Brokeback Mountain

I've seen it twice in the last 5 days, and both times I came away completely exhausted by it. I managed to put some of my impressions into words, and because I have a tendency to ramble, or over-analyze, I'm splitting it up so it's not one HUGE post. This was an email to my friend, Lisa, so there may be references that have no context within the movie.

Be forewarned, there are spoilers.

I think Lureen (Jack's wife) knew, but not from the beginning. The first thought I had that she knew about him was at the party where he danced with that other man's wife. The woman had said "why don't husbands want to dance with their wives?" and Lureen said "I don't know. Jack, why is that?" But she looked like she had known for a while, and wasn't interested in dealing with it. I worried about him so much when that man suggested they go fishing at that cabin sometime. He looked both scared & relieved that someone knew. But I think Jack was so desperate at times that he got sloppy. (Example: in the bar w/ the rodeo clown, when he tries to buy him a drink. I don't remember the lines, but the tension was obvious.)

I don't think Lureen had anything to do with Jack's death. What she told Ennis was obviously a cover, something she was telling everyone. She knew why he was killed, and how, but had decided to preserve her dignity, and in a strange way she thought she was preserving his, by telling the tire blowout lie. The thing is, it would have done more good to tell the truth, to expose the men who had killed him (even though she may not have known who they were). But it would have brought to public eye what the real crime was... I don't know, you can't rewrite history, and it wouldn't have brought Jack back or changed the way he & Ennis had to live. But it might have changed public thinking earlier.

And I think, for all Lureen was bitter and possibly very angry with Jack, she still loved him. She cried when she told Ennis that Jack was dead. I think a lot of emotion went into her tears. Mouring what she never really had with Jack, what could've been; mourning the death of her child's father; mourning him as a person, regardless of what he was to her & her family; & possibly mourning for Ennis' sake, as well. I think she knew Ennis & Jack were lovers, and that they really loved each other with their hearts & souls, not just their bodies. And that Ennis' loss was perhaps greater than hers (she's thinking perhaps, although we know it's true).

The parallel was awful, though, between what happened to Jack & what Ennis had said: "what I don't know could get you killed if I find out." His temper & violence was unbelievable, and it all stemmed from fear. Fear of being found out; and then his threat to Jack was fear of losing him.