The mettle of a man

[Front-Ranger]

I have been going over the story again and I find references to metal in connection with both Ennis and Jack. I am now of the opinion that the metallic references are somewhat like the laundry references and have to do with transformative events. Here's one that I never noticed before. At the end of the dozy embrace flashback, Jack hears Ennis mounting his horse, and hears his spurs tremble. This may be the only reference to spurs in the movie or story, which would be pretty remarkable.

Another reference. At the very end of the story, Ennis puts up the postcard in his trailer (he actually lives in a metal house! with a brass-headed tack in each corner (story doesn't mention a closet). Below the post card he drives a nail, and on it he hangs a wire hanger on which he hangs the two shirts.

[Front-Ranger]

Unfortunately, no, it’s not the only reference: “They’d took a tire iron to him, spurred him up...”

Ouch! Okay, thank you, Goadra.

The metal references in the last scenes are many. Am working on cataloguing them.

[Front-Ranger]

There were metal things in Jack's room. The most heartbreaking was the bronzed shoes. There was also a lamp sconce on the wall in the shape of an anchor.

So, we see that Jack had metal things all around them but either he bungled manipulating them (harmonica, truck, farm equipment, rodeo belt, can opener) or was done in by them (tire iron). Was it that Jack's "mettal" was not sufficient for him to survive or that he didn't have the hardness or armour that Ennis did? Or?

[Front-Ranger]

Interesting observations about the calipers.

Another person who conjured up metal in his works is Bob Dylan. On this topic I relayed part of an interview with him that talked about metallic sounds:

http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php?topic=1157.msg83783#msg83783

[Brown Eyes]

Lee,
I'm glad you brought up the topic of spurs and noticed that they're mentioned in the dozy embrace scene in the story.  I've always wondered why this key evocative object associated with cowboys seems to absent from Brokeback.  Clearly the film/ story is filled to the brim with almost all of the major things traditionally associated with cowboys (often deployed in new and surprising ways in BBM)- the cowboy hats (almost a cliche to have one white and one black), lassoes, rodeos, big belt buckles, boots, harmonicas, guns, beans, etc.  These are among the most common associations with cowboys and the spurs seem glaringly missing.  As sharp objects meant to "prick" (for lack of a better word) horses into motion, what is the purpose of this lone reference to a spur in the flashback (at least in the story)?  It's also interesting that Jack only hears the spurs.  Maybe it's just part of their constant coming and going from one another... an ominous note about yet another parting.

[Front-Ranger]

I agree with you that spurs are conspicuous by their absence. Right now I'm reading another story about Wyoming, The Virginian, which is a classic, and the traveller from the East who narrates the story talks about the constant sound of spurs worn by the cow-boys or cow-punchers as he alternatively calls them.

[Front-Ranger]

And Jack's baby shoes were bronzed, as we see on the dresser as Ennis goes into his closet. 

[Ellemeno]

Those caliper legs of Ennis's always struck me.



On the left, inside calipers.  On the right, outside calipers.

[Front-Ranger]

Ha, Clarissa, aren't you the one who compared the Acura logo to a pair of calipers?

Just wanted to repost this entire sentence of Annie's:

The next week Joe Aguirre sent word to bring them down - another, bigger storm was moving in from the Pacific- and they packed in the game and moved off the mountain with the sheep, stones rolling at their heels, purple cloud crowding in from the west and the metal smell of coming snow pressing on them.  The mountain boiled with demonic energy, glazed with flickering broken-cloud light, the wind combed the grass and drew from the damaged krummholz and slit rock a bestial drone. As they descended the slope Ennis felt he was in a slow-motion, but headlong, irreversible fall.

[JT]

I think Jack almost trip over his spurs when he fetched Laureen's hat for the very first time.