So how do you think Jack Twist died?

[Kevin Hamilton]

Finally got around to seeing Brokeback Mountain on Netflix a few weeks ago. It's probably not something I'll ever watch again, but it was a quality flick with some really great acting by Gyllenal and Ledger; though to be honest, I think the most sympathetic character was Michelle Williams as Ledger's wife since she was the one being lied to the entire time.

Like you can empathize with both Ennis and Jack, but Michelle's character was the only one who was really being deceived/hurt. Still, great character piece and good acting by all involved.

I thought it was interesting though that Ang left Jack's death ambiguous. Like there's the 'official story' that Ennis hears, that Jack was killed in an accident; and then there's the imagery that goes through his head of Jack being murdered because people find out that he's gay etc. It's certainly implied that there's more to the "official" story, and we definitely know what Ennis thinks, but it's never out and out stated that what he fears actually took place.

So what do you think, how did Jack Twist die?

[Piccolo]

I haven't seen the movie since it came out, but I think what I felt at the time was that this was always the ending Ennis envisioned for any man who dared love another man... he'd seen something like that when he was younger, right? So whatever happened to Jack in reality, that was always going to be what Ennis imagined. It was why he tried so hard to repress his feelings... he could never see a happy ending.

In reality, I imagine Jack died in a more mundane way. Maybe the accident, maybe the wife of that other guy he was sleeping with found out and shot him in a jilted lover's rage, etc., or maybe his wife found out he was cheating on her and set up the "accident" herself. Who knows. But I generally see the "beaten to death by homophobes" fear as being more important as a character point of Ennis than as being Jack's reality... it'd be more poetic/tragic to me, somehow, if Jack's death were fairly unrelated to that fear. If Ennis' fear about it came true for Jack, that validates Ennis choosing to never be with him, which I'm not sure was what I was supposed to take away from the film. (Not that Ennis was morally obliged to be with him... Jack was kind of manipulative, if I remember right. But there was a feeling at the end of chances not taken.)

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

I'm pretty sure it was via a hate crime. It's not concrete, but the way Ang directed it made it more than a strong hint to me.

[Kevin Hamilton]

Jan 13, 2014 18:12:09 GMT -5 Piccolo said:

I haven't seen the movie since it came out, but I think what I felt at the time was that this was always the ending Ennis envisioned for any man who dared love another man... he'd seen something like that when he was younger, right? So whatever happened to Jack in reality, that was always going to be what Ennis imagined. It was why he tried so hard to repress his feelings... he could never see a happy ending.

In reality, I imagine Jack died in a more mundane way. Maybe the accident, maybe the wife of that other guy he was sleeping with found out and shot him in a jilted lover's rage, etc., or maybe his wife found out he was cheating on her and set up the "accident" herself. Who knows. But I generally see the "beaten to death by homophobes" fear as being more important as a character point of Ennis than as being Jack's reality... it'd be more poetic/tragic to me, somehow, if Jack's death were fairly unrelated to that fear. If Ennis' fear about it came true for Jack, that validates Ennis choosing to never be with him, which I'm not sure was what I was supposed to take away from the film. (Not that Ennis was morally obliged to be with him... Jack was kind of manipulative, if I remember right. But there was a feeling at the end of chances not taken.)

I agree. Like you said, the set up with Ennis's father showing him two murdered gay men when he was a kid definitely informed his imagination.