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

getting hit hard by offhand revelations (story discussion)

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Front-Ranger:
You're right about that compartmentalizing thing, d. So, someone asked me a few pages back how Jack changes his behavior when he's with Ennis. I'll just mention a few examples. First scene, when Jack starts out to walk up and introduce himself to Ennis in his straightforward way, Ennis reacts by lowering his hat brim. So Jack comes to an abrupt halt and, after thinking about it, retreats to slink by his truck. He even gives Ennis more space by turning his back to him to shave, peeking thru the rearview at him.

Next we see Jack being his exuberant self, strutting in front to the bar, drinking two beers to Ennis's one, drawing Ennis out in conversation and, later, selecting the most high-spirited horse for his mount. But Ennis warns him to tone it down, saying the horse has a "low startle point" (was he talking about himself?) Making camp, Jack splashes water and whacks with an ax, while Ennis plods along with a saw, and laboriously arranges rocks in a fire ring. Working together, they get accustomed to each other's style and temper their behavior to fit the other's. Two weeks later, Jack remarks on Ennis actually being conversational, as Ennis even makes eye contact and says "what?" to invite Jack to take a risk with him.

But Jack still doesn't behave the way he normally would. When Ennis walks away to strip and bathe, he doesn't look. And there's the aftermath of the bear scene that Mel mentions. When Jack's horse continues to be high-spirited, Jack is embarassed. Even though he lets his guard down, Jack can't just be himself around Ennis. If he did, then the events of the last day on the mountain wouldn't be plausible and Jack would have never driven away and left Ennis walking down the middle of the road. Also, he wouldn't have had to steal Ennis's shirt. It just wouldn't have made sense.

Jeff Wrangler:
Ya know, at the risk of sounding like our ol' buddy TJ  ;D , this thread started out as a story discussion and it's turned or is turning into a movie discussion. That Jack hat-brim business, for example, is pure movie.

I'm stickin' to my guns on the story, and I can't forgive Story "Used Car Salesman" Jack for that lie in the motel. Maybe Story Ennis wouldn't have wanted to know that Jack had had sex with other guys--Movie Ennis sure as hell wouldn't have wanted to know--but the very fact that Story Ennis asked the question in the first place--which Movie Ennis does not--suggests to me that he would have been able to handle the truth better than Movie Ennis, maybe would have wanted to know what it was about, might have helped him be more comfortable with his sexuality.

No, it would have been better for Jack to answer truthfully. He's just complimented Ennis on what a good fuck he throws ("it got a be all that time a yours a horseback"); he could have answered honestly and still found a way to soften the revelation. But he didn't. And I'm not accepting any excuses.

Bad Story Jack!  >:(

Front-Ranger:
That's right TJ uh Jeff. Everything I brought up in that last post had to do with the movie. And perhaps that was unforgiveable for Jack to lie about rolling it with other men. In the story didn't Ennis ask what other people do when this happens to them, and Jack said, I dunno, maybe they go to Denver... and then he said, I don't give a flyin f**k. Let's U and me get away to the mountains for a few days (I'm paraphrasing here). So Jack opted for just a few days more of what he wanted, cause he could see that Ennis hadn't really changed and he wasn't ever going to get what he wanted, long-term. He was practical in his own way.

BTW, any of you symbolism-sensitive people out there..."flyin f**k... eagle alert!!

Jeff Wrangler:

--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on September 12, 2006, 11:35:44 pm ---That's right TJ uh Jeff. Everything I brought up in that last post had to do with the movie. And perhaps that was unforgiveable for Jack to lie about rolling it with other men. In the story didn't Ennis ask what other people do when this happens to them, and Jack said, I dunno, maybe they go to Denver... and then he said, I don't give a flyin f**k. Let's U and me get away to the mountains for a few days (I'm paraphrasing here). So Jack opted for just a few days more of what he wanted, cause he could see that Ennis hadn't really changed and he wasn't ever going to get what he wanted, long-term. He was practical in his own way.

BTW, any of you symbolism-sensitive people out there..."flyin f**k... eagle alert!!

--- End quote ---

"Hadn't really changed" from what? I'm not following you there. I know Katherine dislikes the process, but I've often used the story to help formulate my understanding of the film, usually by way of comparison and contrast, but now I'm getting confused.

I think Story Ennis has changed in four years. He's figured out that he should never have let Jack out of his sights in '63--a line we never get from Film Ennis. Story Ennis doesn't ask Jack whose fault it was that they hadn't seen each other in four fuckin' years (which suggests to me that after he'd figured it out, he might have tried to get in touch with Jack, but "I didn't know where in the hell you was."). He also says to Jack, "I goddamn hate it that you're goin a drive away in the mornin and I'm goin back to work." (Then we get the famous, "But if you can't fix it you got a stand it.")

And then when Jack urges they go up in the mountains together for a few days, adding, "Come on, Ennis, you just shot my airplane out a the sky--give me somethin a go on. This ain't no little thing that's happenin here," Ennis without hesitation picks up the motel phone and calls Alma to tell her he's going away with Jack for a few days.

This is a different man from the one we see on the screen, one, frankly, I like better.

serious crayons:

--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on September 12, 2006, 08:34:03 pm ---But Jack still doesn't behave the way he normally would .... Even though he lets his guard down, Jack can't just be himself around Ennis.
--- End quote ---

At the risk of bringing movie content back into the discussion (though the overall point, I think, covers the story, too) in your examples, Lee, it's true Jack does alter his behavior -- softening his approach, refraining from ogling naked Ennis --  in deference to Ennis' sensitivities. But I don't think being yourself necessarily means acting on every impulse, regardless of its effect on the other person. Or if it does, then I'm not completely "myself" around anyone -- even you guys!!  :o

I think any relationship involves some awareness and restraint in regard to the other person's startle points. And the two people can draw out different things in each other without changing their essential natures. (BTW, I'd note that the examples you mention all come from their first month of knowing each other, before they became lovers, and presumably he became even more himself as the years went on. Still, he did continue to exercise restraint when it came to discussions of love or living together or Mexico.)


--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on September 13, 2006, 12:12:28 am --- I know Katherine dislikes the process, but I've often used the story to help formulate my understanding of the film, usually by way of comparison and contrast
--- End quote ---

Actually, I'm not quite that much of a hardliner about it. I don't mind using one to understand the other, and I even do it myself.

What I object to is holding one to the rules of the other (for example, using the "Ennis didn't want to see or feel that it's a man he's holding" line to explain Movie Ennis' behavior, even though there Ennis does not appear to feel that way in the dozy embrace). As we know, the characters and scenes aren't identical in both, so those rules may not apply. But sometimes they may, which is why using them to understand is fine by me.

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