We can all relate to Brokeback Mountain...

Rating: 10/10 (19 January 2006)

It has been 5 days since I have seen this film. I had to drive 100 miles (to Durango, CO) because our local theater is not showing the film - yet. I feel compelled to make a post on this board although it will not be as good as some posts I have read here. (Casey Cornelious, my hat is off to you!) I cannot get this film out of my mind.
I have been a very lucky man. I have had 3 Brokeback Mountains in my time. I was 20 years old in 1985 and had the experience to share a room with a High School friend in Texas over that summer and we became VERY CLOSE. When the summer ended HE broke it off and eventually went into the Army. I have somewhat kept up with him and after seeing this film have mailed him a card asking him to go see Brokeback Mountain. Stay tuned.(My Ennis Del Mar).
My second Brokeback was with a friend of many years who was in a very unhappy marriage and one night after a fight with his wife, one thing led to another and we have been seeing each other off and on for over 10 years now. In the last couple of years I have somewhat broken it off but we still care for each other and talk by phone occasionally. (My Jack Twist).
My third Brokeback Mountain was the one that has hurt the most. Although this relationship never became physical it has left the deepest scars. A few years ago I met a young man who had just graduated from High School. We worked in the same place and became good friends and he eventually rented a room from me. We became close , like brothers, and had no secrets from each other. We knew everything about each other and I truly bonded with this person. One night things started to move in a different direction and he stopped and said that my friendship was more important to him than our being lovers. Well, I REALLY fell for him then! A short time later he came down with a rare form of cancer (the 200th known case with a 2% survival rate), after many visits to the hospital we bonded even more and I was holding his hand when he took his last breath (he was 27).
When I saw this movie I completely lost it. All those feelings of loss and emptiness came rolling in like a tidal wave and hit me right there in the theater. I have never seen a film that has affected me so profoundly as this one has and is still continuing to do.
I understand that this is just a movie, but living in Colorado and New Mexico I have SEEN these characters in real life. I think about the scene when Ennis went to the Twist home to get Jack's ashes and I think of Jack's Mother and all that poor woman has gone through. The ONLY happiness she probably ever had in her whole life WAS Jack, and now he is GONE. The ONLY light she ever had in her life. This is apparent in the homes interior and exterior. I have walked up on that porch myself many times. The wind is always blowing and is always bone chilling cold or like the breath of hell! Jack's Mother will have to live the rest of her days with Jack's father. A sorry, uneducated man that has all the answers. I know she knew about Jack (Mama always knows)and she knew who Ennis was and how much he meant to Jack. She knew about the shirts in the closet and she never told her husband and NEVER will. It was obvious that she wanted to talk to Ennis more , but she was afraid. That is why she asked him to come back and visit. Maybe Ennis will after MR. TWIST is put in the family plot.
Ennis will live alone the rest of his life and never love anyone else again, male or female. He will just become a broken down old cowboy who only knows hard work and little pay. THESE CHARACTERS ARE REAL! I have seen them with my own eyes in the last 20 years I have spent in Colorado and New Mexico.
I have a great respect to Ang Lee, Annie Proloux, Heath Ledger and Jake Gyallanhaal AND ALL THE OTHERS THAT MADE THIS FILM POSSIBLE AND for bringing this story to life for all the world to see! It needed to be told. Finally a movie with a gay theme but not a stereotypical gay theme. Well done!