finally - Brokeback Mtn

We went to see Brokeback Mtn last night. It was odd seeing it after everything that everyone has said, difficult to just sit down and watch it as a story, without looking for import and meaning. On the whole I liked it, I didn't get everything that was said, old Ennis' mumble was often impenetrable, in fact I wonder if the script actually had any words at those points, or if there was just direction: Ennis mumbles, 2 sec duration.

This morning I woke up, having done the usual overnight mull, and thought, okay so in this movie there are at least 3 people who know what's going on in the relationship, who see it from 3 totally different points of view, and don't say anything about it. Well, the sheep boss says something, but only to Jack, and after a year's thought on it. You could argue that things go to shit because nobody says anything, Ennis' wife loses him, Jack's father grows older with no-one to take over the ranch. But you could also say that these people had absolutely no structure for talking things through. Ennis hits people when he's angry, or just swallows huge hunks of rage.

When the credits came up I saw that Larry McMurtry had written the script. He also wrote The Last Picture Show, and there are interesting correspondences between the two films. I'll have to watch LPS again, and also reread some E. Annie Proulx. Both Proulx and McMurtry are interested in the decline of the west, in the way farming has changed, and in people's relationship with the land.