Just saw Brokeback this weekend and agree with most Dopers that it was a great movie. I just had two lingering questions.
First, what was the law they were supposed to be breaking when they spent nights on the mountain with the sheep instead of in the main camp? I assume it had something to do with the protection status of the mountain itself. But was the law against having the sheep up there (and just at night or all day?), or was it just prohibiting people from staying up there?
And second, when Ennis was on the phone talking to Lureen about JAck’s death, they showed a flashback of Jack being beaten to death. Are we meant to conclude from this that Jack did in fact die from a hate-inspired attack, or was it just Ennis’s morbid imagination, based in part on his childhood experience finding that dead man?
My wife took it a step further – she thought maybe Ennis was *remembering * Jack’s murder, i.e. he committed it himself. You could kind of draw that conclusion based on Ennis’ temper and from the threats he made to Jack if he ever went to Mexico again. But I personally don’t think that is the conclusion we are supposed to draw from this…
I don’t know anything about sheep-herding, so I can’t answer the first question. I think the flashback is purposefully ambiguous regarding the true nature of Jack’s death, which is (from what I’ve heard) how it is portrayed in the original short story. From Lureen’s reaction to her own words, I personally think that the flashback is exactly what happened, as she is quite clearly aware of what Ennis meant to her late husband, but my interpretation is admittedly debatable.
I definitely do NOT believe that Ennis murdered Jack… if we assume that Jack was murdered and that the flashback represents truth, then Jack was beaten to death by several men. Even if I could believe that Ennis would snap so completely, I can’t imagine him raising up a lynching gang. He’s simply not capable of that level of human interaction with people other than his daughter and Jack.
I believe it was Federal property, and they weren’t supposed to be grazing there.
I replied in a different forum, that I believe Jack was actually killed in that manner. That whole tire blew up story smacks of local cops making up a story so they wouldn’t have to investigate the murder of a gay guy.
My assumption was not that they weren’t allowed to graze the sheep on federal land but that they were not allowed to kill coyotes or wolves which might prey on the sheep. Having one of them at the grazing site would allow for the killing of predators but since they weren’t supposed to be killing them there could be no evidence of anyone’s sleeping there.
I thought that they could graze sheep there, but the herders were only supposed to camp at designated campsites - and they were too far from where the sheep would be.
In the short story, IARC, they were “supposed” to both be down at the camp, but one of them had been ordered to stay up with the sheep at night to protect them.
Also, when Ennis heard that Jack had died, he wondered if he had been murdered, and when Jack’s wife told him it was a head injury or whatever, then he “knew” that’s what happened. Haven’t seen the movie yet, so I can’t comment other than the story.