What is behind Jack and Ennis' hats?

[dly64]

I have often wondered about Jack and Ennis’ hats during their scenes together  …
•   TS1 – Ennis takes his hat off before entering the tent, which seems logical since he is going to lie down. But he was wearing his hat when he was sleeping outside.
•   Post TS1 – Ennis is uncomfortable with the events that happened the night prior. When Ennis talks to Jack about this being a “one shot deal,”  they are both wearing their hats
•   TS2 – Ennis takes off his hat before entering the tent. The hat covers his groin, then covers his heart. Jack gently removes the hat, which exposes Ennis’ vulnerability and symbolizes the beginning of his acceptance of having a relationship with Jack.
•   Post TS2 – Ennis and Jack are playing around and tussling. When they fall down, Ennis takes his hat off and the hat obscures Aguirre’s view of them kissing.
•   The “punch” scene – they both have their hats on at the beginning… it is a tense situation.
•   They leave each other … they both have their hats on
•   Reunion – Ennis has his hat off, Jack has his hat on. Quickly, Ennis throws Jack’s hat off right before the kiss.
•   The motel … no hats (and we can surmise nothing else, either)
•   In the mountains …. Both their hats are off at the beginning of their conversation. When Jack mentions the “sweet life,” Ennis puts on his hat.
•   Post divorce scene – very tense situation – they are both wearing their hats
•   Post Thanksgiving scene (where Jack suggests Ennis moving to TX) … they are both wearing their hats.
•   Their last trip together …. They are both wearing their hats until, after Jack makes himself vulnerable, their hats are off in TS3 (with Ennis holding Jack).
•   Their fight – hats are on the whole time.
•   The one exception to my train of thought … the “dozy embrace” their hats are both on.

Am I making too much of this? It just seems that, with the exception of the “dozy embrace,”  their hats either reflect a moment of happiness (when off … open?) or a moment of tension (when on … closed?)

Your thoughts!?

Note: I am referring only to the hats after they begin their intimate relationship … not before.

Modification: I just happened to think about the "dozy embrace" ... in Jack's memory, Ennis cannot embrace Jack face to face because Jack is a man. Could the hats reflect the "closed" part of Ennis? Hmmm ... just another theory.

[moremojo]

Interesting train of thought, and I probably don't have too much time to respond in any depth at the moment. But I wanted to point out that the film's supreme moment of grief (for me, anyway)--"Jack, I swear..."--sees Ennis hatless. There is great love here, but also great loss, and it's also possible that Ennis has fully accepted by now everything that Jack was, what he now knows himself to be, and what they had (and will have) together.

[jpwagoneer1964]

Generally they did not wear hats inside, always custom to take them off.

There was a thing between them where Ennis would knock Jack hat off, tussle, reunion.

Usually hats are always worn outside.

[nakymaton]

Generally they did not wear hats inside, always custom to take them off.

And isn't the etiquette that it's ok to wear a hat inside if there's no place to put it? So, for instance, there are men wearing hats all over the place at the Childress benefit dance where Jack meets Randall.

And that means that it's a big breach of etiquette when Jack doesn't take off his hat when he's introduced to Alma after the reunion, right? (Of course, neither Jack nor Ennis is thinking with his brain at that point, I would say...)

(And from a practical standpoint, it is hard to kiss a man wearing a hat. It's like the nose problem that teenagers have when they're figuring out how to kiss, only a lot worse. Except that I guess taking off a nose isn't a good option. )

Edit: but to get back to Diane's question. Ennis treats Jack's tent as "indoors," like it's a house (though he treats the pup tent the same way... he isn't wearing his hat when he wakes up in the snow, is he?).

[serious crayons]

I'm on the same track as you, Diane. I have always thought that hatlessness indicates allowing oneself to be more open to the other person and/or vulnerable, whereas being hatted means being more closed off, guarded, self-protective, resistant.

