Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
One Man Men
serious crayons:
From Chris' long-ago post, quoted in JT's post:
--- Quote ---Jake Gyllenhaal himself said that he thought Jack was straight but "in love" with Ennis.
--- End quote ---
Did Jake really say that? If so, there's one more reason not to take comments made in interviews with the stars/director/screenwriters/etc. as gospel. I'm sorry, but that's ridiculous. (But who knows in what context he might have said that, or whether it was misinterpreted by the interviewer or what. Again, reason not to take interviews as gospel.)
nakymaton:
--- Quote from: latjoreme on September 06, 2006, 10:13:48 am ---Did Jake really say that?
--- End quote ---
Yeah, he really did. ::) I think the same article asked Ang Lee about that, and he was a bit surprised that Jake had said that, as well, but said that the actors all found their own ways of understanding the characters, or something similarly vague and open-ended. ;D
moremojo:
--- Quote from: latjoreme on September 06, 2006, 10:13:48 am ---Did Jake really say that? If so, there's one more reason not to take comments made in interviews with the stars/director/screenwriters/etc. as gospel. I'm sorry, but that's ridiculous.
--- End quote ---
Agreed. Jack is very obviously a homosexual man who, in my opinion, is fairly in touch with that aspect of himself throughout the story. Now Ennis...well, we know how that has been debated.
Marge_Innavera:
--- Quote from: Aussie Chris on March 25, 2006, 06:37:14 am ---Just about every straight person I have talked to about art has professed that the female form has more artistic merit than the male one. They gleefully describe how a female’s shape is more interesting to paint/sculpt/view. In my early days of coming out I accepted this along with many other declarations along those lines. At the time this bothered me but I didn’t have the words to counter it. But there was one other aspect to this that made it difficult for me to argue: you see I personally don’t have a problem with the female form. I am definitely gay, but I still see beauty in the feminine physique and I don’t see the need to find fault in women just because I’m a gay male. The fact that the heterosexual world seems to be caught up with this silliness is their problem, not mine.
--- End quote ---
Well, in some ancient cultures it was acceptable for married women to have affairs with other women but not with men, because then their childrens' paternity wouldn't be in doubt. Today, in most cultures, it has to do with power.
Plenty of people have expressed better than me why so many heterosexual men feel threatened by the idea of men having sexual attachments to other men. However, in the case of women the dominant group finds lesbian action a turn-on so it goes without saying that too much negativity about it would put members of that group in a bit of a bind. Or as the loser-protagonist in "Married With Children" put it: "There's nothing wrong with a woman having sex with another woman - as long as there's a man watching."
That's not to imply actual tolerance for lesbianism among homophobes. Two women here in Missouri were denied an application to be foster parents last year, and took it to court. The court ruled that the reasons for their being denied - their sexual orientation - were irrelevant to the welfare of the children and our homophobic State district attorney is still in a snit about that. The prejudice against lesbians is more subtle.
Marge_Innavera:
--- Quote from: Impish on March 05, 2006, 12:23:53 pm ---This is the crux of the differentce between the story and the film. In the book, Ennis is much more open with himself about his physical and emotional love for Jack. There's the quote you gave about his physical attraction, and there's another passage in which he tells Jack about getting sick by the side of the road, and realizing that he was sick because (paraphrasing) "I should never let you out of my sights."
In general, the Annie's story shows that Ennis is closed and reserved and shy around everyone but Jack. When he's with Jack, he opens up, relaxes, and can even get quite chatty.
This is the question I'm dying to ask Lee, McMurtry, and Ossana: why was this trait of Ennis not carried over to the movie's screenplay?
--- End quote ---
Never heard any of them give an explanation; but my guess would be that it set up more dramatic inner conflcts.
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