Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
Role of Observers, Viewers, the long-shot, Aguirre, and Us (!!!) in BBM?
chowhound:
Personally, I'd be surprised if Aguirre had spied upon Jack and Ennis before this incident. It looks as though it well might take him 3-4 hours to get up there and 3-4 hours to get back. Surely he has a better way of employing his time.
What does Aguirre see through his binoculars, I wonder? I doubt if he sees what I see. I see a delightful new stage in Jack and Ennis's relationship. Night has been replaced by day and the closed privacy of the tent by the sunny outdoors. What was once tentative has now become playful as they chase each other around, the tussle ending not in Jack kissing Ennis but, significantly, in Ennis kissing Jack.
Does Aguirre see anything of this joyfulness, this fun? Maybe he glimpses it briefly but I think that would be all. Certainly his later summary - "stemming the rose" - suggests that sex is about all he is capable of seeing.
The counterpart to this scene is, of course, when Alma sees the passionate reunion kiss of jack and Ennis, though, once more, they are unaware that they are being watched. (Is it just a coincidence that in both scenes the viewers don't see things directly but through something else - Aguirre through the lens of his binoculars, Alma through the glass of the screen door?). The difference between the two scenes is that Alma has no way of "reading" the situation though she may be aware of a passion in Ennis that she herself has never experienced. (For the viewer, like me, "reading" the situation poses no problems). The memory of this scene is clearly something which gnaws away at Alma though when she finally decides that she does know how to "read" the situation is unclear. Obviously, by the Thanksgiving dinner, she has, though presumably this is a "reading" she has reached earlier.
Artiste:
Merci chowhound !
How delightful is your post!
You sure bring good news !
You say:
Surely he (Aquirre) has a better way of employing his time.
.....
Chowhound, Aquirre's job isn't it his investment, his sheep, and therefore, he must know if his workers (Ennis and Jack) are doing their jobs; so spying is Aguirre's way to find out secretly !
And I love it that you connect Alma's viewing of Ennis and Jack kissings and hugs are watched by her too secretly !!
More please... more secrets by observers ??
au revoir,
hugs!
chowhound:
Hi Artiste
I understand Aguirre's financial connection to the sheep but I still feel it would be a big task to make his way up Brokeback to see if Jack and Ennis were doing their jobs. And, if he found out they weren't, what could he do then? He could scarcely fire them as who then would look after the sheep?
I find it interesting, that, although he's seen Jack and Ennis fooling around, he says nothing when he gets to Jack's camp. Maybe he's partially mollified as, when he uses his binoculars for the second time, he sees Ennis doing his job and tending the sheep. (Interestingly, what he sees is a mirror image of what we have seen earlier when Jack and Ennis are first making their way up Brokeback. In both cases, Ennis is carrying a baby lamb in a sling at the side of his horse. Ennis, the good shepherd, I imagine).
A possible counterpoint to the two scenes where Jack and Ennis are seen by others, though they are unaware they are being watched, are two scenes where one of them is looking for the other from far away but can't find what they are looking for. The first of these scenes is when Jack has gone up to be with the sheep on the first night. After setting up his tent, he sits outside and looks down the mountain, hoping, I think, to catch a glimpse of Ennis but all he can make out is the smoke rising from the campfire below. The second scene is when Ennis looks up the mountain, hoping to find Jack, but can't make him out. This occurs when he is washing the blue coffee pot in the stream. (If you have StripedWall, it's images 291-95). Fortunately, as the movie progresses, they do manage to see each other much more clearly, closely and directly.
Artiste:
Merci chowhound !
You post is again very interesting !
You say about Aguirre:
He could scarcely fire them as who then would look after the sheep?
......
Chowhound, I think that he could easily get rid of Ennis and Jack, if not right there and then, at least in a few days after getting replacements ! But, Aguirre keeps both Ennis and Jack and, that is what is puzzling ? To me, it is a puzzle: (A) Is Aguirre a [bcongenial[/b] person/boss? What is his motivation, if he (Aguirre) is not gay himself ?
Au revoir,
hugs!
Artiste:
I still think that one as a viewer can see Aguirre as a gay person, and/or at least as a voyeur because those long shots show us that!
Anyone agree??
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