Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum

moment(s) of artless, charmed happiness?

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fernly:
"...that dozy embrace solidified in his memory as the single moment of artless, charmed happiness in their separate and difficult lives."
Setting aside the heart-breaking fact that Jack remembered one moment like that, do you think Ennis remembered the embrace the same way, did it have the same unique power for him? 
Or do you think there was a different moment for Ennis?

ednbarby:
Great question, Lynn!  (So lovely meeting you and talking with you, albeit briefly, the other night, by the way.)

I'll take a stab at this:  My guess is that Ennis' moment would be when he receives Jack's first post card.  The way he holds it so reverently and re-reads it, mouthing the words the second time, and the way we all know he's been aching for Jack all those four years...  It struck me the other night that the reason he writes Jack's address from a piece of paper he brought with him to the post office isn't because he's always had his address, but because that post card is so sacred, he's kept it in a safe place where it can't be bent or marred and transcribed the return address on it to a scrap of paper for the post office, rather than bring it with him and risk defacing it in any way.  In the short story, Ennis goes out of his way to find a card that depicts Brokeback Mountain to live in the same closet in his trailer with the shirts.  In the movie, Jack's first card *is* a picture of Brokeback Mountain.

I guess a close second would be hearing Jack's truck pull up in the parking lot of his apartment, then seeing Jack climb out of the cab.  For Ennis, it was always the idea of Jack that most inspired him.  But for Jack, it was Ennis himself.

Front-Ranger:
Have you heard the expression, "Still waters run deep." Well, to me, that describes Ennis. Even though he did not show it on the surface, I think he listened, watched, and took in everything that he encountered. He thought about and mulled over everything. He stewed over Jack and wrang it out for Jack for four long years. I wonder if Ennis ever had the capacity to just "let be, let be." He was so hung up on surviving, on not being found out, on hiding his real self, I don't that he could really enjoy just being in the moment. But, I remember the parts of the story where Ennis was so happy he felt he could paw the white out of the moon. And how he enjoyed riding at night on Cigar Butt after an evening with Jack around the campfire. Yes, he did have his moments of happiness on Brokeback Mountain. Where he was able to lose track of society and just enjoy being himself.

jpwagoneer1964:

--- Quote from: ednbarby on June 16, 2006, 09:04:56 pm ---Great question, Lynn!  (So lovely meeting you and talking with you, albeit briefly, the other night, by the way.)

I'll take a stab at this:  My guess is that Ennis' moment would be when he receives Jack's first post card.  The way he holds it so reverently and re-reads it, mouthing the words the second time, and the way we all know he's been aching for Jack all those four years...  It struck me the other night that the reason he writes Jack's address from a piece of paper he brought with him to the post office isn't because he's always had his address, but because that post card is so sacred, he's kept it in a safe place where it can't be bent or marred and transcribed the return address on it to a scrap of paper for the post office, rather than bring it with him and risk defacing it in any way.  In the short story, Ennis goes out of his way to find a card that depicts Brokeback Mountain to live in the same closet in his trailer with the shirts.  In the movie, Jack's first card *is* a picture of Brokeback Mountain.

I guess a close second would be hearing Jack's truck pull up in the parking lot of his apartment, then seeing Jack climb out of the cab.  For Ennis, it was always the idea of Jack that most inspired him.  But for Jack, it was Ennis himself.

--- End quote ---
I always thought at the final scene with the shirts the card should be the first one Jack sent, writing turned out. The card Jack wrote is NOT of Brokeback though

serious crayons:
I think the 24 hours or so leading up to "I'm sending up a prayer of thanks" were moments of ACH for Ennis. But there were probably plenty on Brokeback, too. The "happy tussle" also looks like one to me (if not to Aguirre).

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