Okay, living in corn country it took a while to get Brokeback Mountain to a theater near here, but finally...got to see it on Super Bowl Sunday...much better use of my time than the game...lol
I loved this movie! It was such a wonderful love story of any kind. Granted the author wrote it as a gay relationship, but it could have easily been an interracial couple or the straight couple from different sides of the tracks...the story works for just about any. I didn't cry, but the tears were welling up there at the end...I really didn't expect Jack to die...maybe I'm naive.
It was funny though after reading through the thread I realized that it seems everyone is having the same kind of questions and discussions about the movie. Today when I walked into work another woman had seen it over the weekend and asked many of the ones mentioned here...
Did Jack love Ennis as much as Ennis loved Jack?
Why did Jack go to Mexico and hook up with a prostitute?
Did Jack's wife know anything...really?
What was up with Jack's folks?
Why did Jack and Ennis marry if they were so in love with each other?
Well, IMO..I think they loved each other deeply, but Jack went to Mexico out of need...he was really hurt when Ennis chose to spend the time with his daughters instead of Jack, so he did what lots of scorned lovers do...run to the easiest set of open arms you can find hoping to ease the pain...and it only makes it hurt worse.
I don't think that Jack's wife, Lureen, really knew much of anything about her husband. She seemed so full of herself and not wanting to upset her daddy...despite everything she did in life. The costume, hair and makeup people did a great job of showing the actress through the 20 years...I loved that last scene when she's telling Ennis about Jack's death. Man! That cheap blonde dye job, fake cheezy red nails and lipstick, complete with cracked lipstick and stains on the teeth. In all Lureen's high falooting ways as the sterotypical Texan Daddy's little rich girl, she was all dried up and heartless...as my momma might have said...she looked rode hard and put a way wet. I don't think she realized what Jack was all about till his death because as she's telling Ennis you see her lip quiver when she realized what Brokeback Mountain meant and she shed the tiniest tear.
I think Jack hooked up with the big ranch hand from that party...the one who invited him to the cabin. I think the good ol' boy knew exactly what Jack was about and was looking for a good time. I think someone caught them and did him in...Jack and Ennis, the couple, was never close to home so he was never seen until the ranch hand and when he was someone killed Jack.
I think Jack's parents knew he was gay. His dad mentioned that Jack always talked about bring Ennis to the farm and fixing it up, helping his folks...but never did. Then his dad tells Ennis that not too long ago Jack started to tell them about this ranch hand fella he was gonna bring up from Texas and fix up the farm...again he never did. But, a man of Jack's dad's age would never have approved...it wasn't his way, so he was gonna keep that boy at home finally by burying Jack in the family plot. But Jack's momma knew...and she was okay with it, but would never say it aloud for fear of her husband...she knew what Ennis meant to Jack...you could tell when she placed her hand on his shoulder and told him she'd kept Jack's room the way it was when he was a little boy. It's why she put the shirts in a bag for Ennis...she wanted him to have a little something of Jack's to remember him...they had the ashes and his room.
And why did they marry women? Well, I think Ennis did love Alma...he was engaged to her when he met Jack...and I think he felt obligated to follow through with the marriage despite what happened with Jack that summer. Ennis had seen the harsh reality of their time thanks to his daddy and it stuck in his mind as if it'd happened that day. He told Jack that last time they were together while Jack still dreamed of the utopian society where all is good. I think Ennis would have been fine married to Alma forever had she not seen him and Jack that day. She couldn't live with it...the lie of her marriage, being dirt poor, working to make ends meet while Ennis was constantly swapping jobs. Now, Jack...why did he marry Lureen? I'm suspecting it may have been a shotgun wedding...that Tbird saw some heavy action on their first night and then boom...she's sitting in a bed with a baby. I think that is partly why her daddy didn't like Jake...plus being a 2 bit rodeo man didn't help when it came to his princess.
Well, that is my commentary for the movie...now I'm gonna read the short story.