Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
A Ninth Viewing Observation
David:
The first year he was probably arriving from Lightning Flat. The second year he was probably driving up from Texas.
ednbarby:
How about this? He's coming from the bar he and Ennis drank in before going up the mountain. He needed a couple of beers to calm his nerves about asking Aguirre for a job/looking for Ennis again.
Mikaela:
In that connection, I've another thing I've been wondering about. In that 1964 scene at Aguirre's – Jack approaches Aguirre himself directly about a job. But the previous year it seems Jack and Ennis had already been hired when they showed up at Aguirre’s (apparently by someone else – probably Farm and Ranch Employment, like in the short story?) They’d been told when to be there. They already knew therwas a job waiting. Wouldn’t the same hiring system be expected to apply the following year, for whoever was to go up on Brokeback then?
Jack's main (perhaps only) aim in -64 is to learn whether Ennis has been hired or has applied for a job. So Jack'd want to talk directly to Aguirre, of course. But would Aguirre react to Jack appearing to seek employment directly from him, consider it out of turn and unusual? Is that in fact what is happening – is Aguirre aware from the moment Jack utters his first sentence that if he was just looking for employment he wouldn’t go about it this way – ergo he’s looking for Ennis even before Ennis is mentioned, - ergo Aguirre feels all the more “justified” in responding with *his* first line with that condescending cant to it….?
ednbarby:
I've always thought so, Mikaela - that that's where Aguirre's immediately shitty attitude comes from - knowing exactly why Jack is there.
Brown Eyes:
--- Quote from: goadra on June 19, 2006, 10:57:42 am ---Where is Jack coming from when he arrives at Aguirre’s in 1964, the year after Brokeback?
Ennis arrives at Aguirre’s at the beginning of the movie: Facing the trailer, Ennis walks in from screen left on that long road.
Jack arrives at Aguirre’s: Looking outward from the trailer, he drives in from screen right--from the same direction as Ennis. (He makes a left turn onto a side street, then a right turn onto the gravel.)
Aguirre arrives: He pulls in from the opposite direction. Looking outward from the trailer, he drives in from screen left, making a right turn onto the gravel.
Jack drives away after Brokeback: He makes a right turn onto the main road, driving off toward the direction from which he arrived. When he looks in his rearview mirror, you can see the end of the road behind Ennis.
When Jack arrives at Aguirre’s the following summer, he pulls in from the same direction as Aguirre: Facing the trailer, he drives up from screen right. (He makes a right turn from a side street onto the main road, then a right turn onto the gravel.) You can see the end of the road at the right of the screen.
So...where is Jack coming from?
--- End quote ---
Wow! Amazing attention to detail... I'd never thought of that problem before. In practical terms I'd guess he's coming from Texas like other people have suggested. On a more metaphoric level this reminds me of all the situations where we notice trucks/ motion reverses direction. Clearly, the best example is the opening shot of the film when we see Ennis in that semi truck riding against the dark landscape from right to left and then at the end when we see him driving in in own truck against the dark landscape he's driving from left to right. I'd guess in Jack's case here... the vastly different results of his arrival at Aguirre's trailer in '63 vs. '64 might be hinted at by the direction of his truck. These changes of direction seem to indicate really large shifts in fortune, circumstance, luck, etc. in the film.
It's been suggested that BBM is structured like an "ink-blot" with lots of symmetrical things that happen at different points in the film to mirror one another or to create contrast. This might be one of those details. Good catch!
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