Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
"There was some open space between what he knew and what he tried to believe..."
dly64:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on July 03, 2006, 03:23:21 pm ---Tell you what, I may be alone in this, but I have a problem with that final shot out the window of Ennis's trailer--well, actually I don't. What I'm saying is, for me that shot as we see it doesn't go with what the screenplay says about "the great bleakness of the vast northern plains."
Why? Whatever that green stuff is that we see blowin' in the wind across the road from Ennis's trailer, whether it be some type of grain or just some kind of tall prairie grass, still, it's green, it's alive, it's growing. For me that's a hopeful image. For bleakness I require brown, dried, dead vegetation.
I'm supposing that combined with/coming after Ennis's about-face agreement to go to Alma, Jr.,'s wedding, that final shot of the living, growing vegetation contributed to why I always left the theater feeling uplifted and hopeful. So if that final shot is intended to convey bleakness and despair, it doesn't work for me.
--- End quote ---
I see what you are saying … maybe you can surmise that the green does offer some essence of hope. I can agree with that. Most of the shot, however, is brown, it is bleak. I foresee Ennis’ future life as being relatively empty and lonely without Jack. I doubt that he will ever have another relationship (with a man or a woman).
Here is an interview with Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana in regards to the end of the film:
McMurtry: I don’t think Ennis would kill himself.
Ossana: He’s too tough. That would be a sign of weakness, and it would leave a memory of him as being weak, and I don’t think he would want that. But I do think that Ennis knows that people probably know that he’s homosexual, and emotionally [at the end of the film] I think he makes a tiny bit of progress, because he agrees to attend Alma Jr.’s wedding. Finally he compromises—
McMurtry: And doesn’t disappoint a woman.
Ossana: It’s the first time in the film that he doesn’t disappoint someone, male or female. It’s a tiny baby step, but he does it. I just don’t know how much [more] he’s capable of changing. I think if anything, he might become even more homophobic and bitter because of what he did, what he gave up, what he lost, what he’ll never have.
[urlhttp://www.advocate.com/currentstory1_w.asp?id=25277&page=[/url]
So, IMO, there is some hope. But, mostly he will internalize his loss and live a relatively lonely and empty life. (Whew …. I am a bundle of cheer, ain’t I?)
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: dly64 on July 03, 2006, 04:53:27 pm ---I see what you are saying … maybe you can surmise that the green does offer some essence of hope. I can agree with that. Most of the shot, however, is brown, it is bleak. I foresee Ennis’ future life as being relatively empty and lonely without Jack. I doubt that he will ever have another relationship (with a man or a woman).
Here is an interview with Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana in regards to the end of the film:
McMurtry: I don’t think Ennis would kill himself.
Ossana: He’s too tough. That would be a sign of weakness, and it would leave a memory of him as being weak, and I don’t think he would want that. But I do think that Ennis knows that people probably know that he’s homosexual, and emotionally [at the end of the film] I think he makes a tiny bit of progress, because he agrees to attend Alma Jr.’s wedding. Finally he compromises—
McMurtry: And doesn’t disappoint a woman.
Ossana: It’s the first time in the film that he doesn’t disappoint someone, male or female. It’s a tiny baby step, but he does it. I just don’t know how much [more] he’s capable of changing. I think if anything, he might become even more homophobic and bitter because of what he did, what he gave up, what he lost, what he’ll never have.
[urlhttp://www.advocate.com/currentstory1_w.asp?id=25277&page=[/url]
So, IMO, there is some hope. But, mostly he will internalize his loss and live a relatively lonely and empty life. (Whew …. I am a bundle of cheer, ain’t I?)
--- End quote ---
Well, I didn't mean to overemphasize the hopefulness, and perhaps that's how it came across. I'm not left with any great hope that Ennis is going to change radically. I only meant to convey that for me the ending is not despairing.
I have to wonder, too. whether that "tiny baby step" that Diana Ossana speaks of isn't, in relative terms, a huge leap for Ennis.
Michel4410:
I think it simply means that there was a wide gap between what he knew in his heart and what he tried to believe that he should conform to the societal norms and keep the status quo in the relationship with Jack. He could not break out the self-imposed shell and he realizes that he must endure the consequence of his decision ( if you can't fix it, you've got to stand it).
nakymaton:
Hi Michel4410 (can I just call you Michel?), and welcome. :)
I'm not responding to all the individual responses because... well, because I don't think there's a right answer. I think it's fascinating, though, to see that different people see the same things (particularly about Jack's death) on opposite sides of the know/try to believe divide.
I think both the story and the movie leave a lot of open space for the readers and viewers, between what we're shown and what we all end up trying to believe. And it's fascinating to see all the different things that people find in that open space.
(Whether the flat green fields are a symbol of hope or despair is pretty interesting. Now I want to know where you're from originally, Jeff -- whether there's a correlation between feelings about particular landscapes and the impression people have of that last view out the window. I don't find the view to be unusually depressing, myself, but I also don't find it to be inspiring... not like, say, the backdrop behind the lakeside argument. Guh. Now that's a landscape. *swoons*)
welliwont:
--- Quote from: dly64 on July 03, 2006, 04:53:27 pm ---
Ossana: .... But I do think that Ennis knows that people probably know that he’s homosexual,...
http://www.advocate.com/currentstory1_w.asp?id=25277&page=
--- End quote ---
Diane, I think we should kidnap Diana Ossama and make her parse that there statement; explain, dissect, justify, support, interpret, etc that bold conclusion! Waddya think, could she do it?
J
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