Reply #8: Very good points

[TechBear_Seattle]

In my disagreement below, I had forgotten about the silence in which most gay men of the era lived. There were NO role models, and often not even words to describe what they were doing. I will need to see the movie again to make sure, but I don't think any of the common epithets used against gay men were uttered in the movie. The closest came when Ennis' wife said, "Jack Twist? Jack Nasty!"

That the only time Ennis spoke much was when he was with Jack... good catch, I missed that. I did notice that it was the only time he ever showed any emotion at all: he was cold and distant to everyone else in his life. When he was preparing for a tryst, though, he became animated, he smiled, he became alive. And Jack became confident in his own abilities; we was pretty much a wimp and failure except when he was with Ennis.

You are certainly right in saying that romace is not all rose petals and twittering birds (great image, btw.) It was very clear to me, hopeless romantic that I am, just how desperately in love they were with each other. To use a cliche, when they were together they were complete. The tragedy of their story -- and every good romantic story has a tragedy -- was the intense pressure that their culture placed on them to keep the love hidden, even from themselves.