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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Front-Ranger:
The concept of things related to Jack being in Ennis's domain and vice versa begins earlier while they were on the mountain. For instance there is a scene where Ennis is standing in a rushing stream washing a coffeepot. He looks up and sees Jack on the mountainside, so small he looks like an insect (according to the story). Cut to a scene of Jack overlooking the herd of sheep who are moving screen right, just the opposite of the water in the previous screen. Jack crouches down to aim and shoot at a coyote, which he misses. Both the sheep and the coyote are four-footed animals associated with Ennis, and perhaps the gun is too, being a volatile weapon, although some have theorized that the gun stands for their relationship. In a similar way, the coffeepot is associated with Jack, even though he supposedly is from Texas, and does not drink coffee, which is one of the inside jokes of the movie.

Front-Ranger:
'nother example. Remember the scene where in the foreground we see Jack peeling potatoes and Ennis with a bucket of water, washing himself. Potatoes grow in the earth, so are associated with Ennis. What's more, Ennis has just "peeled" himself!   ;)

Brown Eyes:
Hey there Friend!
Thanks for reviving this old thread!  My favorite of all BetterMost metaphors... the wind idea.

Anyway, I like the potato idea.  And, I've never thought to notice the direction of the sheep movement vs. the flow of the stream.  That's very good.  It's interesting that Jack is unable to shoot a coyote just as Ennis feels unable to eat a sheep.  These are both earth-animals and furthermore the sheep (at least in my own funny little reading of BBM) are equated with Jack (and to a certain extent gay men in general).  Ennis is able to kill a coyote though.  He tells Jack that he killed that one coyote and then we see another dead coyote all strung up by the herd after TS1 and before the boys' chat on the hillside.  So, why is Ennis able to kill a coyote and not Jack?

serious crayons:

--- Quote from: atz75 on August 06, 2006, 10:21:40 pm ---So, why is Ennis able to kill a coyote and not Jack?

--- End quote ---

For one thing, I think it's because Ennis is supposed to be the more skilled cowboy. For another, it may symbolize whose decisions prevail in their relationship. Jack misses the coyote, gets thrown by his horse, never gets Ennis to settle down with him.

fernly:

--- Quote ---For one thing, I think it's because Ennis is supposed to be the more skilled cowboy. For another, it may symbolize whose decisions prevail in their relationship. Jack misses the coyote, gets thrown by his horse, never gets Ennis to settle down with him.

--- End quote ---

I wonder a little about Ennis being the more skilled. Ennis gets thrown off his horse, too. And gets injured. When Jack gets thrown he never mentions it until days(?) later and then only says his harmonica got flattened, nothing about any hurt to himself. (though I have wondered too if the slow and careful way Jake sits down at the beginning of their 'rodeo cowboy' scene could have been his way of showing that Jack had fallen shortly before that).

Years later, Ennis tells Jenny that he only stayed on that saddle bronc for three seconds, while Jack had ridden bulls (an even more demanding and dangerous event), and, regardless of what those two customers said, he had done more than tried to ride them. Jack wouldn't have earned the two or three thousand dollars (film or story amounts) without having some success at it.

Clearly, though, Ennis is a better shot than Jack. Symbolically, what could that imply? Maybe one interpretation, least as far the coyotes are concerned, could tie back to the sign on Aguirre's trailer that trespassers will be shot, and survivors will be shot again.
The coyotes are certainly trespassers far as sheepherders are concerned, so Ennis shoots 'em, including the one that survived Jack's attempt.
Then there's Ennis' wedding, where we hear, not "dearly beloved", or (fantasy scene material - "if anyone can show cause why..."), no, we hear part of the Lord's prayer - "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us."
So who's the trespasser here, according to Ennis? (Since that voice-over starts while Ennis is kneeling in the alley, I think we can safely read that concern over trespass as being at least somewhat reflective of his thoughts.)

With good reason, Ennis sees a lot of dangers in the world and tries his best to protect those he feels responsible for and loves, and also himself, from those dangers.
If the trespasser(danger) is a coyote, that's comparatively easy for Ennis to deal with. If it's something you can't shoot, though, like awful fathers, or a condemning society, Jack, who can't shoot coyotes, proves himself more versatile (pun absolutely intended from the the name of the combine Jack is driving with Bobby) at dealing with those threats that "trespass against us."

But why can't Jack shoot coyotes? Maybe to show that he can't deal with the dangers to them in a way that would make Ennis feel safe.

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