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I don't think its about being gay or bi-sexual.
I think it is about how the emotional repression of the stereotypical "strong silent" male cripples them inside and how this inability causes great stress and loss in their lives.
Beyond the Ennis/Jack relationship, there is the small but telling (for me!) Thanksgiving scene where Jack's father-in-law keeps turning the TV on because "boys need to watch football", until Jack finally tells him where to get off; at which point he looks a bit sheepish and sits down.
Then there is the scene with Ennis and his failed girlfriend where she leaves a date to talk to him and he more or less says he just is uncommunicative.
This inability to open up even extends as far as his mouth hardly moving when he speaks.
Jack on the other hand is more giving and expressive and thus has more relationships... and needs.
Even possibly having affairs with both his married neighbours (or is the affair with the wife just a way of not telling Ennis about an affair with the husband?).
Jack takes the trip to Mexico.
Ennis does not.
Could this be extended to include an economic element where Ennis has little money while Jack has prospered. Either Ennis has shut down so far he cannot even allow himself to succeed or money lets you be yourself.
For a story in which not a lot happens (typical Proulx) there are a lot of at least potential themes running through it... or at least extracted by me!!
Follow Ups:
...you're mostly right.It's tragic how emotional repression blights not just Ennis and Jack but the lives of those around them. The harvest of emotional disconnect is sadness and loss.
But I can't help feel that the very nature of Jack's & Ennis' forbidden passion feeds the repression even more intensely, in unique ways, and that this bitterness is both more poignant and more tragic than a "straight" version might be. (It don't get much more forbidden in them parts than homosexual love.) Certainly I agree the lessons to be learned apply to all relationships - gay, straight or whatever. That's the movie's triumph.
As you say, Ledger is quite good in a difficult role. Ennis is so emotionally crippled, so "strong & silent" that he barely speaks, barely smiles, barely even opens his mouth, yet you feel his desperation and loneliness. He's a man cut off from his own soul. (Yes, Ennis' relative poverty is an outward manifestation of this emotional stuntedness.) Gyllenhaal as Jack is more self-aware and openin his emotions - check out the wordless way he sizes Ennis in the very first scene - he undresses him with his eyes. But that openess also makes Jack more vulnerable.
BTW, when I saw BBM I hadn't read the story in years. I didn't remember the scene you mentioned where Jack asserts himself over his father in law by controlling the TV. I thought I was losing more little grey cells than normal. I was relieved to find out that scene wasn't in the original story but a new scene written by McMurtry (and very telling it is too).
BTW, other folks agree with us...I assume you missed the discussion below. Check out the excellent article in the link.
An especially insightful review. I also liked how he not only reviews the film but also reviews reviews of the film. Thanks for the link.
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~AH
"Brokeback Mountain" has been described as a 'gay cowboy movie', which is a cruel simplification. It is a story of a time and place where two men are found to deny the only great passion either one will ever feel. Their tragedy is universal. It could be about two women or lovers from different religions or ethnic groups - any 'forbidden love'." ~AH
It's a movie about two male cowboys who have a passionate love for each other. It's not a gay cowboy movie. OK, thanks for "straightening" me out on that, Ebert.
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~AH
There is a universal theme of being forced to live a constricted life based on predudice by others. It doesn't matter what the issue is ,it is all about restricting other peoples lives to the point of making them live a false existance. Unfortunately this effects a lot of lives not only the central characters.
perhaps the influence a culture and its taboos have upon those who are outside of its conventions.
One of the two central characters certainly didn't fit the strong, quiet type persona.
or Willy Wonka about Chocolate?Just wondering
Or was Willy homosexual or heterosexual?
Your post confuses me...
;-)
"I don't think its about being gay or bi-sexual. I think it is about how the emotional repression of the stereotypical "strong silent" male cripples them inside and how this inability causes great stress and loss in their lives."....... I concur. Well put.
"I don't think its about being gay or bi-sexual. I think it is about how the emotional repression of the stereotypical "strong silent" male cripples them inside and how this inability causes great stress and loss in their lives."Well then it's bullshit because being strong and silent is how a man avoids stress and loss, it doesn't cause it.
nt
... putting your reply in the right place!
;-)
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lol
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I have no idea what your post is meant to mean.
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