Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum

Over the years...

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Kazza:
Hi I know that this has been discuss on another thread “The Question of Time: What Was Life Like in 1963?”  , but what I’m interested in is the change (or not) of the attitudes of the character as the years pass and the world changes.

The themes arising from BBM are so timeless that I often forget the quite contemporary setting (relatively speaking).

I know that the story starts in the early 60’s with characters who had grown up during the 40s and 50s, but by the end we are in the early 80s.

Now I don’t know much about rural America during that or any other period, but wouldn’t Ennis have picked up on some of the social changes going on around him?

By the end of the story they would have lived through the whole flower power era and then the glam 70s. I mean, surely the sight of Marc Bolan, or David Bowie (my hero) in a dress with makeup, would have softened his attitude a tad? Are Ennis’ fears so deep rooted that he stands still with it whilst the rest of the world progresses around him?

Then again, they would also have witnessed the punk era and I can’t imagine Ennis with a Mohican and a safety pin through his nose!

Jeff Wrangler:
Good idea for a thread!

For myself, I've wondered whether the growing women's movement in the period had anything to do with Alma coming to feel that she deserved a better life than she was having and finally getting up the gumption to dump Ennis.

On the other hand, despite all the changes that went on in the world during those years, we don't really know how aware Ennis is of them (I suspect Jack would have been more aware). Yes, he had television, even in that poky little trailer he's living in at the end of the film. But even today, in the metropolitan Northeastern U.S., I know people--coworkers--who are tremendously unaware of what is going on in the larger world around them--they never watch television news (because it's "too depressing"), they never read newspapers, and so forth.

Personally, I tend to think the sight of David Bowie in a dress and makeup would have horrified Ennis, made him even more rigid than he was to begin with--if he felt that David Bowie in a dress and makeup equated to being gay.

Kazza:
Gosh yes! Ennis would totally want to disassociate himself from anything like that. Can just imagine his face!

I guess that I wondered if these social changes could possibly, even slightly, have opened Ennis mind to the idea that there are as many different life choices for as many people as there are to choose them.

I think that at heart I’m hoping that if Jack had survived (sniff – wipes eye) Ennis may eventually come round to the idea that the world was finding the idea of two men being together less shocking.

However, maybe he would never have gotten over being shocked by the idea, irrespective of what the world thought.

Mmmm… why do I feel like I’m discussing real people? Where is Ennis now I ask, still living in a trailer?

serious crayons:

--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on July 06, 2006, 10:34:26 am ---Personally, I tend to think the sight of David Bowie in a dress and makeup would have horrified Ennis, made him even more rigid than he was to begin with--if he felt that David Bowie in a dress and makeup equated to being gay.

--- End quote ---

I disagree with the first part, because I don't think Ennis worried that much about other people's sexuality -- too busy worrying about his own!

But as for the second part: is my memory faulty, or didn't David Bowie himself claim to be gay back in them days? I was a teenager then -- and a David Bowie fan -- so it's possible I made the assumption you're attributing to Ennis based on his outfits, or the rock press, or some kind of amalgamation of the two. But I guess I always thought he described himself that way (and then amended it, when it became less a part of his schtick).

Jeff Wrangler:

--- Quote from: latjoreme on July 07, 2006, 11:22:57 pm ---I disagree with the first part, because I don't think Ennis worried that much about other people's sexuality -- too busy worrying about his own!

But as for the second part: is my memory faulty, or didn't David Bowie himself claim to be gay back in them days? I was a teenager then -- and a David Bowie fan -- so it's possible I made the assumption you're attributing to Ennis based on his outfits, or the rock press, or some kind of amalgamation of the two. But I guess I always thought he described himself that way (and then amended it, when it became less a part of his schtick).


--- End quote ---

No, I am not saying Ennis would have been concerned with David Bowie's sexual orientation. What I am saying is that I think that if Ennis thought David Bowie in a dress was what being gay was all about, what it meant to be gay, it would have made him--Ennis--even more self-repressed than he was to begin with.

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