I believe I read somewhere that there is a site in Wyoming called Breakback Mountain, and that Proulx was inspired to tweak this a bit to form 'Brokeback Mountain'. But it should be stressed that Brokeback Mountain is not meant to stand in for Breakback Mountain, and the town of Signal is likewise fictional.
Has anyone heard what Proulx herself might have intended?
There is a part of the story left out of the movie which gave me another clue to the naming of Brokeback Mountain. As Jack and Ennis relax together at the motel after reuniting, Jack tells Ennis why the Army "didn't get him" and he got out of rodeoing: "Got...a stress fracture, the arm bone here....Even if you tape it good, you break it a little goddam bit at a time. . . . Had a busted leg. Busted in three places. . . . Bunch a other things, f**kin busted ribs, sprains and pains, torn ligaments." Not only is Jack's body broken, but in the end his ashes were divided up, never to be made whole again, and far from Brokeback Mountain.
Means worthless, swaybackDon't quite like that..
"You break it a little goddam bit at a time..."
Yeeouch. Do you think it was like that, every time Ennis refused the possibility of a "sweet life"?
that just made me think of the song in Hedwig.
"And, if we don't behave,
They'll tear us down again."
Jack dreamed further than fate would allow, and so he is torn in half yet again.
There is a part of the story left out of the movie which gave me another clue to the naming of Brokeback Mountain. As Jack and Ennis relax together at the motel after reuniting, Jack tells Ennis why the Army "didn't get him" and he got out of rodeoing: "Got...a stress fracture, the arm bone here....Even if you tape it good, you break it a little goddam bit at a time. . . . Had a busted leg. Busted in three places. . . . Bunch a other things, f**kin busted ribs, sprains and pains, torn ligaments." Not only is Jack's body broken, but in the end his ashes were divided up, never to be made whole again, and far from Brokeback Mountain.
Interesting post, Kula. I also find it interesting that the train passes between the viewer and Ennis, separating us from him. Trains were also a divisive feature in rural towns, breaking them in two. After the trains came through, there was a "right" and a "wrong" side of the tracks. The railway crossed Wyoming and the West, "taming" the West and bringing in settlers who were at odds with the cowboy culture.
As we try to see Ennis through the gaps in the train cars, we see flickering light and dark screens, a constantly changing view. This is a harbinger of how the movie will unfold, with an interplay of opposite and complementary elements.
By nonon99_99
I suspect the almost unhumanly precise symmetry structuralism with its imploding is the cause of Brokeback Mountain's nearly physical hurting emotional affectability. Everything there is Ennis, then Jack, then again Ennis, then again Jack, etc.. Suddently at one moment, Jack is no more, the grand structure is destroyed, BROKEN. We audiences suddently woke up from a dream and faced the reality that a part of our viscera is being taken out by violence. In viewing the last twenty minutes of this movie, I would say if some scenes last two seconds more I need to call emergency. But then the unbelievable structural balance works again, those scenes last right to what you can barely bear and the structure gradually rebuilt/extened itself (Jack's Mother, Ennis's daughter, 'I swear').
Hence I think the title, Brokeback, is a precise description of the film in an abstract way.
By meryl_88
What a beautiful description, nonon, and all the more impressive since it seems that English is not your first language. You're right about how we are "broken" by Jack's violent exit, and the scenes that follow are indeed a slow, painful mending of that break, a coming "back." There's something deeply moving, too, about the Mother and Daughter figures being so important to that healing. They love Jack and Ennis unconditionally, and we can do the same through them. Thank you for that insight.
For me, the name also carries a suggestion of a failed effort. You break your back trying futiley to accomplish something; that is, you are destroyed by the struggle. Brokeback was the idyllic place that Jack and Ennis could never make it back to, much as they (both!) might have wanted it, and eventually the struggle destroyed them. Does that make sense?
