Cowboy's Lament - Ennis Happily Humming -- by CaseyCornelius

[TOoP/Bruce]

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Cowboy's Lament - Ennis Happily Humming
by - CaseyCornelius (Fri Jan 27 2006 10:22:50 )   

UPDATED Thu Feb 2 2006 17:23:33
Apologies if this appears a redundant post, but I'd wanted to add an observation to a previous thread discussing Ennis's obvious pleasure in discretely vocalizing as he brings the supplies back to the tender camp prior to the encounter with the bear, but can't find it. So striking that it's one of the few times in the film where Ennis is shown to be unequivocally happy and content [the other is the flashback embrace within the final Lake Scene, humming a song his mother taught him into Jack's ear]. Another suggestion of the Eden-like atmosphere which both he and Jack inhabit on Brokeback.

I had noticed in the credits [while searching for an authorship for the Water Walking Jesus song excerpt] that The Cowboy's Lament [also known as Streets of Laredo] had received a credit. I had been confused by this as I could not remember hearing it anywhere in the initial part of the film -- the credit is the first one listed, so it had to have been near the begining. That is until someone in another post had mentioned Ennis's barely audible humming and identified it as Streets of Laredo. As an ancillary detail, I can't believe how detailed and complete these credits must be for legal/copyright reasons [I suppose] even when the song is in the public/traditional domain.

More to the point, I can't help but be impressed by Ang Lee's and/or Heath Ledger's choosing this song as a presaging of the tragedy to come, even at this early point in the film. For the song deals with the restless spirit of a deceased cowboy:



As I walked out in the Streets of Laredo
As I walked out in Laredo one day,
I spied a young cowboy, all wrapped in white linen
wrapped up in white linen and cold as the clay.

I see by your outfit, that you are a cowboy,
These words he did say as I slowly walked by.
Come sit down beside me and hear my sad story,
For I'm shot in the breast, and I'm dying today.

Twas once in the saddle I used to go dashing,
Twas once in the saddle I used to go gay.
First to the dradonotuse-house, and then to the card-house,
Got shot in the breast, and I'm dying today.

Oh, beat the drum slowly and play the fife lowly,
And play the dead march as you carry me along;
Take me to the green valley, there lay the sod oer me,
For I'm a young cowboy and I know I've done wrong.

Get six jolly cowboys to carry my coffin,
Get six pretty maidens to bear up my pall.
Put bunches of roses all over my coffin,
Roses to deaden the sods as they fall.

Then swing your rope slowly and rattle your spurs lowly,
And give a wild whoop as you carry me along;
And in the grave throw me and roll the sod o'er me.
For I'm a young cowboy and I know I've done wrong.

Go bring me a cup, a cup of cold water.
To cool my parched lips, the cowboy then said.
Before I returned, his soul had departed,
And gone to the round up - the cowboy was dead.

We beat the drum slowly and played the fife lowly,
And bitterly wept as we bore him along.
For we all loved our comrade, so brave, young and handsome,
We all loved our comrade, although he'd done wrong.



Although no words are sung by Ennis, it's a wonderful ironic touch given the events yet to unfold in the film. And yet another instance of the incredible detail given in the film to integrating a multitude of allusions and symbolic content, much the same way in great tragedies the outcome is frequently fore-shadowed in tiny plot details such as this one.

[TOoP/Bruce]

Re: Cowboy's Lament - Ennis Happily Humming   
by - flashframe777 (Fri Jan 27 2006 10:25:16 )   

Wow Casey, thanks for the credit info. Someone has posted that Ennis hums "Streets Of Laredo", and the first few notes I hear sounds like it. But I wasn't sure.


"You bet." --Ennis del Mar

Re: Cowboy's Lament - Ennis Happily Humming   
by - hibbler (Fri Jan 27 2006 10:25:32 )   

I think it was on my second viewing that I realized Ennis was humming, and it took a few more viewing to figure out the song! Glad someone else caught it.

Re: Cowboy's Lament - Ennis Happily Humming   
by - sfulk (Fri Jan 27 2006 10:27:25 )   

It took me a number of viewings before I actually heard what Ennis is humming. If you remember, he's also humming in a very high pitch, almost girlish compared to his speaking voice.


Re: Cowboy's Lament - Ennis Happily Humming   
by - shrinkrapt (Fri Jan 27 2006 10:58:35 )   

You know those sense memories you have of yourself as a child, that are so strong because of something timeless that struck your quickly developing mind?

