Isn't it funny? Maybe some distance was required, but it really only comes to me now that the reason I disagree with you about Old Man Twist's lack of homophobia is because when I hear him say that he knows where Brokeback Mountain is, I hear the same contempt in his voice that I hear in Ennis's when he tells Jack that he knows what they've got in Mexico for boys like Jack. In other words, it's not what he says, or what he doesn't say, but the way he says what he does say. I know homophobia--hatred and contempt for "queers"--when I hear it.
Well, I'm not saying he's president of the local PFLAG chapter!
I just meant that his main beef with Jack isn't about his sexual orientation, which is telling enough in itself. Sure, they had a bad relationship. Sure, the old man is a contemptuous jerk. It's just that when he looks back at his dead son, the thing he expresses the most contempt about is that Jack failed to carry out his plan to leave his wife and bring another man home to live together and help with the ranch. Compared to Ennis' dad or even just the average rural Wyoming guy of that era, he's far less upset about Jack's gayness than you'd think.
Guys, you both make assumption that John Twist (and the mother) knew about Jack's being gay, and according to each of you, did or did not accept it graciously. What am I missing? Why can't the father be telling Ennis, although scornfully, that since he knows where BBM is doesn't need Ennis' help?
Almost every single line in BBM serves more than one function. In this case, the text says that he knows where the damn mountain is. The subtext, given that we know that Brokeback Mountain symbolizes Jack and Ennis' relationship in its most idyllic, almost heaven-like version, is that he knows they had a relationship.
But if you don't want to parse out the literary implications, you can find clues in the main text, too, like the one I mentioned above. He wasn't concerned that his son was going to leave his wife and move in with a man. He was concerned that his son didn't do that, because he could have used the help on the ranch. Again, this is not evidence that he was a nice guy, or that he was enlightened by 2013 standards, just evidence that he was more enlightened than Ennis would have expected, because in Ennis' mind anyone who knew what was going on with Jack would be reaching for the tire iron.
BBM is full of characters who act in less homophobic ways than Ennis would expect -- there are some awkward moments but no tire irons (outside of Rich and Earl, plus Ennis' vision at the end). Aguirre knows they're gay but doesn't say anything until Jack returns the next summer. Lureen at least semi-knows but expresses it only in veiled complaints at the dance. Even Alma knows for years but doesn't say a word about it until that fateful Thanksgiving. That's one of the ironies (yuck, no pun intended) of BBM. Ennis had a disproportionate fear of the world's homophobia, even in 1960s Wyoming, because of his horrifying childhood, and that trapped him for life.
It seems to me that the evidence is very suppositional.
Yes, analysis of good literature and film does often require leaps of supposition.
1. From the story, the "knowing look" by the father. Proulx never hints at what he might "know." 2. From the movie, John Twist does seem to give added emphasis to the "Tell you what, I know..." line, but never elaborates. 3. When Jack returns to the family home after the first summer, to "go back up to my daddy's place, give him a hand over the winter" he most likely talked at the dinner table, etc., about Ennis all the time, and told them he wanted to return to BBM to repeat his experience of the first summer. 4. At some point Jack must have told his mother NOT to wash The Shirts. Mothers obsessively was their children's clothes. At some point in the 20 years she "kept his room like it was when he was a boy" she would have found the shirts and, given all the blood, would have washed them, unless she had been warned specifically not to.
I should clarify that my thoughts above apply mostly to the movie. The story is a bit different here. I think this is something Larry and Diana wrote into it, that Proulx may or may not have intended, but I think it improves the irony.
A knowing look that is never explained, Jack's talking about Ennis all the time, the warning about the shirts: is it really enough to suggest that the parents knew they were lovers rather than just good friends?
Yes. Good film writing can be very subtle. And this film is jammed with subtle writing and nuances.