Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
Red and green
ednbarby:
So... I just watched the last half hour of the movie on HBO, and damned if I didn't notice something else I never had before. In the Lightning Flat scene, when Mrs. Twist offers Ennis the coffee and piece a cherry cake, in the kitchen, not only is the cherry in the cake red, but a jar filled with some kind of red liquid above it, and what looks like a metal can painted red above that. Then I look to the right, and on the counter is a large vividly green ceramic bowl with something red peeping out of the top of it - an apple, maybe? And I think... Christmas. Not because that's what time of year it is (it was October or so, wasn't it?), but just... Christmas. Then the camera pans to Ennis at the kitchen table saying "Can't begin to tell ya how bad I feel..." Above his head just slightly to the right hangs his hat on the wall. Mrs. Twist is to his right, Mr. Twist to his left. The composition suddenly strikes me as looking like... a cross. Or maybe three crosses, like in the beginning of the movie.
Coincidence? I think not.
Meryl:
Very interesting, Barb! I've been wondering about the placement of that hat on the wall, too. A halo? Jack's spirit hovering? Gotta be somethin'.
I like the idea of the symbolic trinity, too, and that's a great little bookend when you compare it with the three telephone poles at the beginning. Of course there is a real crucifix on the wall by the kitchen, too.
I posted somewhere awhile back about the use of red after the Scene at the Lake. Casey Cornelius once wrote that all the scenes after that had a kind of hallucinatory quality, and there does seem to be a subtle but real draining of color out of the movie towards the end. But dropped into the midst of these drab scenes are touches of red.
Ennis wears the same grey overshirt in the last four scenes, grey being the muted form of Jack's signature blue and also suggestive of Ennis's depressed frame of mind. The shirt has an interesting red detail right over the heart like a symbolic wound. In the same way, each of the four last scenes has a neutral palette punctuated by bits of red.
Here's a painting by Hammershoi that one of the IMDb posters postulated was an inspiration for the Twist ranch scene:
At theTwist ranch, in addition to those things you mentioned, Jack's father has a red belt, Jack's mother's dress has a small red detail in its print and her hair has a reddish tint. There are patches of red on Jack's bedspread and clothing, and finally, dark red on the bloodstained shirts.
The dreamlike quality of the scene is heightened subtly, I think, by the red dropped into the otherwise neutral tones. It does remind me of how we recall incidents in our lives--a kind of general impression punctuated by more vivid moments. If Ang Lee was trying to give us the feeling of being inside Ennis's memory, this may have been one of the ways he chose to do it.
ednbarby:
Beautifully written, Meryl. And that painting is stunningly evocative of the scene. Come to think of it, in that shot I mentioned with the amazing composition that made me think of the trinity, Ennis was in the middle with the hat right over his head like a halo, and the cross over that. Wow.
Meryl:
Thanks, Barb. I love this scene because it's so stark, but for all that, it holds such a wealth of associations. Did you ever read Casey Cornelius's "Classical Allusions" thread over on IMDb? I think that's one reason I became a die-hard Brokie.
I think Ang Lee has said this is one of his favorite scenes in the movie. It's clear that every detail was considered carefully, and the cumulative power of all those small things is so great that I think it will become one of those scenes that film historians routinely refer to as one of the best ever put on film.
ednbarby:
--- Quote from: Meryl on December 05, 2006, 12:48:12 pm ---Thanks, Barb. I love this scene because it's so stark, but for all that, it holds such a wealth of associations. Did you ever read Casey Cornelius's "Classical Allusions" thread over on IMDb? I think that's one reason I became a die-hard Brokie.
I think Ang Lee has said this is one of his favorite scenes in the movie. It's clear that every detail was considered carefully, and the cumulative power of all those small things is so great that I think it will become one of those scenes that film historians routinely refer to as one of the best ever put on film.
--- End quote ---
Yes, I have read that thread and I think it made me even more of a die-hard Brokie, too.
And I quite agree with your last sentence.
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