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Why is the "dozy embrace" in the film?

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dly64:
Note: Even though Ruthlessly is no longer active on BetterMost, I am hopeful s/he is lurking. This thread is dedicated to you, Ruthlessly! I miss you terribly (as does everyone else on this board!)  Send me an e-mail if you see this, please!

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Why is the “dozy embrace” in the film?

I have read throughout this forum many POV regarding the “dozy embrace”. I have read that it is an unnecessary plot element; that it is a flaw in Annie’s story. I have also read the exact opposite. Why is this scene viewed so divisively?

The screenplay (which follows the short story almost verbatim) states:

Jack stands by the campfire, warming himself. He stands that way a few moments, alone.

Then we see two arms encircle him from behind: it is Ennis.

They stand that way for a moment, Jack leaning back into Ennis.

Ennis’ breath comes slow and quiet, then he starts to gently rock back and forth a little, lit by the warm fire tossing ruddy chunks of light, the shadows of their bodies a single column against a rock. Ennis hums quietly.

Nothing mars this moment for Jack, even though he knows that Ennis does not embrace him face to face because he does not want to see or feel that it is Jack he holds - - because for now, they are wrapped in a closeness that satisfies some shared and sexless hunger, that is not really sleep but something else drowsy and tranced ….


I, for one, believe this scene to be pivotal.

In reviewing the film, there are a number of themes. One is the freedom that BBM represents. It is a symbol of their love for each other … a time and place where they could be themselves without fear of retribution. On BBM, they are emancipated from societal expectations and mores. It is just the two of them. Nothing else in the world matters. Once they come down from the mountain, their idyllic world is shattered.

A secondary theme is Ennis leaving/ turning Jack away. When they are first on BBM, it is Jack who goes out to the sheep. Ultimately, Ennis takes over the responsibility. From the time they first have sex in the tent onward, it is Ennis who leaves. Examples:
•   After TS1, Ennis leaves Jack without saying anything
•   Post mountain, Ennis walks away from Jack
•   After the reunion, Ennis rejects the idea of having a life with Jack
•   Post divorce, Ennis turns Jack away
•   ETC.
Note: I am not saying Ennis never comes back. He obviously does. What I am saying is that it is Ennis who does the leaving and Jack who does the staying.

A third motif is the toll that rural homophobia takes on Jack and Ennis (as well as those who love them …. Alma, Lureen and Cassie).  It is this element that is the most painful. Ennis is governed by fear. He cannot face the reality that he is gay and that he loves a man. Ennis has been taught to hate everything he feels. Both Jack and Ennis follow societal expectations. They get married and have children. Ultimately, neither Jack nor Ennis are able to give themselves to anyone else because of their love for each other. Tragically, the society in which they live doesn’t allow them a place where they can deal with their feelings.

****

By the time we reach the lake scene, nearly twenty years have passed. Their lives with each other have been punctuated by pain. Their time on BBM has become a distant memory. Jack’s hope for a life together has long died. All of this history … the torment, the anguish … culminated in their argument the last day they were together. The story and screenplay state:

Like vast clouds of steam from thermal springs in winter, the years of things unsaid and now unsayable  - - admissions, declarations, shames, guilts, fears - - rise around them …

After Ennis breaks down ….

….. they hug one another, a fierce desperate  embrace - - managing to torque things almost to where they had been, for what they’ve just said is no news: as always, nothing ended, nothing begun, nothing resolved.


It is after this emotional hammering when Jack recalls the “dozy embrace”. Jack remembers the time when they were young … where it was just the two of them … where they were free to love each other openly. For Jack, it is this closeness he desires.

Again, the story and screenplay state:

… Jack, much older now, watches the pickup truck, and his other half, fade away into the distance, that dozy embrace solidified in his memory as the single moment of artless, charmed happiness in their separate and difficult lives.

****

The controversial element of the “dozy embrace” is the statement, “Nothing mars this moment for Jack, even though he knows that Ennis does not embrace him face to face because he does not want to see or feel that it is Jack he holds.”  Yes, Ennis has embraced Jack face to face. They obviously kiss. IMO, this remark means two things:
1.   Ennis cannot hold Jack face to face in a moment of emotional intimacy. Think back to the motel scene. Jack is holding Ennis. They are not facing each other. Ennis is loving. He caresses Jack’s arms a number of times. However, Ennis is not looking at Jack.
2.   This statement refers to Ennis’ state of mind. He cannot “face” the fact that he is gay and that the love of his life is a man.


Annie Proulx’s essay, “Getting Movied” explains the “dozy embrace”:

The most difficult scene was the paragraph where, on the mountain, Ennis holds Jack and rocks back and forth, humming, the moment mixed with childhood loss and his refusal to admit he was holding a man …. I was trying to write the inchoate feelings of Jack and Ennis, the sad impossibility of their liaison ….

The “dozy embrace” encompasses a number of themes: the freedom of BBM, Ennis’ homophobia, and lastly, Ennis’ leaving. In the “dozy embrace”, Ennis leaves to go back to the sheep. The sheep symbolize the crowd …. Ennis is one who follows societal norms and expectations. Every time Ennis leaves, he is returning to his life of convenience and fear. Beyond all of that, however, the “dozy embrace” illustrates the depth of their love for each other.

