Question about the movie "Brokeback Mountain". Need some help.

[SKKY]

At the very end, when Ennis is in his trailer, just after his daughter left, looking at the two shirts hanging on the door and the picture of Brokeback Mountain, he says something that I couldn't make out- and I have a feeling it was probably pretty
important in tying things up. Did anyone catch it?

[Hissyspit]

1. Yes, I did. But now I can't remember what it was.

Sorry. I need to see it again, anyway.

[Hissyspit]

2. He says: "Jack, I swear..."

Asked my friend who saw it twice.

[SKKY]

3. Hmmm. "Jack, I swear..." what???

[Hissyspit]

4. I think it is deliberately left hanging. You might check Anne Proulx's

original short story/novella. I think it comes straight from her original story (no pun intended).

[trof]

5. "I swear..." is kind of a form of fond exasperation.

miz t. does something that just non-plusses me.
But I still love her.
"Helen, I swear..."
Kinda like that?
:shrug:

[mondo joe]

10. That's my take exactly.

n/t

[yvr girl]

6. I think I'm the only person who hasn't seen this movie yet

Did you like it?

[WillParkinson]

7. I haven't seen it....

I really have no interest in seeing it, either. At least now. Maybe on video, but not in the theater.

[LostinVA]

8. FRom both the story and movie, I take it to mean

"I swear," literally. He's making an oath to Jack -- to his memory, to what they shared together -- to remember everything. To never forget. To never let those thoughts and feelings go.

That has always been my take on it.

[applegrove]

9. Jack had hoped that they would get a ranch together. But lied about

his family. When Ennis visited Jack's parents - he realized that they loved their son for who he was, that they would have accepted them as a couple on the family ranch and that Ennis could have been happy and safe there. That his own fears kept him from making plans with Jack.

That is what I think. That Ennis - having had such an insecure childhood and so traumatized - wanted security before all else. And was driven by fear of persecution to not be with Jack.

Jack was in fact offering security. That Jack didn't feel persecuted or got beyond the hate. That he had a safe place to go. To ranch and live his real life. With the love of his life.

It could have been everything that Ennis wanted out of life. It even came with loving parents. And of course a partner who loved, adored and respected him deeply from the start.

That there it was - hidden by Ennis own fear - the regular middle class dream of family and a home and a life filled with love.

And so he took a chance on his daughter. Instead of living through fear. He got beyond his own childhood. & the persecution or fear of persecution that mis-informed him and kept him from being a fully human and adult human being. He grew up. Which is harder to do when you are hated for being who you are. In a sense - bias & hatred mis-informs that some groups face - misinforms them way into adulthood.

Too late for Jack. But in time for his daughter.

[LostinVA]

11. You think Jack's Dad accepted him???

He was totally nasty and homophobic, very sneering about Jack, and towards Ennis. Now, his Mom was a different story. She knew. She loved her son. And, I think she even loved Ennis for loving her son.

[KitchenWitch]

12. I got the same feeling from Jack's dad!

[xchrom]

13. i think he was a little disappointed in ennis as well.

jack spends time and energy expressing expectations re: ennis and himself -- ennis doesn't live up to those expectations -- and neither does the ''neighbor''.

dad reflects some of that disappointment -- high expectaions that one has no right to.
life is is harsh when you come from a back ground like jack's -- expectations usually lead to disappointment.

hence the very stoic expression of both book and movie.

[AngryAmish]

14. "Rosebud"

or "Luke, I am your father."

[xchrom]

15. it seems to me it's a little complicated

-- it's an extremely simply phrase -- ''jack, i swear...''

in the book it opens with ennis remembering jack in a very positve way -- on the same day that the movie closes.

a part of that expression is a recognition of the depth of love that ennis held/holds for jack.
it took the ultimate ''sacrifice'' for that truth to settle into ennis.

now, after that -- i think you have to come to your own conclusions -- because it's an extremely spare book and movie.

the viewer should fill in some of the story for them selves.

[mondo joe]

16. It just points to Ennis's overall inarticulateness.

He can't finish the sentence because he can't articulate his response. It's just his own loving exasperation.