Topic: Timeline of Last Scenes - Spoilers!

[*Froggy*]

What if the "the fourth summer since Brokeback Mountain came on and in June" meant, four summers passed and the following June.  Something about fourth summer since doesn't sit right with me.  This would tie in with Jack mentioning his son was 15 in May 1983 - this would mean Jack's son was born in October 1967 and he was eight months old when Ennis and Jack reunited in June of 1968.

Jack's son was 8months old end of October 1967..was born aprox end of february!
BRB

[tireiron]

I think there are some mistakes in the dates in the published screenplay.  I noticed it when
re-reading it.  Except for the flashbacks, and maybe a couple of date changes when
going back and forth between Ennis's family and Jack's family, I think the order is
supposed to be chronological.

This is the sort of thing that probably could be cleared up with a letter to Larry McMurtry or
Diana Ossana.

[romeshvr]

You are right.  In the short story, both Ennis and Jack never returned to Brokeback Mountain.  They spend the 20 odd years visiting places around it.  I think it is suppose to mean something.  I take it as a place where they were the happiest and the didn't want to go back there and realize how time has changed them and their relationship.  Oddly, in the end Jack did want his ashes to go to Brokeback Mountain because it was Jack's place.  I like the way Annie wrote, it was 'his place' in the short story.  I like to think Ennis will fulfill Jack's wishes somehow.  But we will never know.

[tireiron]

They never returned to Brokeback Mountain in the published screenplay either.  Check the locations given
at the beginning of each scene.  The only Brokeback scene after they left was the flashback near the end.

[tireiron]

From a Usenet thread (in rec.arts.movies.current-films):

Let us explore whether Ennis and
Jack ever returned to Brokeback Mountain.

original story
--------------
"Years on years they worked their way through the high
meadows and mountain drainages, horse-packing into the
Big Horns, Medicine Bows, south end of the Gallatins,
Absarokas, Granites, Owl Creeks, the Bridger-Teton
Range, the Freezeouts and the Shirleys, Ferrises and
the Rattlesnakes, Salt River Range, into the Wind Rivers
over and again, the Sierra Madres, Gros Ventres, the
Washakies, Laramies, but never returning to Brokeback."

published screenplay
--------------------
All of the Brokeback Mountain scenes are explicitly
labeled as such:
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, WYOMING: (various places on the mountain)
The remaining mountain locations are labeled as follows:
WYOMING MOUNTAIN ROAD
WYOMING MOUNTAIN ROAD: REMOTE SITE
WYOMING MOUNTAIN ROAD: CLIFF
WYOMING CAMPSITE
BIG HORN MOUNTAINS, WYOMING: CAMPSITE
BIG HORN MOUNTAINS, WYOMING
WYOMING MOUNTAINS
WYOMING MOUNTAINS: LAKE
WYOMING MOUNTAINS: TRAILHEAD
FLASHBACK, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, WYOMING: CAMPFIRE
WYOMING MOUNTAINS: TRAILHEAD

movie
-----
This is not so easy, but on one viewing, and looking
out for it, it seemed to me that all of the mountain
locations were distinctly different from any scene we
saw on Brokeback.  Except: in the climactic mountain
scene, when Jack says, "... so what we got now is
Brokeback Mountain.  Everything built on that", he
gestures with his arm as if to say, over there,
where what we're looking at over there may be the
profile of Brokeback, but I couldn't be sure.  Or the
gesture may have meant, here.  So it's not clear what
Ang Lee had in mind.  It will require at least one more
viewing to maybe get an answer.

But this point is so acutely important,it seems to me,
because Brokeback should not be brought down to where
they went for years and years, but instead it should
remain their unblimished, shining, magical memory of
youth and joy.  That makes the saving of the shirts
more meaningful, and the postcard picture with them on
the door more exquisite, and the final impression of
the movie so piercing.  I hope it meant that to Ang Lee.

[*Froggy*]

 tireiron
Amazing work! Thankx

[jimmypage]

Please be indulgent with me:
I thought Jack was killed in the same year of their last encounter (whatever it is: 1981/82/83  ...):
Lake scene ----> spring
Jack dies -Ennis sends the postcard for meeting Jack in november--->summer ?
Ennis calls Lureen ---->september?

Is it correct? Yes? No?

(been) dazed and confused... :o

[bnjmn3]

Please be indulgent with me:
I thought Jack was killed in the same year of their last encounter (whatever it is: 1981/82/83  ...):
Lake scene ----> spring
Jack dies -Ennis sends the postcard for meeting Jack in November--->summer ?
Ennis calls Lureen ---->september?

Is it correct? Yes? No?

(been) dazed and confused... :o

This explanation makes more sense than the dates in the screen play. I know this timeline differs from it. When Jack's Dad says to Ennis that Jack was here earlier this Spring talking about a new fellow, that made me remember Jack leaving Ennis after the big confrontation. Standing by the truck, Jack said he was heading up to see his folks that confrontation day...which occurs well after he had met that Animal Husbandry Ranch Foreman in 1978. I gotta read the short story..I have avoided it long enough.
I see this timeframe: last meeting where Ennis asked to be let be, followed by Jack visiting his parents where discusses the new man (Spring),  the murder (summer), Ennis  postcard to Jack about a meeting in November after missing August, the Lureen call and the visit to Jack's parents  (before November) all happened within a year. BUT..I know that is not in the screenplay.

[*Froggy*]

Wait till tpe comes back full time, I'm sure he'll get all the answers!!!

[Troy]

This is all too much info for me to absorb right now, all the children's ages stuff I mean.

What I will say is that I had noticed all the internal inconsistancies in dates in the screenplay from middle of page 55 to page 59 a few weeks ago and posted it elsewhere on this website, the thread about choosing a Brokeback Mountain Day.   Also that the June 24th date in the book becomes Sept 24 in the movie.  Also that the 1973 calendar occurs in 1969 when it is 1969 indoors and 1971 outdoors (a temporal anomaly due to a singularity or a wormhole I believe.)

I'm referring to all the 1969's that I dont think should be there.

I would simply go with the short story's dates, seeing that there are so many glaring errors and inconsistencies in dates on the screenplay.  And those dates indicate it was this Nov, not next Nov.  I dont see why they would make such an important change in length of waiting period from story to screenplay. I just cant believe they would have done that.

In the short story, their last meeting is May 1983, and the postcard about the Nov 83 meeting comes back saying he's dead. So I would say the Nov meeting would have been the same year. In the screenplay, the card comes back the following year of course, which is a problem, why so late?  But it is possible it just took them half a year to send it back. Ennis could have visited his parents in the late spring of 82, his father referring to early spring in his statement.

[n061857]

[Froggy, to be more precise as to the above: Ennis married Alma in November of 1963.  If you add 9 months to this, it would mean that Alma Jr. was born in around August of 1964.  Since the wedding announcement occurred before June 5 of 1984 (the wedding date), Alma Jr. was still 19 years old when he visited Ennis in his trailer.

Ennis says that she is 19, something to the effect that she is 19 - old enough to make her own decisions.                  - Nancy

[Philip Smith]

Thanks a lot for the timeline guys. The info is such a great help when I watched the movie.

[tpe]

Philip Smith , you are most welcome.

It's a fascinating subject, no? 

[Philip Smith]

Philip Smith , you are most welcome.

It's a fascinating subject, no? 

It's A VERY 'fascinating' info. Thanks!