This song is one of them - it actually makes me quite wobbly thinking back to my 6-year-old self being taught the song in my South-West England Infants' school, and becoming so sad at the thought of this cowboy calling out from the grave. I know it seems a bit heavy for young children, but I loved all that sort of stuff. There was another song that I was obsessed with as well, just as melancholy.

'I am a young maiden, my story is sad
For once I was carefree and in love with a lad
He courted me sweetly by night and by day
But now he has left me and gone far away

Chorus:
Oh if I was a blackbird, could whistle and sing
I'd follow the vessel my true love sails in
And in the top rigging I would there build my nest
And I'd flutter my wings o'er his broad golden chest.....'

Wow. It's a wonder I didn't grow up to be a goth!


Re: Cowboy's Lament - Ennis Happily Humming   
by - littledarlin (Fri Jan 27 2006 11:11:49 )   

another excellent post from casey. i can't believe i never made this connection! i too was trying to figure out where streets of laredo was used, and also tried to figure out what ennis was humming. what sad and relevant lyrics. someone posted a joking thread earlier on whether or not we have over-analyzed this film. just when you think you have, something like this comes up. there really are so many layers to this film. simply amazing.


together our two hearts are strong, don't you know that's where our hearts both belong

Re: Cowboy's Lament - Ennis Happily Humming   
by - Flickfan-3 (Fri Jan 27 2006 13:55:43 )   

"someone posted a joking thread earlier on whether or not we have over-analyzed this film"... there is no such thing as over-analyzing for Brokeback--as long as you have the evidence than can call forth the imagination...we could be here "until the 12th of never" to quote another song lyric.

Re: Cowboy's Lament - Ennis Happily Humming   
by - EnnisLovesJack (Fri Jan 27 2006 14:55:53 )   

someone posted a joking thread earlier on whether or not we have over-analyzed this film"... there is no such thing as over-analyzing for Brokeback--as long as you have the evidence than can call forth the imagination...we could be here "until the 12th of never" to quote another song lyric.


I'm game!



"I'm sending up a prayer of thanks."
Overanalyzed? I think not !   
by - CaseyCornelius (Fri Jan 27 2006 21:24:14 )   

UPDATED Fri Jan 27 2006 21:28:26
Hah, if we think we've even scratched the surface of this wonderful film, we're 'piping down the valleys wild'. The narrative imagination of Proulx, Ossana, McMurtry, the courageous, honest acting of the entire cast, and the distilling visual genius of Ang Lee [ably assisted by Rodrigo Prieto] are light years ahead of all of us.

Why else would the film be affecting such a vast array of people at emotional, visceral, as well as unconscious levels to such a degree?

Re: Cowboy's Lament - Ennis Happily Humming   
by - starboardlight (Fri Jan 27 2006 11:16:43 )   

UPDATED Fri Jan 27 2006 11:17:05
I tried to listen for that on my last viewing, and probably it's because AMC has crap sound system, but I couldn't hear the humming. I'll have to try it on one of the better theaters.

any way, thank you for that great post.

Re: Cowboy's Lament - Ennis Happily Humming   
by - CaseyCornelius (Sat Jan 28 2006 15:39:22 )   

UPDATED Sat Jan 28 2006 23:21:43
starboardlight:

I can sympathize. I've seen the film at three different theaters and in each one of them the sound is entirely different in quality.

There were numerous sounds of birds singing at various points which I had not caught at all in two of the theaters. AND the very important sound of the wind which blows throughout several scenes, notably the first. You can often see it, but in two of the theaters I couldn't hear it, or heard it only faintly.
The last is an important point as Annie Proulx has said that hearing the sound of the wind was one of the ways the film 'nailed' an essential detail of the Wyoming setting.

Re: Cowboy's Lament - Ennis Happily Humming   
by - starboardlight (Sat Jan 28 2006 15:47:54 )   

I remember the times I saw it at the Arclight, and loving the lead-in to Quizas Quizas Quisas being so beautiful. And at subsequent viewing at lesser theaters, it was completely in-audible.

This last viewing at the Academy screening (that was suppose to have Q&A with Heath and Michelle) in LA, I heard that humming. I thought of our good friend Casey when I heard it. Felt a bit of joy in that detail.