BBM-Cat did you know that there's an actual Brokenback Mountain in north central Wyoming? EDelMar has visited there several times and has placed a cache with the book and other mementos of the movie. There are pictures at
http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php?topic=5791.0 (http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php?topic=5791.0)
Another thing, Wyoming is a place that is broken in pieces, in a way. Each of the corners of the state is very different, but you're right they're all beautiful, but some would debate that. And scattered very very thinly over the state are the residents. Wyoming is the most sparsely populated state in the Union.
as bloody and as savage as the war torn christian west? I have no easy answers but I offer this. buddha-nature-nuclear-bomb, nirvana, a bomb to the illusion of self. . . that is what nirvana is. no suicide, still a gun to the head of self! |
I just reread this whole thread and there's another mention of breaking/broke, which is very obvious, but not mentioned here yet:She did it on purpose. Which is why it's a masterpiece.
The rim of the tire (or whatever it was, depening on what you believe) broke Jack's nose and jaw. :'(
Even further, Annie connects this with Jack's back in the same sentence: "The bead was damaged somehow and the force of the explosion slammed the rim into his face, broke his nose and jaw and knocked him unconscious on his back.
It does not end up in either the Atlantic, Pacific or Gulf. It remains in this no-mans-land permanently
Sorry for my random musings :laugh:
In this case probably a coincidence. But that story is so well constructed---even the punctuation matters, very little IS coincidence. You got me very curious when you asked if it was a coincidence, VERY curious... I'm goin to ask about it.
Geography, geology, climate, weather, the deep past, immediate events, shape the characters and partly determine what happens to them, although the random event counts for much, as it does in life. I long ago fell into the habit of seeing the world in terms of shifting circumstances overlaid upon natural surroundings. I try to define periods when regional society and culture, rooted in location and natural resources, start to experience the erosion of traditional ways, and attempt to master contemporary, large-world values. The characters in my novels pick their way through the chaos of change. The present is always pasted on layers of the past.
For me, the name also carries a suggestion of a failed effort. You break your back trying futiley to accomplish something; that is, you are destroyed by the struggle. Brokeback was the idyllic place that Jack and Ennis could never make it back to, much as they (both!) might have wanted it, and eventually the struggle destroyed them. Does that make sense?
the USS Thresher (SSN-593), the first of the new Thresher-class 3700-ton nuclear-powered attack submarines. Commissioned in August 1961, she underwent extensive sea trials during ‘61 and ‘62. On April 10, 1963, after completion of a re-fit, she began post-overhaul trials. Accompanied by the submarine rescue ship Skylark (ASR-20), she transited to an area some 220 miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and started deep-diving tests.
At 9:13 a.m., the USS Skylark (a surface vessel assigned to assist Thresher) received a signal, via underwater telephone, indicating that the submarine was experiencing “minor difficulties, have positive up-angle, attempting to blow.”
Shortly afterward, the Skylark received a series of garbled, undecipherable message fragments from the Thresher. At 9:18 a.m., the Skylark’s sonar picked up the sounds of the submarine breaking apart. All 129 hands were lost—112 military and 17 civilian technicians.
The submarine community, the Navy and the nation were stunned. Thresher was the best of the newest. The ship was built at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine and was the first of a new class of submarine, designed for optimum performance of sonar and weapons systems
Thanks for that Lee. I've always thought that the Thresher detail was something that could be "researched" in greater depth to try to figure out why that very specific (and somewhat odd or seemingly out of place) detail is so prominently mentioned in the story.
Wow, you remember that old thread? I think I found it on page four here!
It is The Hidden Ocean (http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php/topic,13258.0/all.html).
Thanks, Chrissi!!
