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

Working for Aguirre

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David In Indy:
Can you even imagine working for somebody like Aguirre?

I'd rather stick hot needles in my eyes.  >:(

Kelda:
never thought of this - interesting interesting.

After 9 months we still have questions to pose - I love BBM for that!

moremojo:

--- Quote from: DavidinHartford on September 23, 2006, 08:39:38 am ---"what if we want to work for him again?"

......y'all are missing the obvious.

Ennis at this point is in love with Jack.    He also is carrying the mental baggage of the homophobia brought on by his father.    Even at this point Ennis sees the only possibilty of getting together with Jack is to be isolated up on Brokeback.   

    You really need to fast forward to the post reunion weekend.   Ennis tells Jack only then that no matter how much they enjoy each others company that it can only be on these get aways.     

   Working again for Aguirre would have put Ennis back on the mountain with Jack, thus Paradise to him again.   That was his concern in my opinion.

--- End quote ---
But then what do we make of Ennis rebuffing Jack's coded suggestion that they return to the mountain to work together in the future, right after they have been called back down from Brokeback and are saying goodbye in Signal? Jack is eager to keep this option open, but Ennis strongly implies that he is unlikely to return. Did Ennis see Brokeback as a haven while actually there, but saw it as an impossibility when he has been brought down to earth, so to speak?

I'ts also interesting to remember that in the story it is specifically stated that the two men never return to Brokeback, even in nearly twenty years of furtive high-altitude get-aways. This further emphasizes the mountain's resonance as a lost paradise.

Edit: Meryl's bump gave me the opportunity to correct a small typo.

Meryl:
bump

Brown Eyes:
I just re-discovered this really interesting old thread because I noticed a Guest looking at it.  This actually happens to me quite frequently... I'll see a Guest listed as viewing a thread that's buried somewhere and either discover it for the first time or re-discover it... like now.

I have a few further thought I have about this really interesting little statement from Ennis about maybe needing to work for Aguirre again next summer.  I wonder if this is a moment where Jack may get his hopes up (already in this early stage of their relationship).  I mean, Jack brings up the subject of "are you going to do this again next summer" during their parting scene after they come down from the mountain.  To me this implies that he may be remembering Ennis's suggestion during the Chilean sheep scene.  And, then he actually goes so far as to come back the next summer hoping that Ennis would be there.  So, I think even this passing comment by Ennis was taken very seriously by Jack.

And, in another way, I wonder if this statement by Ennis relates somehow to the "people on the pavement" question he poses much later in their relationship... when he's worried that random people might look at himself and Jack and "know".  Maybe in this suggestion of working for Aguirre again and in his later worry about people perceiving that he's gay... Ennis is letting slip bits of information or hints about his desires that he himself isn't fully aware of.  Maybe in wondering about working for Aguirre again, he's betraying a deeper desire to do so.  And, in asking whether people can tell he's gay... he's admitting to the audience and to Jack, that yes he understands he's "queer."  Even if he might still deny both those things if asked directly.

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