Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
A Ninth Viewing Observation
silkncense:
--- Quote ---both, movie Ennis and story Ennis, are aware about their relationship with Jack (that it is love what they do have together), but movie Ennis is even less able to express it, let alone to live it out, than story Ennis is
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Penthesilea - RE:
--- Quote ---how much is movie Ennis in denial for those 20 years?
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I posted on TOB that based on the 'Dozy embrace' scene that Ennis not only knew he loved Jack before they left Brokeback but was expressive, but not verbally. Ennis also expressed it physically when he felt the loss in the alley.
My concern was it then seemed 'out of character' that Jack expressed a more nonchalant attitude when Ennis found they were leaving the mountain early. It was clear Ennis was distressed that their time together was being cut short (and he would be forced back into society's world) rather than about the money (although a consideration). Others pointed out that Jack was not concerned since he never doubted that they would be together after the mountain.
So, what I am trying to get to is, I believe movie Ennis also knew all along in his heart that Jack was the love of his life. Just took awhile for his mind to catch up. (Unfortunatley, our minds and our hearts are not always in the same place.)
Aussie Chris:
--- Quote from: Penthesilea on May 19, 2006, 05:02:36 am ---This leads me to the question: how much is movie Ennis in denial for those 20 years? I've seen many posts on IMDB and here, where people stated that Ennis is completely in denial about their relationship ("this thing") for the whole time and some even think, Ennis starts changing not until after Jack's death.
I can't share this POV. I think, movie Ennis knows, but is even more scared than story Ennis. Katherine puts it this way and I can't express it in a better way, so I simply quote her:
Bottom line: I believe both, movie Ennis and story Ennis, are aware about their relationship with Jack (that it is love what they do have together), but movie Ennis is even less able to express it, let alone to live it out, than story Ennis is.
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Yes indeed Penthesilea, I think you're right. If I could extend on this a bit? How credible would it have seemed if Movie Ennis expressed his love for Jack in the way that Story Ennis did? I know all the hopeless romantics out there that desperately wanted more from Ennis (yes I'm looking at you Barb) and argued strongly that the missing dialogue should not have been left out. I argued however that the 'lil darlin's' were best left out otherwise the perceived fear that was supposed to be stopping him from being with Jack would seem less significant.
In another thread Katherine and I were talking about the two factors motivating Ennis during the argument scene was his ingrained homophobia and the fear of losing Jack. The proportion of these is up to the individual, but I think homophobia always needs to be dominant otherwise you'd be left wondering why the hell he doesn't just get over it. In order for ME to be credible, getting over his homophobia has to be an insurmountable obstacle. So when I think about this, ME is about right when it comes to how much he communicates, he could have had a little more I think, but none of that "I shoulda never let you outa my sights" stuff. SE is clearly more emotive, and sliding more into the fear-of-losing-Jack end of the scale, but not so much as to diminish the homophobia.
One thing that just occurred to me is the generally repressed nature of Ennis. Is this a factor? Hmmmm, I'm wondering if I'm not thinking laterally enough yet??? ;D
Aussie Chris:
--- Quote from: silkncense on May 19, 2006, 09:32:41 am ---So, what I am trying to get to is, I believe movie Ennis also knew all along in his heart that Jack was the love of his life. Just took awhile for his mind to catch up. (Unfortunatley, our minds and our hearts are not always in the same place.)
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I agree silkncense. What we hide from ourselves in our minds will be our undoing in the end. This is the lesson of Brokeback!
serious crayons:
I realize this is heretical and doesn't even fully answer the questions at hand, so maybe I'm just stirring up trouble for nothing. But I think possibly we are stumbling over of a couple of flaws (gasp!) in the story.
First, I think it is a flaw to portray Story Ennis as unwilling to embrace Jack from the front. It doesn't make any sense given the reunion scene or what he says in the motel. Yes, the argument has been made that Ennis simply matured by then. But now that I think about it, given that the description of the dozy embrace occurs toward the end of the story, it should say something like
--- Quote ---Nothing marred it, even the knowledge that Ennis would not then embrace him face to face because he did not want to see nor feel that it was Jack he held -- and thank god, Jack thought, that Ennis eventually got over that hangup!
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which I know would be ridiculous. Annie wouldn't write that. So maybe she should have left that part out altogether.