As a farm boy (who listened endlessly to my dad and granddad) the analogy of reaping and threshing is ominous. A reaper was a machine that was used to cut grain, that is, to mow/cut it down. Later, technology expanded to include a "drop reaper" - a machine that combined the functions of cutting the grain and binding the bundles with twine/rope to be picked up later and taken to the "threshing machine." This is where the grain was separated from the hulls or chaff, literally by being pounded and pummeled. Of course, by 1963 all these functions were integrated into a "combine" - one machine that does it all from cutting to separating the grain. A variation of "thresh" is "thrash." "Thrashed to within an inch of his life..." For Jack, a gloomy instance of foreshadowing.
Ok, this is probably stretching at all a little ::)
When Ennis' nose is hurt by Jack's knee, Jack tries to mend Ennis' hurt by holding him and saying, "it's alright". He wipes his nose and gets blood on both (separate) shirts. As we know, blood tends to stain and the shirts are ruined. Instead of attempting to wash the shirts (and thus fix them), Jack leaves them spoiled. And mends them by putting them together, blood on blood.
Sorry for my random musings :laugh:
little boys as a part of initiations into clubs frequently would pick their fingers with a sharp knife of pin and mingle their blood. (this was long before AIDS made everyone cautious about such endeavors.)
Surely little boys are the same way today! (Oh, I won't go into a similar ritual that young women perform, but it doesn't involve pricking fingers!)
I was trying to put a stamp on an envelope today and thought I would NEVER get the peel-off backing off of it. And then I tried to open an envelope, and it was closed with some god-awful adhesive. Please bring back stamps and envelopes that you can lick, for God's sake!!
I still remember helping out in political mailer drives when I was a kid and licking all of those envelopes until I was queasy sick from the glue!
I hate licking the glue, too, and always opt for self-adhesive stamps AND envelopes. For those who watched Seinfeld, don't forget that George's fiancée died doing that. :o
Huh? Blood brothers ---> Envelopes and stamps? Have I missed something? :laugh:
The most famous peaks of the Grand Teton Range are the three mountains: Grand Teton at 13,770 ft, Mt. Owen at 12,928 ft and Teewinot, at 12,325 ft. So, we don't see a double peak like the one in the movie that represents Brokeback Mountain. But what is significant is that the Tetons are on the Continental Divide that divides North America into its western and eastern halves. The waters flowing down these mountains eventually go to the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans.
Artiste, I saw two moose there while I was travelling in Grand Teton National Park in January. Moose are strange-looking creatures! I also saw one in Alberta when I was there in July and posted a picture of it on the Alberta Pilgrimage thread.
DuBoise could possibly have been named by a relative of Annie because she has French-Canadian blood and Wyoming was explored and named by French trappers and explorers.
And why elk instead of moose in the BM movie?
I glad that you enjoy that part of WY too. I took the long drive between Riverton and Dubois last year coming back from MT and I really loved the area east and west of the continental divide just west of Dubois. I also drove over to Jackson to visit some friends and loved the crashing rivers running down out of the Tetons. That area in particular reminds me of the part of Alberta Ang Lee filmed Brokeback in.
I looked on my physiographic map and I found the basin you are referring to, I did not get a chance to visit there last trip. I look forward to seeing the area. It seems sort of a no mans land, neither in the Atlantic basin or the Pacific basin, and it looks very dry. A water sump?
Moose are more of a Canadian animal, especially on the western side of the US. Few Moose over here. Tons of Elk.
Brokeback lines, brokeback strings,
Brokeback threads, brokeback springs,
Brokeback idols, brokeback heads,
People sleeping in brokeback beds.
Ain't no use jiving
Ain't no use joking
Everything is brokeback.
Brokeback bottles, brokeback plates,
Brokeback switches, brokeback gates,
Brokeback dishes, brokeback parts,
Streets are filled with brokeback hearts.
Brokeback words never meant to be spoken,
Everything is brokeback.
Bridge: Seem like every time you stop and turn around
Something else just hit the ground
Brokeback cutters, brokeback saws,
Brokeback buckles, brokeback laws,
Brokeback bodies, brokeback bones,
Brokeback voices on brokeback phones.
Take a deep breath, feel like you're chokin',
Everything is brokeback.