One really distinct example of this is, as you say, when they're by the river after the reunion: Ennis is hatless when he's sendin up a prayer of thanks, but when Jack mentions the sweet life, he immediately puts the hat on.

The person who takes the lead in lovemaking is responsible for removing the other person's hat: in TS2, Jack takes Ennis' hat; in the "happy tussle" Ennis knocks Jack's hat off (he's comfortable enough to initiate now); in the back seat of the car Lureen removes Jack's hat; in the reunion scene, Ennis knocks Jack's off.

I think clothing layers have a similar significance. The fewer layers of clothing the person has on, the more open they are to the other person. Again, in TS2 Jack is shirtless but Ennis, more hesitant, has a shirt on. But by the happy tussle they are both completely comfortable with each other and both shirtless. When they arrive at the campsite after the reunion they immediately peel off their clothes, because they are completely and mutually into each other. There are a bunch of other examples.

A major exception, again, is in the dozy embrace. Why does that scene break the hat and clothing layer rule? It wouldn't have to. It could as easily have shown them without heavy jackets on. Maybe those are the obstacles that, unbeknownst to them at the time, would always keep them apart?

[jpwagoneer1964]

I
One really distinct example of this is, as you say, when they're by the river after the reunion: Ennis is hatless when he's sendin up a prayer of thanks, but when Jack mentions the sweet life, he immediately puts the hat on.

 
 
A major exception, again, is in the dozy embrace. Why does that scene break the hat and clothing layer rule? It wouldn't have to. It could as easily have shown them without heavy jackets on. Maybe those are the obstacles that, unbeknownst to them at the time, would always keep them apart?

Ennis was also laying dowm making it hard to wear a hat.

It was likely very cold in the "dozey embrace". I often thought it was the night before they were called down fron the mountian.

[dly64]

I'm on the same track as you, Diane. I have always thought that hatlessness indicates allowing oneself to be more open to the other person and/or vulnerable, whereas being hatted means being more closed off, guarded, self-protective, resistant.

The person who takes the lead in lovemaking is responsible for removing the other person's hat: in TS2, Jack takes Ennis' hat; in the "happy tussle" Ennis knocks Jack's hat off (he's comfortable enough to initiate now); in the back seat of the car Lureen removes Jack's hat; in the reunion scene, Ennis knocks Jack's off.

I think clothing layers have a similar significance. The fewer layers of clothing the person has on, the more open they are to the other person. Again, in TS2 Jack is shirtless but Ennis, more hesitant, has a shirt on. But by the happy tussle they are both completely comfortable with each other and both shirtless. When they arrive at the campsite after the reunion they immediately peel off their clothes, because they are completely and mutually into each other. There are a bunch of other examples.

A major exception, again, is in the dozy embrace. Why does that scene break the hat and clothing layer rule? It wouldn't have to. It could as easily have shown them without heavy jackets on. Maybe those are the obstacles that, unbeknownst to them at the time, would always keep them apart?

We are on the same wavelength. What I had not considered was the person taking the lead in the lovemaking scenes is the one who takes the other’s hat. And the other thing I had not considered was the clothing layers. But it all makes perfect sense!

Another thing that I think is apparent is Lureen’s neckline. At the beginning of Jack and Lureen’s relationship, she wears looser shirts with a few buttons open. As the years progress, Lureen’s hair gets stiffer and blonder, her make-up gets thicker, and her shirts are either buttoned to the top or she wears a shirt/ dress with a high neckline. It shows her bitterness deepening … which I would surmise that her sexual dissatisfaction plays a role in all of that …. “Husbands never seem to want to dance with their wives ….” Hmmmmm … that line speaks volumes! 

[nakymaton]

It was likely very cold in the "dozey embrace". I often thought it was the night before they were called down fron the mountian.

I think that's probably true, about it being cold.

I think that symbolism and metaphor are most powerful when they work on multiple levels -- where they make sense in terms of the characters and the place and the story, and also work on another level. (For instance, snow=bad, but it would be really bizarre to see it snow in Mexico.)

