Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
"Jack, I swear..." What do you think Ennis meant by that?
Rayn:
As I see it, people "do the best they can with what they got." People love often despite that the fact that there is much in the post modern world that stands in the way of expressing love, openly, honestly, freely. And more often than people like to see or admit, we place so many things in the way of love and good healthy relationships: money, ambition, tradition, social conditioning, conventions, religion, politics, nationality, race, sex, power and control...
...the list could go on, but what some don't see is that there is likely nothing more satisfying and fullfilling in life than to love and be loved within a relationship that places respect, dignity and trust at the center. Those are conditions and states of being that a healthy love require, but they are also things which many fail to practice and accomplish, the true values of life. Ennis let so much get in the way of a full experience of love, and the tragedy for him was, he realized it too late to share, not with others still around him, but with Jack who deserved a fuller love more than anyone.
"Jack, I swear.... I just didn't understand."
By the way loneleeb3, I really like your quote ""The biggest obstacle to most of us achieving our dreams isn't reality, it's our own fear". Who is it from?
loneleeb3:
--- Quote ---"Jack, I swear.... I just didn't understand."
--- End quote ---
I think that makes the most sense of any that I have heard!
I don't know who said that quote originally.
It really applies to my life though.
--- Quote from: Rayn on June 20, 2007, 08:40:46 am --- As I see it, people "do the best they can with what they got." People love often despite that the fact that there is much in the post modern world that stands in the way of expressing love, openly, honestly, freely. And more often than people like to see or admit, we place so many things in the way of love and good healthy relationships: money, ambition, tradition, social conditioning, conventions, religion, poitics, nationality, race, sex, power and control...
...the list could go on, but what some don't see is that there is likely nothing more satisfying and fullfilling in life than to love and be loved within a relationship that places respect, dignity and trust at the center. Those are conditions and states of being that a healthy love require, but they are also things which many fail to practice and accomplish, the true values of life. Ennis let so much get in the way of a full experience of love, and the tragedy for him was, he realized it too late to share, not with others still around him, but with Jack who deserved a fuller love more than anyone.
"Jack, I swear.... I just didn't understand."
By the way loneleeb3, I really like your quote ""The biggest obstacle to most of us achieving our dreams isn't reality, it's our own fear". Who is it from?
--- End quote ---
moremojo:
--- Quote from: Rayn on June 20, 2007, 04:49:20 am ---It is remarkable though that they had a love for each other for 20 or more years under those limited conditions.
--- End quote ---
They were soulmates. My mother thought the film illustrated how things don't always work out, or are even meant to work out, between soulmates.
moremojo:
--- Quote from: RodneyFL on June 14, 2007, 01:13:01 pm ---We see that he makes a few adjustments (snaps and straightens), mutters, "Jack, I swear...." and then straightens the post card which was crooked. He couldn't stand it crooked, so he fixed it.
--- End quote ---
Another aspect of this gesture is that Ennis is treating the postcard as a totem of the old mountain and everything it represents. It is not unlike a Christian kissing a crucifix, or any other gesture invested with spiritual significance for the person performing it.
Also, by touching the card, he is reaching for something that is now intangible, a lost moment that can only be recaptured through memory and dream. While the gesture may be futile, it affirms Ennis's humanity and deep emotion. I imagine he would go on to straighten the card innumerable times.
brokeplex:
--- Quote from: moremojo on August 03, 2007, 04:29:19 pm ---Another aspect of this gesture is that Ennis is treating the postcard as a totem of the old mountain and everything it represents. It is not unlike a Christian kissing a crucifix, or any other gesture invested with spiritual significance for the person performing it.
Also, by touching the card, he is reaching for something that is now intangible, a lost moment that can only be recaptured through memory and dream. While the gesture may be futile, it affirms Ennis's humanity and deep emotion. I imagine he would go on to straighten the card innumerable times.
--- End quote ---
yes, and after straightening the card he would close the closet door once again on his love and his true nature. That to me is the big tear jerking moment. The image of Ennis serving his life sentence in his prison, closing the cell door, and locking himself in. I sometimes wonder, but for the grace of God, accident of birth, time of birth.....could that have been my life?
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