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

Possibly misguided mini-metaphors

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ednbarby:
The first time I saw the movie, Ennis picking up the horse and cowboy hit me just in that he realized that Jack liked to whittle, too - he was discovering something (else) about him very much like himself that he never knew.  You know, like if you had a favorite book and you never shared that with the love of your life, then you went to the room where he grew up and saw he had a copy of it there he'd never told you about.  Gave me chills just thinking of it in that way.  But the added layer of symbolism only augments my awe of that detail all the more.

And yes, Ennis does try to create tactile memories, doesn't he?  I love how he also smells things to try to do that, too.  Not just Jack's shirt in his room, but Alma, Jr.'s sweater in the last scene.

Hey, waydaminnit...  It's occurring to me just now how very sensory Ennis is.  It isn't just touch and smell.  It's taste (the "Mmmmm..." at the beans), and hearing (Jack's nasty harmonica playing hurts his ears), and of course, sight (all those longing looks at Jack from a distance or behind that Jack doesn't know about).

nakymaton:
I read somewhere that Heath Ledger described Ennis as extremely sensitive to bright lights, loud sounds... oversensitive in a literal sense, I guess. And that that was part of the reason that Ennis hides behind his hat so much -- that he needs a sort of a buffer against a world that is overwhelming to all his senses.

serious crayons:

--- Quote from: chefjudy on June 02, 2006, 11:45:23 am --- i.e. the tears in Ennis' eyes when he picks up the little cowboy in Jack's room - as if I needed another reason to watch the movie again

--- End quote ---

I find that part especially touching because, the way I've always seen it, the tears actually welled up not when he picks up the cowboy but earlier, shortly after he left the kitchen -- after hearing about the other fella who Jack planned to ranch with.

Front-Ranger:
I agree that Ennis, as Heath plays him, is very sensitive to light, touch, smell, taste, etc., and he is a good listener, drinking it all in. Possibly he uses these antennae to make up for the way he has shut himself off from his own emotions. Heath's hands are very expressive, when he caresses his daughter's neck, when he bats away Jack's hand, and especially when he embraces the shirts after he just found them in Jack's closet. His hand, with its long fingers, is held cupped upward in a prayerlike way. I find it very touching...pun intended.

Brown Eyes:

--- Quote from: nakymaton on June 02, 2006, 03:17:39 pm ---I read somewhere that Heath Ledger described Ennis as extremely sensitive to bright lights, loud sounds... oversensitive in a literal sense, I guess. And that that was part of the reason that Ennis hides behind his hat so much -- that he needs a sort of a buffer against a world that is overwhelming to all his senses.

--- End quote ---

Heya,

The light reference comes from an interview that Jake gave:

"We talked a lot. Heath would say stuff to me like, ‘I really think this character is very sensitive to light and I think he’s very sensitive to sound. He doesn’t really like being around any place that’s too noisy.’ We would talk a lot about that. And then when it came to doing love scenes and stuff like that, the best metaphor I can give is that it felt like we were both like, ‘Are you ready? Yeah. Let’s go,’ and we dove off the boat into the deep end. It’s like when you’re terrified of the water, you see a little kid thrown in the water and they’re trying to get back to the boat as fast as they can. That’s what it was like. But at the same time when we were there we really went for it."


So, this is off topic for this thread... but there's another very curious statment from this interveiw... it was called Jake Gyllenhaal Talks About "Brokeback Mountain"
and the interviewer was Mary Rebecca Murray (I think I found it on some website, and now I have it saved on my hard-drive... I'm not sure where the interview originally appeared).  Anyway,  so earlier in the interview Jake says:

"There are scenes I’ve seen and I’m like, ‘Oh wow, I gave so much more, but he [Lee] pulled it back.’ And that was him balancing his film."

So, what scenes do we think Jake it talking about here?

 

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