“He was a Friend of Mine” is playing, I just finished breaking down sobbing while watching the movie. Some more things in the movie became clearer to me.
Lies and deception “Without getting up he threw deadwood on the fire, the sparks flying up with their truths and lies, a few hot points of fire landing on their hands and faces, not for the first time, and they rolled down into the dirt.” – from Brokeback Mountain, the story by A. Proulx
The scene when Jack receives the postcard about the divorce and drives 14 hours to see Ennis, thinking now that Ennis is free he decided to share a “sweet life” with Jack and he is sadly mistaken. It’s poignant to see Jack so elated as he drives 'up' to Wyoming singing “King of the Road” and then is so dejected when he drives back 'down' to Texas/Mexico while Emmy Lou sings “A Love That Will Never Grow Old.” (OT: a song co-written with Bernie Taupin who of course shared a “sweet life” with Elton John. At least for a while.)
I didn’t understand why, at the lake scene, Jack asks Ennis, “All this time, and you ain’t found nobody else to marry?” I wasn’t sure what Jack was getting at, but I think it’s because once divorced, Ennis would be able to live with Jack but he refuses. When Ennis was married to Alma, he felt responsible to her, too, but after the divorce he doesn’t have that responsibility and still he refuses to live with Jack or at least be with him more often. I think it’s bitterness on Jack’s part (which comes out a little later) because Ennis didn't have the same excuse he once had of being married and having a life with Alma. He didn’t re-marry. Jack asks Ennis about a woman in his life and he answers he’s “puttin the blocks to a good-lookin little gal” He is so indifferent to Cassie that he doesn’t even mention her name. Watch Ennis/Heath’s face when Jack says he’s seeing… a rancher’s wife and they both laugh. Ennis’ face is suffused with love and affection toward Jack. Even isolated together in the mountains – no one around, they each keep up a lie. I think it’s mainly generated by Ennis who can never admit to being gay and Jack always walking on eggshells around Ennis.
Ennis laughs about Jack having an affair with a neighbor’s wife, but, when Ennis has a delayed reaction about going someplace warm, like Mexico, Ennis is so jealous he’s kill any man he met who had been with Jack. Ennis won’t be with Jack, but he doesn’t want anyone else (no man) to be with him, either.
About 30 years ago I was in a similar situation. I was in a relationship with a woman at a time where being gay/lesbian wasn't understood or accepted and it was hard sometimes. Coming out is not just something that happens once, it happens again and again every time you meet someone new and are in a new situation. Yeah, it takes a toll on a person. Jack "drank a lot." Ennis was alienated from other people and got in to physical fights. One of the saddest scenes in the film to me is Ennis sitting there all by himself eating pie in the cafe.
I think the director, Ang Lee, said that occasionally you get to glimpse private moments on film which we certainly got to do with BBM. I think the private moments with these two men is part of why they feel so real to us and we feel close to them.
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