[TOoP/Bruce]

Re: Cowboy's Lament - Ennis Happily Humming   
by - CaseyCornelius (Mon Jan 30 2006 08:13:52 )   

UPDATED Mon Jan 30 2006 09:12:05
Scott6373:
Saw the film again last night and you're spot on - Jack is definitely attempting to play 'He Was a Friend of Mine'. The question is whether this is a realistic plot detail from a historical perspective. How might Jack have picked it up? The tune IS originally an old folk melody which Bob Dylan apparently 'covered' but did not release [though he is inaccurately given authorship credit for it] after learning it from several other folkie friends in 1962. However, the recording would not have been heard until its eventual release in the 'Bootleg tapes' decades later. Perhaps we don't need to speculate as to how Jack had picked it up, but as we've been discussing on these boards, Ang Lee and company have been fastidiously accurate with regard to every realistic detail in the film. I have to believe it was as thoroughly thought out.
OR it might be a secret inner detail to the film and a correspondence with the closing title cover of the song by Willie Nelson. I imagine that the Willie Nelson rendition along with the Rufus Wainwright "Maker Makes" would probably have been chosen even before shooting began [as much of Santolalla's score was composed before the start of shooting] enabling the music advisors to teach it to Jake Gyllenhaal.
Re: Cowboy's Lament - Ennis Happily Humming   
by - houstonangel88 (Wed Feb 1 2006 08:25:21 )   
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Casey, I did a search on " He was a friend of mine" and found this

http://bobdylan.com/songs/wasafriend.html

On the bottom, it says "Copyright © 1962; renewed 1990 MCA "

So... I think this song probably was around since 1962 or earlier... if I am reading this correctly.

If so... I would have to say "WOW" to Ang Lee and the crews... unbelievable detail!!!



Re: Cowboy's Lament - Ennis Happily Humming   
by - CaseyCornelius (Wed Feb 1 2006 08:48:10 )   

UPDATED Wed Feb 1 2006 08:49:40
houstonangel88:

Some even more confusing details about the provenance of the song:

http://www3.clearlight.com/~acsa/introjs.htm?/~acsa/songfile/HE1WASA.HTM

Although there is an original copyright of 1962 I don't believe that a recorded version by Dylan would have been heard before the release of the 'Bootleg' tapes in the 1980s.

It really is a moot point as other web-sites state that "He Was a Friend of Mine" is a re-working of an original folk tune, the melody of which Jack could have known when the story begins in 1963, even if the words we hear in the closing credits would not have been the same.

Re: Cowboy's Lament - Ennis Happily Humming   
by - The_Naked_Librarian (Thu Feb 2 2006 14:54:06 )   

Both "He Was a Friend of Mine" and "Streets of Laredo" are folk songs old as the hills. Nevertheless, both were "in the air" in the early sixties thanks to recordings by popular country aritsts. Bobby Bare had a single with "He Was a Friend of Mine" in 1964. His version of the lyrics is as follows:

He was a friend of mine he was a friend of mine
He died without a penny he didn't have a dime he was a friend of mine
He died neath the midnight sun he died neath the midnight sun
His wanderin' days are over his loneliness is done
Yes he died neath the midnight sun
I have a lot of buddies in my time but he was the best buddy I ever had
The kind of friend you can lean on and turn to when times 're goin' bad
He could have been a rich man or maybe he could be the President
But he was just a friend of mine the one who had died without a cent
I soughed away and cried I soughed away and cried
Tears fell like raindrops the night my best friend died
He was a friend of mine he was a friend of mine
_____________________________________________________________

On the B side of that single was the song "When I'm Gone":

Will anybody know I've been here when I'm gone
Will anything that I've done here live on
Every man's allowed just so much time
And all you take along is what you leave behind
Will anybody know I've been here when I'm gone
When I'm gone when I'm gone
Oh will anybody know I've been here when I'm gone

Will anybody cry just a little bit when I'm gone
Will anybody cry just a little bit when I'm gone
Will the things I've tried so hopefully all turn to dust alongside of me
Will anybody know I've been here when I'm gone
When I'm gone when I'm gone
Oh will anybody know I've been here when I'm gone

Will anybody think about me when I'm gone
Will anybody ever remember me when I'm gone
Will they call me failure or success did I really live or just exist
Will anybody know I've been here when I'm gone
When I'm gone when I'm gone
Oh will anybody know I've been here when I'm gone
Will anybody know I've been here when I'm gone
__________________________________________________________

Eddy Arnold recorded "Streets of Laredo" in 1962. Here are the lyrics in his version:

As I walked out in the streets of Laredo
As I walked out in Laredo one day
I spied a poor cowboy wrapped in white linen
Wrapped in white linen, as cold as the clay.

