Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
Why is the "dozy embrace" in the film?
dly64:
--- Quote from: JT on July 31, 2006, 03:35:54 pm ---I've read somewhere that Ennis Del Mar means "island of the sea", but what does Jack Twist means? I had a hard time searching for that thread.
--- End quote ---
Here is a quote from an interview with Jake Gyllenhaal:
She (Annie Proulx) wrote me a note with a limited edition copy of ‘Close Range,’ which is the book that ‘Brokeback Mountain,’ the short story, is in. And in it she said that Jack Twist refers to, ‘twist’ refers to the strength of thighs and butt muscles that a bull rider has to have in order to stay on the bull.
JP - you were right on!
JT:
Thanks, Diane! That satisfy my curiousity.
dly64:
I had posted both of these notes earlier in this thread. We never discussed them, so I am reviving these to hear others’ POV.
first note:
I was watching the film last night and thought of something else …. (if all of you have noticed this before, than I am sorry for the repetition). I have talked about, and so have many others, the “bookends” of the film. I found another last night. Two things I noticed. When Jack and Ennis first meet:
1. Both Ennis and Jack are wearing those all important shirts.
2. Ennis is holding a paper bag with his other shirt in it (not sure what else is in the bag, but definitely a second shirt).
These shirts have become a symbol of their entire relationship …. from the very beginning (when they first meet) until the end (after Jack dies). Again, as reflected in marital vows … “…. ‘till death us do part.” After Ennis finds the bloody shirts, Jack’s mother places them in a paper bag. This time there are two shirts …. one is his and one is Jack’s. Ennis is no longer just “Ennis”. He has become one with the man he loves. Ennis will indelibly be intertwined with Jack … “the two shall become one” … and this is what happened to them.
second note:
As I was reflecting back on the “dozy embrace”, I started to think about Ennis’ POV. We, the audience, know that this is Jack’s recollection. Whether or not the film negates or supports the suggestion that Ennis holds Jack from behind because he “doesn’t want to see or feel that it Jack he holds” is irrelevant. The only hint I get is from Annie Proulx’s “Getting Movied” essay is when she says (in regards to Ennis) … “…the moment mixed with childhood loss and his refusal to admit he was holding a man.”
What does BBM represent? IMO, it represents a place without constraints, societal conditions and expectations. The mountains, in general, represent freedom … the points reaching up to the sky. It is the grandeur of BBM that transports Jack and Ennis to another place and time … the feeling of invincibility and invisibility. It is just the two of them and nothing else matters.
Back to this very tender and intimate moment. This is one of the few times where Ennis is comforting Jack, not the other way around. (We see a reflection of this during the lake scene in TS3). Does Ennis see Jack’s vulnerability at that moment? Does Ennis know what it means (to Jack) to feel loved, soothed and held? In addition to Ennis’ parents, Jack is the most important person in his life. Is it that, at that moment, Ennis becomes his own parents … the comforting mother who sings a lullaby and the homophobic father who could not bare the thought of holding a man?
Just food for thought.
ekeby:
--- Quote from: dly64 on July 31, 2006, 08:00:18 pm ---
These shirts have become a symbol of their entire relationship ….
Is it that, at that moment, Ennis becomes his own parents … the comforting mother who sings a lullaby and the homophobic father who could not bare the thought of holding a man?
Just food for thought.
--- End quote ---
Absolutely. (I said it up in the thread somewhere.) Ennis is demonstrating a paternal, caretaking love with that embrace. He's emulating what his mother did for him. It is a slice of tranquil domesticity that they never achieve in any other way or place. No two ways about it: if they are not on BBM, they don't exist as a couple. Jack says as much in the argument preceding the embrace.
What I find interesting about the shirt analogy is that when Ennis takes the shirts from Jack's room, he is concealing his shirt within Jack's. Ennis even shifts the shirt(s) out of the father's view as he comes back into the kitchen. There is a pause when the mother puts them in the bag, as if she is feeling through Jack's shirt for the second shirt. If the shirts symbolize their relationship, Ennis is still attempting to conceal the depth of his relationship with Jack. At that moment, however, it looks to me as if Ennis realizes that the mother understands the significance of the shirts and is empathetic to his situation. It is the only acknowledgement of the truth with another human being, and it moves him to tears.
dly64:
--- Quote from: ekeby on July 31, 2006, 08:58:04 pm ---What I find interesting about the shirt analogy is that when Ennis takes the shirts from Jack's room, he is concealing his shirt within Jack's. Ennis even shifts the shirt(s) out of the father's view as he comes back into the kitchen. There is a pause when the mother puts them in the bag, as if she is feeling through Jack's shirt for the second shirt. If the shirts symbolize their relationship, Ennis is still attempting to conceal the depth of his relationship with Jack. At that moment, however, it looks to me as if Ennis realizes that the mother understands the significance of the shirts and is empathetic to his situation. It is the only acknowledgement of the truth with another human being, and it moves him to tears.
--- End quote ---
I know there has been a lot of discussion regarding Ennis’ shifting the shirts away from OMT. The way I interpret this is that Ennis is fully aware of the abusive and tense relationship between Jack and his father. It is almost as if he is protecting Jack from OMT. He holds the shirts out to Jack’s empathetic mother who, almost ceremoniously, puts the shirts in the bag. IMO, Mrs. Twist invited Ennis to go to Jack’s room because she knew the shirts were there. She knew the importance of those shirts.
I love this quote from Roger Ebert (yes, he’s a critic. He is one, however, whose opinion I respect):
A closing scene involving a visit by Ennis to Jack's parents is heartbreaking in what is said, and not said, about their world. A look around Jack's childhood bedroom suggests what he overcame to make room for his feelings.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version