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

Re-Organization in the film and meaning changes...

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belbbmfan:
I think this creed was said again by Ennis when he stated to Junior that 'if you don't got nothing, you don't need nothing' (I'm quoting off the top of my head).

It resembles the 'not being able to fix it', although I think Ennis said it with a lot less conviction than when he said that to Jack. I think by this time Ennis realised that he needed a lot of things (except funiture..) but that this 'creed', stating that he didn't need nothing, was a way to cope, a facade to hide behind.
The facade started to crack when Junior told him she wanted/needed him at her wedding.

Penthesilea:

--- Quote from: belbbmfan on January 19, 2009, 03:32:07 am ---I think this creed was said again by Ennis when he stated to Junior that 'if you don't got nothing, you don't need nothing' (I'm quoting off the top of my head).

It resembles the 'not being able to fix it', although I think Ennis said it with a lot less conviction than when he said that to Jack. I think by this time Ennis realised that he needed a lot of things (except funiture..) but that this 'creed', stating that he didn't need nothing, was a way to cope, a facade to hide behind.
The facade started to crack when Junior told him she wanted/needed him at her wedding.

--- End quote ---


Great thoughts Fabienne! :)

I think the way Junior's comment about the furniture is phrased backs this: "Daddy, you need more furniture." (also from memory)

Think about it, this sentence doesn't make sense at all if taken literally. Ennis sure doesn't need more furniture. The trailer is crammed. Where the heck should he put more furniture?
What she means is he needs better furniture, standing for better care, a better life.
But of course it's too late, it can't be fixed, he has to stand it.

And I think Fabienne is completely right that Ennis's sentence is a facade to hide behind. I think it's a reflection/transformation of Annie Proulx's words "brought up to hard work and privation." (which brings us back to the thread title, yay ;))

I picture Ennis's parents speaking those words to their children.
I've heard similar down-dragging phrases as a kid "Close your eyes, then you see what's yours" (= nothing. Nothing is yours, you're not entitled to anything).


Crammed trailer:

Brown Eyes:

Thanks for these really interesting thoughts and insights Chrissi and Fabienne! :)

Junior's observation "you need more furniture"... now, in the course of this discussion, all of a sudden strikes me as an echo of her earlier statement as a young child, "I need crayons."  Maybe it really is true that these two "I need/ you need" statements really are existential.  Both statements really might be about the general idea of taking care of ones self and acknowledging certain personal/ individual needs as important to a general idea of happiness.  Neither crayons nor better/nicer/more furniture were absolutely necessary on a practical level, but they would have been nice and contributed to a kind of happiness beyond the absolute practical. 

I agree that the observation that Ennis's trailer isn't very well appointed (he has furniture, but it's not very nice, etc.) is meant to be a reminder of the idea that he and Jack were both raised to have low expectations when it came to their personal happiness and comfort (the idea of hard work and privation, etc.).


--- Quote from: Penthesilea on January 19, 2009, 06:38:09 am ---I've heard similar down-dragging phrases as a kid "Close your eyes, then you see what's yours" (= nothing. Nothing is yours, you're not entitled to anything).

--- End quote ---

:(  I'm sorry to hear this Chrissi... as Jack would say... "that's hard."  {{Chrissi}}

Front-Ranger:

--- Quote from: atz75 on January 13, 2009, 02:49:51 pm ---...Ennis's phrase "if you can't fix it you've got to stand it" keeps coming to my mind.  In the film he says this in the middle of the arch of the film and, of course he says it outloud directly to Jack.  This is radically different from the story, where it is the last line... and it is not said to anyone.  It's presented as being more a part of Ennis's thought process.

In the film, because of its placement and it being part of Ennis's overall conversation with Jack about the cow and calf operation, his father, Earl, etc.... it makes it seem like this phrase "if you can't fix it, you've got to stand it"... is kind of specifically about his frustrations about not being able to have a full/ fulfilling relationship with Jack, complete with living together.  Essentially, the phrase seems pretty specifically focused on the issue of sexuality and lifestyle.


--- End quote ---

Going back to the last line of the story, can't fix/got to stand, the way it was used by Ennis in the movie, it seemed to me like he was laying down the law to Jack. He had already decided he wasn't going to walk away from his life with Alma and the girls, and he was trying to get Jack to stop pestering him to do so. Jack must have been privately devastated but he decided to follow the rules or else risk another four-year blowoff by Ennis.

An anecdote about the story: just as it was being readied for publication, AP made a phone call to the editor to make sure that the last sentence of the story would be the line about fixing and standing. Apparently that line had either gotten cut off, or things had been moved around. (Also the prologue was left off, which AP said was purely a typographic mistake, something I find a little hard to believe.) We know she made other little edits in the story too before it was first published. These items make the line even more significant. I'm not sure what Ennis/AP meant by "stand it" but that phrase definitely makes me think of Wyoming, Devil's Tower, fenceposts in winter, and horses lined up with their tails turned into the wind to withstand Mother Nature's fury.

Front-Ranger:
A similar theme is discussed in a different way in this thread:

Ang Lee and the POM Synergy

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