places, leave jobs/careers, reduce responsiblilites, etc) and affluence rise, people seem to be unwilling to accept 'half full' and insist all glasses be pretty close to overflowing.

Jack had what few people have, and definitely few gay men. His man, Ennis, was fully committed within the bounds he was able to work within. There was no evidence that Ennis was ever seeing another man, his inner, heartfelt love for Jack showed throuhout their 20 years together. No, Ennis was not the flowers every Friday and 'I love you' every phone call, but there is great comfort and pleasure to know and believe in something that need not be promoted every moment. Ennis was solid. Jack knew this and to his credit knew Ennis was a true blessing and a rare human. Jack's mistake, I think, was the disease of the past decades..the 'you can have it all disease' and while Jack's half full glass was a relationship from Heaven, he imo failed to be grateful and satisfied with Ennis as Ennis, and lost everything...for both of them.

Scott6373:

--- Quote from: nic on April 04, 2007, 05:54:37 pm ---Do you think Jack should have given up on Ennis then?

I find it hard to cut ties with certain people, because I rarely make meaningful ties with anyone so I really place a lot of worth on any I do.  In some circumstances it is best to move on if you can, but you have to be comitted to believing you will be better off in the long run which can be so very difficult to do.

--- End quote ---

That's a relatively subjective question that each of can answer from only our own unique perspective.  We can only rely on our own sensibilities to answer it.

Let's face it...if Jack were smarter, he would have and should have left Ennis behind.  It's not testament to anything but fear that he stayed with Ennis...or wished to.  Fear of losing, of never finding, of not knowing.  There were moments of happiness, but a lifetime of hurt and anguish.  Even if Jack had gone on to leave Lureen and find another man, it would be better than what he ended up with.  But...hindsight is 20/20

Front-Ranger:
I tend to agree with you, Herr, rather than Scott (sorry Scott). What clinches it for me is when Lureen (blowing smoke off to the side) says, "You know, you been goin up to Wyoming all these years to fish, why can't your buddy come down here?" and Jack says, definitively, "Because the Bighorn Mountains ain't in Texas." I can't exactly explain why, but to me, that says that he gets all the satisfaction he needs in the Bighorn Mountains, 2x or 3x a year, anyway.

Scott6373:

--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on April 05, 2007, 10:24:38 am ---I tend to agree with you, Herr, rather than Scott (sorry Scott). What clinches it for me is when Lureen (blowing smoke off to the side) says, "You know, you been goin up to Wyoming all these years to fish, why can't your buddy come down here?" and Jack says, definitively, "Because the Bighorn Mountains ain't in Texas." I can't exactly explain why, but to me, that says that he gets all the satisfaction he needs in the Bighorn Mountains, 2x or 3x a year, anyway.



--- End quote ---

No need to apologize.  All I can say is that if Jack did get all the "satisfaction" he needed, then it was a much sadder story than I had previously thought.

serious crayons:

--- Quote from: Scott on April 05, 2007, 10:29:08 am ---No need to apologize.  All I can say is that if Jack did get all the "satisfaction" he needed, then it was a much sadder story than I had previously thought.
--- End quote ---

I don't think Jack got all the satisfaction he needed. But I think the point was that he wouldn't have gotten the satisfaction he needed elsewhere, either.

Of course, like everything else, this is a little ambiguous. Maybe in truth he would have been more satisfied with Randall (or someone) than with Ennis -- maybe quantity would trump quality. And maybe in the end, Jack came to see it that way, himself. But for 20 years, the reason he hung on is that he didn't think he'd be happy with anyone but Ennis, so to him a few wonderful times a year was better than a lot of just OK times.

And good catch, Lee: "Because the Bighorn Mountains ain't in Texas" is another one of those seemingly minor lines that mysteriously embodies the themes of the whole movie.

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