Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
"I was supposed to control the weather"... Jack and the Wind
Front-Ranger:
I'm so glad this thread is being featured now. Do you realize that Amanda's first post was on May 1, 2006? I would like to hereby petition our high priestess to proclaim May 1 "Jack and the Wind Day."
The wind figures in an indirect way in the Dozy Embrace, too: "Stars bit through the wavy heat layers above the fire." That master storyteller Annie Proulx manages to portend Jack's violent death, his associateion with the heavens, his passionate relationship with the fiery Ennis, and the vibrations/waves/wind connection, all in 10 perfect words!!
Brown Eyes:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on April 29, 2007, 02:23:06 pm ---I'm so glad this thread is being featured now. Do you realize that Amanda's first post was on May 1, 2006? I would like to hereby petition our high priestess to proclaim May 1 "Jack and the Wind Day."
The wind figures in an indirect way in the Dozy Embrace, too: "Stars bit through the wavy heat layers above the fire." That master storyteller Annie Proulx manages to portend Jack's violent death, his associateion with the heavens, his passionate relationship with the fiery Ennis, and the vibrations/waves/wind connection, all in 10 perfect words!!
--- End quote ---
Whoo-eee! Thanks Bud! Very nice post. I'm so happy to see the highlight for this great old thread (and really great old topic that pre-dates this thread... it had an ancestor back at imdb)!
I'm much approve of the suggestion of making May 1 "Jack and the Wind day".
The wind is just such a seemingly clear-cut nature element associated with Jack and it certainly figures into many of the more "romantic" or poignant moments of the film as well as the story. Am I correct in remembering that in the film there is sort of the sound of the wind as the scene transitions from the lake scene to the flashback/ dozy embrace? I'd run and check myself... but I'm on a Brokeback-fast until the BBQ! I don't want to watch it again until the group screening there.
And, one of my favorite aspects of the wind idea is how it seems to become a really important element following Jack's death.
Front-Ranger:
Speaking of the wind, did you realize that Jack's favorite instrument is the harmonica, which is played by blowing your breath or wind back and forth through the mouthpiece? By the way, my musical friends tell me that Jack's harmonica was in the key of D, for death of course. And, since the harmonica was flattened when that mare threw him, maybe it ended up being in the key of D flat! That reminds me, another reference to the wind was the way Jack ostensibly died, according to Lureen. He was pumping up a flat tire, that is, pumping air into it. And supposedly the tire exploded from the iron wheel and hit him in the face, breaking his jaw. So, that is a second flat, and a second reference to wind. AND a second reference to a wily and devious female. AND a second reference to the area of the mouth. All should spell danger with a D for the man from Lightning Flat.
I better stop now...I am starting to hyperventilate!!
Brown Eyes:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on April 29, 2007, 10:21:17 pm ---I better stop now...I am starting to hyperventilate!!
--- End quote ---
:laugh: Hey Bud, thanks for the observation-packed post! I love the detail of the harmonica! I hadn't thought much about the implications of blowing up a tire also being related to air and wind. Good call.
Hyperventilating seems like a very appropriate side-effect to dealing with the topic of the wind. Take a deep breath! ;D
Front-Ranger:
Yes'm.
To calm me down and anybody else who may be hyperventilating right now, here is a picture of the Wind River canyon which I had the opportunity to see on my way home from Bay City, Michigan back in February (seems like yesterday!)
The Wind Rivers were a series of mountain ranges, part of the Rocky Mountains, that Jack and Ennis visited during their 20 years together (okay, I guess it was just 16 years, due to Jack's detour into Wyoming). It is an amazingly beautiful area with an astounding hourglass canyon that squeezes to a narrow opening and then opens out again into an incredible vista. It is the most sublimely beautiful route you could possibly take to Yellowstone National Park altho you can also veer east to the Bighorns (or Big Horns) and Brokenback Mountain!
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