Scenes on Brokeback Mountain

[CellarDweller115]

Found this video on YouTube, Analysis of Brokeback Mountain: The Role of Landscape, Explained


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS2ctfWYAiE

[gattaca]

^^ Thanks for posting that link, I've gotta search more often for newer materials!
> Her analysis is accurate.  I've always considered the landscape, the backgrounds, the water, rocks, driftwood, houses, .... other key structural elements that impact how we perceive the moment.
The only thing which gave me pause is the reviewer referred to Jack's shirt as "Jack's jacket" ~ 4:30 in.  ?   V. 

[CellarDweller115]

Yeah, that stuck out to me too.

[CellarDweller115]

Hiya UBF members.

While searching around Google, I found a site that poses 8 questions.  The site seems to be geared toward the short story, but I see no reason that they can't be applied to the movie as well.

I'll post one question at a time, to keep the posts focused on it.

When I post the 8th question, I'll post the link to the website, and edit the prior posts to add the site link to give it the proper credit.

Not sure if these topics have been discussed before.   Perhaps these will be new topics.


Why does Jack hold Brokeback Mountain responsible for their passion? What was it about that summer that couldn't be repeated?

[CellarDweller115]

I'm not sure that "blames" is the right word for this question.

Brokeback gave them a place to express their feelings, but it didn't cause the feelings themselves.

If I'm remembering correctly, the first night in tent occurred after a night of drinking.  That brings to mind the expression In vino veritas (In wine, there is truth). 

They had the feelings for each other, it was the alcohol that helped them to express it.  It was Brokeback that gave them the safe location to express it freely.

When they had their fight by the lake, and Jack shouted "so what we have now, is Brokeback Mountain!", to me it was more in anger and blame at Ennis.  They had the situation they were in because of his fears and beliefs.

[royandronnie]

Why does Jack hold Brokeback Mountain responsible for their passion? What was it about that summer that couldn't be repeated?

Jack makes two references to the time on Brokeback in which he ascribes the mountain itself with some kind of power: as they lie in each other's arms at the Reunion, he says "Ol' Brokeback got us good." During the Final Argument he shouts "All we got…is Brokeback Mountain! That's all we fuckin got!"

I think in the first instance he is using the name as both a shorthand for the summer experience, and as a bit of smokescreen for Ennis' benefit: if he "blames" what has just happened on some kind of juju that followed them down the mountain, then it can't possibly be homosexual love--it's something else.

In the second, he is using the name again, in a sad bookend to the first time. What he's saying is that twenty years on, their entire relationship has never budged beyond endless, deteriorating attempts to be up on Brokeback again, the way they were in 63--without excuses, lies, or hiding. It's sex in a tent, in the mountains--and that's all it is. It's not a relationship, in which they wake up, have a day together, and then go to bed. And Jack finally sees that Ennis is never going to come down from the Mountain that allows him to pretend what's between them is just some "thing." So the name Brokeback is now uttered as a curse, not a tribute.

[gattaca]

Why does Jack hold Brokeback Mountain responsible for their passion? What was it about that summer that couldn't be repeated?

@royandronnie - your summary is bulls-eye.  @CellerDweller15, you also tapped into the alcohol dropped the walls, lowered the inhibitions and and loosened the pants.... so to speak.

If I flip this around, perhaps if there had been a bit less liquored up while up on Brokeback, maybe Jack would have NOT placed Ennis' hand on his groin which initiated the FNIT or maybe Ennis's inhibitions would be have been higher.  After the FNIT, we see the "loving dozie embrace", the shirtless playful antics and maybe the bear attack..(sorry I cannot remember that sequence exactly.  Then we have the willingly done, SNIT.  So, being up on Brokeback, a supposedly safe location, out of the public eye, allowed their passion(s) to develop at different rates.

We also see Ennis's passion at least twice:  once when punches Jack right before they descend from the mountain and the 2nd time when Ennis is kneeling in the alley punching the wall - sick in pain of "losing Jack..."

That summer was unique from the vantage of two younger men, one of which likely had never let his homosexual feelings surface (Ennis).  There's a certain innocence in Ennis's perspective.  We know Jack had earlier male partners - maybe only short durations or one-night stands.  From Ennis's innocence or "first time" vantage, that was unique to that time on Brokeback - that first summer and simply could never be repeated.   Their later fishing trips were "good" but their first time, could only ever be "up on Brokeback..." V.