Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
Carving up the Two Old Birds
serious crayons:
Ruthlesslysentimental had many eccentricities, but he was an amazing Brokologist. His posts were like a Fitzgerald scholar deconstructing Gatsby.
Of course, the rest of us are pretty brilliant Brokologists, too! The best thing about analyzing this movie was how it was such a group effort. People spent literally years breaking down scenes, studying details, throwing together ideas, and it all gradually formed a complex collective understanding of so many aspects and levels: the metaphors and symbolism in everything from clothing to sets to landscape, the subtle dialogue that means far more than the words usually say, the an inkblot- or mirror-shaped structure, the religious and cultural subtexts, and so on. What an experience!
Meryl:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on November 24, 2011, 12:33:13 pm ---Ruthlesslysentimental had many eccentricities, but he was an amazing Brokologist. His posts were like a Fitzgerald scholar deconstructing Gatsby.
Of course, the rest of us are pretty brilliant Brokologists, too! The best thing about analyzing this movie was how it was such a group effort. People spent literally years breaking down scenes, studying details, throwing together ideas, and it all gradually formed a complex collective understanding of so many aspects and levels: the metaphors and symbolism in everything from clothing to sets to landscape, the subtle dialogue that means far more than the words usually say, the an inkblot- or mirror-shaped structure, the religious and cultural subtexts, and so on. What an experience!
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Well said, crayons! It's a unique and wonderful thing to be a part of the "complex collective understanding" that is Brokology. 8)
Front-Ranger:
--- Quote from: Meryl on November 24, 2011, 01:56:58 pm ---Well said, crayons! It's a unique and wonderful thing to be a part of the "complex collective understanding" that is Brokology. 8)
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Amen!! :)
Front-Ranger:
--- Quote from: ruthlesslyunsentimental on July 04, 2006, 03:58:07 am ---...The one other thing I didn’t include in my OP is the one significant absence of a knife. In the Twist family home, Mrs. Twist offers cherry cake. How would she serve it to Ennis? She'd have to use a knife to cut the cake. But Ennis "can't eat no cake just now." Text: no cake just now. Subtext: he's sick with grief, doesn't feel like eating. Metaphor: she offers to carve or form him a little more, but he's not ready for that last little bit of forming. But, after Old Man Twist tells about the other rancher, and Mrs. Twist puts her hand of compassion on his shoulder to nudge him upstairs, the formation will become complete... as evoked by the fully formed cowboy statuette.
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Actually, in the story, Mrs. Twist was carving up something (an apple?) with a "sharp serrated instrument" as Ennis entered the house.
I agree mostly with all the theories presented in this amazing topic, except for Jack being a potato. Jack was peeling a potato in the foreground as Ennis was peeling off his clothes in the background. To me, that says that Ennis is the potato and Jack is the knife. Jack is not only the can opener breaking open Ennis's armored spirit but he is also the knife peeling back the layers that Ennis has surrounded himself with. Watch how Jack's cigarette smoke swirls around the potato and also around the nude figure of Ennis and it will become clear. In Asian symbology, the knife is also a symbol for air, because it moves through the air and cuts through it with a swooshing sound. Jack was a knife and Ennis was a gun.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on November 23, 2013, 06:35:30 pm ---Jack was a knife and Ennis was a gun.
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Brava! Almost eight years since pot and kettle, blue and tan, wind and earth ... and you're still discovering great Brokaphors!
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