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

Topic of the Week 4/07: Why hadn't story Lureen ever met Jack's parents?

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huntinbuddy:
I don't believe Jack was all that close to his parents.  I mean, shit, the old man pissed all over him when he was a small child.  I know I wouldn't forget something like that.  Yet Jack is a nice enough guy that year after year, he probably goes up and checks on his parents, sees if there is anything he can do around the home place for them before returning to Texas after the "fishing trips" with Ennis.  I think he cares about them to some extent, and does what he can to help, but old man Twist is such an asshole, that I don't think Jack really wants to spend anymore time there than what is necessary.

I think Jack and his mother had some sort of special bond, I mean think about it; how many mothers would allow what I call 20 year old laundry to hang in the attic?  Jack had to tell his mother at one time that those shirts meant something very special to him, and they were to be treated as a shrine.  "Do this for me as your son, if nothing else" type of thing.

When I first went to see this film, I had not read the book, and when Ennis found those shirts, I just lost it.  Some that I went to the movie with on additional viewings (many additional viewings actually)  asked me outside, well what was with the shirts?  I could have kicked them!  One person, I told if you hadn't been talking throughout the movie and watching perhaps you would have understood!  Another said, I just don't get it.   Well that is why I and many others are here on Bettermost and Dave Cullen, because we "get it!", and this film, this story, is so true and hard hitting to our own lives that we keep coming here because we are with others who understand.

But back to the topic at hand.  I think Jacks parents knew that he had met this Lureen chic and that he told them were getting married in Texas.   Just look at the homestead when Ennis goes to visit.  These folks are dirt poor.  They don't even have the transportation, let alone the financial means to travel to Texas for a wedding.  I'm sure in Jack's heart we would have wanted them to be there if possible, but he knows it just won't happen.  He probably felt bad about it too, because that is the type of person Jack is.  He wears his heart on his sleeve.

Jack's parents probably knew he had a child with Lureen, and I am sure he probably showed them photos, etc.  Jack really did love Bobby.  Jack gave Bobby the love that he didn't get from his own dad.  This film is so deep on so many levels it is just astounding.  Thats why I take the time to post stuff like this.

That whole scene where Ennis goes to visit Jacks parents reveals much about Jack's relationship with his parents.  If you need to, watch it again.  I think Roberta Maxwell deserved an Oscar for that small performance.  She loved Jack so much, and yet the Peter McRobbie role is just so uncaring of Jack.  I don't think the old man could have give two shits less where the ashes were spread, just as long as Ennis didn't get them.  Ennis gave Jack the love and the respect that Jack never got from his old man.

Even the phone call, the only phone call in the movie as a matter of fact; where Ennis asks "his folks still up in Lightning Flat?" and Lureen replies "they'll be there till the day they die."  This tells me that Jack and Lureen had probably discussed his parents many times.  With Jack and Lureen's financial means (with LD's money) they had the ability to put Jack's parents on a plane and fly them to Texas if they wanted.  I would bet they even suggested it.  Jack's mom would have loved to have went to visit her son and grandchild in Texas, but the old man ruled the roost in that house, and he would have nothing of it.  Couldn't you see in the film how repressed Mrs. Twist was around her husband?  I thought this was very evident in that one scene where Ennis went to offer his condolences.

I'm sorry if I'm off topic here somewhat, but it's just my thoughts, albeit a guy's point of view.  Thanks for starting this thread.

Fran:
Good points, huntinbuddy, especially about Mrs. Twist's knowing how much the shirts meant to Jack.  You're right; at some point Jack would have had to have told his mother about how special they were to him.  I don't think he'd want to take a chance that they'd be laundered or, even worse, discarded.


--- Quote from: huntinbuddy on August 22, 2007, 03:22:36 pm ---I don't believe Jack was all that close to his parents.  I mean, shit, the old man pissed all over him when he was a small child.  I know I wouldn't forget something like that.  Yet Jack is a nice enough guy that year after year, he probably goes up and checks on his parents, sees if there is anything he can do around the home place for them before returning to Texas after the "fishing trips" with Ennis.  I think he cares about them to some extent, and does what he can to help, but old man Twist is such an asshole, that I don't think Jack really wants to spend anymore time there than what is necessary.

--- End quote ---

As for the closeness between Jack and his father, in both the story and the movie, Jack did tell his father about his plan for him and Ennis to move up to Lightning Flat, build a log cabin, and help OMT run the ranch; in other words, Jack, Ennis, and OMT would all be working together.  So it seems that Jack would have been willing to spend lots of time with his father if only Ennis had been agreeable to the "sweet life."  Granted, John Twist is not a kind man by any means, yet Jack must have believed that his father, at the very least, would have been tolerant of Ennis and that whatever faults/attitudes his father presented would have been bearable for Ennis.  Speaking sentimentally here, why would Jack want to put Ennis, the man he loves, in an unbearable situation?  I can't see Jack as intentionally wanting to hurt Ennis.  I think he'd be protective of him.  But maybe Jack wasn't being realistic and working together on the ranch would have been unbearable for all of them.

There is a difference between story OMT and movie OMT, with the former more abusive than the latter.  It seems to me that Ang Lee and the screenwriters softened OMT by omitting any mention of what happened in the bathroom when Jack was a little boy.  (It would have been a horrible scene to film -- and watch --  but Jack could have told Ennis about it in conversation and the viewers could have learned about it that way, no flashback necessary).  I also think that the movie shows Jack as being more paternal and caring towards Bobby than the short story does.  The story has Jack saying (with regard to children), "I didn't want none a either kind.  But fuck-all has worked the way I wanted."  That's a harsh admission coming from a parent, even if that's how Jack initially felt about fatherhood.


--- Quote from: huntinbuddy on August 22, 2007, 03:22:36 pm ---Even the phone call, the only phone call in the movie as a matter of fact; where Ennis asks "his folks still up in Lightning Flat?" and Lureen replies "they'll be there till the day they die."  This tells me that Jack and Lureen had probably discussed his parents many times.  With Jack and Lureen's financial means (with LD's money) they had the ability to put Jack's parents on a plane and fly them to Texas if they wanted.  I would bet they even suggested it.  Jack's mom would have loved to have went to visit her son and grandchild in Texas, but the old man ruled the roost in that house, and he would have nothing of it.  Couldn't you see in the film how repressed Mrs. Twist was around her husband?  I thought this was very evident in that one scene where Ennis went to offer his condolences.

--- End quote ---

Good points here, too.  I can see Jack's father refusing to travel to Texas and forbidding Mrs. Twist to go alone, even if it was to meet a grandchild and a daughter-in-law.  How sad!

shortfiction:
Great posts.   I also think Mr. Twist wanted things his way and wasn't about to grant Jack's final wish.  He's doing it out of spite against his own son.   So sad.   I almost pity such a bitter old man.   Mrs. T. is  a saint by comparison.

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