Topic: Did you know about Jack...?

[mimi]

Well I was thinking the other day, "I wonder if BBM would have had even more of an effect on me if I hadn't already known the ending...?"

I have a book called "A Tribute to Heath Ledger", a sort of biography about his life and work, and I couldnt help reading the chapter on brokeback (this was prior to seeing the actual film)

Therefore I wasnt shocked by Jack's death, and although this movie still hit me like a ton of bricks and I love it to pieces, I wonder if it would have felt like another ton of bricks hitting me too if I handt known how this beautiful tragedy ends...?

Any thoughts?

 

[jackster]

Interesting question Maddy.
I didn’t know the ending when I first watched the film. Hadn’t read the SS, didn’t even know it existed, and had only really seen a little bit about the film by watching the Academy Awards, and hearing recommendations from friends that it was “great” but with no spoilers.

However, having said all that, thinking back, I guess I somehow felt while watching the story unfold that this was a star-crossed romance, destined for an unhappy, or at least unfulfilled outcome. So that Jack’s death, while shocking in it’s brutality, was not necessarily surprising in the sense that it meant the love story would go unresolved and not have a “happily ever after” outcome.

I guess given the frank, and Ang’s so convincing, reality of the film, that ending would have been too unbelievable, too sweet, too magical – too unlike the design of film itself. I don’t think of myself as a cynic, but I saw the potential endings for a story of two handsome homosexual cowboys, living in the inter-mountain west at that time as pretty limited. Move to Denver? Not likely.

[mimi]

Yeah, I agree...I mean if it had ended with a happily ever after scenario I would be pretty pissed off to tell you the truth, so I guess it wouldn't have come as that much of a shock had I not known. just curious of you guys' thoughts 

[Ferdinand]

I didn't know for book, I didn' know how the movie ends, I was only familiar with the plot of the film and the crew behind him. I didn't expect such an end of the movie, I almost fell from the chair of a shock when Jack died.

Knowledge of the end wouldn't changed anything, BBM would leave the same impression on me. My heart was taken out of the chest, there was only a sense of sadness and emptiness. Unbelievable.

[Tony]

  This question brings me back to that very first time I saw the film.  Not only did I not know Jack was going to die, I didn't know any of the plot line.  I remember, though, being drawn into that tactic used, of long, slow passages, that left a person almost sedated, followed by sudden unexpected punches.  That pattern was, I think, necessary, to make the story mean more and more to the viewer and to advance them to the unexpected, relentlessly challenging, and almost sacred ending.
  In that context, the flashback scenes of Jack's death were only one of those sudden punches. I also have to admit, I was so dazed, I couldn't follow the entire plot line until the 2nd time I saw it (which was as quickly as I could get someone to go with me). And, I know this sounds strange, but, I still haven't formally registered Jack as having died. Am actually in denial, over events.....in a film!

[Tony]

    Dazed is definitely the word I used to describe me, ever since first set my eyes on Brokeback.

    Sure stirred sumethin up on the inside.

    Thanks to those helpin me to do some rememberin lately.

    Ive missed being around here muchly.

                                           Good to see you, friends.         

  Hi, Ranchand - it's good to see you here, too!  Yeah, "dazed" seems to be the right word for a lot of us. And this topic takes us right back to that first time.  Phew.
  Stay well, friend, and keep posting!

[ethan]

maddy, interesting question!

All I remember was my friend asked me to go for a movie directed by Ang Lee on the first day BBM came out in NYC. I knew nothing about the movie other than the director. It took me by storm and the rest is history.

I have asked myself the question before and since my experience was on the contrary, I could only speculate. I had seen it 11 times in the theater (I think) and lost counts on the number of DVD viewing. I remember the hardest viewing was not the first one but the third one which I was teary right from the start. I cried for the ending at the first time. By the third time, I already knew the ending. Seeing how happy they were and how the opportunity got away made me even sadder. It is the story of Ennis and Jack captivated my heart.

[FlwrChild]

All I knew before I went to the theater was that they met in '63, went their separate ways, found each other again having both married, and that the story followed their relationship over 20 years. I think I was as shocked as Ennis when he read that postcard. Would the movie effect me any less if I had known before? I doubt it. Would the impact of that moment have been different? I'm sure of it. And glad (as devastating as it was) that I didn't know. This was a story that I was glad to have wash over me in its own time and reveal itself one piece at a time.

[rimasworld]

I still find myself sometimes in denial about Jack. I loved him so much and didn't want him to die and Ennis to end up alone and heartbroken in that old trailer. I guess that's why the story is so captivating and haunting at the same time.

[Tony]

I still find myself sometimes in denial about Jack. I loved him so much and didn't want him to die and Ennis to end up alone and heartbroken in that old trailer. I guess that's why the story is so captivating and haunting at the same time.

Yes! It was an epic experience of the extremes of what can happen in life. And sometimes, we don't know how to balance them off, and with a love and loss that great, maybe we never can.

[jake]

I didn't know anything about the film - the ending hit me really hard.

I still remember feeling hollow the next day when I woke up - and watching it again did NOT help at all.
Wow, you know, it was like someone punched me straight in the face and left without explanation.

[City Slickin' Cowboy]

I knew little about the story other than the film trailer. After the film was released I began reading view comments throughout the internet.  Unfortunately I did see enough to know that Jack died.  At that point I stopped reading until I could see the film.  I was still blown away even with the advanced knowledge of the ending.  What I didn't expect was such a bleak outlook for Ennis. That realization was the final impact.

[Tony]

Wow, you know, it was like someone punched me straight in the face and left without explanation.

  Jake, I think you just hit on something.  Sure, the forums have been focusing on the issue of Rural Destructive Homophobia (Annie Proulx's theme), but the film was so powerful, that first time, I saw myself and others not looking for any message. We just felt empty and wanted to know "Why?".
  And it's good that you have kept that original feeling and remembered it. They may have been trying for a message, a theme. But, that first time, the punch was too hard to go there.

[Ferdinand]

The film would not have had such an impact on all of us, that the end was different. It would not be this feeling of sadness, loneliness and emptiness...

[daliah]

if there is not any sorrow at the end i dont think that we could be affected like this.
death put an end to the possibilities of being together of them

[mimi]

if there is not any sorrow at the end i dont think that we could be affected like this.
death put an end to the possibilities of being together of them

Very true, my thoughts exactly.

a beautiful tragedy

[daliah]

we forget happy times easily..but we spend our life about the ones who left us or gave pain to us

[Inner_Me]

if there is not any sorrow at the end i dont think that we could be affected like this.
death put an end to the possibilities of being together of them

If you believe in an afterlife, this would be their possibility for finally being united, for good, I mean.
That's one of my little straws. Even though their love ended tragically and Ennis was pretty lonely in the end,
they can still live their love eternally, in the afterlife.

About the main topic here:
I don't think that whether you already know Jack will die or not doesn't make that much of a difference.
The outcome is (unfortunately) the same, and even though I found Jack's death kind of shocking,
it was WAY harder to see Ennis suffer that much afterwards.

Well, but we never know how things COULD have gone anyway.