Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
Double meanings: Lines that can be taken more than one way
Brown Eyes:
-"I'm sending up a prayer of thanks... for you forgetting to bring that harmonica." - can be translated into "I'm so thankful that you're back in my life."
-"For how long?"... "For as long as we can ride it."- can be translated into "How long will our love last?"... "For as long as humanly possible."
-"There ain't no reigns on this one" - can be translated into "I love you so much that I feel completely out of control when I'm around you." Or it can be translated into "There's no way for us to control how society will view our relationship." - Or when combined with the lines above... it can be translated into... "I'll love you for the rest of my life even though this situation makes me feel completely out of control." or "I can't help loving you forever even if we can't control our relationship the way we'd like due to societal pressures." etc.
-"all the traveling I've done is around a coffeepot looking for the handle."- well, *ahem,* this can be translated into a fun sexual metaphor. I will leave this up to the imagination.
;)
Or, it can be translated into... "I'm still trying to find myself and work my way out of my confusion about this relationship and/or my identity."
serious crayons:
I love those translations, Amanda. And Mel, it would have never even occurred to me to translate "shit," but you're right! Same for you, Mikaela and Lee. BTW Lee, how do you explain the completely nonsequitor coffee line that preceeds that one? (I think of it as a Larry McMurtry Texas in-joke, but maybe there's something more to it.)
"That fire and brimstone crowd? No thanks."
1) Most obvious: he doesn't want to hang out with judgmental churchy types
2) Pretty obvious: he doesn't want to hang out with churchy types who would judge him harshly if they knew he was gay.
3) Least obvious: he doesn't want to hang out with anybody, because the whole world would judge him harshly if people "suspected."
"Um, it's a pretty short story. I was only on that bronc for about three seconds, and next thing you know I was flyyyying through the air. Only I wasn't no angel like you girls."
1) Most obvious: an entertaining fatherly tale.
2) Least obvious: a metaphor for his relationship with Jack. It went by in what seemed like three seconds, and next thing you know he was flying off the mountain and crashing to the ground. And if he wasn't a sinner beforehand, he sure wasn't no angel afterward.
Brown Eyes:
Very good Katherine.
OK~
-"Jack F***ing Twist" can be translated perhaps 3 ways for the 3 times we hear Ennis utter this-
1) the reunion- "Jack F***ing Twist" = "little darlin"
2) the "maybe Texas" camping trip- "Jack F***ing Twist" = "little darlin, I'm so frustrated that you keep bringing up the issue of living together... but I'm mostly frustrated because I can't visualize a way of making that happen."
3) the argument scene- "Jack F***ing Twist"= "little darlin, the thought of you seeing other men makes me incredibly jealous because I love you and now I feel threatened and worried."
nakymaton:
They really express the relationship in rodeo metaphors, don't they? Both As long as we can ride it... there ain't no reins on this one. and Ennis's description of his saddle bronc career. (I'm very impressed with Ennis's ability to keep up the happy face for his girls during that story... it must just ache to talk about rodeos, given how Ennis associates rodeos with Jack.)
Along that line, how about This ain't no rodeo, cowboy in what became the angry tussle?
(1) Affectionate teasing, going back to that first time when Ennis opened up to Jack.
(2) This ain't a game; this is serious.
(3) But I wanted to ride you for more than eight seconds!
About the Texans and coffee: tell you what, I laughed at that line when I heard it in the theater, because it seemed like gratuitous Texan-bashing. ("You wouldn't want him in here; he's a Texan, and you just can't tell what they'll do." In my corner of the world, Texans have a reputation for driving rental jeeps off of trails until they're stuck somewhere on a cliff and need rescuing.) But maybe a more realistic interpretation is "You have no idea how incoherent I get when I'm post-coital." ;)
And yeah, Lee, "You bet" sure means a lot of different things. I particularly like this one:
--- Quote ---"if you take a chance by coming here, I will take your bet and see you one hell of a kiss."
--- End quote ---
(Just caught Amanda's while I was posting -- yes, totally agree about the "Jack F**** Twist!"s.)
Brown Eyes:
--- Quote from: nakymaton on May 24, 2006, 12:34:22 am ---They really express the relationship in rodeo metaphors, don't they? Both As long as we can ride it... there ain't no reins on this one. and Ennis's description of his saddle bronc career. (I'm very impressed with Ennis's ability to keep up the happy face for his girls during that story... it must just ache to talk about rodeos, given how Ennis associates rodeos with Jack.)
--- End quote ---
I know! I've always thought that this was such a painful moment of repression. We know that Ennis is dying to mention Jack somewhere in this conversation. I mean, come on, Jack is his rodeo cowboy... and Jack even wins once in a while. Plus riding bulls seems more exciting than riding broncs.
--- Quote ---About the Texans and coffee: tell you what, I laughed at that line when I heard it in the theater, because it seemed like gratuitous Texan-bashing. ("You wouldn't want him in here; he's a Texan, and you just can't tell what they'll do." In my corner of the world, Texans have a reputation for driving rental jeeps off of trails until they're stuck somewhere on a cliff and need rescuing.) But maybe a more realistic interpretation is "You have no idea how incoherent I get when I'm post-coital." ;)
--- End quote ---
LOL! :laugh: :laugh:
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