Author Topic: SOTW 14/08: Containers and Containment  (Read 11003 times)

Offline Penthesilea

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SOTW 14/08: Containers and Containment
« on: April 21, 2008, 02:45:29 pm »
Happy new week BetterMostians  :)!

No, it's not a typo. We have something new this week. A Symbolism of the Week (=SOTW) instead of a TOTW. Since both, the short story and movie, are so rich in symbolisms we'll just pick out one of them and discuss every aspect of it that comes to our minds.

We already have various threads about symbolism; some are classics, some are buried deep down the pages (and the one or other of them is probably worth another look). The SOTW will be an irregular feature, coming up whenever somebody has a suggestion for it. Therefore they will be numbered consecutively combined with the TOTW, no extra array for SOTW.

In collaboration with Front-Ranger comes the first SOTW. Thank you Front-Ranger!

Containers and containment

Some random thoughts on containers, which hopefully will trigger interesting discussions:

We see lots of containers in BBM. Especially the enamel pot and coffeepot are placed very prominently again and again during their first summer; we see Ennis playing a solo on the coffeepot. But they are also strikingly present in some later scenes. What do they stand for?

Let's also not forget the closing words of Annie Proulx's essay „Getting movied“: People may doubt that young men fall in love up on the snowy heights, but no one disbelieves the speckled coffeepot, and if the coffeepot is true, so is the other.
Here she referred to the coffeepot as one of many details which give the movie authenticity. But beyond this direct purpose may be another layer of meaning to the coffeepot and other containers.

Another example are Alma's kitchens. All three of them are crammed with various containers.

And how does containment refer to all those containers? And to the characters?

In the end, there is one container which is denied to Ennis.

Later I'll post some more pictures from the movie to give more examples of strikingly present containers.


Jump in and share your ideas about

Containers and containment




Offline Brown Eyes

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Re: SOTW 14/08: Containers and Containment
« Reply #1 on: April 21, 2008, 02:59:07 pm »
Awesome topic Chrissi and Sister-Mod!  :-*

I also love the title "Symbolism of the Week (=SOTW)"!  I'm sure you're not surprised.  8)

I'll come back and tackle this one once I'm home from work later this evening.
:)

the world was asleep to our latent fuss - bowie

Offline Penthesilea

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Re: SOTW 14/08: Containers and Containment
« Reply #2 on: April 21, 2008, 03:15:07 pm »
Awesome topic Chrissi and Sister-Mod!  :-*

I also love the title "Symbolism of the Week (=SOTW)"!  I'm sure you're not surprised.  8)

Why thank you birthday-girl (ok, one day later ;D). No, I'm not surprised and look forward to your insights  :-*.

Offline brokeplex

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Re: SOTW 14/08: Containers and Containment
« Reply #3 on: April 22, 2008, 12:46:54 am »
the most poignant final container holds  Jack's remains. the urn sent by Lureen to the Twists. it remains unseen, why? so we can think of the shirts as the final metaphorical repository of the remains of Jack?  perhaps.

I like this topic, and it looks like I'm just going to have review the film yet again, so here I go to fire up the DVD player ONE MORE TIME!  :)

Offline Penthesilea

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Re: SOTW 14/08: Containers and Containment
« Reply #4 on: April 22, 2008, 09:58:38 am »
the most poignant final container holds  Jack's remains. the urn sent by Lureen to the Twists. it remains unseen, why? so we can think of the shirts as the final metaphorical repository of the remains of Jack?  perhaps.

Yup, that's the one container Ennis is denied of.  :(
Looking through the screencaps, I noticed that Alma has the most containers. But Ennis isn't interested in those. He wants only one, and doesn't get it.

In contrast to Alma's kitchens, the Twist-Newsome kitchen has far less containers. But of course, the whole Twist household is far less cluttered than the Del Mars', so it's logical we see less containers there (plus, we see less of the Twist household in general).

Quote
I like this topic, and it looks like I'm just going to have review the film yet again, so here I go to fire up the DVD player ONE MORE TIME!  :)

Thanks for liking and saying so  :).
You're a brave man, taking the hard task to see the movie again  ;).

Look out for the coffeepot. You'll be surprised how often it is present. Oh, BTW, there is something I wanted to show you for a while, but never got around doing it. It fits halfways in this thread, so I'll post it here:

You said in another thread, that there's a mistake (error in continuity) when Ennis gets up and enters the tent for TS1. You said we hear Ennis knocking over the coffeepot, but then it's seen still standing when the camera draws back from TS1 and we see the campsite once more.


Ennis knocking over the coffeepot(with the blanket):



The campground directly after TS1:


Detail from the same picture:



Another pot is still standing, but the coffeepot is knocked over, lying behind the other pot.


(I'm uploading pics for this thread, therefore I have them at hand right now)

Offline Penthesilea

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Re: SOTW 14/08: Containers and Containment
« Reply #5 on: April 22, 2008, 02:06:51 pm »
Ok, I skimmed through the photocaptions and loaded up some (well, actually more than some  ;D) pictures with different containers, which I found pretty noticable.








We don't see this one, but we hear it very clearly:

Offline Penthesilea

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Re: SOTW 14/08: Containers and Containment
« Reply #6 on: April 22, 2008, 02:09:41 pm »









Offline Penthesilea

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Re: SOTW 14/08: Containers and Containment
« Reply #7 on: April 22, 2008, 02:14:52 pm »











Offline Penthesilea

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Re: SOTW 14/08: Containers and Containment
« Reply #8 on: April 22, 2008, 02:16:45 pm »







Offline Penthesilea

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Re: SOTW 14/08: Containers and Containment
« Reply #9 on: April 22, 2008, 02:20:05 pm »
Cassie between the candy containers and the sweet drinks. Has she found the sweet life with Karl?