lovable subtle details

[twistedude]

And yet, in my movie addiction, I don't want to forget that Jack's mother hass NOTHING TO DO WITH Ennis taking the shirts away in the shory story; for all we know, he snuck them out under his jacket (though logic would suggest that she jknew they were there, unless they were very well hidden in that little space...)

[TJ]

Yeah I agree.....I think thats the main reason she wanted him to go up there....to find the shirts...

If I had not read the Annie Proulx short story several weeks before I saw the movie, I might agree with both of you in that.

But, I really did not think the AP Mrs. Twist of Lightning Flat even knew the shirts existed in the condition which Ennis found them. I mean I don't think that she even knew Jack had hidden the shirts in the first place. Some parents do trust their children and don't go snooping through their children's belongings after they become teenagers. My own mother who believed in the Pentecost (she was a Pentecostal, too) was one of those parents.

In the story, the hidden shirts are hanging on a nail in the jog of Jack's closet which has no door but a cretonne fabric curtain on a string, making a makeshift closet in the room itself.

When Ennis hangs the shirts on the nail that he drove into his trailer wall, they are ON a wire hanger.

Annie Proulx never states how Ennis got the shirts out of the Twist house.

[serious crayons]

I don't think Mrs. Twist's looking in her dead son's closet need be considered a sign of distrust. Nor can I imagine that she wouldn't know the shirts were in there. Most parents whose child has died would head into their bedroom at some point and look at all their things.

[j.U.d.E.]

[Haven't read the whole thread, so apologies if I repeat things that have already been mentioned]

I love when early in the film we see Jack up in the mountains at night, looking down at where Ennis is (you can see the fire and the smoke). I think it's one of the several scenes where we are 'told' that Jack takes an interest in Ennis.

I love when we see Ennis look up at the mountains where Jack's herding sheep. Again, very early in the film, when they haven't really gotten to know each other, but already wonder, worry about the other. Totally cute!

I love to see the fire flames in the back, between Ennis and Jack in the 2nd tent scene. It's like there to keep them warm in this wonderfully gentle scene. Love it how Jack strokes Ennis' ear..

Ennis frowns a lot(!) but he doesn't frown when Jack kisses him hard in the second tent scene. Love it.

[Off-topic question (again, sorry if it was discussed before..) - does none of them wear (Ennis and Jack) underwear? They have shirts under their shirts, but do they wear shorts, knickers, pants, briefs.. or whatever it's called? Ennis slips out of his jeans (when he washes himself) and is naked underneath, right? And in the first tent scene, it doesn't look like Jack is wearing underwear..]

[chefjudy]

 

I love to see the fire flames in the back, between Ennis and Jack in the 2nd tent scene. It's like there to keep them warm in this wonderfully gentle scene.

I remember reading on the OB that the fire in the second scene was like another character in the scene,  and the symbolism of the fire was very obvious, especially with what happens next...............

[TJ]

In the original short story, Jack notices, when Ennis strips to warsh everything he can reach, that Ennis is not wearing underwear nor socks. That implies that Jack is wearing them.

Oh, in regard to whether Mrs. Twist looked through Jack's left behind belongings, some people have to wait a long time after a loved one, even a child, before they sort through them. For some people, the grief and bereavement process lasts a long time. While Jack's mother never said that her adult son helped her in the house, only that he helped his father on the ranch, I believe that when clean clothing was put in Jack's closet, it was Jack who took it upstairs. Annie Proulx's Mrs. Twist was recovering from an operation when Ennis showed up at her home.

It was more that a year after my late partner/husband, Ed, died before I got any professional help with the loss of Ed and it took few months of weekly sessions to get to where I could be get on with his loss. But, then by that time, I had another big problem I had gotten assaulted from behind and hit in the head several times. Then I had to continue therapy related to that trauma.

[Brown Eyes]

I don't think Mrs. Twist's looking in her dead son's closet need be considered a sign of distrust. Nor can I imagine that she wouldn't know the shirts were in there. Most parents whose child has died would head into their bedroom at some point and look at all their things.

Well, that house is so small and spare that I'm sure Jack's Mom knows every inch of it.  This is probably especially true since it's hard to imagine John Twist helping much with housekeeping chores.  And, yes, through mourning Jack (and maybe even just missing him while he wasn't home when he was still alive) she probably would have looked in his room a number of time.

[TJ]

 

The old man said, "Tell you what, I know where Brokeback Mountain is. He thought he was too goddamn special to be buried in the family plot."    Jack's mother ignored this, said, "He used a come home every year, even after he was married and down in Texas, and help his daddy on the ranch for a week fix the gates and mow and all. I kept his room like it was when he was a boy and I think he appreciated that. You are welcome to go up in his room if you want."

To some people, the phrase "I kept it like it was" can mean "I left it like it was and did not move a thing." When Ennis went into Jack tiny and hot bedroom, he did not see into the makeshift closet created by upholstery fabric (cretonne) on a string. I have heard people say that while the kept the surfaces clean and dusted in a deceased child's room, they did not touch or look at anything in the drawers and the closets in the room for a very long time; it bothered them too much to do that.

I know some of these things because I attended a group "grief and bereavement" support group where such things were said, when I finally got around to handling my own situation.

[maggiesmommy GayLee]

i just watched the shirt scene again...Mrs Twist was in no way surprised at Ennis having the shirts..in fact i get the impresion that she EXPECTED him to have them, and that it was her purpose for sending him up.
The scene:
Ennis walks into the room, side glances at Mr Twist, walks up to Mrs Twist, kinda holds out the rolled up shirts toward her a bit, and just looks imploringly at her...she nods her head slightly, her eyes are smiling, she knows exactally what he has and why,and gets a grocery sack, much like the sack he took to Brokeback with all his wordly posessions in it that first summer, and puts the shirts into it, she never questions him about it, she doesn't react in a way that would suggest that she was surprised to see them...she just acts satisfied that it has turned out the way whe hoped it would...that sack  now held the only worldly posessons that meant anything at all to him....his only tangeable link to Jack...   

[nakymaton]

she just acts satisfied that it has turned out the way whe hoped it would...that sack  now held the only worldly posessons that meant anything at all to him....his only tangeable link to Jack...   

 

It struck me, last night, that Jack's mom gave Ennis something that was more a piece of Jack than the ashes would have been.

The ashes may have gone into the cemetary, but Jack's heart went where it had always been.