And the layers of clothing do work that way, particularly in a few instances where we see the guys wearing less than you might otherwise expect. When Jack strips off his jacket during TS1, for instance -- he doesn't have to do that (and I bet he didn't do it in every take, given the maybe-a-continuity-error where Jack is wearing his jacket when he wakes up). Or when Jack is shirtless and Ennis is wearing only his shirt (THE shirt), no jacket, in TS2. Or Jack doing laundry naked, which makes him look especially vulnerable. Or the skinny-dipping scene, which seems to emphasize a brief sense of complete freedom from societal constraints.

But it seems like wearing jackets ought to be the default state for high altitude in Wyoming at night... and I'm not sure it makes sense to read the jackets as meaning anything that conflicts with what we can read from Jack's and Ennis's faces (which looks like comfortable intimacy, even though we know at that stage in the movie that the sense of peace will not last ).

[jpwagoneer1964]

I think that's probably true, about it being cold.

 
 

But it seems like wearing jackets ought to be the default state for high altitude in Wyoming at night... and I'm not sure it makes sense to read the jackets as meaning anything that conflicts with what we can read from Jack's and Ennis's faces (which looks like comfortable intimacy, even though we know at that stage in the movie that the sense of peace will not last ).

Its a lot more comfortable to sleep spooning in a cooler rather than a warmer enviroment. With or without clothes it shows us they came together for warmth in many more ways than one.

[Mikaela]

…. “Husbands never seem to want to dance with their wives ….” Hmmmmm … that line speaks volumes!

As does poor Lashawn telling Jack Randall hasn't danced with her since the wedding. Makes me want to kick Randall because that one line completely reveals the one and only reason Randall married IMO - and that reason's not exactly fair to his clueless wife..... But I digress! On to the topic at hand.  



The hats are put to excellent use throughout the film - a combination of practical realism and symbolism that is so seamless it's nearly impossible to untangle the one from the other. I'm completely on board with what has been said here so far, so I won't repeat to prove that I agree.    I do however want to say how impressed I am at the use of those hats as effective props throughout the entire movie. And how impressed I am at Rodrigo Prieto for the camera angles that manage to show off the hats and their significance to the emotions of the characters in scene after scene, depending on the angle of the brim and how much or little of the face (and eyes) is shown.


Just to mention some of the hat moments I love, in no particular order:

Jack dipping his head to conceal his whole face and his overwhelming emotions in the scene with Alma and at the leavetaking after Brokeback.

Both guys peeking at each other from under their hats and shielding their faces from each other  in the scene where they meet for the first time.

Ennis using his hat to protect his heart in TS2, and Jack putting the hat away, leaving Ennis's heart "exposed".

Ennis knocking Jack's hat off out in the open - then using his own hat to nevertheless create a small bubble of privacy in the happy tussle. He's not yet ready to let his instinctive hiding completely go - but he's getting there.. If only the snow hadn't come early.

Ennis sitting hatless, emotions out in the open at their reunion, and then putting on his hat and pulling it thoroughly down over his face when Jack starts talking of living together. Hiding his emotions and his true self away from Jack's proposal - using the hat as a protective shield...... Poor Ennis.

Ennis peeking up at Cassie from under his hat brim in the desolate cafe.

Ennis of necessity having to remove his hat at Jack's parents' place - his emotions and his true self thereby out in the open and more vulnerable in an already very vulnerable situation.

I can't help thinking that one reason they kept the hats on in the dozy embrace was not only the realism (they're outside, and it's pretty cold) but the stunningly iconic image the two of them in their white and black hat create. They come close to forming the yin / yang symbol. I think Ang Lee may have thought it worthwhile prioritizing that over strict adherence to a consistent symbol language of hats donned and doffed.  


And finally, hats off to two more hats on moments in the film that I love: