Getting in Touch With Your Feelings About Brokeback Mountain

[Phillip Dampier]

I read this post today on the IMDB forum...and just HAD to drag it over here.....it's sooo beautifully poignant...that I feel it deserves a read....on OUR FORUM. 

Now go back and drag him over here too.   

i swear i saw ennis and jack, slowly gather their belongings. Fold up the tent. put away the joyous harmonica for the last time. Climb on their horses and ride out of the auditorium. riding past the howling coyotes and learned snakes. Where they'll go? they don't know. But they know they are not welcome here and our boys are too good to stay any place they are not wanted.

I swear i saw them ride into me. they ride into my heart. make a camp. build a cabin. run a cattle operation. In my heart i will protect them from the world. I will protect them from what they don't understand. Ennis will hold jack and jack will hold ennis in my offer of peace and a home in my soul. I will let them love as they wish and only i can dream. Forever a part of me.

Gosh, I guess I am the perennial optimist around here because this Oscar business just isn't freaking me out like it is some people.  I think once again people are personifying the rejection of Brokeback Mountain as a rejection of one's own feelings for the film and its impact.  It's the ultimate of "taking it personally" that this film didn't win Best Picture, ignoring the fact it won three other awards at the Academy + countless dozens of other awards.

That Crash won is by no means a rejection of Jack and Ennis and the film.  This won't be the first time the Academy bypassed the obvious choice and it certainly won't be the last.

[Pierre]

lol um hello...
i got  the invites and so i'm here lol 
Thank you strazeme and BBmgrandma 

I must say i was really touched by all your positive words.

the fact that i've been able to convey what people have been feeling through my own truth makes me feel like i'm part of a huge family. in essence we are the children of jack and ennis.

i look forward to joining in periodically with my own thoughts and reading yours.

[BBMGrandma]

PIERRE!!!  You're here.  What a delightful way to start our DAY!!  Your words sent me off down a new road that I'd never been on before.  

I'm now able to visualize my own Brokeback scenario....and dip sooo much deeper into my own 'well of emotions' that I've been carrying all these years.  

It's been <and still is> a long emotional trip and tiring at times.  The tears I've shed here with my fellow Brokaholics poured endlessly.  NOW I find myself crying tears of happiness....after reading your post.  I've given myself permission to find my own 'ending' for Ennis and Jack.  I wrap my warm blanket around them....I nurture them and keep them safe in my heart...I give them the strength they need when they're undecided and unsure of themselves.....HELL....I even make Hot chocolate for them....when it's cold around the campfire.  (with marshmallows....I might add... )    They are MY BOYS....my loves....and they will ALWAYS nestle in a special place in my heart.  
The heartache I felt SOO very strongly....is gone!  

I'm still sorting out things in my life. Lost loves.....regrets....All those "shoulda's" and "Coulda's" and have come to the startling conclusion that I DID!!  So I'm applying all those lessons that I'm learning here....to ALL of those!!!  

I've also learned that it's much easier to keep all of those things "STUFFED".  It takes no effort.  We just ride along with our saddlebags laden with all that crap....and forget to take in the beautiful things in life that are SOO very precious...RIGHT in front of us...in the "here and now"

We've got to drag those demons OUT....face em...and SLAY EM!!!  

I would bet that my fellow Brokaholics in here and getting a wee bit weary of my 'thank you's' to all of them.  But I can't help myself...lol....so here goes again.  

I thank you all from the bottom of my heart....and to YOU....Pierre....my heartfelt thanks.  You gave me the brushes and colors to paint my own picture.  Ennis and Jack are together in my brush strokes.....they will always live....forever...in beautiful peace and harmony.  Love is, indeed...a force of nature.

Much love....Nancy  
(.a Brokaholic who now has a future...instead of JUSTa past!!  

[BBMGrandma]

pssssssssssst....PHILIP? HEY BOSS!! We did it!!  Dragged Pierre over here as we were told!!  You giving out any 'brownie' points?   

Love ya......   Nancy

[strazeme]

Nancy .. Phillip ... thank you both for your words of understanding, your encouragement.  You're the only friends I can talk to right now ... guess I'm so needy I'd scare anyone else off.  Even my own son, I really don't think he much cares.  And I'm tring not to wallow in self pity ... like where is that getting me.  So now that my BBM awareness has me so all torn up, the question is:  what am I going to do about it?  And I realize that much as I might wish it, nobody else is going to come to my rescue with a magic Steve fix ... I'll have to somehow do it myself.  Thanks again to you both for being there for me when I needed you most.

[Pierre]

wow thank you so much,

I believe that in ourselves we continue the story. The choices we make, things we observe, even how we love, will all be affected depending on how we have been moved.

This Oscar debacle is not the fight of Jack or ennis. They did all they could. They deserve peace. All they couldn't accomplish in life they will be aloud in side of us all. There will be no sequel so we need to be the continuation.

This film was magic. The perfect marriage between story and film. With so much truth and depth and complexity, this rang more true then most biographies. This was truly a blessing for everyone who has dared to witness it.

[strazeme]

Chris .... Thanks to you, too.  I feel like you gave me a much-needed hug.

[Aussie Chris]

Chris .... Thanks to you, too.  I feel like you gave me a much-needed hug.

You're welcome strazeme.  The cool thing about hugs is, they work both ways.
 

[Fla_Tim]

This film was magic. The perfect marriage between story and film. With so much truth and depth and complexity, this rang more true then most biographies. This was truly a blessing for everyone who has dared to witness it.

You are so right. This film moved me like no other film ever has. I was shocked when it didn't win, but that in no way takes away from the fact that this is an outstanding work that has touched so many hearts.

I've read a lot of theories this past week about why people think BBM didn't win, my personal favorites are that Crash was a film that residents of LA could relate to more, and that it provide a safe harbour for the academy voters given the demographics of the academy members (over 50, male, probably mostly straight). I don't know of one straight man that has seen Brokeback, my feeling that this is probably out of some deeply set fear of being forced to examine their own feelings about same sex attraction between men who weren't self identified as gay.

I remember the year Out of Africa won out over The Color Purple; I'd seen Out of Africa and fell in love with it, and was deeply moved when Robert Redford's character was killed. It was my favorite for best picture, which it won. A few months later I saw The Color Purple, which moved me even more, as I left the theater I said to my companion "Spielberg was robbed".

So I'll withhold judgement about what the best film of 2005 was for now since I've only seen one of the nominees. BUT no film has moved me the way BBM has. Here I am a week later having sought out others through the internet and writing about feelings!!!!!

And I certainly don't want to be like Tony Randall who refused to see Brokeback Mountain and still felt he was qualified to help pick the Best Picture of 2005. I wonder if he saw any of Best Picture nominees. 

A big hug to all from Florida.

Tim

[Lynne]

Pierre,
I'm really glad that you made it over to the bettermost board...welcome((())).  This movie means so much to so many of us and at so many different levels; it is really a remarkable phenomenon.  Looking forward to getting to know you on our 'beyond brokeback' journey.
Lynne