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

P.O. Boxes, Mailboxes and the No. 17

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Toast:
Lee, here's what the 2003 and 2004 screenplays/shooting script says about the number of the mailbox, and the garbage - just as in the prop book:

167  EXT: RIVERTON, WYOMING: DEL MAR TRAILER HOUSE: AFTERNOON: 1984:  167

The wind, as ever, blows.

ENNIS'S modest little trailer house, his battered pickup parked in front.
A new mailbox on the trailer house just to the right of the front door. ENNIS has a set of stick-on numbers in his hand. Peels the One off and precisely applies it, then the Seven: Seventeen. Steps back, admires his work. Walks around the side of the trailer to the driveway. Undoes a bungee cord on a dirty metal garbage can, throws the remaining numbers into the trash. Looks up.   

Did you notice if the prop book identifies the small bag on the bed inside the trailer?
Does it call it a manbag? saddlebag? or Juniors bag?

Curious minds would like to know Lee.

opinionista:

--- Quote from: moremojo on February 20, 2007, 06:47:43 pm ---Proulx was very deliberate in making Ennis and Jack sheepherders and not cowboys (i.e., men who are working with cattle). The sheep are important, though some of their import remains mysterious (they have been neglected to a large degree in our various analyses). It might be of interest that most of 1967, when Jack and Ennis reunited, was the lunar Year of the Sheep according to Chinese astrology. Also, both men very possibly were born in 1943 ("not yet twenty" when they first meet in 1963), and most of that year was likewise the Chinese Year of the Sheep.

--- End quote ---

I read somewhere,  I believe it was on "Getting it movied", that Proulx deliberately made them sheepherders because cowboys tend to hate working with sheep. I think Proulx wanted to depict the image of the cowboy as some kind of ideal Ennis and Jack hoped to become, but never came to pass. This is especially true for Jack. He becomes a bullrider as a part of his dream of becoming someone big and important. Jack wanted to be as good as his father was and also to become a "real" cowboy. 

Jeff Wrangler:

--- Quote from: opinionista on March 01, 2007, 03:21:24 pm ---This is especially true for Jack. He becomes a bullrider as a part of his dream of becoming someone big and important. Jack wanted to be as good as his father was and also to become a "real" cowboy. 

--- End quote ---

Tell you what, the last time I watched the film and listened to Jack tell Ennis how his father was once a well-known bullrider but had never shared any of his secrets with Jack or gone to see Jack ride, I had a strange, counter-intuitive thought the old man's behavior. I've pretty much always assumed that one reason why Jack had chosen his father's rodeo event--aside from the fact that he couldn't afford a roping horse--was to try to make it right between himself and his father. But what if the old man never shared his secrets or watched Jack ride because he didn't want to encourage his only child from participating in such a dangerous sport?

I say that's counter-intuitive because it almost seems more "caring" of the old man than we see otherwise, but I guess I was remembering that there were some things where my father didn't want me to follow in his footsteps, and I'm an only child, too, like Jack.

serious crayons:

--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on March 01, 2007, 03:39:56 pm ---Tell you what, the last time I watched the film and listened to Jack tell Ennis how his father was once a well-known bullrider but had never shared any of his secrets with Jack or gone to see Jack ride, I had a strange, counter-intuitive thought the old man's behavior. I've pretty much always assumed that one reason why Jack had chosen his father's rodeo event--aside from the fact that he couldn't afford a roping horse--was to try to make it right between himself and his father. But what if the old man never shared his secrets or watched Jack ride because he didn't want to encourage his only child from participating in such a dangerous sport?

I say that's counter-intuitive because it almost seems more "caring" of the old man than we see otherwise, but I guess I was remembering that there were some things where my father didn't want me to follow in his footsteps, and I'm an only child, too, like Jack.
--- End quote ---

Interesting idea, Jeff. It's plausible, but I don't know if I'd go that far, because I've always felt that Jack's complaint is intended to show conflict and distance between him and his father. To me, reading it as a subtle message about his father's concern would violate Occam's Razor. BUT I do think the old man is more caring than people tend to give him credit for. In the Twist ranch scene, I think OMT is genuinely grieving, not just bitterly trying to cause more trouble.

opinionista:

--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on March 01, 2007, 03:39:56 pm ---Tell you what, the last time I watched the film and listened to Jack tell Ennis how his father was once a well-known bullrider but had never shared any of his secrets with Jack or gone to see Jack ride, I had a strange, counter-intuitive thought the old man's behavior. I've pretty much always assumed that one reason why Jack had chosen his father's rodeo event--aside from the fact that he couldn't afford a roping horse--was to try to make it right between himself and his father. But what if the old man never shared his secrets or watched Jack ride because he didn't want to encourage his only child from participating in such a dangerous sport?

I say that's counter-intuitive because it almost seems more "caring" of the old man than we see otherwise, but I guess I was remembering that there were some things where my father didn't want me to follow in his footsteps, and I'm an only child, too, like Jack.

--- End quote ---

Hey Jeff. I agree with you. It hadn't ocurred to me Jack somehow wanted to get approval from his Dad. It actually makes sense.

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