Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
Working for Aguirre
nakymaton:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on September 20, 2006, 04:19:06 pm ---That's a very working-class attitude and it doesn't have anything to do with being in love with Jack.
--- End quote ---
It is. And yet...
Can I play the movie-vs-story game here, too, since I've been playing it all over the place?
I think this is another scene where the events are similar in both places, but where the dynamics are different.
In the story, the scene is the first indication that paradise is about to end:
Even when the numbers were right Ennis knew the sheep were mixed. In a disquieting way everything seemed mixed.
And in the movie... well, Jack's bitching about Aguirre, and Ennis is being responsible, and aren't they just sooooooo cute together when they're like that? ;) And then when they're done sorting out the sheep, there's nothing disquieting or mixed about the emotions on Ennis's face. He teases Jack about the harmonica, he gives that lovely smile of his, and the sun sets over a mountain landscape that is even more beautiful than the two men. (Hey, indulge me in my scenery-swooning for a bit. I've been really restrained about it lately. ;) )
So even though, yeah, it's a pretty typical working-class kind of attitude, there's something about the whole dynamic of the sheep-sorting that seems... comfortable. Or domestic. Or idyllic, despite mixed-up sheep and f***ing Aguirre (or not). It's one of those artless, charmed happiness moments for me, at least.
(Though maybe it's just because I am in love with that landscape.)
saucycobblers:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on September 20, 2006, 04:19:06 pm ---I don't think this line has anything to do with their relationship. It's just Ennis, the poor ranch kid "desperate for any job," not wanting to screw up--or wanting to unscrew the mess of the mingled flocks--in case he needs to go begging to Joe Aguirre for a job again in the future.
--- End quote ---
Hehe. Yeah, I can be prone to reading way too much into the smallest of things, but I can't help feeling there's more to it than that. Just my opinion. Or maybe just my wishful thinking ::)
--- Quote from: nakymaton on September 20, 2006, 04:31:59 pm ---Even when the numbers were right Ennis knew the sheep were mixed. In a disquieting way everything seemed mixed.
--- End quote ---
Thanks for brining that quote from the book up Mel. I'd forgotten about that one. Brings even more possible interpretations to the line. Everything in the film is so imbued with hidden and multiple and symbolic meanings that I can't quite believe it merely belies a working-class attitude...
opinionista:
--- Quote from: latjoreme on September 20, 2006, 03:51:09 pm ---
Maybe Ennis is so caught up in their relationship at that point that he isn't thinking that clearly about the future, or is not facing up to it. I especially like how he says "what if we want to work for him" rather than "what if one of us wants to work for him." As if he and Jack would be seeking work as a team.
--- End quote ---
I agree with Katherine here. However, I think he might also be worrying about lack of work. Job opportinities were scarce in Wyoming, especially for ranch hands like Ennis, so I guess he was trying to hold onto that job by leaving a good impression of his performance, in case he needed it in the future.
serious crayons:
I think it's another one of those situations in which everybody's right. I don't think Ennis is consciously thinking, "Hmm, now that Jack and I have become life partners we'll both need jobs, so ..." Yet it could actually have some deeper meaning.
If you see the characters as autonomous individuals with their own private thoughts, it's possible Ennis is unconsciously choosing words that suggest he's been thinking of them as a couple -- even though, if he spent two seconds thinking directly about it, he would know it ain't gonna be that way.
If you see the characters as fictional figures controlled by an author and/or filmmakers (in this case maybe more of the latter, as Mel points out) it could be a deliberate sly way of suggesting that coupledom very subtly, almost under the radar, which I believe they do a lot. Or even their simply recognizing that if they had Ennis say, "what if one of us needs to work for him" it would prematurely introduce the topic of their inevitable future parting, at a point in the plot when they'd rather focus on their togetherness.
Or it could be none of the above, just a random choice of words that show, as Natali points out, Ennis is concerned about future employment! I rarely think anything in the movie is random, but admittedly this is a very small detail.
opinionista:
--- Quote from: latjoreme on September 20, 2006, 06:54:51 pm ---I think it's another one of those situations in which everybody's right. I don't think Ennis is consciously thinking, "Hmm, now that Jack and I have become life partners we'll both need jobs, so ..." Yet it could actually have some deeper meaning.
If you see the characters as autonomous individuals with their own private thoughts, it's possible Ennis is unconsciously choosing words that suggest he's been thinking of them as a couple -- even though, if he spent two seconds thinking directly about it, he would know it ain't gonna be that way.
If you see the characters as fictional figures controlled by an author and/or filmmakers (in this case maybe more of the latter, as Mel points out) it could be a deliberate sly way of suggesting that coupledom very subtly, almost under the radar, which I believe they do a lot. Or even their simply recognizing that if they had Ennis say, "what if one of us needs to work for him" it would prematurely introduce the topic of their inevitable future parting, at a point in the plot when they'd rather focus on their togetherness.
Or it could be none of the above, just a random choice of words that show, as Natali points out, Ennis is concerned about future employment! I rarely think anything in the movie is random, but admittedly this is a very small detail.
--- End quote ---
Well, this isn't the first time, in the movie at least, Ennis expresses his concern for the job. When he rans into the bear and the mules ran away, scared, dropping all the food, Jack proposes to kill a sheep. And Ennis says "We're supposed to guard them not eat them". I don't think he was being ethical or anything, since he had no problem killing an elk on a preserved forest land. I think he was a bit afraid Aguirre might find out about it.
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