Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
Yin and Yang: Ennis and Jack
nakymaton:
--- Quote from: starboardlight on June 03, 2006, 11:56:22 am ---at this point in the film, the yin is without his other half. There is no yang. The circle is incomplete now.
--- End quote ---
:'( :'( :'( :'(
--- Quote from: Penthesilea on June 03, 2006, 02:27:19 pm ---Sometimes I ask myself, whether we are beginning to see ghosts, respectively symbols where there aren't any.
--- End quote ---
Well, I know I'm seeing ghosts. Or at least one ghost. And I know whose ghost it is. :'( :'( :'(
Brown Eyes:
Oh, oh, oh! I've just paused my DVD so that I could run to my computer to post a new yin and yang moment. During that beautiful sequence of shots of Jack up on the mountain top for his first night up with the sheep (the shots that almost look black and white... or purple and white, due to the darkness and the moonlight) there's a really clear yin and yang. I'm talking about the shot where he's sitting amongst the sheep and he and his pup tent are towards the bottom left corner of the screen. The white sheep with Jack as the black dot form the bottom half of the symbol. The black sky with the white moon (the moon is towards the upper right corner) form the upper half of the yin and yang symbol. This is really clear visually.
It's amazing because it works for another big BBM symbol, which is the idea of Jack as a "black sheep" or outcast/ nonconformist type figure. The moon here is interesting in relation to all our discussions of how important moonlight is as a symbol for lovers or "true" love. Awww, in this case the yin and yang are being formed by the two key symbols of love for Ennis (Jack and the moon)!
:D
OK, I'm going back to watch the movie.
cheers!
Meryl:
Here's the shot you described, Amanda:
I think you're right about the yin/yang quality of the image. Another great catch! 8)
I love that we are able to know how long Ennis and Jack were together before the first tent scene simply by noticing the full moon. One month exactly. :)
nakymaton:
You know, I've been thinking about that "one month" thing. And, ummmm... I think it's possible that it was actually two months.
See, it all comes down to moving the sheep. I figure that they moved the sheep from one area to another because sheep tend to graze everything down to bare rock if they've got the chance. And, well, it seems like they would move the sheep about halfway through the summer, rather than spend one month in one area, and then three months in the other.
I guess it's possible that their real allotment was up so high that the snow wouldn't melt until mid-June, or was on a north-facing slope, or something. I've never herded sheep, so I don't know.
But it's possible that the August snow meant that Jack and Ennis only had one month together. :(
Meryl:
Well, from what others have postulated, I'm going on the theory that they started up the mountain in May, and Jack in that picture is looking at the full moon of May. That would make June's full moon the moon of the tent scenes. So if it was fairly early in June, like it is this month on the 11th, that would give them roughly two months as lovers before they had to bring the sheep down in "the middle of August" as Ennis says, and three months being with each other altogether.
At least I hope so. :)
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version