Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
Brokeback Mountain: Force of Nature or Nurture?
ednbarby:
And you know what... Of course one isn't "more gay" than the other. It's all about who's willing to accept his own sexuality and who is not.
Look at what they wear. Throughout the movie, Jack wears nothing but solid color shirts and Ennis wears nothing but plaid/patterned ones. This is a symbol of Jack's security in his own sexuality vs. Ennis'.
So you're right - I was wrong to assume one was more homosexual than the other. They are one and the same. It's the willingness to accept that that differs.
Aussie Chris:
--- Quote from: ednbarby on April 02, 2006, 12:06:13 am ---I guess I just thought of Ennis as being more predominantly gay than Jack because of his apparent disgust at having sex with a woman. But maybe it's more that Jack is the better actor of the two.
--- End quote ---
That's a good point, I hadn't thought of it that way before. I love asking questions like this because everyone interprets scenes differently, but it's when you get someone who (seems to) draw to an almost opposite conclusion that I just have to ask how they did it. And while some arguments about their sexuality lack demonstrable evidence, yours works very well with the scenes as we see them - fantastic stuff! It does present Ennis as an even more tortured and tragic character than I had considered, if that were possible, since he's the one with the most homophobia. And I agree 100% with the last part about the willingness to accept, and the symbolism of the colour of the shirts.
ednbarby:
And again, it just goes to show you the genius of this movie - that we come to question things that hadn't even occurred to us before from the insights of other people.
A friend who just saw it for the first (and second) times said this: This is the one thing that doesn't fly with me: How can Jack, who was raised Pentecostal, seemingly have zero guilt in his couplings with/love for Ennis, whereas Ennis is consumed by it?
My take was that Jack never bought into the whole religious/Pentecostal thing, hence his "I don't know what The Pentecost means" and that moreover, he was all about rising above the status quo - for example, when Ennis comes up on a bear and all that and Jack says "We gotta do something about this food situation" - when Jack suggests that they shoot one of the sheep and Ennis says something along the lines of "We have to accept things the way they are," Jack says, "Well, I won't." That, to me, is the defining moment of Jack.
Later on, Jack's father says, "I know where Brokeback Mountain is. Jack thought he was too damn special to be buried in the family plot..."
Truth is, he was.
Aloysius J. Gleek:
"Truth is, he was."
Love you, Barb.
John
Aussie Chris:
--- Quote from: ednbarby on April 02, 2006, 01:06:48 am ---Later on, Jack's father says, "I know where Brokeback Mountain is. Jack thought he was too damn special to be buried in the family plot..."
Truth is, he was.
--- End quote ---
Totally Barb! And how!! What a simply beautiful way to sum up how I feel about Jack and the emotions of that moment of the film.
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