TOTW 03/09: What Was the Attraction?

[Front-Ranger]

What a lovely post, loreen! Yes, I can see that!

[loreen]

Thank you!

[optom3]

It is interesting that everything does seem to come quite easily to Jack, nothing dents his enthusiasm until much later. Yet when Ennis visits the Twist family home, he realises just how far Jack has travelled.
I always find it quite unbearably sad that in the end, and in spite of what they have experienced, physically at least, neither of them has actually travelled that far. Jack is back in the home he grew up in,and was so desperate to escape, not even his request for his ashes is respected, Ennis is in his trailer and in the S.S we are led to believe is moving on yet again.
Emotionally we will never know how far Jack had journeyed, Ennis we are at least shown a glimpse of the beginnings of an emotional breakthrough.
To me, both the s.s and the film end with no real inner peace for either Jack or Ennis. The euphoria they both experienced on BBM was never again captured. There would be some closure, if Jack had at least been able to have his ashes scattered there, in time Ennis too could have joined him.
If the Twists really knew about Jack and Ennis and the almost mythical BBM, then it is an act of monumental cruelty, for OMT not to have carried out his only child's wishes.
It also strikes me as slightly out of kilter with what we know of the  religious proclivities, of at least Jack's mum. Is it not one of the most heinous crimes, for church going beings, not to carry out the wishes of the deceased. It only reinforces for me, the cruelty of OMT. I am certain that his wife would have been more than happy to make sure Jack was laid to rest where he had asked.
Oh my, this film and story still have such an emotional impact even after all this time. I am not particularly religious but to think that someone has no peace, even in death, delivers an almighty blow to the heart.

[Monika]

It is interesting that everything does seem to come quite easily to Jack, nothing dents his enthusiasm until much later. Yet when Ennis visits the Twist family home, he realises just how far Jack has travelled.
I always find it quite unbearably sad that in the end, and in spite of what they have experienced, physically at least, neither of them has actually travelled that far. Jack is back in the home he grew up in,and was so desperate to escape, not even his request for his ashes is respected, Ennis is in his trailer and in the S.S we are led to believe is moving on yet again.
Emotionally we will never know how far Jack had journeyed, Ennis we are at least shown a glimpse of the beginnings of an emotional breakthrough.
To me, both the s.s and the film end with no real inner peace for either Jack or Ennis. The euphoria they both experienced on BBM was never again captured. There would be some closure, if Jack had at least been able to have his ashes scattered there, in time Ennis too could have joined him.
If the Twists really knew about Jack and Ennis and the almost mythical BBM, then it is an act of monumental cruelty, for OMT not to have carried out his only child's wishes.
It also strikes me as slightly out of kilter with what we know of the  religious proclivities, of at least Jack's mum. Is it not one of the most heinous crimes, for church going beings, not to carry out the wishes of the deceased. It only reinforces for me, the cruelty of OMT. I am certain that his wife would have been more than happy to make sure Jack was laid to rest where he had asked.
Oh my, this film and story still have such an emotional impact even after all this time. I am not particularly religious but to think that someone has no peace, even in death, delivers an almighty blow to the heart.

Thanks for the post, Fiona. Beautiful and heartbreaking indeed.
No, we never quite how far Jack travelled emotionally. I've my theories though
I've always thought of him as very needy, craving love and acceptance (which he never got from his dad). I don't think that changed much over the years and I think that was what drove him back to Ennis time after time. I think the only time that he ever felt fulfilled and accepted for who he really was, was that distant summer on Brokeback Mountain and I think he spent the rest of his life trying to recreate it. But as you pointed out, in the end he ends up back home with his parents who doesn't even carry out his last wishes.

There are some scenes with Jack that I'd have loved to have seen. Like when he steals Ennis's shirt or when he hung it in his closet. Did he get the shirts out and breathed in slowly through his mouth and nose everytime he visited his parents? There is still so much about Jack that is a mystery to us.


