Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
what's the point of the job switch?
serious crayons:
Thanks for the reassurance. And I will be always be happy to argue with you on almost anything!
TJ:
While the thread of discussion has unravelled into another tangental thread at the other end of the story, I will make a coment about "boys like you."
I think the screenplay writers misunderstood what Annie Proulx meant in the following excerpt from the printed story.
--- Quote ---And why's it we're always in the friggin cold weather? We ought a do somethin. We ought a go south. We ought a go to Mexico one day."
"Mexico? Jack, you know me. All the travelin I ever done is goin around the coffeepot lookin for the handle. And I'll be runnin the baler all August, that's what's the matter
with August. Lighten up, Jack. We can hunt in November, kill a nice elk. Try if I can get Don Wroe's cabin again. We had a good time that year."
"You know, friend, this is a goddamn bitch of a unsatisfactory situation. You used a come away easy. It's like seein the pope now."
"Jack, I got a work. Them earlier days I used a quit the jobs. You got a wife with money, a good job. You forget how it is bein broke all the time. You ever hear a child
support? I been payin out for years and got more to go. Let me tell you, I can't quit this one. And I can't get the time off. It was tough gettin this time -- some a them late heifers is still calvin. You don't leave then.
You don't. Stoutamire is a hell-raiser and he raised hell about me takin the week. I don't blame him. He probly ain't got a night's sleep since I left. The trade-off was August.
You got a better idea?"
"I did once." The tone was bitter and accusatory.
Ennis said nothing, straightened up slowly, rubbed at his forehead; a horse stamped inside the trailer. He walked to his truck, put his hand on the trailer, said something
that only the horses could hear, turned and walked back at a deliberate pace.
"You been a Mexico, Jack?" Mexico was the place. He'd heard. He was cutting fence now, trespassing in the shoot-em zone.
--- End quote ---
The "Mexico was the place. He'd heard." to me refers not to a place where a guy could get "queer" sex easily; but a place where a "queer" could get killed for being one.
starboardlight:
--- Quote from: latjoreme on May 08, 2006, 12:05:23 pm ---But if you see the scene the way I do, which is that Ennis breaks down because he's afraid of losing Jack and can no longer stand the strain their relationship puts on him, then the Mexico remark becomes less significant. It's Ennis lashing angrily out at Jack because that's what Ennis does when he gets upset. And
--- End quote ---
I'm with you here Katherine. To me, I think Ennis, at this point, has accepted that he's queer. The evidence is in his conversation with Jack by the river as he's washing dishes. "You ever get the feeling when you're in town, ... like they know." If he thought of himself as being straight, there wouldn't be anything to know. To me, he clearly sees himself as being queer. That's not to say that maybe he didn't rationalized varying degrees of queerness, and that Jack was a worse kind than he in his remark "boys like you." Still, to me, when he breaks down in Jack's arm, it's not about confronting his queer self, but about his not being able to envision a place for them to be together and from finally realizing that he might actually lose Jack because of it.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: starboardlight on May 09, 2006, 01:13:17 am ---I'm with you here Katherine. To me, I think Ennis, at this point, has accepted that he's queer. The evidence is in his conversation with Jack by the river as he's washing dishes. "You ever get the feeling when you're in town, ... like they know." If he thought of himself as being straight, there wouldn't be anything to know. To me, he clearly sees himself as being queer. That's not to say that maybe he didn't rationalized varying degrees of queerness, and that Jack was a worse kind than he in his remark "boys like you." Still, to me, when he breaks down in Jack's arm, it's not about confronting his queer self, but about his not being able to envision a place for them to be together and from finally realizing that he might actually lose Jack because of it.
--- End quote ---
Well put as usual, starboardlight. I think the "you ever get the feeling" scene (was going to call it the dishwashing scene but there are a bunch of those) is more evidence that Ennis has come to understand his sexuality. I don't know if I'd call it out-and-out acceptance yet; even by the lake scene he may still be sort of grappling with the knowledge. But by the time he goes to the Twist ranch he has fully accepted it. Your description of his feelings at the lake -- "not being able to envision a place for them to be together" -- is excellent. He's not so much refusing to consider it, he just can't see it. He can't stand it, but he literally doesn't know how to fix it.
BTW, I like your new avatar.
Front-Ranger:
I agree with you, TJ, about the reference to Mexico as the place where "boys like you" could get killed. It makes better sense in the context of the dialogue. BTW, OT, but has anyone read Cormac McCarthy's books such as "All the Pretty Horses" etc. I've read all of them except Blood Meridien, don't think I could take that one. Excellent books--the movie didn't do justice. Partly because of Matt Damon, he just doesn't do anything for me. Heath would have been great in that role.
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