I see by your outfit that you are a cowboy
These words he did say as I boldly stepped by
Come sit down beside me and hear my sad story
I was shot in the breast and I know I must die.

Oh, beat the drum slowly and play the pipe lowly
Play the dead march as you carry me along
Take me to the green valley there lay the sod o'er me
For I'm a young cowboy I know I've done wrong.

Oh, fetch me a cup, a cup of cold water
To cool my hot lips the poor cowboy said
Before I returned the spirit had left him
And gone to its Maker the cowboy was dead.

We beat the drum slowly and play the pipe lowly
And bitterly wept as we bore him along
For we all loved our comrade so brave young and handsome
We all loved our comrade although he done wrong...

I don't want to read too much into any of this, but I doubt it's an accident that these songs are mournful ones about friendship and death.

[TOoP/Bruce]

Re: Cowboy's Lament - Ennis Happily Humming   
by - CaseyCornelius (Mon Jan 30 2006 20:41:25 )   

UPDATED Mon Jan 30 2006 22:39:04
Flickfan:
Just discovered what you were talking about with the reference to Larry McMurtry. I didn't know he'd written a novel and a mini-series with the title "Streets of Laredo". I'm hoping that Ennis's singing the song is not merely an in-joke/reference as it fits so well as an ironic touch. Though there seems to be another definite in-joke in play when Lureen mentions an 'ice-storm', referencing the title of Ang Lee's earlier film, 'The Ice Storm', when Jack is looking for his blue parka.
Re: Cowboy's Lament - Ennis Happily Humming   
by - Ellemeno (Mon Jan 30 2006 20:50:16 )   
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"Texans don't drink coffee" is apparently an in joke too.

"You got a better idea.......hunh?"

Re: Cowboy's Lament - Ennis Happily Humming   
by - CaseyCornelius (Mon Jan 30 2006 21:28:56 )   

ellemeno:
I don't get the joke - explain, please.

Re: Cowboy's Lament - Ennis Happily Humming   
by - Ellemeno (Mon Jan 30 2006 22:08:32 )   

>> "Texans don't drink coffee" is apparently an in joke too.

I read it somewhere...somewhere...in the last month or so - something about Texans or Texas Aggies being "teasippers," whatever that is. I don't know if it's an insult given them by others, or a name they've chosen. But apparently it's a joke that Larry McM wrote into the screenplay on purpose. Which does help explain why Ennis would say something that's such a non sequitur.

"You got a better idea.......hunh?"

Re: Cowboy's Lament - Ennis Happily Humming   
by - CaseyCornelius (Tue Jan 31 2006 16:09:49 )   

Ellemeno:

Do you remember if McMurtry mentioned any other in-jokes or subtle references which the majority of us might have been missing?

Re: the tea sippers and other inside jokes   
by - Flickfan-3 (Wed Feb 1 2006 07:00:02 )   

Casey and ellemeno

as a Texan who was graduated from none of the universities I mention, I can offer some possible insight about MacMurtry's inside jokes...

the line Texans don't drink coffee? is Alma's query to Ennis when Jack does not have time to come into the apartment as I remember it so actually means that it is very UN likely Texans don't drink coffee, and there is something fishy if you don't want him in here...everyone knows why...even Alma at that point...
as far as the "tea sippers" epithet--- graduates from University of Texas at Austin are called "tea sippers" because the school's hand sign is to fold down two middle fingers and thumb and to have index and little finger extended upwards--just like the European horns sign which has a negative, sexual reference (which is why President Bush and his wife were castigated in foreign press some months ago for doing it to show support for UT at the Thanksgiving parade, I think)----so the "horns" gesture ties in with UT's mascot the well-known Texas longhorn steer----the "tea sipper" comes, I think, from raising the little pinky like the stereotypical Britisher drinking tea, and conveniently forgetting the index finger is there also. Also, and this goes to the second insider joke MacMurtry might have played, UT Austin graduates are considered more "effeminent" when compared to their arch rivals from Texas Agricultural and Mechanical University===Texas A & M.

