Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
Double meanings: Lines that can be taken more than one way
tiawahcowboy:
An ancient magazine photograph of some dark-haired movie star was taped to the wall beside the bed, the skin tone gone magenta.
More than likely it was one of the male cowboy movie stars from the latter 1940s or the early 1950s. So, it could have been Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Bill Boyd aka Hopalong Cassiday, Lash Larue, Randolph Scott, Alan Ladd, or Guy Madison, among others.
It it had been a female star, it could have been Dale Evans or Jane Russell.
Brown Eyes:
About falling in love with fun...
I do think his sort of stunned reaction is a combination of being surprised at the depths of Cassie's feelings for him and at the shock of an ephiphany as another layer of his feelings about Jack comes more clearly into focus. I do think he feels bad about hurting Cassie. He truly seems saddened by the situation with her. But, of course the primary issue is probably always the Jack subtext.
I think it's a great observation that Ennis did fall in love with fun. Maybe this is a clue that the moment when Jack is horsing around and poking fun at himself during the "rodeo cowboys are all f***-ups" scene is truly the moment when Ennis fell in love with Jack. Also, it's cute to note that the "I haven't had the opportunity" scene (which comes *right* before the first tent scene) is also a "fun" moment... the singing and jovial tone to their drinking binge seem to be a lot of fun. Proulx makes it clear that Ennis wants to paw the white out of the moon because he can't remember having had such a good time before.
Fun is probably a really important phenomenon to Ennis. What a tough life our Ennis has had! Being able to smile and goof around and let his cares go around Jack... and to have fun with Jack's sense of humor might be more deeply significant than Cassie realizes.
And, more on his reaction to Cassie's observation... I think like Alma Jr.'s discussion about Kurt and marriage... the idea of truly being in love with Jack is probably really beginning to occur to Ennis. As we've said elsewhere... he's almost made it around the coffeepot to find the handle.
If only Jack had lived! I truly hope good things would have happened based on these little clues. (There goes my optimism about the situation again...).
:'(
serious crayons:
Yes, I do think he feels bad about Cassie but I'd like to think his expression of epiphany has more to do with Jack.
While we're on the subject, why don't we just go ahead and analyze "This Kurt, he loves you?" and, for that matter, Alma Jr.'s reaction to it.
My feeling is that this line indicates he has had time to think about love and realizes that a) that's what he and Jack had together and b) that's the most important thing there is. He only asks one other question about Kurt ("How long have you known this guy?") where you'd think a father who'd first heard the name of his daughter's betrothed five minutes ago would want to know a lot more than that. (He's such a foreign entity that Ennis refers to him as "this Kurt" as opposed to just "Kurt.")
But Ennis has realized love is enough to outweigh all other reservations. Then his pained gaze out the window shows him wishing he'd figured that out a long time ago.
Alma's response seems a little slower and softer, more sympathetic, than she might be just by the surface meaning of the question. I take it as a sign she knows her dad has gone through a heartbreaking experience with love. She doesn't know the precise details, but she sure as hell knows it wasn't about Cassie.
Mikaela:
About Cassie, - I do think her impassioned "fall in love with fun" statement is what makes Ennis see her as a real *person*; - with emotions that can and has been hurt. The way he previously talks to Jack about her indicates he doesn't even really listen to what she's saying, he doesn't think about her feelings and he sure can't be bothered to care.
I actually think it's a step forward in Ennis's life that he does realize the hurt and pain he's caused Cassie - that it sinks in - not only because he can relate it to Jack, but exactly because his empathy and understanding extends to another adult human being than Jack. He truly sees that his way of "standing it" hasn't only affected and worn out and broken him and Jack, but other good people as well. I don't think there's a ever a similar moment in his relationship with Alma, unless the tears in the divorce court can be interpreted that way, but that's not at all how I see them. Since 1963 till that confrontation with Jack when he "can't stand it anymore" he's only lived in relation to Jack, while other grown-ups he's had dealings with were nothing but shadow figures on his emotional radar. If that is changing, it's a sign he's finally been jolted out of the rut and has opened up emotionally and it's another sign he's ready for change when it comes to him and Jack as well. I do *so* want to believe he was reaching that point and that the November meet would have been a turning point to the positive for Ennis and Jack.
I sure don't insist on my interpretation though. :)
Anyway, it does strike me how easily the "girls don't fall in love with fun" can be flipped to mirror the other side of the Ennis/Cassie relationship (not only Ennis/Jack). Ennis sure didn't and couldn't fall in love with fun either, even when it was smiling brightly at him and making him dance to jaunty tunes and requesting foot rubs: Cassie *was* a real fun girl when they first met.
I'll be interested in reading more about others' opinions on the last scene between Ennis and Junior. I must admit I can't manage to see all the things in that scene what many others see, I envy those who see more in it! I truly think Ennis was aware that he loved Jack a long time before Jack died - whether or not he used that word to himself about it. But he does think of Jack when asking the "he loves you"? question; no doubt about that; - and it's a bittersweet comfort to see he has such a loving connection to his daughter, that he isn't left completely in the dark. Since the last scene takes place in 1984 and Jack died in -82, the lonely darkness of Ennis's life in the long period between almost doesn't bear thinking on. :'(
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Mikaela on May 31, 2006, 04:55:22 am ---The way he previously talks to Jack about her indicates he doesn't even really listen to what she's saying, he doesn't think about her feelings and he sure can't be bothered to care.
--- End quote ---
That's a good way to put it, Mikaela, and I totally agree he has realized that. Only I think that's expressed in his "I'm sorry" and "I probably wasn't much fun." Those are such a change in tone from his earlier lines, and they sound very sincere. They seem to show that he realizes he has been cruel, and feels bad about it. But then his reaction to her "fun" line provokes what looks to me like a different emotion.
Another reason I'd like to think of his thoughtful reaction to the "fun" line as being about Jack is that it progresses the plot on a bit more -- he may be ready to make some changes in November. Also, because it is the first appearance of the word "love" and because the camera lingers on him for so long, it seems a moment of great significance, suggesting to me it's more Jack- than Cassie-related.
But I don't insist on my interpretation, either. :)
--- Quote ---I truly think Ennis was aware that he loved Jack a long time before Jack died - whether or not he used that word to himself about it.
--- End quote ---
I agree, and have argued this point endlessly elsewhere. It just doesn't fit my understanding of human nature that he could behave so much like he loves somebody but not think of it that way (even if, as you say, he called it something else to himself). People who deny love pretend they don't care about the person -- they don't act like Ennis does in the alley or at the reunion, etc.
Still, I can also imagine that attaching the actual word "love" to his feelings for the first time, with all its cultural connotations, might push him to a new level of understanding of how important the relationship is and what it means in his life.
But I'll be interested, too, in what others say.
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