Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
You shut up about Ennis - this ain't (all) his fault
ruthlesslyunsentimental:
--- Quote from: southendmd on June 27, 2006, 05:34:05 pm --- you might consider changing the subject line to entice others.
--- End quote ---
OK. I'm open to suggestions...
All I can come up with is: A Clinical Analysis and Discourse on the Effects of Misunderstandings in Communication between Two Homoerotically-Charged Individuals in a Remote Rural Setting
But that's kind of boring...
How about: Jack Done Him Wrong?
Or: The Truth Revealed?
Or: Please Read My Post?
Or: Ennis' Unfulfilled Expectations? ...
Or: It Happened One Day... By the Truck
Or: The Day the Mountain Stood Still
Or: Love and Loss on Brokeback Mountain
Or: Gone with Jack's Wind
Or: ...
I'm just kidding.
Really, I am open to suggestions. :-\
nic:
Hi R (the ultimate abbreviation!)
I agree a name change to the thread is in order - it is a great thread started by your excellent first post. I love reading long posts if the topic is right, just as much as the shorter posts.
I quite like Ennis's Unfilled Expectations, as this is angle on things some people may not have fully understood, or as I find on many aspects of BBM discussion, I have thought it but it's mixed up with so many thoughts I haven't been able to crystallise it. That is the beauty of this kind of discussion :)
JennyC:
--- Quote from: latjoreme on June 27, 2006, 06:00:15 pm ---For some reason, this sort of explation doesn't apply to me. No events in my "real life" would predict a greater empathy for Ennis -- in fact, according to Barb's reasoning I would be a Jackophile. I don't know exactly what causes those preferences. (Well, OK, I do have one theory, but it's too shallow to get into here.)
--- End quote ---
Katherine,
I want to hear your theory. Nothing you say is going to be too shallow, seriously. I agree Barb's explanation probably applies to some people, but I don't think I am one of them. I can’t say that I have experienced abandonment in my life. I love both Jack and Ennis and can see myself being Jack or Ennis in different situations, but I have to say that I care for Ennis more. I am struggling to understand why the movie has such an impact on me and why particularly Ennis made my heartache.
Jeff Wrangler:
Ruthlessly,
Welcome "home," and THANK YOU for the awesome initial post. Yeah, I'll join in the chorus suggesting a change to thread title. I have to admit that if Katherine hadn't called attention to it on another thread, I never would have read it, based on the title. There's never enough time, never enough. ... And when I think what I would have missed! Yikes!
I can't quarrel with anything you said, except for the following very small point, which takes nothing away from your main points:
--- Quote ---When they first met, they checked each other out, on a couple of levels. For example, before they went into Aguirre’s trailer, I think that Jack was looking at Ennis and wondering “Who is this guy who may be here to get MY job?” Jack worked alone the summer before. One job for one guy. And, Jack knew that Aguirre had blamed Jack for the sheep loss the previous summer. In the trailer, he looked relieved when Aguirre announced it was going to be a two-man job this summer.
--- End quote ---
I don't think Jack worked alone in 1962. I'll be clear, however, that my assumptions about Jack's previous experience on the mountain are not derived from anything directly observable in the film, and are derived a lot from the Annie Proulx story.
Annie writes: "That spring, hungry for any job, each had signed up with Farm and Ranch Employment--they came together on paper as herder and camp tender for the same sheep operation north of Signal."
I interpret that quotation as meaning that in both story and film, they show up at Joe Aguirre's office that morning because they had been told to report there by Farm and Ranch Employment, and they probably even knew they would be working with somebody. (I can't explain Jack's "looked relieved" because I've never noticed that--maybe it's relief that he's actually going to be working with that handsome feller he'd been trying to cruise in the parking lot. ;D )
I figure Aguirre initially makes Jack the herder but Ennis the camp tender because Jack is the one with experience in the job. But I also don't think Jack was up on the mountain alone the previous summer because, well, I don't think that makes sense. In her essay in Story to Screenplay, Annie mentions a rancher who always sent his herders off in pairs (so they could "poke each other" if they got lonely ;D), but it also would have been too dangerous for one man alone. If one man alone got thrown by his horse and broke his leg, or something, he could be dead before someone found him. More to the point from the sheep owner's perspective, if something happened to one man alone, the flock could be scattered and destroyed by predators.
We just don't know anything about Jack's putative partner in the job from the previous summer. It has been speculated elsewhere, however, that it might have been this partner who initiated Jack into homosexual activity--which would mean that Jack was no stranger to it when he took the initiative with Ennis.
But none of this detracts from your wonderful and fascinating analysis.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: ruthlesslyunsentimental on June 27, 2006, 06:14:20 pm ---I'm just kidding.
Really, I am open to suggestions. :-\
--- End quote ---
These made me laugh, so for that reason I like all of them. Particularly the first one, but that won't fit into the alloted space. As for "The Truth Revealed," sorry, but I have copyrighted that subject line for use on all of MY threads.
I would use something with "Ennis" in the title, because IMO your perspective on him is the part that's the most startling and groundbreaking and potentially controversial.
--- Quote from: JennyC on June 27, 2006, 06:29:44 pm ---Katherine,
I want to hear your theory. Nothing you say is going to be too shallow, seriously.
--- End quote ---
No. Really. Take my word for it, it is. It's nothing i haven't rhapsodized about on many, many other threads. (See, for example, "Heath Heath Heath" or "Your Age and Favorite Cowboy" ((over 35, Ennis))). But it seems out of place in the context of this solemn and scholarly analysis. (I don't think I'm the only one influenced by that sort of thing, but in any case it only partly explains my sympathy for Ennis. It's not even entirely clear whether this factor is a cause or an effect of that sympathy.)
Ruthlessly, how do you see Ennis explaining his feelings to himself? As Mikaela put it yesterday, Ennis would have to be sleepwalking not to notice that what he feels Jack approximates love, even if he calls it "this thing" instead of that actual word. That's exactly how I see it -- if his feelings are that obvious to viewers, if his behavior shouts "love" at every turn, how could he fail to recognize that himself? But my understanding from your post is that you don't think Ennis admits to himself that he loved Jack until the end, because doing so would force him to consider the possibility that he is "queer." Right?
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