This is Leslie, and I came up with the original moonie thread...surf managed to save bits and pieces of it during the troll wars. Here it is. The first part is mine and some of the later comments came from others:
“Because this movie has become an obsession and I am into all sorts of useless trivia, I decided to figure out, what was the exact date on which they met? What was the date of the tent scene?
Assuming they go up on the mountain in the spring, I found out the full moon for May, 1963, which happened to be May 8 (if you remember, the first night on the mountain, there was a full moon). So assume they had their "job interview" with Aguirre on May 7 (he says they'll truck them up the next day)--May 7, 1963 was a Monday, which makes sense for starting the workweek.
So they meet on May 7, head up the mountain on May 8. The first night in the tent there was also a full moon which would mean a month had passed since they met. The full moon in June was June 7, 1963. Again, that makes sense since Ennis got so cold when the fire died out. It wasn't the heat of the summer yet.
Why is any of this important? It's not, really, but I find some comfort in knowing they had more than two months of loving each other before they had to leave the mountain.”
“These dates also make sense because in the story (this isn't in the movie) it mentions that they talked about the Thresher sinking. That happened on April 10, 1963 so it was just a month prior to their start up on the mountain. Clearly it would still be on their minds as a topic of conversation.”
“Because of the two full moons, it was obvious that at least one month had passed between their arrival on Brokeback and the first tent scene. It's lovely to think they had as long as two months together as lovers before they had to part--”
“Or even more simply--that Ang finds a full moon not only deeply meaningful, but auspicious, and for reasons of his own decided to always show it as full--
“in the Classical Reference thread, it was brought up that the full moon in Chinese classical literature and poetry represent lovers' union. It was a consensus that this meaning is significant, because Ang Lee would have brought that from his own background. We see the imagery of the full moon used all three times in relation to Jack and Ennis. The first the full moon is partially obscured behind clouds, as Jack looks down the mountain at the dot of fire that is Ennis's camp. Their love is yet to be revealed. The second time, the moon is emerging from clouds. This is right before their sexual awaking. The third, the moon is fully open, during their fishing trip.”
