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

newcomer from HBO with some questions!

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kallyn:
Hi guys.  :) I just saw Brokeback randomly for the first time last night on HBO, and then watched it again on demand this morning after I couldn't get it out of my head!  I've been reading threads in here last night and today and I was pleased that I caught a lot of the little details on my first watching.  The second was even richer in depth.  Anyway, I noticed a few things that I was wondering about:

1) Lureen's hair.  Every time you see her and time has passed, it becomes more and more styled and more and more blonde (also her makeup keeps getting heavier).  Is there any significance to this?  Maybe her appearance is becoming faker as her marriage is becoming faker?  I searched the forum for "lureen's hair" but nothing came up.

2) Right before Ennis starts trying to beat that guy up outside of the bar, he pulls up in his truck and it only has one working headlight.  There's gotta be a reason for that, right?  It doesn't seem like anything in this movie is insignificant.

Also, in my first viewing I thought that Ennis had said "I'm sorry" in the tent scene, but on the second viewing I thought that Jack said it.  I guess it just means that I'll have to watch it again OH DARN.   ;D

uhketchup:
Welcome to the board  ;D

1) Agreed with your interpretation there, definitiely signifies her growing superficiality in contrast to the ever-deep relationship between Jack and Ennis

2) Hadn't thought about the second headlight, and so I'm not going to make a pretentious, tenuous point to support it!

And the whole Ennis "I'm sorry" theory is still ambiguous I'm afraid - I like to think he says it though, hence the heartbreaking reply "It's alright" from Jack - simplicity is best.

I can assure you, your first viewing will most certainly not be the last!

nakymaton:
Welcome, kallyn. :)

About Lureen's hair: I think Anne Hathaway said something about it in an interview... something about how, as time goes by, Jack turns to the liquor bottle and Lureen turns to the peroxide bottle. ;D But, yeah, I agree that it's a sign that the marriage is becoming more and more fake, or that Lureen is trying to find some way to become more attractive because she knows she doesn't have Jack's attention.

About the headlight: whoa! I've never heard anyone discuss that detail before, I don't think. As for reasons... hmmm. Well, partly it shows that Ennis isn't doing very well financially. And, hmmm, broken lights or electrical things. Maybe the spark isn't quite there when Ennis isn't around Jack? (Somebody else will do a better job interpreting that one, I'm sure. :D ) (Heh... I just read uhketchup's response, but I'll go out on a limb and make pretentious, tenuous points. ;D Hopefully somebody will tell me if they don't make any sense.)

And the dialogue in the 2nd tent scene is one of the Great Mysteries of the Brokeback Mountain Cult, I think. That, and how exactly Jack died. And whether Jack really quit Ennis. And...

uhketchup:
Nakymaton, neither pretentious nor tenuous - I'm impressed  ;D

ednbarby:
... And whether Ennis says "I love you" into the shirts in Jack's room...  ;)

Welcome, Kallyn!  It's so nice to see a post today from a brand new viewer/admirer brought to us by my heroes at HBO.

I agree quite a bit with what's been said here so far - that Lureen keeps lightening her hair, literally, to try to feel attractive/get Jack's attention and figuratively, to me, because she symbolizes fire and her hair getting lighter and lighter is symbolic of her fire going out and turning to ash.

Someone back on the old IMDb board many months ago posted a beautiful piece called "The Elements" - if anyone can find it, please post it, but in the meantime I'll attempt rather lamely to paraphrase it:

Alma is water - like a bubbling brook when we first meet her but over time still and cold as a frozen lake

Lureen is fire - burning brightly at first but over time reduced to glowing embers, and then to ash, as evidenced in her ever lightening hair

Jack is air - as fresh as a cool breeze when we first meet him, but then quieted over time only to be buried forever in the Earth.

Ennis is the Earth.

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