Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
Bookends!
Brown Eyes:
--- Quote from: nakymaton on September 24, 2006, 06:25:55 pm ---I have no idea what the answer to goadra/Barbara's is, so I'll answer Amanda's instead:
Ennis's face changes when Alma talks about him growing up so lonely?
--- End quote ---
I'm jumping in belatedly here to say, yup! That's what I was thinking.
nakymaton:
I'll answer this, if I can remember what I was thinking.
The rhythm of Aguirre's speech on the phone reminds me of the rhythm of Lureen's speech when Ennis calls her after Jack's death.
"Who? Who is this?"
But I'm not sure it's right or not.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: goadra on January 13, 2007, 01:03:46 pm ---Pick a moment in a scene, then think of a later—or earlier—moment that either matches (bookend) or shows something opposite (mirror).
--- End quote ---
Oh, interesting! I always thought of bookends as being scenes that show a beginning and ending: Ennis collapsing in an alley at the beginning of their relationship, Ennis collapsing in an alley at the end of their relationship. Mirrors I thought of as being scenes that show something in common, perhaps "reflecting" each other, but not necessarily forming that sort of beginning/ending narrative connection: Ennis catching the watch, Jack dropping the keys.
Whichever way you look at it, you often wind up at the same place, I think.
Mel, your answer to your own challenge sounds right to me! The rhythms do match.
(Bonus question: Does "No, no, not on your fucking life" remind anyone besides me of anything?)
I've got another bookend involving the phone-call scene:
Scene: On the phone, Lureen tells Ennis she knows who he is, and Ennis tells Lureen that he and Jack worked on Brokeback together in the summer of 1963.
Bookend (earlier):
belbbmfan:
maybe this mirror moment has been mentioned before...
In the first night in the tent, Ennis asks "What are you doing?" when Jack has touched him and he asks exactly the same thing when Cassie puts her feet on his lap to get a footrub.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: goadra on January 13, 2007, 07:39:13 pm ---Tell you what, I wasn’t entirely sure myself. Your definition’s much better.
--- End quote ---
They're both good!
--- Quote ---I’ll take a wild guess: “We coulda had a good life together. A ****** real good life. Had us a place of our own.” 3 affirmations of the kinda life they coulda had vs. Aguirre’s 3x denial?
--- End quote ---
Well, that works! I like that answer a lot. They could not have a good life together, could not have a real good life, and not on your f'in life could they have had a place of their own.
What I had in mind, though, was not really a bookend OR a mirror, which is why I made it a bonus question. The whole scene reminds me of a marriage ceremony (from the story: "they came together on paper.") Jack and Ennis are standing in the chapel (the trailer), Aguirre is the clergyman, the watch is the ring, the work instructions are the preamble to the vows (is there a name for that part of the ceremony? The "Do you, Jack, promise to pitch a pup tent on the QT, to eat your breakfast and supper in the camp, to sleep with the sheep 100 percent..." stuff?), and "No, no, not on your f'in life" are the vows themselves. At the end of the ceremony, the newlyweds walk down the aisle (the trailer steps) together and kiss -- I mean, shake hands.
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