It is really interesting that both Ennis and Jack never mentioned the fact that they were on Brokeback together that summer to there respective wives. Maybe this has something to do with Ang Lee's statement that he sees their relationship as "something private and precious and they cannot articulate..." Primarily here both Ennis and Jack (on their own) make gestures to keep the circumstances of their summer as private as possible to preserve the precious feeling about it. (Try saying the last half of that sentence 10 times fast. lol). So, clearly they can't articulate anything about this for a huge number of reasons (either to their wives or in their own heads often)... and all of this emerges in the form of Ennis's little lie. "We were fishing buddies." It's amazing how something so seemingly simple can become sooo complex.
His exact words are:
I come by to say that if you want me to take his ashes up there on Brokeback like his wife said he wanted, I'd be proud to.
He also uses Brokeback in the conversation with Lureen. So he only ever says the name after jack is dead.
But I think the point you made works in either case -- Ennis is sort of quietly acknowledging to Lureen that there was something important between him and Jack, even though neither one says anything directly about it.
I found this thread and read through the whole thing. There are topics that I don’t want to dredge up … for obvious reasons. But, the three quotes above are all very interesting to me and something
else I had not previously considered. (BTW, Katherine … I had never heard of the asphalt or movie theater interpretations … very enlightening!)
The whole idea of seeing “Brokeback” as something personal and special to both Jack and Ennis did not escape me. What I did
not discern was the thought that even
mentioning the word “Brokeback” somehow diminished the intimacy that Jack and Ennis experienced. It was mentioned somewhere in this thread that the only time Jack used the word “Brokeback” was in the motel room when he said, “Brokeback got us good, don’t it.” Jack did, however, use it one other time and that was during the lake scene when he said, “All we got now, is Brokeback Mountain! Everything’s built on that. That’s all we got, boy, f**king all.” This is another “bookend” in the film … the use of “Brokeback” at the time of their reunion and at their last time together. It is interesting to note how “Brokeback” was used. The first time, Jack referred to “Brokeback” in terms of it being an idyllic place. The last time, Jack inferred that it was a place where their relationship became stuck. What I mean by this is that Ennis could not translate/ transfer his lack of inhibitions and his intensity of feeling post mountain. Furthermore, the only way Ennis could recapture their time on BBM was “out in the middle of nowhere.”
Again, I read somewhere in this thread about Ennis’ use of “Brokeback” after Jack died as a way to acknowledge his love for Jack. Although I had never thought of it in those terms, it makes sense. Ennis used it twice … with Lureen (which confirmed her suspicions that Jack was gay) and with Jack’s parents (which reinforced the knowledge that Jack was gay). After that, however, he has a postcard of BBM in the closet with the shirts.