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

Questions, hope not stoopid.....

<< < (8/10) > >>

Ellemeno:
Jeff, I sure love how well you speak Brokeback.

Jeff Wrangler:

--- Quote from: Ellemeno on January 19, 2007, 08:10:46 pm ---Jeff, I sure love how well you speak Brokeback.

--- End quote ---

Takes a lot of practice, Little Darlin'!  :laugh:

ednbarby:
Marlb, you have some keen observational skills.  Really!

It always hits me how Ennis stands back to look at his handiwork on the mailbox just as he stood back to look at the tent, too.  That "Desperado" tribute on youtube that some kind soul posted here recently nails it.  There ain't nothing happy about that scene - "Freedom - well, that's just some people talkin'.  Your prison is walking through this world all alone."  That scene strikes me, too, as Ennis' attempt to make light, just for a moment, an awful situation.  Whistling in the dark, as it were.  It breaks my heart.

I think Jack would have mentioned he was talking about Lightning Flat to Ennis that night after their reunion if Ennis had not confided in him what he did.  And I agree with Jeff that from that point on, whenever Jack mentioned him to his father, he was just 'thinkin' out loud.'  Floating a trial balloon, as my father always says about one of my brothers.  I think Jack wanted his Dad to know he was worthy of the respect (and love?) of someone like Ennis - the respect and love he never got from him.  Of course what Ennis' Dad did was the most catastrophically damaging thing imaginable.  But making your son feel like he didn't deserve your love his whole life is right up there, too.

Cameron:
Thanks Edna :) 

Your so kind :)  :)

I tried to watch the video, but I only have dial up so I wasn't able to see it, it never loaded.   Now I have to find a way, I always loved that song.

Anyway I don't know, you all have good points.  It is just that to me if Jack could be telling his father about Ennis, it could not have been such a big deal to just go up for the weekend.  And maybe if he approached it the right way Ennis would have gone.

I know I take a very Ennis point of view, but I think part of the whole problem with the relationship is that Jack was always pushing Ennis for big steps, moving, leaving Alma and the girl, the post divorce meeting etc. that Ennis never could be able to do.  I think Ennis could have done smaller things, like just going up for the weekend to LF, it just seems to me that should have realized that Ennis could simply not abandon his whole life, but maybe things could have worked out if it hand been done it the right way.

ednbarby:
That's an excellent point, Marlb.  I think Jack just wasn't a baby steps kind of a guy.  He always dreamed big, and that in a way was his curse.  Central to the tragedy of their story, I think, is how they were always misunderstanding each other.  Ennis misunderstood Jack's nonchalance at leaving the mountain as not really caring about him, when actually Jack was so nonchalant because he didn't see it as the end to their relationship like Ennis did.  Ennis punched him out of his frustration with him for that, and then Jack misunderstood it as Ennis resenting him, perhaps for starting the relationship in the first place.  And it just snowballed from there.  They never truly communicated their feelings for each other to each other (even to themselves).  And it makes perfect sense that they didn't, unfortunately.  Straight men can barely talk to straight women about anything really intimate.  Put two men together who can't even come to terms with their own sexuality (Jack had less difficulty with it than Ennis, of course) and naturally there are going to be communication (or lack thereof) issues.

That's part of what makes this movie so perfect.  People misunderstand each other in real life.  Constantly.  And it usually leads to the unraveling of their relationships, if they're ever able to get a relationship off the ground in the first place.  Long-term relationships of any kind are just plain hard work.  Of course they're worth it when you love each other.  But when you can't even express that to one another, you're already on pretty shaky ground.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page

Go to full version