Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
getting hit hard by offhand revelations (story discussion)
Front-Ranger:
And the movie reinforced that with Ennis's parting words to Jack, "Well, I guess I'll see you around, huh."
And the "what if we have to work for Aguirre agin
He never thought he'd not see Jack again.
Cameron:
As wrote in the other thread, that is the line that got me the most, "What if we need to work for Aquirre again..." That line stood out for me the first couple of times I have seen it and even more ever since,,,( i think I am at about 25 in a month}. I think it truly does mean that Ennis was sure there was a future together at that point. I mean it just couln't be sort of a throwaway line. The next scene when they were riding the horses he gives Jack an incredible look of affection and love....
Thats why I am so convinced that for Ennis it was Jacks reaction to leaving and the fight and its aftermath that changed everythig for Ennis.
He wasn't going to try to contact Jack over the next four years, because he waited for and needed Jack to take the lead. just mho.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: marlb42 on January 15, 2007, 04:09:52 pm ---He wasn't going to try to contact Jack over the next four years, because he waited for and needed Jack to take the lead. just mho.
--- End quote ---
I agree, marlb42. Clearly Ennis would have loved to see Jack at anytime during those four years: we see him pining, we see him overjoyed by the postcard and by Jack's appearance. But there's no way he could have taken the initiative, at that point, to look up Jack's parents in Lightning Flat. It just isn't in his personality. His homophobia wouldn't let him, and he would be terrified of rejection.
At the end of the movie, when he finally visits LF and tacitly acknowledges his relationship with Jack, it's a huge step for him. Sort of a mini coming out.
As for how he acts at their parting in Signal, to me his behavior and body language scream, "Do something, Jack! Say something to keep this from happening!" But he doesn't know how to say that out loud.
Cameron:
As for how he acts at their parting in Signal, to me his behavior and body language scream, "Do something, Jack! Say something to keep this from happening!" But he doesn't know how to say that out loud.
[/quote]
Wow, you put that so, so well, I agree so totally!!!!!!
To me to he was screaming at Jack, the only way he knew how, or could , but Jack didn't hear him..
If only he had..
nakymaton:
--- Quote from: Penthesilea on January 15, 2007, 01:39:53 pm ---Lately another sentece in the short story hit me (motel scene):
"I didn't know where the hell you was," said Ennis. "Four years. I about give up on you. I figured you was sore about that punch."
--- End quote ---
That line in the story made two points to me. First, it's a surprise indication that we haven't been told everything going on in Ennis's mind during those four years. If you took the description of Ennis's domestic life at face value, you might assume that the relationship on the mountain was some kind of anomaly. But it wasn't.
And the other thing that struck me in this section, again, was that Jack wasn't blameless in the separation... or at least that Ennis blamed Jack, at least in part. (There's another part where Ennis pointedly doesn't ask Jack whose fault the four-year separation was, as if it was Jack's fault, at least as far as Ennis sees it.) And that adds to the sense that Jack had tried to move on, a sense that is reinforced by the comment that Jack had been "riding more than bulls"... which is one reason why the discovery at the shirts at the end is such a surprise emotional blow.
I don't know what story-Ennis did. Somehow I can't picture Ennis asking people about Jack. And it makes me wonder exactly what he expected Jack to do -- Ennis didn't go back to Aguirre that next summer, he had married, his folks were dead -- how hard did Ennis expect Jack to look?
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