The meaning of Brokeback?

new_boy   Wed Aug 23, 2006 7:20 am GMT
I have just watched a film titled "Brokeback Mountain" (directed by Ang Lee). I want to know the meaning of "Brokceback", because I cannot find it in the online dictionary: dictionary.cambridge.org.

I thought it consists of two words: "break" and "back". But I still don't know what it is.

Thanks.
Guest   Wed Aug 23, 2006 8:36 am GMT
I think it's just a name... the name of a mountain in this case. And the movie's about a couple of wooly moofs who happen to be cowboys.
new_boy   Wed Aug 23, 2006 9:03 am GMT
So, it does not have a special meaning? I assume that it is the mountain the two cowboys first met.

About the movie, it is a great movie.
Uriel   Wed Aug 23, 2006 10:00 am GMT
Brokeback is a made-up name that would come from the colloquial term for "broken back" -- it is common for the word "broken" to be shortened to "broke" in informal speech. It probably would have referred to the shape of the mountain itself (I'm assuming it's a fictional place, although I don't really know my Wyoming geography that well).

But no, it's not a name you would ever find in a dictionary.
Viscount de l'Isle   Wed Aug 23, 2006 5:21 pm GMT
I think it is horryfying that the name of the movie is so similar to "Bareback Mountain". And no, it is not just my dirty mind (God knows it is!), but I have heard this similarity used in jokes.
Good movie, though! It deserved a better name!
Stan   Wed Aug 23, 2006 9:46 pm GMT
<< The meaning of Brokeback? >>

Trust me, you don't wanna know!
new_boys   Thu Aug 24, 2006 5:41 am GMT
Ok, thanks a lot.
Damian in London N2   Thu Aug 24, 2006 8:55 am GMT
You could spend a lifetime discovering the original meaning of the names of geographical features, towns, villages or whatever. Brokeback may well have been named because of it's appearance from a certain angle....outlined against the skyline (apparently a Canadian skyline as far as the film was concerned).

I see Stan is true to form......as ever....trust me! It's his prerogative. Ha!
Stan   Thu Aug 24, 2006 6:14 pm GMT
<< I see Stan is true to form......as ever....trust me! It's his prerogative. Ha! >>

Hi there Damian! its goog you can recognize Stan for what Stan is. Its good to be back on the forum after an extra-ordinary absence.
Damian in North London   Thu Aug 24, 2006 9:31 pm GMT
Stan!.....how could I fail to recognise your moral rectitude when it stares me in the face....you shine your Light so brightly it's even visible this side of the Atlantic......looking out of the window here right now I can see the Post Office Tower in the distance radiating its glow across the whole of nightime North London.