Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
Black Hats, White Hats
TJ:
I was somewhat shocked to hear the MOVIE Ennis say, "Boys like you," to Jack.
IMO, the only reason that Jack brought up "Mexico" in the first place was he wanted them to meet were it was warmer in the spring, summer, and the fall than it was in the high altitude mountains of Wyoming.
In the book, Ennis only asked Jack if he had been to Mexico. I don't think Annie Proulx was claiming that Ennis believed Jack could be sex with a guy when he wanted it anytime he wanted it in Mexico; I think that he had heard queer guys got murdered in Mexico. And, understanding what kind of homophobic man Ennis's father was, Ennis might have heard that from Daddy Del Mar himself.
All of Ennis's homophobia was rooted into what he saw when he was about 9 years old and his father made him see the beaten with "the tire iron" and mutilated body of Earl, the partner of Rich and the member of the old ranching couple near Sage, Wyoming.
Jack's private life away from Ennis was, IMO, none of Ennis's business since they did not have a covenanted relationship in that Jack would not have sex with any other man.
--- Quote ---"Hell yes, I been. Where's the fuckin problem?" Braced for it all these years and here it came, late and unexpected.
--- End quote ---
The above quote is from the book. I believe that Jack "lied," claiming that he had been down there; when really he used "Mexico" as a metaphor, so to speak, to admit the fact that he had been having sex with other guys besides Ennis. Jack had plenty of opportunity when he was on the road between Childress, Texas and Lightning Flat, Wyoming and when he was working for the farm and equipment company in a managerial position of sorts (the books' version is different from the movie).
It is just not plausible for me to believe that when Jack was rebuffed by Ennis when he showed up unannounced after Ennis's divorce that Jack would redline it all the way to Juarez, Mexico just to have sex with a male prostitute because he didn't get any from Ennis.
I have encountered "straight" guys who went looking for sex with gay guys after their wives and/or girlfriends would not put out for them when they were horny . . . but they would not have driven more than 10 miles to do that.
starboardlight:
--- Quote from: atz75 on May 11, 2006, 01:11:30 am ---Back to the hats for a moment...
So, I just watched the whole movie twice tonight (someone please help me...). Once with a friend and once by myself. And,believe it or not... I noticed a new significant white hat moment. When Jack is in Mexico and first enters the dark alley, he is immediately preceded in his walk down the alley by a man in a white hat and a white shirt. You can see him begin to enter the alley in the shot of Jack with the crowded scene behind him... as Jack looks down the alley. Then there's another shot as the camera travels down the alley (sort of following Jack's gaze/ footsteps) where the white-hatted man is essentially centered in the alley (we see him from behind) and he slips into the darkness at the end of the alley just as Jack's gaze focuses on the prostitute. It's a bit as if Jack is chasing him or pursuing him.
So, it turns out that Mexico must also really have something for boys like Ennis too. (at least visually *like* Ennis)
I love this movie. :) (as if there was any doubt) ::)
--- End quote ---
interesting observation. i also reinforce the idea that he's there not just for sex but because he is still seeking that connection with Ennis.
moremojo:
Just a little observation, for what it's worth (don't know how well this ties into the discussion already present in this thread):
The last time we see Ennis wearing his large white (Resistol?) cowboy hat, the one we see him wear on the mountain, is in the grocery-store scene in Riverton. And before that, after his sojourn in Brokeback, we see him sport a straw (or straw-like) hat, and a baseball cap in the Timmy/asphalt-laying scene. The straw hat is also what he wears when he goes off with Jack after the reunion, first en route to the motel, and then to the "out in the middle of nowhere" tryst. After that point, save for the flashback scene (the last time, sequentially in the film, that we see the large white hat), we always see Ennis wearing the smaller-styled white (or off-white) hat, which always makes me think of a fishing hat (appropriately enough).
Jack alone seems to retain the same large-style (again, Resistol?) cowboy hat that we first see him wear, though he seems to shift from black to a more neutral tan shade for the color choice (the exceptions, as I recall, are the dance with the Malones, the flashback scene, and Ennis's POV imagining of Jack's supposed murder).
Penthesilea:
--- Quote ---Also, even though it is summer (or late summer? I'm not up on my BBM dates) he wears the lightweight solid gray jacket in three of the last five scenes, not including the one where he gets the postcard nor the one with Alma Jr. -- right?
--- End quote ---
He's wearing the light gray jacket in the scene were he gets the postcard, too. And he also wears it in the trailer scene with Alma jr.
He wears it from the pie scene on (directly after the flashback and the one shot of Jack) through the entire rest of the movie: pie scene, receiving the postcard, phone call, Twist home, sticking numbers on the mailbox outside the trailer, Junior arriving, inside the trailer, up to "Jack, I swear".
Do we see Ennis in that light grey jacket before Jack's death? I don't think so, but I'm not sure. Hmmm...
I believe, before Jack's death we see him only in brown jackets, after Jack's death in only in a grey one.
What about the pie scene? Is Jack already dead at this point? Maybe the grey jacket indicates that.
"Ennis didn't know about the accident for months..." (from story). At the pie scene neither Ennis nor the audience know about Jack's death, but maybe the pie scene takes place in one of the months Ennis doesn't know about it, but it already had happened.
Any thoughts, someone?
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Penthesilea on May 11, 2006, 12:47:46 pm ---He's wearing the light gray jacket in the scene were he gets the postcard, too. And he also wears it in the trailer scene with Alma jr.
He wears it from the pie scene on (directly after the flashback and the one shot of Jack) through the entire rest of the movie: pie scene, receiving the postcard, phone call, Twist home, sticking numbers on the mailbox outside the trailer, Junior arriving, inside the trailer, up to "Jack, I swear".
Do we see Ennis in that light grey jacket before Jack's death? I don't think so, but I'm not sure. Hmmm...
I believe, before Jack's death we see him only in brown jackets, after Jack's death in only in a grey one.
What about the pie scene? Is Jack already dead at this point? Maybe the grey jacket indicates that.
"Ennis didn't know about the accident for months..." (from story). At the pie scene neither Ennis nor the audience know about Jack's death, but maybe the pie scene takes place in one of the months Ennis doesn't know about it, but it already had happened.
Any thoughts, someone?
--- End quote ---
I like that theory a lot, Penth. Well, except for the fact that it's sad. I also liked Barb's idea that it indicates Ennis has accepted his sexuality. Either one works perfectly.
I'm about to go watch the movie for the first time in about two months. When I get to the gray-jacket scenes, I will keep an eye out for more clues.
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