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

TOTW 11/08: Let's talk about postcards

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Front-Ranger:
I agree with you, Bliss. Back then, there were several advantages to sending postcards. The price differential was quite a bit different. But the tradeoff was privacy. That didn't seem to matter to Ennis and Jack. "They believed themselves invisible" as AP writes.

Proulx's first novel was Postcards, and in it a postcard appears at the start of each chapter as kind of a heading. Often the information in the postcard only tangentially relates to what's in the chapter. Some of the postcards are from the rural electric system, talking about the need to bring electricity to the farms and ranches. It's interesting how Proulx carries forward certain leitmotifs from novel to story to novel again. Reading her work is certainly enriching.

optom3:
I always wondered why the initial contact letter(S.S) was changed to a postcard in the film.All I can think is it has to be something to do withAlma.She can read the postcard,which she does,but would not read a letter.Does the fact that she reads the card and it seems so innocent,add to the shock of discovering the kiss?The card shows Jack's  lack of education as you are is abbreviated to your instead of you're there.Sorry that is really persnickety,I know,but reading it in the S.S I think it is a nice touch.
It lso crossed my mind that Jack is seen to send a letter(S.S) as he is the more verbal of the two.Ennis sends a card as he is the less verbal.Not always,but generally,we associate letters as containing more communication,postcards,less.So even their written communicatin is a reflection of their characters.

myprivatejack:

--- Quote from: optom3 on March 31, 2008, 10:22:56 pm ---I always wondered why the initial contact letter(S.S) was changed to a postcard in the film.All I can think is it has to be something to do withAlma.She can read the postcard,which she does,but would not read a letter.Does the fact that she reads the card and it seems so innocent,add to the shock of discovering the kiss?The card shows Jack's lack of education as you are is abbreviated to your instead of you're there.Sorry that is really persnickety,I know,but reading it in the S.S I think it is a nice touch.
It lso crossed my mind that Jack is seen to send a letter(S.S) as he is the more verbal of the two.Ennis sends a card as he is the less verbal.Not always,but generally,we associate letters as containing more communication,postcards,less.So even their written communicatin is a reflection of their characters.

--- End quote ---

I agree with you,Optom in everything you say.But I´d like to add that perhaps the change of the letter for a postcard it was done precisely to remark this lack of communication between them,and mainly,Ennis economy of words,be these said or written.We have spoken sometimes about how the Ennis of the s.s. is slightly more demonstrative of his feelings,fears and hopes than the one of the movie; so,perhaps these difference had been made,then,deliberately to make it more evident...
On the other side,this communication by means of postcards led to a mistake IMO in the scene of the post-divorce.Ennis sends Jack one where he tells him He's just divorced,but it seems he only wants to say that,not making an appointment with his lover,right?.I always wonder why he does this,because,even if he looks only for a relief of his state of mind telling it to someone who was also his best friend,he knows perfectly that Jack saw an opportunity he didn't want to let scape...Bearing in mind Jack's impulsive way of being,Ennis should have thought that he could insist in his idea of "a sweet life together" or also that he went to met him...Post cards can easily produce this kind of mistakes or bad understandings; why,then,did Ennis chose it?.Maybe was he looking for a change in their relationship by telling Jack about the divorce? But in the last moment,ha changed his mind because he wasn't prepared still?.As a matter of fact,being a single man again could put him in the middle of all his environment's glances,and living with a man right after could be too "dangerous".Or it was,as I said before,only a relief with his best friend?I don't know if this makes sense... :-\

BlissC:

--- Quote from: myprivatejack on April 01, 2008, 06:03:04 am ---On the other side,this communication by means of postcards led to a mistake IMO in the scene of the post-divorce.Ennis sends Jack one where he tells him He's just divorced,but it seems he only wants to say that,not making an appointment with his lover,right?.I always wonder why he does this,because,even if he looks only for a relief of his state of mind telling it to someone who was also his best friend,he knows perfectly that Jack saw an opportunity he didn't want to let scape...Bearing in mind Jack's impulsive way of being,Ennis should have thought that he could insist in his idea of "a sweet life together" or also that he went to met him...Post cards can easily produce this kind of mistakes or bad understandings; why,then,did Ennis chose it?.Maybe was he looking for a change in their relationship by telling Jack about the divorce? But in the last moment,ha changed his mind because he wasn't prepared still?.As a matter of fact,being a single man again could put him in the middle of all his environment's glances,and living with a man right after could be too "dangerous".Or it was,as I said before,only a relief with his best friend?I don't know if this makes sense... :-\

