Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
Joe Aguirre: what do you think of this character as portrayed in the movie?
Monika:
--- Quote from: mariez on January 08, 2009, 01:33:55 pm ---I've always been intrigued by the idea that in the short story AP stresses the ways in which J&E are alike; but in the film, there is more of an effort to highlight the ways in which they are different.
Marie
--- End quote ---
I think all of the things that AP points out are in the movie (that they are rough mannered, rough spoken, poor etc), but in the short story their similarities are almost "listed" and therefor they become very prominent. All the same info is in the movie as well, but more spread out. I´m not sure this was intentionally done, but simply what happens in the process of transforming words into moving pictures.
Front-Ranger:
You have a point there, Monika. The movie and story begin so differently, the one is verbose while the other is austere.
Now, I would like to mention how Annie Proulx describes Aguirre in the story, even though this thread specifically asks about the movie.
I was noticing in the story how Aguirre has "wavy hair...parted down the middle" just like the Red Sea (only his is the color of cigarette ash). Also, in his trailer are venetian blinds (separating the window into light and dark) which are hanging askew so that they "admit a triangle of white light." In other words, a mountain-shaped light. And his hand gestures as he gives instructions to the two boys, moves in the light with a chopping motion, as if he's cutting the mountain in two. He decrees that Ennis, the camp tender, should stay in the light and tend the fire, while Jack is on the QT, staying with the sheep and having no fire, in the dark.
I now see Aguirre, in laying down the law, as more of a Moses type character than a Jehovah one. He not only gives the commandments but he also requires sacrifices. He gives out the tools ( a .30-.30 for Jack, a cheap ticker for Ennis), and commands them to come down from the mountain at the end. He can look through his binoculars at the summit of the mountain and the sweet life there but he can't attain it himself, being trapped in the choky little trailer. Moses escaped the Egyptians and became a shepherd. He led his people around as if they were sheep and lived to be 120 but never was able to enter the Promised Land due to botching the miracle of bringing forth water from stone.
mariez:
--- Quote from: buffymon on January 08, 2009, 03:39:50 pm ---I think all of the things that AP points out are in the movie (that they are rough mannered, rough spoken, poor etc), but in the short story their similarities are almost "listed" and therefor they become very prominent. All the same info is in the movie as well, but more spread out. I´m not sure this was intentionally done, but simply what happens in the process of transforming words into moving pictures.
--- End quote ---
Yes, that's true, they are "listed" in a way in the book, and the they are both shown as poor, etc., in the movie. But, I still think the movie makes an effort to make them "different" in ways the short story does not.
A few small examples - in the short story they both have trucks at the beginning; in the movie only Jack has truck (albeit a broken down one) and Ennis has to hitchhike.
In the book, Jack is still driving his old truck and wearing the same beat-up hat at the reunion and Jack tells Ennis that L.D. doesn't let "her" (Lureen) have any of the money so it's a "hard go" for them - in the movie Jack pulls up in a nice, new truck, with "fancy" clothes and some pretty nice jewelry, so it doesn't look like they are having a "hard go" and the differences between their social stations and lifestyles are already evident, and that doesn't happen until much later in the short story.
Also, in the short story, Ennis is not particularly mumbly or close mouthed - he talks as much as Jack does. In the movie, Jack is very clearly shown to be gregarious and talkative, while Ennis has a hard time putting a few words together. Anyways, I'm getting way off topic here and I'm not criticizing the movie, just noting the differences, which I think are deliberately made.
Marie
Front-Ranger:
True about the differences friend. My theory is that Ang Lee played up the differences in the characters because of his ongoing interest in the yin/yang concept of complements.
As far as parallels between the story of Brokeback Mountain and the story of Moses, there are several. While in the desert, Moses saw a burning bush, while Aguirre and Jack referenced a tree struck by lightning that led to the death of 42 sheep. Aguirre is first introduced to us in the story by a description of his desk where there are scribbled-on papers and a Bakelite (A kind of stone) ashtray brimming (brimstone?) with stubs.
Also, when God chose Moses to lead his people out of Egypt, he had Moses practice "transforming his rod into a serpent and inflicting and healing leprosy, and told him that he could also pour river water on dry land to change the water to blood." The leprosy part reminded me of Aguirre's remarks about pneumonia. As for "God had Moses practice transforming his rod into a serpent," no comment!!
Later, Moses got into trouble with God because of a circumcision issue regarding his son. When attempting to get the Pharoah's permission for the Isrealites to leave Egypt, Moses and his brother Aaron caused a plague of frogs to occur. Pharoah insisted he get rid of the frogs, whereupon he made them all die, causing a horrible stench.
Other plagues included gnats and flies, which bothered both Aguirre and Ennis, and diseases to cattle, oxen, goats, sheep, camels, and horses. All of these animals appear in Brokeback Mountain except camels. But wait! Ennis says a coyote is so big it looks like it could eat a camel! Hail and thunder are another of the 10 plagues, and the last one is a lethal epidemic which strikes the first-born male child in each family. Not among the Israelites, though. The plague "pass over" those families, so Uncle Harold did not die after all.
In the end, the Israelites are condemned to wander in the desert until all those who were 20 years old at the beginning of the trip had died. Their children, not them, would be the ones to enter the promised land.
mariez:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on January 08, 2009, 06:05:47 pm ---True about the differences friend. My theory is that Ang Lee played up the differences in the characters because of his ongoing interest in the yin/yang concept of complements.
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Yep, definitely a yin/yang feel - that theory makes a lot of sense!
Marie
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