Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
Why is the "dozy embrace" in the film?
Penthesilea:
Oh my, what should I say? I spent the last hour (or more) to read this whole thread. All 8 pages and 114 postings.
The first pages about the dozy embrace made me cry (again). All of you found so beautiful words to describe the mood and the importance of the flashback.
I feel sorry I missed this thread until now. I know I'm late and I can't get into every side-topic I would like to, but I'll give you my thoughts about the flashback anyway.
The flashback scene itself is simply beautiful and touching. But it is the placing in the movie that makes it so wistful and incredibly sad. Usually I'm already in tears at this point, but the flashback really puts me over the edge and makes me sob heavily.
And like the dozy embrace is made sad by the encircling lake scene, it's the same vice verca: the lake scene is even more sad and tragic because of the contrast to the dozy embrace. They entail and intensify one another. So I think it's perfectly placed in the movie.
All of you already had great ideas about it, to which I can only agree: the embrace from behind, the spooning, has something protective in it.
The dozy embrace makes the two persons one, like their shadows. "His other half" They simply belong together. We already know it, but in the flashback it is accumulated.
And for the flaw/no flaw discussion: I agree with the person who said that the filmmakers contradicted Proulx' expression "would not embrace him face to face because he didn't want to know or see it was a man he was holding" (paraphrasing here). Ennis looks at Jack as direct as he can from behind. And it was contradicted by previous scenes, too.
Rutella:
I was thinking about the 'not wanting to embrace face to face' bit yesterday and I don't know if thats not just Jack's fear. It says "Nothing marred it, even the knowledge that Ennis would not then embrace him face to face because he did not want to see or feel that it was Jack he held" But this 'knowledge' is Jack's opinion, and may not be really true, just as when Ennis "knew it was the tire iron" after talking to OMT that doesn't mean for definate that it was, just that in Ennis's head he is certain that it is. And with the dozy embrace, it makes sense that as Jack's dream of the sweet life with Ennis becomes less and less likely, Jack might become more and more convinced that Ennis was refusing to face him.
I don't know if this is likely or anything but it's what I got to thinking the other day. And I guess it's another example of the "clear space between what he knew and what he tried to believe"
serious crayons:
Interesting idea, Rutella! That makes a lot of sense. And when I think of it that way, it fits better into the story.
Brown Eyes:
Rutella, that really is an interesting way to explain that part of the story (which always seems unsatisfying to me). But, it is interesting to think of all of these details about the movie/story as being skewed based on which character's perspective is being represented. I think the dozy embrace in the movie (and in the story) is one moment that is purely understood through Jack's perspective. I really love the idea that he's being a little paranoid about Ennis's feelings (in the story). I wonder if the sort of odd detail in the film... of Ennis walking away and riding away without looking back is a function of Jack remembering the scene 20 years later. Maybe Ennis really did look back or maybe there was more of an interaction as he departed... but the embrace stands out at the only thing for Jack.
dly64:
--- Quote from: Rutella on August 07, 2006, 07:17:06 am ---I was thinking about the 'not wanting to embrace face to face' bit yesterday and I don't know if thats not just Jack's fear. It says "Nothing marred it, even the knowledge that Ennis would not then embrace him face to face because he did not want to see or feel that it was Jack he held" But this 'knowledge' is Jack's opinion, and may not be really true, just as when Ennis "knew it was the tire iron" after talking to OMT that doesn't mean for definate that it was, just that in Ennis's head he is certain that it is. And with the dozy embrace, it makes sense that as Jack's dream of the sweet life with Ennis becomes less and less likely, Jack might become more and more convinced that Ennis was refusing to face him.
I don't know if this is likely or anything but it's what I got to thinking the other day. And I guess it's another example of the "clear space between what he knew and what he tried to believe"
--- End quote ---
As was already stated … I never thought of that angle, either. But, I like it. After all, it is Jack’s memory. IMO, the “dozy embrace” is the most beautifully filmed sequence in the entire movie. It evokes a dream-like state. It as if we, the audience, are Jack being held by Ennis. It is lovely and intimate. There are times I feel like a voyeur and that I am intruding on a very private interaction. Ironically, I don’t feel that way in TS1, TS2, or the motel scene. It is this scene and TS3 where I experience this feeling the most. Maybe it’s because the “dozy embrace” and TS3 reflect a vulnerability that is not present anywhere else.
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