LaShawn who is from SMU, a preppy, old-money, at that time liberal-arts-but-not-liberal-thinking Southern Methodist Univerity in Dallas, says that she met Randall at an SMU-A&M pep rally or football game--so we can infer that Randall has a degree in Ag Mangement from A & M and he is pretty obviously homosexual since he hits on Jack that night. Ta-Da!!! the only Aggie in the film is a "fag." I think given MacMurtry's roots this is a very funny joke to him and anyone who sees Brokeback and knows the subtext's history...the reason why is a little complicated...

Although MacMurtry did not graduate from Rice University in Houston, he attended it. In the 60s, when movie starts, Rice was the most liberal university in Texas, attracting highly intelligent "geeks"--probably more National Merit scholars than any school in TX then-- and a certain segment were very counter-culture, different-drummer students--very radical environment for Texas. If gay students were "out," Rice was probably the best college for them. Rice band was always humiliating the Aggie band when their football teams played Southwest Conference games because Rice's football team couldn't--it sucked--after all they were brain, not brawn.

The stereotype of an Aggie has changed in past couple of decades but A&M was a traditionally mandatory ROTC college with reputation for "red" thick necks, hick behavior, and "rural" interests...There were probably gay Aggies then as well as now--just more open now...but the idea of a "gay" Aggie grad in the 80s is really funny...it was supposedly the "most uptight, straight" college in Texas so Randall's life there would have been totally in the closet or he would have ended up on A&M's famous bonfire...

[TOoP/Bruce]

by - Flickfan-3 (Thu Feb 2 2006 01:07:33 )   

ellemeno (posted earlier on Casey's answer)

as a Texan who was graduated from none of the universities I mention, I can offer some possible insight about MacMurtry's inside jokes...

the line Texans don't drink coffee? is Alma's query to Ennis when Jack does not have time to come into the apartment as I remember it so actually means that it is very UN likely Texans don't drink coffee, and there is something fishy if you don't want him in here...everyone knows why...even Alma at that point...
as far as the "tea sippers" epithet--- graduates from University of Texas at Austin are called "tea sippers" because the school's hand sign is to fold down two middle fingers and thumb and to have index and little finger extended upwards--just like the European horns sign which has a negative, sexual reference (which is why President Bush and his wife were castigated in foreign press some months ago for doing it to show support for UT at the Thanksgiving parade, I think)----so the "horns" gesture ties in with UT's mascot the well-known Texas longhorn steer----the "tea sipper" comes, I think, from raising the little pinky like the stereotypical Britisher drinking tea, and conveniently forgetting the index finger is there also. Also, and this goes to the second insider joke MacMurtry might have played, UT Austin graduates are considered more "effeminent" when compared to their arch rivals from Texas Agricultural and Mechanical University===Texas A & M.

LaShawn who is from SMU, a preppy, old-money, at that time liberal-arts-but-not-liberal-thinking Southern Methodist Univerity in Dallas, says that she met Randall at an SMU-A&M pep rally or football game--so we can infer that Randall has a degree in Ag Mangement from A & M and he is pretty obviously homosexual since he hits on Jack that night. Ta-Da!!! the only Aggie in the film is a "fag." I think given MacMurtry's roots this is a very funny joke to him and anyone who sees Brokeback and knows the subtext's history...the reason why is a little complicated...

Although MacMurtry did not graduate from Rice University in Houston, he attended it. In the 60s, when movie starts, Rice was the most liberal university in Texas, attracting highly intelligent "geeks"--probably more National Merit scholars than any school in TX then-- and a certain segment were very counter-culture, different-drummer students--very radical environment for Texas. If gay students were "out," Rice was probably the best college for them. Rice band was always humiliating the Aggie band when their football teams played Southwest Conference games because Rice's football team couldn't--it sucked--after all they were brain, not brawn.

The stereotype of an Aggie has changed in past couple of decades but A&M was a traditionally mandatory ROTC college with reputation for "red" thick necks, hick behavior, and "rural" interests...There were probably gay Aggies then as well as now--just more open now...but the idea of a "gay" Aggie grad in the 80s is really funny...it was supposedly the "most uptight, straight" college in Texas so Randall's life there would have been totally in the closet or he would have ended up on A&M's famous bonfire...

Re: another in-house joke   
by - Flickfan-3 (Thu Feb 2 2006 01:11:14 )   

someone on a different thread pointed out that at the Thanksgiving dinner, Bobby is looking at a Hulk comic book--i.e. another Ang Lee film--and probably pretty topical to the 80's...