Jack's faith reminds me of the story Ralph tells Maggie in the TV series "The Thorn birds"

"There's a story... a legend, about a bird that sings just once in its life. From the moment it leaves its nest, it searches for a thorn tree... and never rests until it's found one. And then it sings... more sweetly than any other creature on the face of the earth. And singing, it impales itself on the longest, sharpest thorn. But, as it dies, it rises above its own agony, to outsing the lark and the nightingale. The thorn bird pays its life for just one song, but the whole world stills to listen, and God in his heaven smiles. "

[optom3]

OMG I had forgotten that beautiful passage. I was entranced with The Thorn Birds as a teenager, Richard Chamberlain in a cassock was not too hard to watch either !

I absolutely love those words, they tear,  my very soul apart, what a perfect example of Bittersweet. Like you I also wonder about the Jack we do not see,more so than Ennis. Does he as you say, go upstairs to his room and try to  breathe in the very essence of Ennis and BBM. Does he cry as he recalls the idyllic summer that was Brokeback.
I so often think of Jack as the being like a candle flickering in the breeze, close to being extinguished and yet somehow managing to burn for a little while longer. It would be glorious and much easier to imagine Jack as the eternal flame,clinging onto a vague yet ever dimming hope of some solace around the next bend. The words in the story, "let be, let be" seem to indicate that as he recalls and relishes the moment of the dozy embrace, he dare not allow himself to think more deeply.That to me seems to indicate that although outwardly optimistic, his inner self knows the reality and as such any exploration of the true situation is too much to even contemplate.

O.T. thankyou for reprising that wonderful passage from the thorn birds. Would that we could all go at the moment of of our greatest peace.To soar above earthly pain and rise,  as Annie so beautifully writes, to that "moment of artless , charmed happiness"

Does BBM ever let go I wonder, or will I be forever be  held  captive within its spell ?

[Kerry]

I absolutely love those words, they tear,  my very soul apart, what a perfect example of Bittersweet. Like you I also wonder about the Jack we do not see,more so than Ennis. Does he as you say, go upstairs to his room and try to  breathe in the very essence of Ennis and BBM. Does he cry as he recalls the idyllic summer that was Brokeback.

Does BBM ever let go I wonder, or will I be forever be  held  captive within its spell ?

Does BBM ever let go? Well, in my own case, I thought I was pretty much all cried out. Until, that is, I read what you wrote above. And back again the tears came.  Looks like I'm a captive for life and I'm at peace with that.

[bailey1205]

I am happy to see folks on here referring to the SS.

When I think of BBM, more and more I think of the SS.
I get a better understanding of how the boys became attracted to one another.

They were both lonely young men, that probably never had a friend.
Someone that listened.  Cared about each other feelings.

The movie paints Ennis to be more closed off then the way I read the SS.
SS Ennis was more vocal about his feelings, although I really don't think
he was completely able to comprehend that what his feelings were were love
until after their reunion.

[Monika]

although I really don't think
he was completely able to comprehend that what his feelings were were love
until after their reunion.

Do you think that Jack realised it earlier or at the same time as Ennis, Bailey?

[bailey1205]

Do you think that Jack realised it earlier or at the same time as Ennis, Bailey?

Oh, I do think Jack realized it while on that mountain.

He knew Ennis was skittish about the 'queer' part.

It was actually Jack in the SS that said it was a one shot thing, nobody's business but ours.

I think when they both came down off that mountain, they both knew something special happened
between them, but they didn't know how to articulate it.

As Ennis said in the reunion...... I been setting up here all this time wondering if I was..............

then he went on to say I know I ain't.

[Katie77]

Oh, I do think Jack realized it while on that mountain.

He knew Ennis was skittish about the 'queer' part.

It was actually Jack in the SS that said it was a one shot thing, nobody's business but ours.

I think when they both came down off that mountain, they both knew something special happened
between them, but they didn't know how to articulate it.

As Ennis said in the reunion...... I been setting up here all this time wondering if I was..............

then he went on to say I know I ain't.

I think that line says exactly how Ennis was feeling.......to accept he was in love with Jack, was to him, admitting he was queer....he really did not want to think of himself as queer.

Even at the reunion, he is still reinforcing, that he "knows he aint".......was marrying Alma and being able to make love to a woman, his justification that he was not?

It seems he was more concerned about thinking himself queer, than anything else.