It should also be noted the way Ang Lee films this scene. IMO, it is one of the most beautiful scenes in the entire film. It is shot lovingly. There are very few cuts. Much of the scene is shown in close up. It reflects the intimacy of the moment.

opinionista:
The following is an interpretation written by a former member of the forum. He's no longer here. I think it pretty much explains the dozy embrace. You don't have to agree, but I think his idea is interesting:


--- Quote ---"While the following is INSERTED INTO movie's last scene with Jack and Ennis together, Annie Proulx wrote it as being something that happened AFTER the two guys split up in 1983. The first quote is from the trailhead parking lot and it took place with Ennis talking to Jack, who is already in his onw truck ready to drive off. Ennis waited until the last minute to tell Jack that there was a change of plans. 

...Ennis stood as if heart-shot, face grey and deep-lined, grimacing, eyes screwed shut, fists clenched, legs caving, hit the ground on his knees. "Jesus", said Jack. "Ennis?" But before he was out of the truck, trying to guess if it was a heart attack or the overflow of an incendiary rage, Ennis was back on his feet and somehow, as a coat hanger is straightened to open a locked car and then bent again to its original shape, they torqued things to almost to where they had been, for what they'd say there was no news. Nothing ended, nothing begun, nothing resolved."
 
In the text, there is a triple line spacing between the above and the below to show a time lapse and/or a change in location. I say that it is both. 
 
What Jack remembered and craved in a way he could neither help nor understand was the time that distant summer on Brokeback when Ennis had come up behind and pulled him close, the silent embrace satisfying some shared and sexless hunger... Later that dozy embrace solidified in his memory as the sngle moment of artless, charmed happiness in their separate and diffucult lives. Nothing marre it, even the knowledge that Ennis would not then embrace him face to face because he did not want to see nor feel that it was Jack he held. And maybe, he tought, they'd never go much farther than that. Let be, let be."  

IMO, "Let be, let be" is Jack's response to the "Nothing ended, nothing begun, nothing resolved" situation when he was last with Ennis. I just believe that Jack decided to "let Ennis be" and get on with is own life without Ennis. Ennis's setting all the rules for his relationship with Jack made Jack miserable. Because of his fear of being found out that he was 'queer', even at 39 years of age, it was always Ennis who decided when and where the two would meet. Ennis never wanted to do what Jack suggested after they first "fishing trip" in 1967. Jack did not have to stop loving Ennis to let him be and take charge of his own life."
--- End quote ---

dly64:

--- Quote from: opinionista on July 25, 2006, 12:10:16 pm ---The following is an interpretation written by a former member of the forum. He's no longer here. I think it pretty much explains the dozy embrace. You don't have to agree, but I think his idea is interesting:
--- End quote ---

It is interesting ... but you are right, I don't agree. Part of what the person said has been discussed in the "Why Jack Quit Ennis" thread. I didn't agree with that, either.

The question that has been posed in previous threads is whether or not the "dozy embrace" scene adds anything to the story ... if it was even necessary. IMO, it is very important to the story. When we see Jack after his recollection, he is watching Ennis drive away. His expression is one of sadness. He is sad because he sees time passing  ... he knows how their life could have been. Instead, he is left with a memory of a time and place where they could be invisible to the outside world. It is just the two of them. It is one of the few times where we, the audience, see the depth of their love. We know their love exists. We are witness to their passion for one another. But it is the non-physical intimacy that is important in this scene. 

ednbarby:
I think it's absolutely necessary for the same reason Ruthlessly thought it was - because that was the moment when Jack first realized he was in love with Ennis.  Having him remember that as he watches Ennis drive away, as it turns out for the last time, then flash forward to the present of him standing there with all the life and hope drained out of his eyes and his jaw set shows us not exactly that he was resolute in quitting Ennis, like Ruthlessly (and I for a long time) thought, but that he realized he couldn't go on with things the way they were going.  I think this is the moment when, as Jake has said, Jack realizes he can't be with Ennis.  Jake never said when he thought that moment was - for a long time after reading that, I wondered if he thought it was at their meeting in Riverton after the divorce.  But now I think that that moment and all the other moments when he hopes so much for Ennis to be ready to/want to be with him the way he wants him to be and then has those hopes dashed in the blink of an eye are pieces of him falling away.  I think that last shot is when he's been dealt the final blow.  That is the moment Jack dies.  If he were fully able to quit Ennis, all hope would not be lost.  There'd at least be a shred of it left in that if it wasn't going to be Ennis (or Randall, for that matter), he'd get on with it and eventually be with someone who would be able to be with him fully and openly.  But it's because he can't fully quit him, now, that all hope is lost.

I actually think the dozy embrace not only is necessary but is perhaps the most important scene in the whole movie.  Without the flashback, we would never see the sexless hunger they felt for each other which is really what true love is, and thus we would never fully understand all that Jack lost when he knew he couldn't be with Ennis.
 

Front-Ranger:
I agree with you and I can't understand why anyone would think the scene was unnecessary. It's the climax of the entire film!!

Another thing I love about this scene is the way it ties the imagery together. From the very beginning, when the camera pans over the smoldering campfire with its bucket and coffeepot lined up neatly together, to the boys in their signature shirts, to the horses in the background. And the music is heartbreaking.

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