CaseyCornelius for Brokeback God!   
by - Shuggy (Fri Jan 27 2006 14:21:46 )   

CaseyCornelius for Brokeback God! I hear no dissention...



Twas once in the saddle I used to go gay.

WOW!
First to the dradonotuse-house, and then to the card-house,

What's a dradonotuse-house?
Google gives two hits (I've never seen so few) both to the song lyrics.
The Shorter Oxford Dictionary gives drad as a variant of dread.
From the context it sounds like a brothel, but wouldn't he go to the card-house first and spend his winnings in the brothel? Otherwise he'd be all bleeped out, and mightn't play so well.


"If you can't stand it, you gotta fix it."
Re: What's a dradonotuse-house?   
by - Flickfan-3 (Fri Jan 27 2006 14:42:32 )   

UPDATED Fri Jan 27 2006 14:51:04
Arlo Guthrie did a version of Streets of Laredo and he changed that stanza to

"'Twas once in the saddle I used to go ridin'
Once in the saddle I used to go gay
First lead to drinkin', and then to card-playing
I'm shot in the breast and I'm dying today

so from his change would guess it was tavern or saloon of some sort

Johnny Cash did a version and changed that stanza to

"First to the card-house and then down to Rose's.
"But I'm shot in the breast and I'm dying today."

which makes one think of "Rosa's cantina" in another song I think "El Paso" maybe where a cowpuncher makes a pass at the wrong woman, shoots her lover, and runs away.
Think anytime there is legitimate folk song as "Streets of Laredo" or "Cowboy's Lament" is there are many adaptations occurring.

Re: What's a dradonotuse-house?   
by - Shuggy (Fri Jan 27 2006 15:26:58 )   



Think anytime there is legitimate folk song as "Streets of Laredo" or "Cowboy's Lament" is there are many adaptations occurring.

Was it the Kingston Trio who did a version that went something like,

I see by your outfit that you are a cowboy
You see by my outfit that I'm a cowboy too
We see by our outfits that we are all cowboys,
If you get yourself an outfit, you can be a cowboy too.

?

"If you can't stand it, you gotta fix it."

Re: Kingston Trio possible sighting   
by - Flickfan-3 (Fri Jan 27 2006 21:34:15 )   

Might be Kingston Trio but sounds too funny--I remembered them as "serious folk artists" --what about Smothers Brothers--they did folk songs as well and certainly had sense of humor
can always Googlize it


Alternate versions give 'dram-house'
by - CaseyCornelius (Fri Jan 27 2006 23:37:41 )   

UPDATED Fri Jan 27 2006 23:40:33
Some alternate versions of the song substitute the word 'dram-house' for dradonotuse-house - ie. a saloon, from the Scottish/British word 'dram' -- a small alcoholic drink. Dradonotuse must be some dialect-distortion of a more conventional word or one with so archaic or rarified a derivation that not even Oxford has recorded it.

[TOoP/Bruce]

by - CaseyCornelius (Fri Jan 27 2006 22:55:39 )   

UPDATED Fri Jan 27 2006 23:23:34
henrypie:

To my fellow musician. I think there was some attempt made by Ang Lee in getting Ennis to sing 'Streets of Laredo' in order to partially balance Jack's later singing of 'Water Walking Jesus' due to the omission of any other overt singing by Ennis. Given my relating to the story as a musician as well, I sorely miss the details of Annie Proulx's more extended scene of the two of them essentially 'courting' each other in song and their night-time serenading inspiring 'coyote yips'. I regret it having been excised from the screenplay. I understand that the film would not have been able to fully integrate Ennis singing 'The Strawberry Roan' and Jack's further singing of 'a Carl Perkin's song' which is detailed in the story. It's probably a matter of Ossana, McMurtry, Ledger and Lee electing to make Ennis more introverted in the film than he obviously was in this scene in the story.
Re: Cowboy's Lament - Ennis Happily Humming   
by - mac_tire (Fri Jan 27 2006 23:04:52 )   
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I love reading what you have to say. And clearly I have tons of company. Thanks for the lyrics and the insights.

