Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
Was Ennis foolin when he threatened Jack?
nakymaton:
About Ennis's violent side: yes, it's there. But I think that, as Ennis ages, he becomes less likely to hurt other people and more likely to get hurt himself. He punches Jack at the end of the summer; he beats up the bikers at the 4th of July (and scares Alma in the process). But then at Thanksgiving, although he threatens Alma, he doesn't hit her; instead, he storms out and gets himself beaten up. And he tries to hit Jack again, when Jack hugs him at the end of the lake scene -- and that's such a great bookend to The Punch -- and this time, Ennis doesn't manage to hit Jack. Either Jack's holding on too hard, or Ennis just doesn't really have it in him to hit Jack, whatever Ennis says, but there's an attempted punch there that fails.
juneaux:
Although Ennis was hurt at the thought of Jack with another man and the primary way Ennis dealt with his emtions was, for the most part, through physical violence I do not believe he would have harmed Jack. In fact after he collapses on the ground doesn't he mumble "I can't take this anymore" or something to that effect? Jack didn't think Ennis "wanted" a life together "bad enough" when Ennis' recation showed him otherwise.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: FuzzyChanny on April 26, 2006, 06:53:45 pm ---I definitely think it was something he just said in the heat of the moment, because Jack did admit to it, and I didn't see Ennis running for his hunting rifle...
--- End quote ---
LOL! Good point, FuzzyChanny!
This too, nakymaton:
--- Quote from: nakymaton on April 26, 2006, 05:28:46 pm ---I think that the last time Ennis hit Jack, Ennis spent four long years regretting it.
Ennis may have a short fuse, but I don't think he would be able to hurt Jack again without remembering how much he hurt himself as well, the last time.
--- End quote ---
This is one of my least favorite lines in the movie, not just because it puts Ennis in a bad light, but because it seems too over the top. Not only do I not believe Ennis would kill (or even hurt) Jack, if I hadn't heard him with my own ears I wouldn't believe he could threaten to, either.
I think one of the functions of the 4th of July scene is to contrast it with the fight that broke out when they were leaving the mountain. On the mountain, they were fake-fighting. For most of it they weren't really trying to hurt each other, even if Ennis did wind up impulsively punching Jack. On the other hand, he WAS trying to hurt the bikers, or at least scare them off, and that fight looked pretty different.
vkm91941:
--- Quote from: lnicoll on April 26, 2006, 06:47:46 pm ---Victoria had a wonderful post 1000 years ago (over on TOB or the old CT) where she analyzed the conversation as a lover's quarrel and said, "this is how lovers fight." Understood exactly why each one said just what they did when they did. It made perfect sense to me. Vic, you reading this? Any chance you have that post saved somewhere on your hard drive or wherever??
Leslie
--- End quote ---
I didn't save it, it was a long time ago before we ever knew we had to save these things. But the gist of it was.
This is a lovers quarrel, it is not the end of the relationship, evidenced by Ennis sending the post card to Jack asking if November was still OK ( the one that came back marked deceased).. I do NOT believe that Jack ever took up seriously with Randall. There is a certain kind of fight between lovers that is a relationship adjustment, where things that have been simmering come to the surface, as Annie Proulx says in the story "here it was late and unexpected" this was nothing new between them. They just both pushed a couple of each others buttons and spouted off. When lovers fight, they quarrel, and then reconcile, each time there is compromise, each time you grow closer..if the love is true.
Ellemeno:
The only thing I can add to what's been said is that it always seems to me that part of what Ennis is doing there is making clear that even now, he is aligning himself with the homophobes and not with the homosexual. It's what he got taught - when you find out that someone has had sex with a man, you kill them. He could somehow torque it inside of himself that he himself ain't queer, so that doesn't count. But if Jack has sex with another man, well that is queer, and thus a killable offense.
It's almost like he says it out loud pro forma, for any homophobes who might be listening, just like when on the mountain he leans back to watch Jack ride away, and then quickly catches himself and LOOKS AROUND, to see if anyone else has noticed that he was watching another guy. He carries his homophobic lynch mob with him everywhere he goes, even way out in the middle of nowhere.
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