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fffffffzzzzzzzzzzzzzap! (lightning and electricity references)

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nakymaton:
Jack and Ennis set off sparks in each other.

Story:

...the vibrations of the humming like faint electricity... (dozy embrace scene)

His shaking hand grazed Ennis's hand, electrical current snapped between them. (reunion... and there's also a storm brewing in the background, which, ummmm... comes to a climax when it starts hailing on the Motel Siesta. ;D Weather-as-sexual-tension metaphor?)

...the lightning storm that killed 42 sheep...

And in the movie, there are a number of thunder storms, aren't there? Not just the one where Ennis is washing the coffee pot and looking up the mountain toward Jack? There's thunder with the hail storm that scatters the sheep, I think.

At the reunion, Ennis's lighter-flicking kind of takes the place of lightning-flickering to build the tension.

(Don't ask me how the electric carving knife fits into this. That knife scares me.)

Front-Ranger:
I like the scene where Jack is sleeping up on the mountain, a blue heeler beside him, and lightning/thunder is seen/heard off in the distance. That pesky director/editor almost cuts off the lightning/thunder in his haste to move forward the story, as he does so often!!

serious crayons:

--- Quote from: nakymaton on November 03, 2006, 12:06:16 am ---(Don't ask me how the electric carving knife fits into this. That knife scares me.)

--- End quote ---

Well, you know my theory about that, right? But it's less about Jack and Ennis than it is about Alma and Monroe.  :laugh:

I have always been curious about the storm in the story's reunion scene. It seemed somehow portentious, but of what? Sexual tension makes sense. Though there's something a little ominous about it, too.

(OT, I am also curious about the sound of the phone ringing in the next room at the motel, if anyone has any ideas about that.)

Front-Ranger:
All of the weather theatrics add to the drama of the story, as well as liven up the setting and convey a feeling of Wyoming-ness. But in addition, I think it is a custom of Western writers and artists to treat the weather as another character in the story. They use it to echo, underscore, or complement the action/mood/feelings. Ang Lee also said that since he didn't use narration to tell what the characters were feeling, he had to do it in other ways, through setting, props, atmospheric effects, etc.

I love the way the general wetness of the story/movie works with the electrical currents. There's a technical term for this in my line of work called "electrowinning." You run an electrical charge through a solution, and there is a chemical reaction which results in you "winning" whatever you were seeking to gain: gold or another type of metal. What a metaphor!!

Mikaela:

--- Quote ---(OT, I am also curious about the sound of the phone ringing in the next room at the motel, if anyone has any ideas about that.)
--- End quote ---

To me that is one quite intense mood-setter. Hearing a phone ringing like that, there's an anxious tension building: Something's gotta give. (Ie. Waiting for someone to pick up, or for the phone to stop ringing). Something's not right. (Why is it ringing in an apparently empty room? Where is the person who was supposed to be there? What's the urgency?)

Also, it represents the outside world with all its demands  and obligations encroaching on J&E's private little bubble of togetherness, reminding them of the rest of the world's continued existence - the harsh persistent sound from outside cutting into their space, and disturbing it, calling them "back to earth".

But to me definitely mostly an effective mood-setter, more than an integral and specific plot element. It goes hand-in-hand, btw, with the banging of the unsecured door in the next room. Another annoying, encroaching sound. No peace and quiet for Jack and Ennis.

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