Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
"I was supposed to control the weather"... Jack and the Wind
serious crayons:
Isn't it amazing how consistent and ever-present all these symbols are -- water, wind (and fans), buckets, coffee pots, cold/snow, etc. -- throughout the whole movie? I love how in Ennis' trailer at the end you see the coffee pot and the big fan.
starboardlight:
--- Quote from: latjoreme on May 21, 2006, 12:19:14 pm ---Isn't it amazing how consistent and ever-present all these symbols are -- water, wind (and fans), buckets, coffee pots, cold/snow, etc. -- throughout the whole movie? I love how in Ennis' trailer at the end you see the coffee pot and the big fan.
--- End quote ---
What's the coffee pot metaphor?
starboardlight:
--- Quote from: atz75 on May 20, 2006, 04:54:05 pm ---This is a very good point I think. In both the flashback and the present, Ennis doesn't look back (obviously in the present because he's in the truck, and in the flashback he just concentrates on looking ahead. Interesting that in both of these instances we presume that Ennis is anticipating a future with Jack (we assume he leaves the argument thinking that November actually will happen...). This reminds me of the end of their summer on Brokeback. Katherine, I know we've chatted a bit about the lasso, "confusing tussle" situations and Jack's upbeat tone through much of this. It's been discussed that Ennis is all upset at the end of the Brokeback summer because he feels that it's the end of his time with Jack (so his mood is grumpy, pessimistic and angry). Whereas at the end of that first summer Jack doesn't seem to perceive that it signals the end of their relationship at all. It's interesting that at the end of the flashback there's that famous look from Jack that seems so contented and romantic. But, at the end of the parallel argument scene he has the same, glum or pessimistic look that would have been more associated with Ennis's mood at the end of the first summer. I guess this is just a signal of foreboding... but man!
So sad!
:'(
--- End quote ---
I really love the parallel between the two parting scenes; end of first summer and lake side showdown. they both seems to have the same structure. The two men grapple with one another, one physically, the other emotionally. They hurt one another, inadvertently and purposely. Both scenes, Jack embraces Ennis and tells him "It's alright." And there's a riding away and "looking back". August is an issue. Money is an issue. I really love your take on the "looking back" and role reversal. In one Ennis believes it would their last time together, in the other, it's Jack who is glim and pessimitic.
serious crayons:
OOooh, Nipith! I'd never thought of some of those little details! You're right -- when Jack says, "What the hell happened to August?" he's essentially saying the exact thing Ennis said when leaving Brokeback. And both times, Ennis being broke is a factor, though for different reasons.
Mikaela:
--- Quote from: hungry_hungryhippos on May 21, 2006, 04:59:20 am ---Ang Lee himself has commented that the water imagery is a direct metaphor for the love between the men. Cannot think where I heard him say it, but he did.
--- End quote ---
and
--- Quote from: latjoreme --- I love the way water is used to symbolize their relationship (and how scenes with Ennis and Alma often involve tap -- artificial -- water), and how sad it is when it gets stiller and stiller as the movie goes on, until in the end they're at a lake.
--- End quote ---
Great observations! Very powerful and expressive imagery with the rushing water, turning still and placid towards the end of the film. :'(
At the Toronto Film Festival's Press Conference after the screening there of BBM in the autumn of 2005, one of the questions asked to the actors was how they worked and what they did in order to ensure that the chemistry between their characters worked. In the course of some rather meandering replies, Jake Gyllenhaal said that in preparing for scenes, they were helped by whole paragraphs of screen directions in the script, explaining what the characters were feeling. He gave as an example that at one point, the script said that when Jack looks at Ennis, he "feels as if 1,000 rivers flow through him."
(I can't recall whether that sentence is in the actual final script - I think not, but I may be wrong in that?) Either way it does confirm the rushing water imagery as symbolic of Jack and Ennis's love.
It also serves to explain why the sad flashback to Ennis's childhood appears to take place in the most arid and desert-like landscape of the entire movie, a contrast to the rushing waters of Brokeback Mountain and all that they symbolize.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version