Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
Yin and Yang: Ennis and Jack
Penthesilea:
--- Quote ---Cool, isn't it?
--- End quote ---
To be honest, I never recognised it in the movie. No chance. I'm always in tears at those Lightning Flat scenes. Ennis at the kitchen table... o god, I nearly start crying just thinking about it :'(
I also never saw any cherry-cake, let alone the one cherry in it.
But yes, it's cool. Another of those little details which can be there by chance or for a symbolic reason. I don't know which way round this one is. I don't know whether this is an intentional yin-yang reference, but I'm quite sure that the framing of the building in the background by the window bars is intentional. It's too good to be by chance.
Anyway, you're beady-eyed, Meryl :)
Brown Eyes:
Wow! That's a fantastic detail. I love that scene (yes of course for the emotional aspect of it, but also for the way it seems to be so carefully crafted). Someone, somewhere (maybe Katherine, I don't quite remeber) once noticed how Jack's room contains all sorts of reminders of the Brokeback summer. The sloped white wall of the room is like the sloped canvas of the tent, the little cowboy toy is like the toy Ennis was carving in the tent (but obviously also like Ennis and Jack themselves), the little gun on the wall, the rock collection, etc. all serve as nostagic reminders for Ennis.
Inserting the detail of the yin and yang through the open window seems really important in subtly hinting at all these super subtle details that add up to a room that now serves as a memorial. It's interesting that the yin and yang barn door becomes evident when Ennis opens the window... to let Jack's symbol (air) into the room.
:'(
The whole Lightning Flat sequence just shines as one of the best parts of the film I think.
Meryl:
Anyway, you're beady-eyed, Meryl
Thanks, Pen, and thanks for the screen cap. ;D
Yes, that Lightning Flat scene is just rife with symbols everywhere you look. I love it, and I love picking it apart and putting it back together again. That's a great way to look at Jack's room, Amanda, like Brokeback in microcosm.
I started thinking that if Ang Lee bothered to put that yin/yang symbol in the Lightning Flat scene, maybe there were other instances of it. How about this (also from stripedwall.com) for yin/yanginess:
Maybe this, too:
I love Ang Lee! :-*
Brown Eyes:
These are all fantastic examples, Meryl! :D I think the poster for the movie with the intersecting black and white hats is meant to suggest the yin and yang idea too. It's such a deliberate and sort of unusual composition, there must be a meaning to it.
The reflection of the mountains in the water also suggests the concept of yin and yang to me (even if the image itself isn't the conventional image of yin and yang).
I love this poster, by the way. One of my favorite things about the movie being in the theatres was seeing this image hung all over the place even in really mainstream theatres.
Meryl:
You're right, Amanda! That poster is very yin/yangy. 8)
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