Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
"I figured you were sore from that punch"
dly64:
--- Quote from: latjoreme on July 11, 2006, 12:49:58 am ---If Ennis would have gotten into the truck and they'd ridden off together, nobody would have made a movie about their lives. We'd never have heard of them, and wouldn't know to be glad that things had worked out happily.
--- End quote ---
True. Very true. But it is worth dreaming about ... I would have loved to see them together at the end. (Of course we know that would have constituted a formulaic movie and would not have evoked the passion and conversation that the film has). But it is fun to dream! ::)
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: dly64 on July 11, 2006, 09:55:15 am ---I would have loved to see them together at the end. (Of course we know that would have constituted a formulaic movie and would not have evoked the passion and conversation that the film has).
--- End quote ---
Sometimes I think that would be fine with me. It would still be a lovely movie, I still would have enjoyed it a lot and want to see it a bunch of times and thought about it for a while and recommended it to everyone and rooted for it at Oscar time.
But if it had ended happily, then six months after seeing the movie -- hell, six days, probably -- I would have my life back.
Mikaela:
--- Quote ---Heh. I imagined Jack bursting into the church at "speak now or forever hold your peace," then accidentally shooting somebody... and then Jack and Ennis running from the law in some bad parody of a Western.
Fortunately, I woke up.
--- End quote ---
Reading this thread, completely unbidden I imagined another version: The one where Jack gets killed very early on by some ugly gay-bashers, and the rest of the film is the devastated Ennis tracking them down and putting his gun and his fists to good use in a huge spray of blood. I imagine that version of re-invented Hollywood gay masculinity might well have found favour with persons who were squicked by the tenderness and passion of the kissing scenes and the motel scene. Might have made them vote for the film at the Oscars, even.
Of course, they also would have lost me from their audience; - I avoid violent revenge films like the plague.
Luckily, I managed to claw my way back to RL fromthis horrible nightmare! :o
I don't think the film would have had such an impact on me if there'd been a happy ending. I know it wouldn't. I admit I've been wondering (and worrying) about why that is. :-\
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Mikaela on July 11, 2006, 01:48:10 pm ---Jack gets killed very early on by some ugly gay-bashers, and the rest of the film is the devastated Ennis tracking them down and putting his gun and his fists to good use in a huge spray of blood.
--- End quote ---
Hey, it's not too late! "Brokeback II: Ennis' Revenge." Would you go, Mikaela ... if it included plenty of flashbacks? ;)
--- Quote ---I don't think the film would have had such an impact on me if there'd been a happy ending. I know it wouldn't. I admit I've been wondering (and worrying) about why that is. :-\
--- End quote ---
I think it's because one of the most powerful things that hits you (I mean "you" the viewer) is the immense sadness and sense of tragedy. That's not all there is to the movie's power; there is also the positive emotions of the happy parts (TS2, the reunion, etc.) plus all the other appealing things -- romantic, aesthetic, intellectual, dramtic, literary, erotic (not necessarily in that order). So if you took the sadness and tragedy out, the film would still be good. But you'd be missing that big chunk of its impact.
Mikaela:
Brokeback II: The revenge :o :o :o
--- Quote ---Would you go, Mikaela ... if it included plenty of flashbacks? ;)
--- End quote ---
*Plenty* of flashbacks? Well, let's see........ Oh, who am I kidding. Plenty of flashbacks of the right sort and I would have been first in line on premiere night for sure.
But those flashbacks had better deliver the goods! Because you know, there wouldn't only be the graphic violence. In the tradition of this type of film (given that Ennis is after all gay and therefore can't possibly just be allowed to be seen walking away scot-free in the end ) - he'd probably be fighting a personal timeline due to being mortally ill from lung cancer or some such. ::) >:(
--- Quote --- the most powerful things that hits you (I mean "you" the viewer) is the immense sadness and sense of tragedy.
--- End quote ---
Yes, it is all that. But why all that sadness and tragedy, those squashed hopes and twarthed longings and wasted lives should hold such a spell over such a long time..... it's a topic that belongs in the "Why are we like this" thread I suppose. But I'm still not sure that I fully know the answer.
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