Brokeback Mountain is becoming an emotional touchstone and a singular experience for practically everyone who sees it. Its depth of expression, detail, and ability to inculcate itself into the unconsciousness of almost everyone who experiences it gives the film the distinction of a truly innovative art work which taps something powerful and myth-based. SPOILERS Having seen the film three times, each time more overwhelmed by its brilliance on every level, I've been especially struck by Ennis's visit to Jack's family home in Lightning Flat to retrieve Jack's ashes with the intent to scatter them on Brokeback. Ang Lee's choice of set-design, framing of the action, blocking of the actors, line readings and lighting all make this eerie, stark sequence visually distinct from anything else in the film. It is all redolent of Classical myth and tragedy. Knowing that Ang Lee's background is in theater, it's not far-fetched to assume this is pointedly intentional. It was driving me crazy trying to identify a specific Classical reference until the following struck me. I've been riffing intensely on this scene and the following may be an interpretive 'stretch', conflating a number of mythic references, but bear with me. It seems to me to most clearly echo Virgil's "The Aeneid" and the portion in Book VI where Aeneas descends to Hades. Ennis [= Aeneas?] undertakes a 'labor' much as Aeneas in descending to Hades/Hell to recover the ashes of his Beloved Jack and release his spirit from Tartarus where the Sons of Men are imprisoned. The interior of Jack's family home is like a sepulchre - white-washed, bare, spare, bereft of any ornament, drained of color with a ghostly, unearthly glow illuminating the kitchen through the windows. Jack's Mother is the Sybil who allows Ennis/Aeneas passage past Cerberus the guardian of the underworld--Jack's Father- the adamantine, unyielding judge of what is meant to be acceptable and allowable. Jack's Mother/the Sybil mollifies/drugs the intractable Cerberus/Jack's Father with a sweet cake as in "The Aeneid". She offers the same 'cherry cake' to Ennis/Aeneas along with a cup of coffee. Ennis accepts the latter [as an aid to illumination?], rejecting the former, hence, is able to partake of her offer to see Jack's room and the icons and remnants of his life --"I kept his room like it was when he was a boy. I think he appreciated that. You are welcome to go up in his room, if you want." Ennis, 'undrugged' by the same cherry cake is able to fully experience the earthly remnants of his beloved Jack's life, the details of whose life he has never fully known or realized, which have been protected and maintained in his boyhood room by his true guardian/Mother. Ennis ascends the deathly, bare stairs to Jack's room where he finds the only true repository of any of the memories of his childhood, the core of his personality. The bare room looking out over the dusty plain and down "the only road" he had every known is heart-breaking. A simple cot for a bed. The rest of the room consists of reminders of Jack's failed dreams. A desk and chair where he failed to make an impression as a scholar. A cowboy figurine is a mocking reminder of his failure to achieve his dream of becoming a cowboy himself. The small .22 hanging in a wooden rack is a mockery of his lack of marksmanship evident earlier in the film. The only thing representing anything of value he might have achieved is the iconic/cult object of his true and abiding love for Ennis - the two shirts hidden away from the prying eyes of Jack's father and the rest of the world. Only his Mother would have been party to their significance. Jack's Mother/the Sibyl allows him passage out of the house/Hades with the shirts, placing them in a paper bag for transport, even as the Father/Cerberus states adamantly that Jack is "goin' in" the family plot. The final act of hatred of the Father toward his only son is to deny Jack's last wish for his remains to be united with Brokeback, the only reminder of a time and place which gave him his greatest joy in life. Ennis's final words of "Jack, I swear" echo those of Aeneas when confronted with the 'shade' or ghost of his beloved Dido who committed suicide after he abandoned her. Aeneas says to Dido's ghost, "I swear by every oath that hell can muster, I swear I left you against my will. The law of God--the law that sends me now through darkness, bramble, rot and profound night--unyielding drove me; nor could I have dreamed that in my leaving I would hurt you so". Ang Lee's brilliant final shot juxtaposes the closing closet door of Ennis's Brokeback shrine to Jack's eternal memory with the wind-swept fields of ripening golden grain visible through the trailer window and establishes a supreme ambiguity. Are the fields an image of renewal and hope OR an image of intractible inevitability? A symbol of the emotionally limited world which Ennis will inhabit the rest of his days, giving obeisance to the memory of Jack OR a foretaste of the 'Elysian fields' where Ennis/Aeneas will one day be re-united with his beloved? With the deftness of the great, superior work of art that it is, Ang Lee leaves it to the viewer to answer the final riddle of Brokeback Mountain.A poster wdj on Dave Cullen's amazing forum http://davecullen.com/forum/index.php?topic=17.285 in reply to the discussion on that site has discovered a stunningly appropriate reference to Aeneas's beloved male friend Misenus for whom Aeneas is primarily searching through Hades. The Sibyl says the following in the John Dryden translation: Besides, you know not, while you here attend, Th' unworthy fate of your unhappy friend: Breathless he lies; and his unburied ghost, Depriv'd of fun'ral rites, pollutes your host. Pay first his pious dues; and, for the dead, Two sable sheep around his hearse be led; Then, living turfs upon his body lay: This done, securely take the destin'd way, To find the regions destitute of day. The images and themes especially of deprived funeral rites and sable sheep vis a vis Brokeback Mountain are astounding!!I looked up the Dave Cullen site, and somebody there mentions that Misenus was was drowned for hubris. In Brokeback Mountain, Lureen tells Ennis that Jack "drowned in his own blood". More grist for your mill.