--- End quote ---

That's an interesting point, because as you say, knowing Jack's impulsive nature, you'd think that Ennis would realise that Jack's most likely reaction, which of course he did, would be to rush straight to Ennis. That scene's entirely missing from the SS, but it's very obvious in the screenplay that Jack believes Ennis has changed his mind about the "sweet life". So why did Ennis do it? As you say, it could be that he changes his mind at the last minute. That scene though is I think probably nearly the most tragic of the movie, because I think that was Ennis's last chance to change the way things turned out, because it seems from there that that's when Jack changes. Again, there's nothing in the SS, but the screenplay says "We see Jack blazing along in his pickup truck. Begins to cry, hard...but something has turned inside him...he looks desolate but determined: knows where he is headed."

I don't think things ever really recovered after that. Their final trip describes Jack as "restless and bitching"...and then again there's the final postcard Ennis sent to Jack to say November still looked like the best bet. Knowing how upset Jack had been when he sent him away, and when he'd finally announced August wouldn't be possibly, why the hell did Ennis just send another postcard?! Why not write a letter, or even pick up the phone?

Maybe if it hadn't been for the postcards things might have turned out differently. 

myprivatejack:

--- Quote from: BlissC on April 01, 2008, 04:59:32 pm ---That's an interesting point, because as you say, knowing Jack's impulsive nature, you'd think that Ennis would realise that Jack's most likely reaction, which of course he did, would be to rush straight to Ennis. That scene's entirely missing from the SS, but it's very obvious in the screenplay that Jack believes Ennis has changed his mind about the "sweet life". So why did Ennis do it? As you say, it could be that he changes his mind at the last minute. That scene though is I think probably nearly the most tragic of the movie, because I think that was Ennis's last chance to change the way things turned out, because it seems from there that that's when Jack changes. Again, there's nothing in the SS, but the screenplay says "We see Jack blazing along in his pickup truck. Begins to cry, hard...but something has turned inside him...he looks desolate but determined: knows where he is headed."

I don't think things ever really recovered after that. Their final trip describes Jack as "restless and bitching"...and then again there's the final postcard Ennis sent to Jack to say November still looked like the best bet. Knowing how upset Jack had been when he sent him away, and when he'd finally announced August wouldn't be possibly, why the hell did Ennis just send another postcard?! Why not write a letter, or even pick up the phone?

Maybe if it hadn't been for the postcards things might have turned out differently. 

--- End quote ---

I also think the same,Bliss; that things were never the same again from the post divorce scene onwards... :( You know there're even some fanfics that,ending well or badly,take this time as an after and a before for their relationship.But I must concrete that when I say that postcards had led to a mistake,I meant that they're a kind of communication very exiguous; proper,I repite,for someone like Ennis,not very verbal,but that exiguity can easily led to misunderstandings as in this case.I suppose that was,however,a proper way if they didn't want to spend too much time reading or,even,if they wanted to maintain the secret and intimacy-of course,much better than with phone calls or,even,when a letter,too long sometimes...-.The problem wasn't the use of postcards or not,although all its limitations,in the last Ennis getting in touch with Jack,why?; because,on the contrary than you,I've always thought that Ennis-after their final confrontation-sent it after having thought deeply about all what they had said then.I'm not saying that he decided to share his life with his lover in the end,but I bear in mind the kind of "coming out" he experienced before Jack's family after his death,and the repercussion that their argument surely had in him when he could have left him.It's logical to think that something would have been left in his mind and soul during all these months after having heard,and almost said,what they had reserved so many years;but the tragedy is that we'll never know it for sure. :'(

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