Also, I also can't help thinking it's a flaw to have Ennis take a year to figure out why he puked. It just don't fit my understanding of human nature that someone could be so oblivious to their own emotions that they dismiss their reaction as bad food and then, a whole year later, suddenly realize what they really felt. (Joe, I'm open to other ideas -- I asked you for your thoughts about this in another thread and would still like to hear them.)
If we ignore those things, maybe Story Ennis is more in touch with his feelings than we think.
As for Movie Ennis, I agree with what all of you have said, Chris, Penth and Silk. IMO, Ennis recognizes his feelings but has managed to divide them into two very separate emotional compartments. On the one hand, I believe he knows how much he loves Jack. He is sometimes afraid to express it, especially verbally. He doesn't think of it as love at first -- it's "this thing" -- but he fully realizes his feelings for Jack are intense and overwhelming -- scarily uncontrollable, in fact. (My theory is that it first occurs to him that it might be "love" after he hears Cassie use the word, and that by the last scene, his conversation with Alma Jr., he has fully recognized it as such.)
On the other hand, he's ashamed of their relationship. He doesn't want to think of himself as "queer" because he's been taught that's a horrible thing to be. He doesn't want anyone to "suspect" what's going on. He can't imagine being with Jack in an open partnership -- not just because it's dangerous, but also because it's shameful.
So his internal struggle is between his love and his homophobia. One good example of this compartmentalization occurs in the post-divorce scene. Yes, he is paranoid about the 10 people Jack asked and the white pickup. On the other hand, when he first sees Jack his face lights up and he gives him a huge loving hug. He clearly feels terrible about letting Jack down, but he believes he has to do it.
Somehow he is able to go for years keeping those two contradictory emotions separate in his head. But then Jack's implied threat in the lakeside showdown, suggesting the possibility of losing the love of his life because he can't honor the relationship, causes the wall between his compartments to come crashing down and he collapses.
(PS, speaking of flaws, I agree, Silk, that Jack's nonchallance upon leaving Brokeback was out of character. He appears not to fully understand why Ennis is so bummed out. And even if he is confident they'll meet again in a year, clearly that is chancey. Plus, even if not, who isn't distraught about saying goodbye to their new love for a whole year?)
nakymaton:
Chris: Thanks. :) I'm glad you enjoyed the essay.
Everyone: very interesting thoughts. Thanks.
Katherine:
--- Quote ---First, I think it is a flaw to portray Story Ennis as unwilling to embrace Jack from the front. It doesn't make any sense given the reunion scene or what he says in the motel. Yes, the argument has been made that Ennis simply matured by then.
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Do you mean unwilling to embrace Jack from the front during the summer on Brokeback, or unwilling to embrace Jack from the front later?
My reading was that, yes, book-Ennis embraced Jack from the front later (during the reunion, clearly), and that at some level he accepted their physical relationship (they're able to undress each other while having a conversation about their kids in the book). The kicker in the book's dozy embrace memory, though, is the sentence after the not-embracing-from-the-front -- "And maybe, he thought, they'd never got much farther than that." As if the imperfect embrace was somehow symbolic of the way Ennis simultaneously accepted and denied the relationship.
I guess I like the way every little happy bit in the story has some kind of sadness to it, as well... it makes the story much more powerful to have both the love and the denial at the same time. (And I think the movie and the book sort of do the same thing... the story by juxtaposing images like the dozy embrace with the idea that Ennis couldn't accept that he was holding a man, the movie by the amazing way Heath Ledger was able to express multiple conflicting repressed emotions at the same time.)
I don't think that movie-Jack's nonchalance was a flaw. I think it's part of the internal contradictions that make up Jack's character. Yes, Jack is the one who we see being more open and vulnerable (especially in the 2nd tent scene), but there are also a lot of times when he hides how strongly he feels, as if he's afraid... of what will happen if he shows too much of his feelings? Of Ennis's "low startle point"? Of letting the world see what he feels in general? I don't know, but there are a number of times when Jack tries not to let on how he feels. After Ennis encounters the bear, when Jack starts by complaining about the beans rather than show how worried he was. After the first tent scene, when he seems to be hiding a lot of emotion beneath "see you for supper" and "it's nobody's business but ours" and "me neither." After the reunion, when Jack sounds so cautious mentioning the cow & calf operation, and then turns to a joke about how much Lureen's father hates him.
I guess it seems very much like Jack to hide his strong feelings behind jokes or nonchalance, just like it seems very Ennis-like to pull away and withdraw into himself (or to hit something).
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