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

"Jack, I swear..." What do you think Ennis meant by that?

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Cameron:
Hi,

Amanda, I think that you are so right, you made me finally realize something.  The way I have been thinking about BBM is that each line and each scene has an intentional deeper meaning, something that AP and also the screenwriters and even Heath and Jake had in their interpretations. I have been thinking that the real meaning can only be figured out once you understand the whole story and the symbolism and everything else.  The real meaning is most often different than what the line or the scene really suggests on the surface.  To me there is one story on the surface and with literal interpretations, and a whole other story when every thing is analyzed and put all together.

For example I agree with you totally about the dozy embrace.  I have still been watching parts every single day, and the past few days I have been focussing on it.  I do agree that the dozy embrace is perhaps the key to everything.  On the surface it does appear to just be about Jack remembering a more pleasant memory.  But now its importance has grown.  There is so little really between TS 2 and the trip down the mountain, and aside from the reunion so little contact and affection the whole time.  But the dozy embrace, that was what it was really like, that was how much Ennis felt at the end of the summer, that was what they both really lived for for the next twenty years, and that only scratches the surface of the DE.

But anyway, I haven't thought as much about 'I swear' as so many other lines, but I realize and believe that unlike so much else, there is not one true meaning to be discovered.  It was intentionally meant as the mirror for us to look at and reflect back on ourselves and intentally left as the place to say, this is what I believe it all means.

If this all makes any sense at all.

moremojo:

--- Quote from: atz75 on February 16, 2007, 11:34:41 pm ---The more I think about it, the more it seems that this final sentence and the flashback absolutely define the film.
--- End quote ---
The flashback was a pivotal moment for me on my first viewing; this was the moment when I realized that Jack and Ennis had fallen in love on the mountain, during that summer of 1963 (the love was apparent before this point in the film, but I wasn't sure when, in their chronology, it happened--until this moment). The dozy embrace colors how we see everything the film has presented to us before this point; it's a masterful stroke.

The film's closing scene is the absolute key to the whole work. Everything else has been leading up to this point. Ennis has made a momentous journey of the heart and the spirit, and we've gone along with him. And the ending is open-ended--is Ennis going through the motions, living only in memory and waiting to die (a pessimistic interpretation), or is his journey continuing, his heart open to new possibilities (as his decision to attend Junior's wedding might suggest)? We are compelled to become active agents in the creative process here, and must 'finish the story' for Ennis and for ourselves.

HerrKaiser:

--- Quote from: latjoreme on February 16, 2007, 12:46:56 pm ---Jack was baiting Ennis, trying to get Ennis to admit WHY he hadn't got married again.
 

--- End quote ---


If this is true, Jack is being disingenuous and lying again; being manipulative. He is not being direct and honest with the man he purports to be in love with for 20 years. Poor Jack had felt the need to lie several times and as such I think his character evolves in stark contrast to the goodness, purity, and honesty of Ennis.

...which makes Ennis' "I swear" life commitment even more deep, sincere, loving, and true.

lachlan:
I had a notion that Ennis doesn't finish his statement, "Jack, I swear... " because what he is doing at that moment is a small, undeveloped ritual at what is, in effect, a shrine. He probably visits this shrine repeatedly and often speaks to Jack's spirit. But his character is still embarassed by his own thoughts, desires and actions. Therefore, he stops himself before he goes too far. This is consistent with all we have seen of him; frightened to commit himself even in secret. He shuts the door of his closet after this unfinished line, but I reckon he will open it again after sundown; he will fondle the shirts again for a moment, look at the postcard and say something like, "You know, Jack....  I, uh.... " and then he'll shut it again and go to bed. Next morning, he'll open it again and....

I learned long ago that bears - and other social animals such as elephants - perform a ritual around the body of one of their own dead. If they cannot do this, on account of the body being taken away by a hunter, for example, they tend to brood for years after; revisiting the site and trying to come to terms with the disappearance. Ennis missed Jack's funeral. He was denied the opportunity to take the ashes to BBM. Therefore he will continue to repeat this uncomplete "swearing" for as long as he draws breath.

Front-Ranger:
You have much insight, thank you for sharing it with us.

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