I've been thinking back on the 10 months since I saw BBM, and all the great experiences I've had in that time -- seeing the movie over and over, finding a group of people who were equally obsessed with it and equally excited about discussing it, exploring its amazing complexity and subtlety, making friends and finding a wonderful community.
So I decided to ask anybody who's interested, regardless of how long they've been here, to share some of their most exciting moments as Brokies. These could involve the movie itself, friendships, personal discoveries ... whatever has been great. I'm thinking more of specific events rather than gradual growth or general change, but whatever stands out for you will be welcome.
I'll start, with one of my earliest memories. I'd been on imdb for just a couple of weeks and had noticed some threads discussing the deep significance of clothing colors and numbers and little things like that. I didn't post on them or even read them very carefully, because secretly I thought, geez, people are getting a little carried away here
I'd seen the movie two or three times, loved it, but it seemed ridiculous to comb through minute details for meaning.
Then came what I think of as my "Helen Keller at the water pump" moment: opening up a whole new world that I hadn't known existed. I saw a thread -- started, I believe, by Casey Cornelius -- examining that tiny scene where Ennis is spreading tar and his coworker is blathering on and Ennis pauses to look off into the distance. I considered this scene pretty much a throwaway, there mainly to establish that Ennis was settling into married and work, stuck with a boring coworker, maybe realizing that life felt empty without Jack.
But Casey noted how the babbling coworker has just uttered the words
"breakin my back" -- suggesting that it's the reminder of Brokeback that triggers Ennis' wistful reaction. Someone else pointed out that Ennis is wearing a blue-plaid shirt -- Jack's color -- as if Ennis is unconsciously expressing his emotions in, yes, his clothing choices. Someone else pointed out that Ennis must be thinking of Jack when he stares off into the distance ("Hell," this poster said, "
I'm thinking of Jack when I stare off into the distance; of course Ennis is."
) And people went on to talk about how Ennis stares off into the distance, usually into nature, in many other scenes when he thinks about Jack.
It was an epiphany. I realized, Wow, if this two-minute, unremarkable scene -- one I'd always assumed was there mainly to mark time passing -- could be freighted with that much meaning, imagine what depths the other 132 minutes must hold! And of course I eventually learned that, yes, in this movie even apparently minor details like clothing color and numbers actually
are extremely significant. Ten months later, I'm still discovering them. But that was the first big one.