Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
Post-Divorce Scene
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: marlb42 on January 25, 2007, 08:20:05 pm ---Yes, it is true about the shirts. I don't think that it is just about the sex for Jack, but also the shirts were from the first summer, when Jack was very young and totally infatuated with Ennis.
--- End quote ---
This reminds me of something else that came out of that last viewing for me. Figuratively, it was like I saw this line connecting Jack's angry explosion, "All we got is Brokeback Mountain, everything built on that!" with Lureen's telling Ennis, "Well, he said (Brokeback Mountain) was his favorite place," to the shirts in the closet. And then I thought, Each in their own way, neither Jack nor Ennis ever was able to move on from Brokeback Mountain. :-\ :(
Brown Eyes:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on January 25, 2007, 10:45:21 pm ---Each in their own way, neither Jack nor Ennis ever was able to move on from Brokeback Mountain. :-\ :(
--- End quote ---
I completely agree with this. Right on Jeff!
I mean, Jack requested that his ashes be scattered on Brokeback and Ennis was on quite a mission there towards the end of the film to try his hardest to bring Jack's ashes back to Brokeback (obviously unsuccessfully). So even after Jack's dead they're both still desperate to get back to Brokeback and neither is successful.
:'(
nakymaton:
--- Quote from: atz75 on January 25, 2007, 11:05:08 pm ---I mean, Jack requested that his ashes be scattered on Brokeback and Ennis was on quite a mission there towards the end of the film to try his hardest to bring Jack's ashes back to Brokeback (obviously unsuccessfully). So even after Jack's dead they're both still desperate to get back to Brokeback and neither is successful.
--- End quote ---
And Ennis's shrine includes the shirts (from the mountain) and a postcard showing a picture of the mountain. Both of them idealized that summer.
Here are a couple of thoughts about Jack wanting sex:
1) Is it possible that Jack's focus on sex was, I don't know, a different sort of reaction to being raised homophobic than Ennis's was? Could Jack accept the need for sex and focus on that, while trying to deny the need for love?
2) A Jack who is focused on sex is more like story-Jack than we usually give movie-Jack credit for being. (Story-Jack, after all, lies from the motel scene on about the fact that he's been "riding more than bulls." In the story, it's easy to believe that Jack is just one rather horny wanna-be bullrider, at least until we learn about Jack's memory of the dozy embrace, and then about the drive for nothing, and then about the shirts.)
3)
--- Quote from: latjoreme on January 25, 2007, 08:25:51 pm ---When he decides to redline it to Mexico, he's disappointed and embittered. He has a "Well, I'll show him!" kind of attitude. But you can tell by the look on his face as he starts down Prostitute Street that he's got mixed feelings, at best, about resorting to that. Not exactly the look he had when singing "King of the Road," hunh? That's another difference, IMO, between love and sex.
--- End quote ---
Jack also appears to have mixed feelings when Randall propositions him. Maybe by that time it has come to simply be about sex, but something has gone out of Jack by that point in his life. If the mountain was just about sex, then Jack is a lot less excited about sex in his late 30's than he was at 19. (Umm, I guess I've heard that men settle down a bit after their late teens, so maybe this is true. ;D )
I think both of the men are very mixed up, in their own ways. On the surface, Jack appears to be less conflicted, but I don't know. It may be that he's just masking things better than Ennis can.
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: nakymaton on January 25, 2007, 11:44:01 pm ---(Umm, I guess I've heard that men settle down a bit after their late teens, so maybe this is true. ;D )
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It happens. ...
But let's not overlook the possibility that Jack, possibly in both film and story, is committing the error made by countless men and women, gay and straight: That quest for sex is really masking the quest for love.
Remember, in the story, Annie tells us how much the memory of the dozy embrace means to Jack--and that he craves it but doesn't understand it (the stress here being on the lack of understanding)? I think possibly that means Jack is actually craving love--Ennis's love, I guess--but doesn't really understand his own need for it.
nakymaton:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on January 26, 2007, 10:02:53 am ---But let's not overlook the possibility that Jack, possibly in both film and story, is committing the error made by countless men and women, gay and straight: That quest for sex is really masking the quest for love.
Remember, in the story, Annie tells us how much the memory of the dozy embrace means to Jack--and that he craves it but doesn't understand it (the stress here being on the lack of understanding)? I think possibly that means Jack is actually craving love--Ennis's love, I guess--but doesn't really understand his own need for it.
--- End quote ---
Yes... yes. And maybe it's just not understanding it, rather than being afraid of it.
In your re-watching, did it feel like the dozy embrace was from Jack's POV in the movie? Or did it seem like it was simply a memory for everyone of what had been, a compare-and-contrast kind of moment so that the "deceased" postcard would hurt even more than it does?
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