Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
what's the point of the job switch?
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on May 09, 2006, 09:50:02 am --- Partly because of Matt Damon, he just doesn't do anything for me. Heath would have been great in that role.
--- End quote ---
This is WAY OT, sorry, but when I saw "The Brothers Grimm" I actually liked Matt better than Heath in it! What was I thinking?!? Of course, I hated the movie, so maybe that was part of the problem.
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on May 09, 2006, 09:50:02 am ---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.
--- End quote ---
Sorry, but I disagree. The point of the immediately following words about Ennis "cutting fences" and "trespassing in the shoot-em zone" is clearly that he's getting into the subject of having sex with other men. That's what he's heard that "boys like Jack" can get in Mexico.
That's not to deny that it was, indeed, dangerous for Jack to go to Mexico to have sex with male hustlers, but I don't believe that's what Ennis is talking about.
TJ:
I would make a suggestion that members reading in this thread go up to look at what I quoted from Annie Proulx's story.
Look where it says Mexico was the place. He'd heard..
Then after Jack "claims" that he had been to Mexico, look at what Ennis said in response.
"I got a say this to you one time, Jack, and I ain't foolin. What I don't know," said Ennis, "all them things I don't know could get you killed if I should come to know them."
Because of Ennis's words, I see that he was not referring to a place for "boys like you;" he was talking about how dangerous it would be for a "queer" to go to Mexico. Ennis didn't always say exactly what he meant. (Up on Brokeback when he was going to sleep by the campfire because he was dizzy drunk, he said "Got you an extra blanket" when he meant "Have you got an extra blanket?")
He was not threatening to kill Jack if he found out what Jack had been doing with guys when they were apart; he was afraid that by the time he found out if Jack had been doing those things, Jack would have already been killed. When Ennis got upset, he did not always express himself very well.
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: TJ on May 09, 2006, 04:59:21 pm ---I would make a suggestion that members reading in this thread go up to look at what I quoted from Annie Proulx's story.
Look where it says Mexico was the place. He'd heard..
Then after Jack "claims" that he had been to Mexico, look at what Ennis said in response.
"I got a say this to you one time, Jack, and I ain't foolin. What I don't know," said Ennis, "all them things I don't know could get you killed if I should come to know them."
Because of Ennis's words, I see that he was not referring to a place for "boys like you;" he was talking about how dangerous it would be for a "queer" to go to Mexico. Ennis didn't always say exactly what he meant. (Up on Brokeback when he was going to sleep by the campfire because he was dizzy drunk, he said "Got you an extra blanket" when he meant "Have you got an extra blanket?")
He was not threatening to kill Jack if he found out what Jack had been doing with guys when they were apart; he was afraid that by the time he found out if Jack had been doing those things, Jack would have already been killed. When Ennis got upset, he did not always express himself very well.
--- End quote ---
Sorry, but, "Hunh?"
How can all those things that Ennis doesn't know get Jack killed if Ennis comes to know them, unless Ennis is the one threatening to kill Jack?
No disrespect to your opinon intended, but I think you're missing the significance of that "if I should come to know them."
Aussie Chris:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on May 09, 2006, 10:48:35 pm ---How can all those things that Ennis doesn't know get Jack killed if Ennis comes to know them, unless Ennis is the one threatening to kill Jack?
--- End quote ---
I agree Jeff, this was my biggest problem with the "Ennis is just lashing out because he was afraid of losing Jack" argument. He probably was of course, but the "might get you killed if I come to know them" line always made me feel that Ennis still considered himself "not queer", and the revelation for Ennis is that Jack "is queer" because he goes to Mexico. I love Katherine's interpretation because it give more depth to the scene, but I still see the outburst as centred around exposed homophobia and denial. Now when Jack challenges him back and Ennis breaks down, then I think we can entertain the idea that Ennis feared losing Jack, but even then, I think he's more worried about his own feeling of being "nothing and no-where", and it's because of Jack that he is that way.
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