Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
On buckets, eagles, impatience, and...
Aloysius J. Gleek:
Lee, you are WAY too kind, but thank you!
No writer, me--takes more that a pretty turn of phrase to be one, I'm thinking: gobs of discipline (like our friends Leslie and Jeff), for example, of which I have none. I'm behind at work and I've been a bit under the weather, so my attendance on the board lately has been spotty--but I'll happily be an (erratic) contributer to your brilliant thread, if I may--
I wouldn't have called Jack comfortable and carefree, lolling on that hillside, but brave. He wasn't going to wait for Ennis to return 'fer supper' to get the verdict, oh no--he finished the laundry, did his chores, then got on his horse and rode on over to get it over with, to force the issue.
It's one of those odd, perfect things about the contradictions and complementarities of the characters that make them, and the relationship, ring so true, so real: strong, silent Ennis is frightened, and flibberty-gibbet Jack is utterly fearless and brave.
I love watching them as they walk through town to have their first drink together--Jack is on a short leash, but he leads the way. Even after Jack has taken over the duties of tending the main camp, and Ennis has become the herder, it is still Jack in the lead and Ennis who follows up behind with the supplies when they move the flock.
Emotionally starved Ennis is used to privation, and will suffer silently and stoically; brave, resourceful, outgoing Jack will wither and die without Ennis.
:(
John
Front-Ranger:
Why, thank you kindly ma'am or sir, latjoreme. So, I've expanded the subject to include horizontality, and I'm also going to add impatience...and behind them stretching endlessly away are all my other favorite supporting actors (I think of Jake as a lead not a support): the coat hangers, spoons, tire irons, washboards, shepherd's crooks, turkey basters, electric knives, cans of beans, fans, etc. etc.
Guess I'll have to keep looking for my McMurtry to play Ossana to. . .
Lynne:
--- Quote from: fernly on April 12, 2006, 12:42:41 pm ---(Tell you what, friends, I love this thread! Is there a way to quote more than one post at a time?)
--- End quote ---
Testing this out now...
Choose Quote to Reply with a single quote...then for inserting additional quotes, scroll down to the Topic Summary below where the edit box is and select the Insert Quote option for each additional quote you want to include. Note that the quotes must be prefaced with the '[quote author = fernly....' and followed by the '[/quote]' so make sure your cursor is in positioned in the edit box where you want the next quote to go, or you'll be doing some cut and paste to get it right.
--- Quote from: latjoreme on April 12, 2006, 05:23:12 pm ---We've said it a million times already, but it bears repeating here: Absolutely nothing in this movie is accidental! Resume the search (and we will ponder the question of horizontalness).
--- End quote ---
Front-Ranger:
Where are all the birds and eagles on Brokeback Mountain? I didn't catch a single glimpse of an eagle, although I heard one in the scene just before they move the camp. The cry of an eagle can be heard echoing thru a canyon. Some people have said that there's an eagle feather in Jack's hatband but I didn't see it. After the mountain scenes, there are a few birds in the rest of the movie: a crow or raven flies over a white pick-up truck as an ominous portent in the post-divorce scene; there is a neon eagle above the tavern door in front of which Ennis gets beaten up; and the most prominent scenes of the Thanksgiving turkeys. The only other creatures with wings referred to are angels, but they are also elusive. Ennis calls his daughters angels and wishes he had wings like them; and Lureen resembles an angel in her last scene with her talons, plumage-printed blouse, and fringed hairdo. In the story, Jack is described as a "ministering angel" when he is punched by Ennis and lies in the wild columbine (a flower that looks like and is named for doves) with "wings folded." In the soundtrack are two songs: Angel on Fire, in the Childress Fundraising Dance scene, and, of course, Wings. But in the movie, images of the saving grace of angels and the freedom of birds in flight are few and far between. The lack of a symbol is in itself a symbol.
Front-Ranger:
I watched BBM again last night while my men were watching the hockey playoffs and found two more references to eagles/birds. In one of the very first scenes when Ennis is walking toward the trailer, there is a medium view with two stratus clouds in the sky (they look almost like jet trails) converging over the trailer. The cry of an eagle? bird? is heard in the background. The second reference is not in the film; it's in the book (probably unfilmable). After the reunion scene, at the motel, Ennis is lying "spread-eagled" in the bed. Hmmm, this reference brings me to another interesting juxtaposition of metaphors which I will elaborate upon in my next post. Hope The New Yorker doesn't slap this file with a "Block That Metaphor!" sign. Yea I do...
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