I'm trying to find the thread that was talking about the windows being open and Jack being the wind. When I saw it the other night I was really struck by Ennis opening Jack's bedroom window - it seemed very significant, as though he was letting Jack out or letting the wind in and I can't remember where I read someone else's thoughts about this. There is also a line Aguirre speaks about "look what the wind blew in" re Jack. I'm guessing Jack is the Element of wind here? Makes sense - wind, sky, shifting, ephemeral, never grounded etc. ______________________ Hey Spotted, That was my post. But it was deleted. I was waiting for a reason to repost it. Hope Casey doesn't mind my posting it below: "The Straw That Broke The Camel's Back" The elements of Earth, Air, Fire and Water majorly influence Chinese Philopshy. My interest became how Ang Lee may have applied those in his directing of BBM. One of the actors, maybe Heath, talked about how Ang did a ceremony to the four corners before shooting each scene. Of course the four corners represent the above-mentioned four elements. So today, I sought to find out where they were placed, especially when they were represented in human form. I don’t have a good grasp of Taoism, and can only reference it in a very Western context… I am not saying this was all intentional on Lee’s part. What I am trying to examine is how Superconsciousness, or the powers that be, may intervene and influence the affairs of man. Earth – This is Ennis Del Mar. And what an extreme challenge we have here. Frankly because his name means Island by The Sea . He is the Earth engulfed by the Water. And water is the element of time. Ennis, the earth, at his pinnacle is a Mountain. Brokeback Moutain is the highpoint of Ennis Del Mar. His handicap – no man is an island. Lee places a curious formation of salt, sugar, and pepper shakers on a table in front of Alma, the morning she waits at the table for Ennis to come back from his tryst with Jack Twist. The three, forgive me, Condiments, form the shape of a Mountain, not unlike Brokeback, next to which is a cup of black coffee. It speaks of Alma’s experience with Ennis – bittersweet. Mountains are immovable, unchanging, at least in the moment of now. And so is Ennis Del Mar. Air - This is Jack Twist. Jack, uncontained and ungrounded by Earth, moves from place to place, rodeo to rodeo. In the first few scenes we see the wind blowing the grasses next to a moving train. Off in the distance we see a moving truck. The wind kicks up a storm as Jack drives into view. This is Jack Twist, the wind. Jack represents the freedom of the wind, and the danger of a tornado (Twist...Twister). As a testimony to the sign of air, Joe Aguirre says point blank to Jack Twist, upon his third attempt seeking work on Brokeback, “Well, look what the wind blew in!” Windows originate from wind. Later on that. Fire – the element, is warmth and passion. What happens when something touches fire? In a literal sense, one gets burned. In a figurative sense, one get’s tested. If the test is passed, one becomes pure. The element of fire represents the love affair between Ennis and Jack. The fire almost dies down in front of the tent that first night, but it’s stoked by body heat moments later. Later when the men part after Brokeback, some part of that fire was exchanged between the two and radiated like those campfire embers for 4 years. The moment Jack and Ennis reunite we see a spark, a flame, and a wildfire. Water : In this story, water represents the element of time, passing slowly, passing quickly, water under the bridge. It works against Jack and Ennis in the smaller picture, but in the bigger one it etches their love into something as solid as stone. In one of the most powerful scenes Jack stands in front of a river…a river that previously reflected a mirror image of two magnificent mountains, and says, as if to himself, “Never enough time, never enough.” Character Flaws revealed and resolved: In a back to back sequence Ang Lee uncovers the central flaws of Jack and Ennis. Jack’s flaw is recklessness. The scene where Jack hits on the rodeo clown, who, by the way, is dressed in clothing similar in style and color to those that Ennis wore. Jack gets rejected, and possibly even exposed due to his lack of judgment, and inability to gauge a correct degree of discretion. Actions of the sort can be a life-threatening experience for a gay man in a sh*tkicker bar. Ennis’ flaw is revealed in the next scene. Insulted by foul-mouthed greasers, Ennis’ unbridled emotion overcomes him, and causes him to beat the heck out of those guys. Poor Alma seems shocked at Ennis’ rage. Fireworks by the dawn’s early light go off in the