Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
A Ninth Viewing Observation
nakymaton:
It's possible that Jack really was trying to quit Ennis, and that the thing with Randall wouldn't have worked out anyway. It's entirely possible to dump somebody without having another realistic replacement available.
(The more I think about Randall, the more I think that he wouldn't have moved to Lightning Flat with Jack. Leave a stable job to fix up a messed-up ranch further out in the middle of nowhere? No, I think that, even if Jack was trying to quit Ennis, it was all wishful thinking. Less intense of a wish than Jack's claims that Ennis was going to move to Lightning Flat with him, too.)
dly64:
--- Quote from: latjoreme on August 09, 2006, 10:16:16 am ---In any case, I think we're supposed to be left somewhat in the dark about this, the way Ennis is, always left wondering. OMT's mention of the other fella to Ennis is fate (i.e., Annie Proulx) twisting the knife, making things that much more torturous for Ennis, and us. It's harder in the story than in the movie, because in the movie, at least 1) we've met Randall, know Jack has known him for a while, saw Jack's deer-in-the-headlights look when Randall mentioned the fishing cabin (for all Ennis knows, the other fella is someone Jack met and fell in love with AFTER seeing Ennis the last time -- at least we have reason to think otherwise), and 2) saw what a big deal it was for Jack to say "Sometimes I miss you so much I can hardly stand it." In the story, it's a more casual paraphrase, not a direct quote, and somehow "I could whip babies" doesn't have quite the same gravity as "I can hardly stand it."
Jane, your post just came in. I've never agreed with the "Jack quit Ennis" theory, and these reasons why neither Randall nor Jack necessarily would have wanted to live together only give my disagreement a tiny bit more support.
--- End quote ---
You are so right. The whole idea of the “other ranch fella” is another ambiguity in this film. We can only speculate the reality of the situation. Jack’s vulnerability at the lake scene says a lot about his state of mind. No matter what Jack may have been doing …. going to Mexico, having sex with Randall or someone else … it could not meet Jack’s emotional needs. Only Ennis could do that. In TS3, we see Ennis holding Jack … reminiscent of the time on BBM when Ennis embraces Jack and hums a lullaby. It is one of those times when we get a glimpse into their love for each other …. in a non-physical intimate way.
As for Jack “quitting” Ennis … I have never been able to agree with that argument, either. There have been compelling arguments to support that theory … I just don’t buy them (totally).
jpwagoneer1964:
--- Quote from: dly64 on August 09, 2006, 10:46:31 am ---You are so right. The whole idea of the “other ranch fella” is another ambiguity in this film. We can only speculate the reality of the situation. Jack’s vulnerability at the lake scene says a lot about his state of mind. No matter what Jack may have been doing …. going to Mexico, having sex with Randall or someone else … it could not meet Jack’s emotional needs. Only Ennis could do that. In TS3, we see Ennis holding Jack … reminiscent of the time on BBM when Ennis embraces Jack and hums a lullaby. It is one of those times when we get a glimpse into their love for each other …. in a non-physical intimate way.
As for Jack “quitting” Ennis … I have never been able to agree with that argument, either. There have been compelling arguments to support that theory … I just don’t buy them (totally).
--- End quote ---
I don't think Jack coud ever 'quit Ennis. As pointed out in another post in LF when Jacks mother place her hand on Ennis's shoulder telling him 'don't worry you were the love of Jack's life, not....
Mikaela:
Jack loved Ennis till he died. The shirts prove that, IMO.
I think Jack mentioned the ranch neighbour to his parents because he wanted to convince himself he really was quitting Ennis, that he'd manage to do it. "Say it loud, make it real". I wouldn't be surprised if Randall would have been as surprised as Ennis to hear about it.
But then I've never really been able to buy that Randall would have been willing - or would have lasted *if* he was willing - to move up to LF. I base the impression of Randall on very little, true - but I base it on about the same that Jack knew by the time Randall came on to him outside the Benefit Dance place:
He's got a good education, an OK job, has got some money (and a wife who knows how to spend them.) He is intellectual rather than "mechanical". He's very straight-forward in coming on to Jack - first at the table and then afterwards, - directly in front of both their wives, too, which IMO is telling us something. My impression is that the reason he's circumspect at all in what he's saying while theyr're sitting on the bench is that he's not entirely certain that Jack is interested - Jack is sending out pretty conflicted signals after all.
He's got a good-looking wife who's so ditzy, dumb and self-absorbed she'd probably not notice what Randall gets up to on the side if it hit her in the face. I can't help wondering if he didn't very deliberately marry her only for that reason. We don't know how long they've been married, but I get the impression from what Lashawn is saying it's not *that* long ago. Yet Randall very disinterestedly calls his wife "the woman". I don't think he's got any affection for her - he seem to think she's a boring necessity.
Incidentally, is the Aggie game where Randall and Lashawn met a football game? One more sign, if so, that Randall is making sure to be seen doing what "real men" do according to the teachings of fine upstanding citizens like L.D. Or maybe he just likes football. :)
Anyway, all of the above is my way of saying that Randall has managed to blend in. He seems to me to be a person who's found a way to live as comfortably as possible in the dark confines of the closet. I'm not saying he's not feeling horrible about that, not saying he doesn't lie awake at night hating it all, not saying he'd not much rather have lived openly, - but he *has* taken the cards his world has dealt him and is making the most of it. He seems to be handling his life in a less emotional, more deliberately calculated manner than Jack and certainly Ennis. Ennis doesn't want to be with a man except out in the middle of nowhere. Jack wants to live with a man. Both are struggling very much with the discrepancy between what they do and what they want. Randall has taken the middle road between the two of them and plays adroitly by society's rule in public, clearly playing by his own rules in private.
He's making the most of what society will let him do, and be. At first glance at least, Randall seems much less tortured and conflicted about it than Ennis - seems to have found a way to manage being covertly gay in a straight world without being torn to pieces by the pressure. That *is* a first glance impression, sure enough - but I wonder whether that wasn't also the first impression that Jack got. If so, I think that may have been what attracted Jack to Randall more than anything else. Jack loved Ennis, always, but with all his emotional baggage Ennis was no easy man to love.
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote ---He's got a good-looking wife who's so ditzy, dumb and self-absorbed she'd probably not notice what Randall gets up to on the side if it hit her in the face.
--- End quote ---
Thanks for that sentence, Mikaela! Gave me a real good laugh! :laugh:
I'm sure the Aggie game was a college football game. Football is real big in Texas. Remember, "Boys should watch football. You want your son to grow up to be a man." :D
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