Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
lovable subtle details
Ellemeno:
--- Quote from: atz75 on July 10, 2006, 09:17:20 pm ---But, is it possible that the Old Rose whiskey is meant to be a reference to "stemming the rose"? I almost hate to bring this up.
:o
--- End quote ---
That's what I've imagined. There they still are together, them and their old roses. Sort of shocking - but Heath sure seems to delibertely hold the bottle so that we can read it.
On a completely different note -
Heath's face-acting right after putting the girls to bed, while Alma's holding him from behind, and whispering sweet nothings about the cheap apartment available. Amazing.
Mikaela:
--- Quote ---That's what I've imagined. There they still are together, them and their old roses. Sort of shocking - but Heath sure seems to delibertely hold the bottle so that we can read it.
--- End quote ---
That's been my opinion too since I saw the name on the bottle. It refers to the "stemming the rose" quip. I mean, the visible name on the bottle, and the position and angle it's being held in....... Definitely. I don't at all think that can be be a coincidence.
jpwagoneer1964:
At the first campout after the reunion The look Ennis gives Jack when he starts to stroke his ear, like he is heartbroiken that he cannot be with him, and had to tell him "It aint gonna be like......". He wants to so much.
Mikaela:
**Looks at picture**
*sniff* Poor Ennis. Always seems to me his first instinct there is to pull away from Jack's hand, not wanting to acknowledge his own vulnerability and hurt - but then he lets Jack start stroking his cheek/ear, accepting the comfort and intimacy of it - in contrast to the previous Brokeback bear incident.
And as for Ennis's ears - who hasn't got a thing for Ennis's ear in the motel scene? I know I do! :-*
On to something else:
The scene at the "lonely old ranch" where Ennis is trying to calm his two squalling daughters: I won't ever admit to how many viewings of the film it took me before I realized that Alma doing the laudry in the kitchen is also visible there, behind Ennis - she's scrubbing away as seen through the glass panes of the children's room door *and* the kitchen window. I thought that was a great subtle detail and one that might well not have been there (knowing how scenes are always filmed out of sequence and how actors come and go from the set, - they might have filmed the scene with Heath and the children while Michelle was half the world away).
That Alma's also visible there together with Ennis and their daughters really changed and enhanced that scene for me. Instead of being specifically about Ennis as good father caring for the girls, enclosed in a small room, it becomes about Ennis and Alma and their whole little house on the prairie - the four of them as a family - the efforts and co-operation it takes to keep that little family going - their joint struggle as young, poor parents living out in the middle of nowhere. It therefore adds further nuance and depth to Ennis's trying to be a "proper" husband and father, and to the conflict in his mind in the immediately following bedroom scene with Alma. The little detail of Alma seen through the window makes the reality that is "him and Alma" even more *real* to me.
Brown Eyes:
So, here's a question. What's your favorite subtle detail amongst all the lovable subtle details? I'm sure this may be an impossible question for some of you... and I thought it would be for me too. But, the more I think about it the more I realize that the way the wheel on Jack's truck spins out at the very beginning in front of Aguirre's trailer truly is my favorite detail. I remember loving that detail from my very first theatre viewing of the film. Who knew that a truck could have personality?! And they say that pets come to resemble their owners after a good number of years together... well maybe the same is true with old truck.
;)
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