Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
A Ninth Viewing Observation
Front-Ranger:
Yes, I have been there so often Amanda. You hurt most the one U love most. Isn't it the truth, sadly?? :'(
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: atz75 on August 05, 2006, 01:53:27 am ---I think the confusing "I got the message" line is a little bit of Ennis's characteristic style of arguing.
--- End quote ---
Yes, it's his classic M.O. That's why I never take him literally when he says, "it's because of you I'm like this." I think that's another example of him turning on someone else when upset. Even the punch could be seen that way. But he never really means it.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: goadra on August 05, 2006, 11:25:21 am ---ednbarby once said she feels compelled to defend her “always put-upon and overly-maligned Jack”; I feel the same about Ennis. People sometimes say they “hate Ennis for what he did to Jack.”
--- End quote ---
I feel the same way. To tell the truth, all respect to Barb (ednbarby), I don't see Jack as being all that put-upon and overly maligned. Well, maybe, conceivably, in the movie. But Ennis is put-upon and maligned plenty on the message boards themselves, IMO. He has his faults, no doubt, but I think he often gets harsher treatment than he deserves. I have often been tempted to start a thread titled, "In defense of Ennis."
--- Quote ---I don’t share all of Ennis’s problems, but I am familiar with childhood trauma, being hobbled by fear, and having difficulty overcoming ideas you were raised with. In working to understand Ennis, I’m processing my own stuff. At the end of the day, I don’t want to be either Ennis or Jack, one afraid to take a chance, the other standing an unsatisfactory situation.
--- End quote ---
That's one of the many great functions of the movie, hunh?
silkncense:
--- Quote ---At the end of the day, I don’t want to be either Ennis or Jack, one afraid to take a chance, the other standing an unsatisfactory situation.
--- End quote ---
Perfectly said.
Brown Eyes:
Well, I do think it's accurate to perceive that Jack is generally much-loved on BetterMost and othe BBM boards, but that in the movie his lot is awfully harsh. I've said this before, but I feel like watching the progression of the situation in the movie in terms of Jack is like watching a puppy getting kicked over and over again (and certainly not just by Ennis).
I think it may feel like Ennis is picked-on more on BetterMost and elsewere simply because he's positioned as the protagonist. We spend more camera-time with Ennis and to a large extent he controls the relationship following the reunion scene and Jack's proposal about the cow and calf operation. It really is purely Ennis's decision to live separately for all those years (this has nothing to do with Jack's own, personal motivation). If they had decided at some point to go along with Jack's plans and ideas about ranching up together and then we were shown something tragic happening, maybe there would be more discussions about Jack's "faults." As it is, Jack's ideas are purely ideas and fantasies... we only really get to see the results of their relationship according to Ennis's rules. And, at the end of the day, this is a story about Ennis's growth as a character and about the situation he largely gets himself into by the end... stuck alone in the trailer. And, to a certain extent, Ennis seems like a more complex character, which I think also leads to more serious critique.
:-\
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