Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum

What did they really mean......

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Lynne:

--- Quote from: goadra on January 27, 2007, 08:25:09 pm ---2004 screenplay, continued -- here’s a part that really gets to me:

Jack: “I wish I knew how to quit you.”
...
ENNIS stands as if heartshot, face gray and deep-lined. Fights a silent battle, grimaces.

Ennis: “Why don’t you?! Why, why do you keep after me? I could lick this. I know I could. But you -- it’s you, don’t you see? It’s because of you I’m like this. You scratch two words on a postcard, I come runnin’ like a dog. And I don’t understand it, and I never wanted it, I don’t want it. I just don’t want it.”

--- End quote ---

Very sad, indeed, Barbara - but isn't the highlighted portion above really Jack's line?  I guess he could be miniizing for effect, but Ennis is the one who scratched the two words.

I'll never believe Ennis truly blamed Jack for who he was; more he was in so much pain he was lashing out at the one person he did know loved him and would stand it.

BBM-Cat:
WOW. What incredible insights from the previous screenplay... I did not realize there were different versions of the screenplay. I have the STS book so that must be of course, the final screenplay, but where does one obtain earlier versions? Thanks in advance.

serious crayons:

--- Quote from: Lynne on January 27, 2007, 07:49:55 pm ---
--- Quote from: latjoreme on January 27, 2007, 07:41:09 pm ---
--- Quote from: goadra on January 27, 2007, 12:40:51 am ---If you can’t fix it then, by God, drive off from it--that’s my motto.”

--- End quote ---
Uh-oh ...!  :-\

--- End quote ---
Uh-oh is right.  Jack's adapted Ennis' philosophy to either 1) suit himself or 2) ironically, see how Ennis drives off from him meeting after meeting.  I tend toward 2.
--- End quote ---

Well, plus, "if you can't fix it ... drive off from it" seems to support the idea that in the end Jack decided, since he couldn't "fix" Ennis, to "drive off from it" -- i.e., quit him.

So that part is sad. But this


--- Quote from: goadra on January 27, 2007, 08:25:09 pm ---Ennis: “... Why, why do you keep after me? I could lick this. I know I could. But you -- it’s you, don’t you see? It’s because of you I’m like this. You scratch two words on a postcard, I come runnin’ like a dog. And I don’t understand it, and I never wanted it, I don’t want it. I just don’t want it.”
--- End quote ---

is just totally depressing. THANK GOD that wasn't in the movie.

My inclination, when I hear earlier versions of the screenplay, is to clap my hands over my ears and sing "la la la la la" really loudly.

nakymaton:

--- Quote from: Lynne on January 27, 2007, 07:49:55 pm ---Uh-oh is right.  Jack's adapted Ennis' philosophy to either 1) suit himself or 2) ironically, see how Ennis drives off from him meeting after meeting.  I tend toward 2.  And what a prescient scene coming before the confrontation, the dozy embrace, and Ennis driving away for what will be the last time.

Why in the world did they omit that??

--- End quote ---

Because it would have lacked the subtlety and ambiguity of the rest of the movie. For the same reason that the scene with the threatening mechanics was dropped, I think.

(fernly, BBM-Cat, anybody else, I've got copies of a couple of the old drafts of the screenplay if you want em. Drop me a pm, let me know if your there.)

Penthesilea:

--- Quote ---If you can’t fix it then, by God, drive off from it--that’s my motto.”
--- End quote ---

Am I the only one to who this sounds plain wrong? I think that's everything but Jack's motto.

Jack didn't drive off from anything.

In the beginning of the movie, Jack was only 19 by then, he knew there's no way to please his old man. But he kept on trying. He came back there year after year. And not only to see his mom, like I've read sometimes. He tried to please OMT by helping him, by saying one day he'd be back (with Ennis) to lick that place in shape.

He wasn't very successful in the rodeo, but he kept trying (until he met Lureen).
Their marriage wasn't successful, too - but he stayed in it. He didn't like working for LD - but he did not drive off from it.

He didn't get that sweet life with Randall either (for whatever reasons, I think he didn't want it with him); with Randall he also just had a secret affair on the side - but he didn't drive off from it, too.


--- Quote ---Well, plus, "if you can't fix it ... drive off from it" seems to support the idea that in the end Jack decided, since he couldn't "fix" Ennis, to "drive off from it" -- i.e., quit him.
--- End quote ---

And Ennis. He didn't drive off from him (quit him) for twenty years. Between that remark he made to Randall about driving off and the lake scene argument were five years (although I'm still not sure about the timeline here, it was years anyway). In the end Jack had thoughts of quitting Ennis, he even said so - but he didn't.

Jack never quit/drove off from something, his whole life. That's why I think the quote from the older screenplay sounds wrong, even ironic.

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