Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
"Jack, I swear..." What do you think Ennis meant by that?
Rayn:
--- Quote from: atz75 on June 23, 2006, 11:36:58 pm ---I actually think it's nice that the only person we hear Ennis swear to in the movie is Jack. I think it re-enforces the power of that final "I swear..."
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The Triumph of Brokeback Mountain is the love that Ennis and Jack create for and in each other. I speak in present tenses here: Their love survives everything, even death. In the end, it is living in Ennis, and so as atz75 points out, though Ennis is not one to swear, the only one he swears to is Jack. Jack continues to have a strong effect on Ennis because he is alive in Ennis; he always will be. Whether or not Ennis meets another and creates a new relationship cannot weaken that bond. Their connection would only strengthen any future relationship. That is what true love can do for people. Love calls us out of the canyons of our shadowy, singular Selves to the luminous mesas of the Truth; it's existence requires an oath, "Jack, I swear..."
And thanks to all of you, for I know more clearly, more fully now what Ennis meant: first and foremost, "Jack, I swear, I love you." and then perhaps other things as well, "I swear I'll get your ashes up to Brokeback." "I swear if I'd understood how much you loved me, if I knew how much I'd miss you, things would have been different." "Jack, I swear... life is hard without you, but your memory is the sweetest thing I know." "Given a chance to love again, I know I'll do better because of you, Jack." --- I must also allow Ennis his privacy; accept that only he really knew what he felt and meant when he said, "Jack, I swear..."
Love is a gift that always comes with joy and sorrow. Whether we accept or reject it shapes us; molds us into who we are and who we become. How we learn from it; what we do with it is one of mysterious responsibilities of human life. This too is one of the important messages of Brokeback Mountain.
Peace,
Rayn
Brown Eyes:
Awww, Rayn! That was very lovely! It certainly brought a tear to my eye.
:'(
I'd like to add that I like to think Jack responds a little bit to that "I swear..." when we see the wind in the long grasses out Ennis's window. They're almost the same grasses/ same type of breeze that we see Jack juxtaposed with in the very first moments of the film outside Aguirre's trailer (the moment when Ennis first saw his true love). Jack has known about Ennis's love all along (of that I'm very convinced), but now he finally has the explicit commitment that he always dreamed about. So, maybe he can rest more easily after this.
:'(
(I know I've said this type of thing before, but I feel like repeating it. Yup, I love this film.)
Rayn:
--- Quote from: atz75 on July 09, 2006, 08:24:21 pm ---Awww, Rayn! That was very lovely! It certainly brought a tear to my eye.
I'm glad I touched your heart, if I hadn't, I wouldn't have been writing accurately of Love. R.
I'd like to add that I like to think Jack responds a little bit to that "I swear..." when we see the wind in the long grasses out Ennis's window. They're almost the same grasses So, maybe he can rest more easily after this.
People see all sorts of things in the movie, it's wonderful you/they do. That's what's great about it. There is now even a "Spiritual Nonsense" thread about the spirituality of BBM. It's serious, I posted stuff there too, but the author, Daniel has so much more good stuff to share. R.
(I know I've said this type of thing before, but I feel like repeating it. Yup, I love this film.)
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Me too~
Rayn
Brown Eyes:
I love this thread!
:-*
I just re-read a lot of it and am loving some of the things that have been said here over so much time. I thought I'd re-open a subject that came up a while back here... way back on pages 4 and 5 of this thread. This subject came up during my recent visit with Katherine too.
Back on TOB, CaseyCornelius authored the now famous Classical Allusions thread (now item no. 1 in the archives). And, this observation that Ennis's final line echos the words of Aeneas in the Aeneid has always blown me away. I highly recommend re-reading at least the first post in that thread. Amazing This is a little quote from the Classical Allusions thread:
"Ennis's final words of "Jack, I swear" echo those of Aeneas when confronted with the 'shade' or ghost of his beloved Dido who committed suicide after he abandoned her. Aeneas says to Dido's ghost, "I swear by every oath that hell can muster, I swear I left you against my will. The law of God--the law that sends me now through darkness, bramble, rot and profound night--unyielding drove me; nor could I have dreamed that in my leaving I would hurt you so".
Are there any other literary references that come to mind in regards to the "I swear..." moment. Even any other important examples of unfinished statements in literature or poetry?
moremojo:
--- Quote from: atz75 on July 21, 2006, 08:46:14 pm ---Are there any other literary references that come to mind in regards to the "I swear..." moment. Even any other important examples of unfinished statements in literature or poetry?
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This is a wonderful question, Amanda, that I think will prove most rewarding to ponder and explore. I can think, off the top of my head, of an example of a potentially unfinished relationship in another great film, Michelangelo Antonioni's 1962 masterpiece L'eclisse. There, the two protagonists (played by Monica Vitti and Alain Delon) both fail to turn up for their appointed rendezvous in a distinctly unglamorous corner of Rome, and the film's last sequence details the haunting absence of the characters from the sites in which we formerly saw them. The film ends on a note of mystery--what happened? We can never know, and are left only with the poetry of emptiness.
I'll be thinking on this topic, to be sure. For now, gotta run. You guys have a great weekend, ya hear?
Scott
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