Ennis gets a postcard from Jack which reads, "Ennis, see you in a couple weeks, fish should be jumping.Jack." The postmark is Childress, Texas, July 1972.
I wish I knew how to quit you. There was some open space between what he knew and what he tried to believe, but nothing could be done about it, and if you can't fix it you've got to stand it.
The line "Jack, I swear" is spoken by Ennis Del Mar, one of the main characters in the short story and film "Brokeback Mountain," during a pivotal scene near the end of the story. This line carries significant emotional weight and encapsulates Ennis's feelings and promise to his deceased lover, Jack Twist.
According to his wife, Jack died when the tire blew as he was changing it, and the car crushed him. According to Ennis, Jack died as a result of a hate crime, beaten by men with a tire iron. Ennis's perspective comes from his childhood experience seeing the body of a gay man killed as a result of a hate crime.
Lureen, Jack's wife, tells Ennis on the phone that Jack was changing a tire when it exploded and killed him. As Lureen talks, Ennis imagines Jack being beaten to death with a tire iron. This vision is Ennis's fear manifesting itself.
The first instance is at the end of their summer at Brokeback Mountain, when Ennis punches Jack hard for no apparent reason, although it seems that this unexpected violence is due to his own shame and distress over having to leave the man he loves.
When Jack drives away, Ennis completely breaks down in an alleyway. It's the most intense bit of emotion he will ever express, which says a lot about his feelings for Jack. He also lashes out at a man who walks by, showing that he is uncomfortable expressing emotion, seeing it as a weakness.
Ennis gets a postcard from Jack which reads, "Ennis, see you in a couple weeks, fish should be jumping. Jack." The postmark is Childress, Texas, July 1972. A couple of weeks later, Jack is driving a blue Ford truck with a 1976-7 grill.
Jack and Ennis are undoubtedly in love, despite their circumstances, but theirs isn't a typical fairy tale that can be swallowed up by heteronormativity and be effectively regurgitated with the same emotional weight.
The tragic story of "Brokeback Mountain" is not based on true events, but is actually adapted from a novel of the same name. The short story written by Annie Proulx was first published in the New Yorker in 1997.
Ennis's inability to express himself is possibly the most tragic thing about "Brokeback Mountain." In a sick way, it pays off because he's able to keep his desires in check. That means he can keep a low profile and avoid a horrible fate like the one Jack meets.
Up until now, I've assumed that Ennis and Jack were both nineteen when they first meet on Brokeback in the summer of '63. Indeed, the timeline I created for Brokeback partly depends on this assumption.
How old was Jack at the beginning of Brokeback Mountain?
While the two 19-year-old men work on Brokeback Mountain, Ennis is stationed at the base camp while Jack watches the sheep higher on the mountain. They meet only for meals at the base camp, gradually becoming friends. Eventually they switch roles, with Jack taking over duties at base camp and Ennis tending the flock.
Jack admits he travels to Mexico for sex because Ennis can't give him enough of a life. They argue, but nothing is resolved. Jack remembers a time on Brokeback when Ennis simply embraced him and stood with him by the fire.
She dislikes Ennis's predilection for low-paying ranch work with long hours, and wants to settle down somewhere to raise her family. She eventually gets a job at a grocery store in Riverton. Jack's reunion with Ennis is the beginning of a gradual distancing between Alma and Ennis that eventually culminates in divorce.
Ennis and Jack's 20-year romance begins when they are hired in the summer of 1963 by Joe Aguirre (Randy Quaid), a hard-boiled rancher, to work as sheepherders on Brokeback Mountain in the Wyoming high country. (The movie was filmed in Alberta, in the Canadian Rockies.)
In a strained telephone conversation, Lureen tells Ennis that Jack died in an accident while changing a tire; Ennis, however, suspects that he was murdered by men who discovered his secret life.
As Lureen informs Ennis, "He use to say he wanted to be cremated, ashes scattered on Brokeback Mountain" (128). Of course Ennis wants to honor that request and heads to Jack's parents for the other ashes. But he just can't get it done: "In the end the stud duck refused to let Jack's ashes go.
Both men's marriages deteriorate, and when Jack hears of Ennis's divorce, he drives to Wyoming unannounced, hoping that now they can live together. Ennis can't take that risk, and blames Jack for being the cause of his own inner conflict. They fight, but it turns into an embrace.
Brokeback is where it's at. For reals. "Brokeback Mountain" is where Ennis and Jack fall in love, and as such, it becomes much more than a setting for the first part of the narrative. It's more a symbol for the story itself—an ill-fated love that could never be what these characters wanted it to be.
Police said he died from an accidental overdose of prescription medications, including painkillers, anti-anxiety drugs and sleeping pills. He didn't live to see the Academy award him the best supporting actor Oscar for his role of the Joker.
Dad seems to be running the show, and he makes it pretty clear that he knows what Jack and Ennis were up to, saying, "I know where Brokeback Mountain is. He thought he was too goddamn special to be buried in the family plot" (140).
