Finding Brokeback 2. July - August 2009. Pictures.
Hi everyone. I´d like to share pictures from the Brokeback Mountain filming locations I visited a few weeks ago during my vacation to Alberta, Canada.
I was there to meet up with other Brokies for some "drinkin´and talkin´ and all". First I spent a few days on my own, driving forth and back across the prairie and into Glacier National Park in Montana. But this post will mainly be about the week spent with brokies.
Some of you might remember that I visited Alberta last summer, and posted picture of that. Many of those sites I revisited this year, but in this post I´ll focus on those locations that was new to me this year. If you´re interested in the pictures from last year, they can be found on my LJ under the tag "finding brokeback" in the menu to the left.
First out...The Twist House.
Located in Beiseker, an old german settlement northeast of Calgary. The former driveway from the main road to this since long abandoned house is no more. The house is easy to miss from the road since the garden have grown so much it hides the house from one´s view. It´s incredibly worn-down and also seems to have been the target of vandalism. Both the roof and floor have started to give away.
and take a look at what it looks like now
Click to viewThis is the place they shot Jack´s death scene as Ennis imagines it. East of Calgary.
Where Alma and Ennis are wedded. Located in the almost non-existent town of Dinton, south of Calgary. The church was closed when I arrived and the windows was of the kind that you can´t see through. The "inside"shot of this church I have (see below) was taken through the oval shaped window in the main door (you can spot it in the screencap below). It was high up though so was jumping up and down to get the shot!
The bar that Ennis goes to after Alma, after almost 20 years, finally confronts him about his "fishing trips"
Located in Blackie, Alberta. Another very small town and during my 20 minutes visit here, I didn´t see another living being.
The bar is the house to the right. Looking closely, you can spot the blue door in the screencap.
"Signal, Wyoming". The iconic intersection where we for the first time see Ennis. It was filmed in Carseland, Alberta. A long way from Wyoming.
Filmed in Carseland was also the brief shot of Ennis and Jack walking to the bar after their initial meeting. So what we have first is Ennis jumping down from the truck (shot in Carseland) then we see him meeting Jack outside of the trailer (a scene shot in Cowley, 200 km away), then we see Ennis and Jack walk to the bar (and we´re back in Carseland!) The magic of filmmaking. I have whole new found appreciation for the folks responsible for continuity during a filming!
and her´s the bar that Ennis and Jack visit
Located in Carseland
I knocked on the door cause I was curious to what the bar looked like inside, but no luck.
I posted pictures from Rockyford last year, but this year I visited during the town´s annual rodeo. Rockyfords 52:nd rodeo. Yeehaaaw! So I thought I´d post some pictures from that.
In the movie, it´s here where Jack meets Lureen during rodeo. This was a very´...pleasant way to spend a day; sitting in the sun, sipping on a diet coke, cowboys everywhere..dirty and sweaty...
Woho! A cowboy in action
Fittingly; I also visited where Ennis and Alma got divorced. This is treally he old city hall of Fort Macleod. Very easy to get access to; just ask at the front desk.
There are many "Brokeback Mountain" in the movie. One mountain that played the roll is Mount Loretta
From the movie...
And this is what it looked like, a late Wednesday afternoon in July...
Perhaps my favorite day was the day four of us hiked up to Moose Mountain. It was quite the hike, but we had perfect weather (sunny but not too hot) and no wind. This is a remote area, beautiful and oh so quiet.
ok...you want proof of how nerdy I can be? Take a look at the picture below with Ennis on his horse. See two bigger rocks a little distance in front of the horse on the slope? Look at the picture of me standing there. See the rocks, do you? Cool, huh??
There have been many brokies up on Moose Mountain before us. Someone had build a cairn here. People had scratched their names into the stones and someone had even placed a gold ring engraved "Brokeback Mountain" under it.
Another area we visited was Morley where several "sheep scenes" were shot.
This is where Ennis and Jack "pick up" and "drop off" the sheep
and the Oscar goes to...
and now the grand finale....
...not. Seebe, where the cliff scene was shot, is no longer accessible. This is how close you can get. Which really isn´t very close at all.
Here are some other Brokeback related stuff. In Cowley (the movie´s "Signal") a local store owner still has in his possession the back of a production crew fold up chair.
While eating in "Johnnys Restaurant" in Fort Macleod, I spotted this on the wall. Randy Quaid with "Johnny" himself and a thank you note. According to the waitress he was "a very, very nice man".
To top it off; here are some miscellaneous pics from the trip!