I also love your characterization of the story-singing-scene as the boys "serenading" one another, just love it.

and he would wake...the pillow sometimes wet, sometimes the sheets

Absent 'Strawberry Roan' and Coyote Yips   
by - CaseyCornelius (Sat Jan 28 2006 23:46:16 )   

UPDATED Tue Mar 28 2006 21:55:34
I'll say again how much I'm sorry that the scene in the story of the two of them 'serenading' wasn't as extensive in the film. It would have been great to see Heath trying 'to keep up to' Jake's attempts at singing. I appreciate the fact that Ennis would have sung the 'salty words' to Strawberry Roan which detail the castrating of a bull, something in keeping with his rougher character compared with Jack's. [Perhaps that castration image from the song was McMurtry's and Osanna's inspiration for Ennis's later conversation with Cassie when he deflects her attention by sharing that he'd spent the day castrating calves.]
And I really miss the coyote yips in response to Jack's lonely singing of 'Water Walking Jesus' - unless they're in the film and I haven't been able to hear them due to lesser sound systems in some of the theaters.

Re: Absent 'Strawberry Roan' and Coyote Yips   
by - badnomad (Sun Jan 29 2006 00:01:25 )   

I love all the subtle details in this film that go almost unnoticed. Remember in the beginning of the film when Ennis recounts his story and his sister left the house to marry a "roughneck."

The at the end of the film when Alma Jr. tells his dad she's marrying an oil-driller, Ennis with a twinkle in his eye and a smile, laughs "A Roughneck."

I think at that moment he smiles because he thinks of his sister (with most likely fond familial memories)and see's how the cycle of life continues.Another example of his story coming full circle (like with the paper bag motif)and chooses to be a participant in life again (mailbox symbolism).

Re: Absent 'Strawberry Roan' and Coyote Yips   
by - CaseyCornelius (Sun Jan 29 2006 16:57:52 )   

UPDATED Mon Jan 30 2006 07:55:18
badnomad:

I'm always touched by the supreme irony in that later point in the film, when Ennis tenderly takes hold of Alma, Jr. saying "Roughneck. You're nineteen. Guess you can do whatever you want", as it was the same age he was when he fell in love with Jack - except ENNIS couldn't do whatever he wanted.
Hop-e you got my letter of apology (personal, I guess--I don';t always

by - Julie01 (Thu Feb 2 2006 06:41:48 )   


know WHERE they will appear)--anyway--Ennis is not calling his daughter a "roughneck," he's saying "He's a roughneck, huh?"--about Curt. Roughneck=oilworker.
"You come back and see us again"--Jack's mother

Re: Cowboy's Lament - Ennis Happily Humming   
by - CaseyCornelius (Tue Jan 31 2006 22:10:01 )   

UPDATED Tue Jan 31 2006 22:12:42
mac tire:
The story's scene of them 'serenading' is wonderful.

But, I also appreciate how McMurtry, Ossana, and Ang Lee have added to the screenply how the differences in their dancing abilities reflects their character. It's embarassing to witness Ennis's attempts to slink around the dance floor with Cassie as if wishing the ground would swallow him up. I can't remember seeing anyone anywhere who appears to be in utter personal agony in that scene, especially as it contrasts with the wonderfully open, uninhibited, but still modest dancing come-hither which Cassie delivers. She is so disarmingly appealing. A superb performance by Linda Cardellini.
That contrasts almost immediately in the film with the opening of the 1978 Childress Fund-raising Dance and that incredible balletic swirl of the couple as the woman twirls around 5-6 times. Granted, Lureen and LeShawn complain that their two [closeted] husbands don't show any interest in dancing with them, but Jack does demonstrate earlier in the film as well as in this scene that he's integrated enough into society to be able to 'pass' in the heterosexual world of the 'mating' dance.

Re: Cowboy's Lament - Ennis Happily Humming   
by - Front-Ranger (Wed Feb 1 2006 15:40:26 )   

I would like to add a few points. Ennis tells his daughters that he will come to their event after he gets back from fishing "as long as I don't have to sing!" and he complains about having to dance with Cassie. While Jack belts out gospel, dances, and clowns around at the drop of a hat. At the fundraiser dance in Texas, it seems to me that Jack looks straight at Randall and says "Wanna dance?" Randall first reacts with a surprised look, then quickly looks over to his wife as if lobbing the question to her. Dancing with LaShane nets Jack a great deal more information about Randall. (Aside: he asks Randall why a woman would powder her nose before going to bed. He prefers unvarnished sex.) These contrasts show how Ennis and Jack differ in expressing themselves and another reason why Ennis is drawn to Jack. The motif is resolved in the beautiful flashback scene, where Ennis not only sings but gently rocks back and forth with Jack as Jack "sleeps on his feet, like a horse."