background to underscore it. Recklessness meets up with rage on the last trip shared by Ennis & Jack. Jack’s Mexico recklessness meets Ennis’ uncontrollable rage causing Ennis to shut down and stuff. Jack explodes. Ennis implodes. Observations: As Jack dances with Lureen the first night at the kickerclub, he is completely surrounded by temptation in the form of men, ALL, save one, who are dressed like Ennis Del Mar – white patterned rodeo shirt with print and jeans! Just like rodeo clown in an earlier scene. At the end of this scene Jack drops the mask he’s put up for Lureen, and we see the depth of his sorrow. It’s as if he realizes he must submit if he ever hopes to survive in the world around him. Lureen takes the lead from then on out. Lureen is Ennis in female form. Revolting against Daddy, she snags Jack and takes control from the back seat of the car to the back seat of the business. She, like Ennis, is Earth. She’s practical, a numbers cruncher, an unmovable mountain. Alma is Jack Twist in female form. She is an idealist, and a demanding one at that. Jack is no different on Brokeback…demanding more than beans, not settling for less than elk. Alma, like Jack, has a set of needs that she seeks to have filled. They move into the town apartment, and the suggestions that Ennis seek better employment. Finished Before They Began Both of these marriages were finished long before Jack & Ennis reunite after 4 years. The reason they even do reunite is because Ennis knows its over, and begin’s to withdraw from Alma. Munroe, by this time already had designs on Alma, as witnessed in the store. Jack knows it’s over mainly because it never really began. Jack & Lureen’s relationship was the inverse of Ennis and Alma’s. Ennis, due to emotional fragmenting, pushed people away. Jack, due to the fragmenting of his family, pulled people to himself to fill the void. Jack & Lureen worked because it was an arrangement. Ennis & Alma didn’t work out because it was a masquerade. And Monroe – he’s just Ennis with an education, a few more layers of fat, and a few more aspirations. Most importantly, for Alma at least, there was no ring of fire Monroe needed to walk through. Monroe was never tested in the way that Ennis has been. Numerology and Esoteric Symbols Alma & Jack’s laundry apartment number is 2. The arcane represented by the number Two, in hebrew is Gimel, or camel. It corresponds to safety. As if a journey through a desert is made with a beast of burden like a camel, horse, burro, mule, etc. Ennis shoots a coyote that was big enough to eat a Camel. Brokeback Mountain is symbolic of the last straw... THE STRAW THAT BROKE THE CAMEL'S BACK. In arcana 2 is not the number of the lovers, as one might initially think (that would be 6). It is the issue of money and possessions, the electric knife as opposed to the manual knife. That was Alma’s focus in this place. Ennis’ mailbox at the trailerpark was #17. It reduces numerologically to 8, which means rebirth. It represents a Phoenix, a magic bird of fire, that rises from the ashes of death. Ennis, has certainly walked through the fire, and come out other side. There are at least 2 phallic symbols that I found, but won’t go into detail. One happens as Jack get’s to ride the winning bull. The other happens the first Tent Night between Jack & Ennis, and involves the strategic placement of a coffee pot. The Point of No Return On the final trip together, Jack has pushed past the point of no return. We hear his final plea to Ennis delivered in a vocal register from his younger days, “Truth is, sometimes, I miss you so much I can hardly stand it.” Ladies and Gentlemen, Jack Twist has left the building. Spirit knows the time and place, and this is the foreboding. The shell of Jack that remained did so as a last ditch effort to make a run for the border – to no avail. With a river in front of him reflecting the element of water, the test of time, we hear him say “Never enough time, never enough”, knowing on some spiritual level that it had run out. Jack heads up to Lightning Flat for the last time in the flesh to help spirit seed his final gift to Ennis…the Brokeback Shirts. Open A Window, and Let The Light In: In major arcana a window represents an opportunity for spirit (a higher element of fire) to enter into human consciousness (as opposed to human subconscious). It also symbolizes opening a place in the heart. Ennis waits excitedly at his own open window looking for the first sign of Jack to drive up for their reunion. Much later, Ennis ventures up to Jack’s room, in tears, and opens Jack’s window. He sits, as if waiting for a response. Spirit, the spirit of Jack Twist, enters his consciousness, and guides Ennis to a memento of their relationship, 2 shirts hidden in a secret crevice of Jack’s closet. Ennis and Jack intermingled and intertwined. As Ennis exits the house and stands outside of the door we see above his head, Jack’s still open window, and it’s almost as if Jack stands beside it saying farewell watching over him. In the final scene – a picture window of the world, as revealed by Ennis’ closet door closing shut. We can’t really tell if the window is sealed shut or if maybe just the handle is missing. But we do know that Ennis has opened his heart, and when the heart is open, other windows of opportunity can appear at any time. Is this Ennis’ rebirth, the bird of fire, up from the ashes? Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. "You bet." --Ennis del Mar
