Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
TOTW 14/07: Is a cigar just a cigar?
Brown Eyes:
--- Quote from: jstephens9 on November 05, 2007, 07:33:48 pm ---That's funny you mention the wind. I had read something about the wind symbol since I watched the one scene yesterday of the last night on the mountain. I thought about the wind when Ennis was in the alley after Jack left. I noticed it more since I had read about it.
--- End quote ---
Awwww... don't get me started on the wind! There are soooo many great examples. And, yes the alley when Ennis has the dry-heaves is a great example of the wind kicking up at an important moment. It actually starts a bit earlier when the two guys are still standing near Jack's old truck. You'll notice that just before Jack gives up and gets into his truck the wind becomes really noticeable.
Here are a few of the other great wind moments from the film! :D
- The most clear-cut is of course when Aguirre says "look what the wind blew in" when Jack comes to ask for a job the next summer. Of course, we also see the fan above Aguirre's head start spinning as Jack opens the door to enter the trailer. I think this enunciation by Aguirre is meant to make the audience take clear notice of the importance of the wind-and-Jack.
- The morning after TS1... when Ennis hops on his horse and leave Jack standing there the wind really kicks up as Jack watches Ennis go. And, then the wind seems to follow Ennis up the mountain... in this case even the sound effect is strong... It seems to echo Jack's anxiety or hurt, etc. at Ennis's behavior on this "morning after."
- Right before Ennis receives Jack's first postcard, we see him pull into his parking spot behind the laundromat and the hot-air vent kicks on strongly... almost as a clue that the postcard is waiting for Ennis. And, then, when Jack arrives right before the reunion kiss you see the wind blowing behind him as Ennis is looking down at him from the balcony. There's some debris on the road that blows to accentuate this wind effect (there's also very similar debris blowing when Jack and Ennis are about to part at the end of the '63 summer... when they're both standing next to Jack's truck).
-then of course there's the giant, crazy fan in Ennis's trailer at the end that sits right next to Junior during their big, important conversation.
-there are also really interesting ways to consider the importance of air in the Lightning Flat scene...
And, then in the story... wind is mentioned in many, many significant places.
Here are two great examples:
-The very first 2 lines of the story... followed by the entirety of the italicized prologue:
"Ennis Del Mar wakes before five, wind rocking the trailer, hissing in around the aluminum door and window frames. The shirts hanging on a nail shudder slightly in the draft..."
-then later when Jack and Ennis are coming down from the mountain:
"The mountain boiled with demonic energy, glazed with flickering broken-cloud light, the wind combed the grass and drew from the damaged krummholz and slit rock a bestial drone."
This little passage about the wind against the mountain making a kind of music or sound is REALLY profound when you think about Jack's trademark love of playing the harmonica (obviously a wind instrument). And... it's even more interesting if you think about the possibility that if Jack is represented by the wind/air then Ennis is represented by the earth/mountain.
:D :D :D :D :D 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)
I think it's not at all too far fetched to really think about these metaphors hard and with some seriousness, especially with the film since the filmmakers decided to give the whole story the tag-line; "love is a force of nature."
:D
belbbmfan:
Slightly off topic... :) I can't tell you how real it felt when we were in Cowley (Signal in the movie) in Alberta and you could feel, see and hear the wind everywhere. The tree in front of Aquirre's trailer was swaying in the wind just like when Jack's truck rolled in. Amazing.
Okay, back to the symbolisms! I always liked the fact that you noticed the sign on the Riverton apartment which said 'Entrance round the back' (or something along those lines) Amanda. I'm sure that was no mistake made by the production team... ::) ;D
Front-Ranger:
Do I think that people sometimes overinterpret the symbols. Yes, sometimes.
That said, I still think both Ang Lee and Annie Proulx deliberately use symbolism in their interpretations of the story. I asked Annie Proulx point blank about this over a year ago and she said that she does expect people to bring their knowledge of myths, the Bible, etc. to the story because "there just isn't room to spell it out."
And Ang Lee has said that he uses colors, props, etc. to say cinematically what can't be said, to illustrate things like "he thought he could paw the white out of the moon."
By reading other Proulx books and seeing other Lee movies, you can see where these symbols are used elsewhere, they are the tools of the storyteller's art.
TOoP/Bruce:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on November 07, 2007, 05:52:05 pm ---And Ang Lee has said that he uses colors, props, etc. to say cinematically what can't be said, to illustrate things like "he thought he could paw the white out of the moon."
By reading other Proulx books and seeing other Lee movies, you can see where these symbols are used elsewhere, they are the tools of the storyteller's art.
--- End quote ---
I am going to make another Hitchcock comparison here.
Jack's wearing of red (a Chinese wedding color, the color of wealth, and the color of blood) when he reunites with Ennis after 4 years, can be contrasted with the drab and greyed down color palette of his wardrobe in the post-divorce scene. Why is this another Hitchcock connection? Because Hitchcock uses a very similar device in the transformation of Grace Kelly's wardrobe in "Dial M for Murder" as she transforms from an elegant socialite to a person suspected of murder. It is a deliberate dramatic choice clearly worked out between the director and the wardrobe department to underscore what is happening between the characters on the screen.
Whether or not every object in the film was intended to carry symbolic weight is something only the writers and the creative people behind the film can answer, but what is interesting to me is that the film seems to be so suffused with potential symbolic portent and tragic inevitability, that many people feel almost everything in it should be examined for symbolic potential.
It is in the desire to complete the missing connections in the film, where we complete the film in our own minds.
SFEnnisSF:
I wonder what Monica and Bill's thoughts are on whether a cigar is just a cigar?
:laugh: I'm so sorry, I couldn't resist.
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