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What do you think makes this movie so romantic?

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serious crayons:
One thing I've always wondered about Brokeback is, what makes it such a powerful romance? Why do I find it roughly a million times more romantic than any other movie love story I can remember seeing? I mean, sure, we're all obsessed. Still, it seems odd that out of all of cinematic history I am unable to think of even one film couple that I cared about half as much as I do Jack and Ennis. So what makes their relationship so moving?

A few possible reasons come to mind. Probably no single one fully explains it, but maybe a bunch of them put together do. So I thought I'd see what you guys have to add.

So I'll start:

I was discussing Brokeback with a friend, who liked it but only in a mildly appreciative way. One of her criticisms was that she wished you could see more sparks between them prior to TS1. Of course, as all of us here know, you can. The subtlety of those sparks caused my friend to overlook them -- I barely picked up on them myself the first time I saw it -- but it's the subtlety that makes them so touching.

I started thinking about how in most movies, the sparks are generated by some wildly improbable experience the couple goes through. She is being chased by gangsters, and he has to help her hide. Or they each think the apartment they live in is theirs, but that's because one of them is actually a ghost. Even more everday scenarios are still pretty out there: they go on a date together and everything goes absurdly wrong, or they hate each other until one of them goes through a bad experience and the other one is sympathetic ... or whatever.

But we watch Jack and Ennis fall in love exactly the way people in real life fall in love. There's the initial physical attraction. The friendship develops. They admire qualities in each other. They sneak glances when the other isn't looking. They find opportunities to touch. They do nice things for each other. They flirt. They start to genuinely care about each other.

Nothing absurd or unusual. Plus, they do all this while also trying NOT to show that it's happening. The realism and subtlety draw us in. We remember what those feelings are like, and can feel ourselves falling in love, too.

What else?

Aussie Chris:
Great question Katherine.  Ok here's one from me (it's the obvious one I'm afraid): Jack and Ennis really only have each other.  Like the Montague and Capulet families of Romeo & Juliet, the world is against them.  We identify with them because we see our own romantic lives as a struggle of fate against reality.

Jeff Wrangler:
Just one reason, but an important one: It's a tragedy. They don't live happily ever after, or ride off into the sunset just before the credits role. All the great love stories in Western culture are ultimately tragedies.

ednbarby:
I agree with all these observations.  And Katherine, I can't tell you how much it gets on my last nerve when people see it for the first time and dismiss it largely based on that "no sparks" observation.  Dumbass mules.  I can understand where it's hard to see them for some people in their first viewing, I guess.  But I never had a doubt.  And you're right - I think it's because our culture is conditioned to only "believe" love stories when they're actually highly contrived.  Bugs the bejesus out of me.  Reminds me of some lines from one of my favorite band's songs, which has become eerily Jack-like to me in recent times:

I'm the son of rage and love,
The Jesus of Suburbia
The Bible of Therapy and Love -
on a steady diet of.

And there's nothing wrong with me,
This is how I'm s'posed to be.
In a land of make-believe,
They don't believe in me.

But I digress.  I've always loved the stories like "Jane Eyre" and "Emma," or "Sense and Sensibility" where two people who are best friends outwardly are inwardly very much in love with one another but don't recognize it consciously until it's almost too late.  In Brokeback's case, it is absolutely too late when Ennis finally recognizes it and gives it its proper name in his mind.  That's the tragedy (among others, since nothing about it is black and white).

serious crayons:
Green Day channeling Jack Twist! There's a new concept, Barb. (How about "Time of Your Life"?)

OK, here's another one: For me, perhaps THE most romantic aspects is the internal struggle Ennis goes through. A great romance often requires one or both lovers to overcome some daunting challenge on behalf of the other. That's exactly what Ennis does -- despite a lifetime of associating homosexuality with fear and violence and shame, he loves Jack SO MUCH that he sets all those prejudices aside in order to be with him. Not as far aside as we'd like, of course. But for him, it's huge. And it's worth noting that he never allows his negative feelings to diminish his obvious joy and passion when he is with Jack.

And for Jack, of course, the daunting challenge is the 20-year wait. And again, the fact that he's able to hang in there so long tell us how much he loves Ennis and how important that love is.

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