Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum

"I was supposed to control the weather"... Jack and the Wind

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Brown Eyes:
Thanks for your comments ednbarby,

I know what you mean about reacting to the wind, etc. in real life sort of differently after thinking about his movie so much.  Things like pick-up trucks have entirely new meanings to me these days... things I've very rarely thought about much in the past.

Anyway, that strong wind following the first tent scene seems particularly important.  In this case the wind seems to actually be emanating from Jack.  I mean, I know it's not.  But, it feels like it comes right from him as he watches Ennis leave.

serious crayons:
Lots of good observations.

Ednbarby, I think of Ennis as carving a horse in that scene, but either way your interpretation of it is interesting! I had always wondered a bit about its significance and I think you have it exactly right.

I missed the imdb religious thread, or maybe I skipped it out of skepticism, but now I'm sorry I did. Those images sound very meaningful and undeniably deliberate.

Slightly OT, but speaking of the scene of Aguirre telling Jack about his uncle. I've always found that scene a bit mysterious -- why bother putting in all the stuff about the uncle? why not just have Aguirre stopping by for a routine check? -- but just over the past 12 hours I have learned two things about it. One, and I can't remember where I saw this last night (for all I know it was back a ways on this thread!), was that Jack felt threatened when he saw Aguirre looking at Ennis through the binocs -- not so much because he felt protective of Ennis just then, which is the way I'd always looked at it, but because he realizes that Aguirre could have been watching them through the binocs at any time. Well, duh! Now it seems obvious. But somehow that had never occurred to me.

And the other sprang from reading the post above about its being Jesus allusion. Aguirre's line, "not much you can do about it down there, either, not unless you can cure pneumonia" can also be interpreted as a foreshadowing reference to Jack's inability to do anything "down there" in society (or down there on earth if you take the Jesus perspective), about Ennis and the way his life winds up going -- not unless he can cure, well, homophobia.

Another reminder that if a scene doesn't quite make sense, or if there's something going on that seems a bit unnecessary, there's probably a good reason.

Brown Eyes:

--- Quote from: latjoreme on May 01, 2006, 11:49:13 am ---Slightly OT, but speaking of the scene of Aguirre telling Jack about his uncle. I've always found that scene a bit mysterious -- why bother putting in all the stuff about the uncle? why not just have Aguirre stopping by for a routine check? -- but just over the past 12 hours I have learned two things about it. One, and I can't remember where I saw this last night (for all I know it was back a ways on this thread!), was that Jack felt threatened when he saw Aguirre looking at Ennis through the binocs -- not so much because he felt protective of Ennis just then, which is the way I'd always looked at it, but because he realizes that Aguirre could have been watching them through the binocs at any time. Well, duh! Now it seems obvious. But somehow that had never occurred to me.

And the other sprang from reading the post above about its being Jesus allusion. Aguirre's line, "not much you can do about it down there, either, not unless you can cure pneumonia" can also be interpreted as a foreshadowing reference to Jack's inability to do anything "down there" in society (or down there on earth if you take the Jesus perspective), about Ennis and the way his life winds up going -- not unless he can cure, well, homophobia.

--- End quote ---

Heya,
I'm glad you brought up the topic of the scene where Aguirre comes to tell Jack about his uncle.  It is confusing when you first think about it.  I think your explanation of Jack's realization that the binoculars are a threat is a good one.  It reminds me of the placement of those binoculars in Aguirre's trailer at the very beginning and then in the "look what the wind blew in" scene.  In the beginning the binoculars are in their case hanging behind Aguirre as he's explaining the tender/herder jobs (in fact we don't know they're binoculars until later).  Then, in the scene where Jack comes back for a job alone the next summer we see those binoculars hanging outside their case... still positioned behind Aguirre's head.

It seems important that it's only Jack who knows about the binoculars and is the only one to have to deal with the "stemming the rose" comment.  If Ennis knew about either of those two things... it's hard to imagine how he'd react.  Jack can handle all of this for some reason, while Ennis's insecurities would run wild with the knowledge of either of these things.

serious crayons:
True -- if Jack had told Ennis about the stemming-the-rose remark on the night of the reunion, Ennis would have had to run out and try to beat someone up, and perhaps get beat up himself. And that would have put a damper on the evening.

Seriously, though, it's touching the way Jack protects Ennis from stuff like that. And I think the difference is a real key to Jack's character. Unlike Ennis, he is able to let people's disapproval roll off of him -- he might be bothered by it, but not demoralized -- which makes him better equipped to challenge society's prejudices.

Brown Eyes:

--- Quote from: latjoreme on May 01, 2006, 12:57:09 pm ---True -- if Jack had told Ennis about the stemming-the-rose remark on the night of the reunion, Ennis would have had to run out and try to beat someone up, and perhaps get beat up himself. And that would have put a damper on the evening.

--- End quote ---

LOL  :laugh: :laugh:

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