That Scene in Apocalypse Now

The first time I saw Brokeback and the scene at the Twist Farm in Wombats Grove it "really put the hook in me" about the famous "Terminate with Extreme Prejudice" scene from Apocalypse Now, and the "fade to curtains" and "cherry cake" bits were the dead gives-away to me.  Check out how the "structure" of each segment is almost identical, with the solemn similarity of the "caretaker of the memory", Willard taking the Kurtz Diary home and Ennis taking the shirts.

That is to say when Mrs Twist asked re cherry cake I figured Ang was "having a little joke" with us re "I thought we'd have a bite to eat" from the General, and I totally break up when I see that bit reversed in both videos below.

So here are the juxtapositioned movies for you - please ENJOY.

The irony here [even if a bit sick] is Willard gets a PRE-briefing about how he is to kill a fellow officer that HAL has determined has contravened Political Correctness [ie refuses to incinerate kiddies to keep J Doe happy watching on TV].  He does the job reluctantly and the whole thing is hushed up.

Ennis is in a DE-briefing about how a fellow "sheepboy" happened to be killed because he too contravened Political Correctness [ie puts his dick in the "wrong" hole].  Similarly the whole thing is hushed up.

Both men end up sadder but wiser with the job of "caretaker for the memory", and their future is totally uncertain.

Also both these events happened at essentially the same time in American history, ie one is "war" and one is "peace" but in both cases J Doe is the same person with the same prejudices.

And I don't think this irony escaped Annie/Ang as we see Jack is overjoyed he escaped the Blue Bus for Vietnam [and a 50/50 chance of death/injury] only to be killed at HOME.

And hope you liked the irony of "fishing accident on R&R" - I am sure Alma would have.

Has "Brokeback Mountain" become a Monolith?

The movie 2001: A Space Odyssey explores the mad world of Nietzsche and his 1880s offering Thus Spake Zarathustra where HAL is the "SuperMan" [Big Brother] who controls his/her people via the Monolith [today, the Presidential Auto Cue].

Now the very expression "Brokeback Mountain" or simply "Brokeback" is used by the characters in the movie to express much more than a geographical location.

For example Alma won't mention it by name but refers to events only, like the fishing tackle case.  Lureen says she don't know where it is as code for don't know what Jack did there, whereas Jack's dad says he knows all about it, meaning he knows Jack is queer, and Jack himself says all we got is Brokeback but referring to the memory of the events of the first summer.  And finally the word Brokeback refers to the movie itself and the meaning [which differs widely] it holds for different people.

As such we have a whole "Age" as I call it in my book [therefore a HAL] using Brokeback as its Monolith to its loyal admirers [pronked as "gay"] and detractors [pronked as "straight" and "homophobic"], all of that welded together by the all important American Closet [now having taken over from American Apple Pie].  Here is part of my Table of Contents:

Age 3.    
Affirmative Action Stage 2 - Women (circa 1970)
3.1.    Hell Hath No Fury …
3.2.    Could the Hell have been avoided?
3.3.    Song of the Sisterhood
3.4.    Support of Government
3.5.    The First Stone

Age 4.    
Affirmative Action Stage 3 - Homosexuals (circa 1980)
4.1.    The Sudden Turnaround
4.2.    A Win Win Situation
4.3.    Blame?
4.4.    The Manhattan Experiment

Doespeare, John (2012-02-16). Seven Ages of America (Kindle Locations 49-58).  . Kindle Edition.

Seems that either by purpose or accident, Ang Lee never gives us a "full frontal" view of Brokeback, which only serves to solidify it as an IMAGINARY vision to people's own perspective of the whole Monolith issue.

But E Annie P actually took Ang to the places in Wyoming where she imagined Brokeback might exist.  I did my own exhaustive search and came up with a place in front of Mt Moron in the Tetons, and while this was 50 miles from where Annie took Ang it is far more conducive to the story.

Now the eerie thing is just how similar this is to the Monolith that inspired Neitzsche a century before, as you can see:

This is Upper Engadine for Nietzsche

And here is the Tetons, with Mystic Isle adding to the whole aura of secret, hidden and closeting:

Summary

This is my summary