Bridge: Every time you leave and go off someplace
Things fall to pieces in my face
Brokeback hands on brokeback ploughs,
Brokeback treaties, brokeback vows,
Brokeback pipes, brokeback tools,
People bending brokeback rules.
Hound dog howling, bull frog croaking,
Everything is brokeback.
Copyright © 1989 Special Rider Music
With apologies to Bob Dylan:
Brokeback lines, brokeback strings,
Brokeback threads, brokeback springs,
Brokeback idols, brokeback heads,
People sleeping in brokeback beds.
Ain't no use jiving
Ain't no use joking
Everything is brokeback.
Brokeback bottles, brokeback plates,
Brokeback switches, brokeback gates,
Brokeback dishes, brokeback parts,
Streets are filled with brokeback hearts.
Brokeback words never meant to be spoken,
Everything is brokeback.
Bridge: Seem like every time you stop and turn around
Something else just hit the ground
Brokeback cutters, brokeback saws,
Brokeback buckles, brokeback laws,
Brokeback bodies, brokeback bones,
Brokeback voices on brokeback phones.
Take a deep breath, feel like you're chokin',
Everything is brokeback.
Bridge: Every time you leave and go off someplace
Things fall to pieces in my face
Brokeback hands on brokeback ploughs,
Brokeback treaties, brokeback vows,
Brokeback pipes, brokeback tools,
People bending brokeback rules.
Hound dog howling, bull frog croaking,
Everything is brokeback.
Copyright © 1989 Special Rider Music
Funny, Dave asked me where I saw that interview. Strange how things exist on the web.
On Facebook yes. I've only met Dave in person once and I was too busy at the time to talk to him. He moved away from Denver several years ago. But we stay in touch on fb, Goodreads and Twitter.
Just saw your post and came back to answer my own question. He and I are FB friends, too, but we don't interact much. I think I messaged him once to point out that a quote of his had appeared somewhere or something like that and he thanked me. And I met him at the 2007 BBQ and talked to him for a few minutes. You were probably busy barbecuing exotic delicacies. He was kind of condescending because he wrote for Slate and I wrote for Salon and he made clear that he considered Slate the superior publication. He's right (more so now than at the time) but I thought it it was less than polite to point it out.
That was long before Columbine the book, though.
A nice summation! But what does it have to do with "Broken in Two"? ???
I'll venture a guess: at one point, Jack plays a bar of "He Was a Friend of Mine" on his out-of-tune harmonica.
My20GUNS 2 years ago
When I heard this at the end Of Brokeback Mountain, i started to cry, and I sat through the entire credits sequence, almost no movie is capable of doing that.
Frostbitt 9 months ago
I watched this in the Theater and have not seen it since. Perhaps someday I will revisit it. I was to heartbroken. When he visited the family and got the shirt out of the closet, I had a lump in my throat that hurt and my eyes steamed. This film was very powerful indeed. Someday, someday, I will revisit it. but not yet.
Alexis Han 5 months ago
My20GUNS I cried so hard all through the credits sequence as well
A little trivia about Bob Dylan that I gleaned. It turns out that Dylan does NOT come from Dylan Thomas. So, who inspired Bob Dylan's last pen-name?
A little aside: an early version of the screenplay includes directions for various old Western songs to be placed in particular scenes. The titles often cleverly related to the action, one way or another. Of course, I can't think of one right now... I did take notes once. They are all different from what ended up in the film--like "It's So Easy", D-I-V-O-R-C-E", etc.
Did it have anything to do with permissions?
the spelling shifted to Dylan in Dinkytown. Bob began plumbing the depths of world literature, “reading the poetry of Pound and Eliot, Ferlinghetti and Ginsberg; the novels of Kerouac and William Burroughs and Dylan Thomas
And a belated happy birthday to the man himself! But, since Bob Dylan is living life backwards, he can celebrate his birthday today too-- ("I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now.")