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Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond => Brokeback Mountain Open Forum => Topic started by: whiteoutofthemoon on June 04, 2006, 08:53:43 pm

Title: Paper Bags
Post by: whiteoutofthemoon on June 04, 2006, 08:53:43 pm: I'm presuming this has been discussed before, but as I'm new here, thought I'd chime in with a new thread and my take on the topic.

The first time I saw the movie, I was immediately struck by the opening scene in which Ennis gets off the truck with a paper bag in his hand. No suitcase, no duffel bag...just a solitary paper bag containing what he needs to work that summer. Very poignant and humble, reflecting not only his poverty, but the simple life he came from.

But this scene represents one of the several bookends in the movie. When you first see Ennis, he is carrying the paper bag, the wind is blowing, and he is looking somewhat aimlessly around. then flash to the end of the movie at the Twist house. This is the only other time that you see Ennis with a paper bag. Why in the world would Mrs Twist insist on putting the shirts into a paper bag? Ennis folds the top of the bag down in the exact same manner as the opening scene, and as he steps out of the house...you see him carrying the paper bag, wind blowing, and Ennis looking aimlessly around.

Two bookends, with the paper bags......his life began with Jack, his life was over with Jack's demise.
Title: Re: Paper Bags
Post by: RouxB on June 04, 2006, 08:56:10 pm: Or, each time all his worldly goods-all that he owned-were in the bag.

O0
Title: Re: Paper Bags
Post by: whiteoutofthemoon on June 04, 2006, 08:58:46 pm: Quote from: RouxB on June 04, 2006, 08:56:10 pm
Or, each time all his worldly goods-all that he owned-were in the bag.

O0

Right...the first time, all that he owned was in the bag...the second time, all that mattered.
Title: Re: Paper Bags
Post by: starboardlight on June 05, 2006, 02:44:17 am: I also think that it was a beautiful gesture on Mrs. Twist's part of offering a bag. She showed that she understood the meaning of the shirts to both Jack and Ennis. We put things in bags, not just for easy carrying but to also protect them from outside elements. By putting the shirts in a bag, she showed that she felt the shirts, and thus the love between the boys and the memories of that love, is important enough to be protected.
Title: Re: Paper Bags
Post by: Ellemeno on June 05, 2006, 03:11:37 am: I get a chance here to say again that when Ennis and Mrs. Twist put those shirts in the bag together, it's the only true funeral Jack gets, from the two people who love him most.
Title: Re: Paper Bags
Post by: Karan13 on June 05, 2006, 08:51:04 pm: lovely thoughts,
So sad to see Ennis leaving the Twists house , he looks so lost and alone , he rolls up the bag slightly and clings on to it , to all he has left of Jack. lovely.

I think Mrs Twist also puts them in the bag away from Jacks dads glare , so Ennis can take them away and treasure them without any hurtfull comments.

xx kaz :'(
Title: Re: Paper Bags
Post by: ednbarby on June 06, 2006, 07:33:55 pm: Darn it. You all just did it to me again. :'(
Title: Re: Paper Bags
Post by: fernly on June 06, 2006, 07:50:10 pm: Quote from: whiteoutofthemoon on June 04, 2006, 08:58:46 pm
Right...the first time, all that he owned was in the bag...the second time, all that mattered.

Aw, hell, I thought I was done crying.

whiteoutofthemoon,
You didn't say much, but you got your point across,
beautifully.
Title: Re: Paper Bags
Post by: moremojo on June 06, 2006, 08:19:56 pm: Beautiful topic, brimming with lovely, heartfelt expression throughout the thread. The tears are really flowing again, more than I've had in quite a few days. My heart is raw, yet open...to love, to experience, and to the burden of memory. Paper bags, dirty shirts, the recollection of a bean-can spoon...little details, infused with such power and poetry. How can a story, a film, an artifact prostrate me with such grief and love? Amazing...

:'(
Scott
Title: Re: Paper Bags
Post by: serious crayons on June 07, 2006, 01:33:13 pm: Quote from: Karan13 on June 05, 2006, 08:51:04 pm
So sad to see Ennis leaving the Twists house , he looks so lost and alone , he rolls up the bag slightly and clings on to it , to all he has left of Jack. lovely.

I think Mrs Twist also puts them in the bag away from Jacks dads glare , so Ennis can take them away and treasure them without any hurtfull comments.

Beautifully put, Karan.

I also notice that when Ennis first come down holding the shirts and walks through the kitchen, he moves them slightly away from Mr. Twist, protectively.
Title: Re: Paper Bags
Post by: akredhead on June 07, 2006, 02:12:09 pm: How lonely an existance when all that matters to you can fit in a bag.

Quote from: whiteoutofthemoon on June 04, 2006, 08:53:43 pm
I'm presuming this has been discussed before, but as I'm new here, thought I'd chime in with a new thread and my take on the topic.

The first time I saw the movie, I was immediately struck by the opening scene in which Ennis gets off the truck with a paper bag in his hand. No suitcase, no duffel bag...just a solitary paper bag containing what he needs to work that summer. Very poignant and humble, reflecting not only his poverty, but the simple life he came from.

But this scene represents one of the several bookends in the movie. When you first see Ennis, he is carrying the paper bag, the wind is blowing, and he is looking somewhat aimlessly around. then flash to the end of the movie at the Twist house. This is the only other time that you see Ennis with a paper bag. Why in the world would Mrs Twist insist on putting the shirts into a paper bag? Ennis folds the top of the bag down in the exact same manner as the opening scene, and as he steps out of the house...you see him carrying the paper bag, wind blowing, and Ennis looking aimlessly around.

Two bookends, with the paper bags......his life began with Jack, his life was over with Jack's demise.
Title: Re: Paper Bags
Post by: bbm_stitchbuffyfan on June 08, 2006, 01:08:56 am: This thread is making me cry. Literally.

It's a beautiful, beautiful parallel.
Title: Re: Paper Bags
Post by: iristarr on June 10, 2006, 12:51:21 pm: After all this time, and my being away from these forums for many weeks, I'm hooked again by this thread and the insightful thoughts here. I always wondered where Ennis got the cloth bag he carried his belongings in when he left the mountain. Maybe it was a sack that flour came in while they were up there. Any other ideas?
Title: Re: Paper Bags
Post by: alec716 on June 10, 2006, 01:12:46 pm: Quote from: whiteoutofthemoon on June 04, 2006, 08:58:46 pm
Right...the first time, all that he owned was in the bag...the second time, all that mattered.

I cannot imagine a better characterization of the scenes being discussed. Excellent!

Everyone's comments on this thread are literally giving me goosebumps as I recall the scene in the physically and emotionally barren Twist(ed) house. Parents' emotions twisted into decades' worth of knots, fingers twisted by years of hard labor in the fields and the house, hopes and dreams and affections of the once-young couple twisted into scrub brush and tumbleweed. And the father's view that his son was, well, twisted in his plans to live with a man.

I have to believe that Ennis' visit was Mrs. Twist's first opportunity to have a real connection with someone who truly loved her son... and I believe she knew the whole story, knew exactly who was visiting on that sunny day. To me, the bag into which she placed the shirts became a shroud for the most valuable part of her son that remained on earth -- the shirts which symbolized her son's ability to experience a love which she had likely never had the opportunity to feel or act on in her own life. I ache for her lonliness, and for the quiet desperation she expressed when asking Ennis to come visit again.
Title: Re: Paper Bags
Post by: iristarr on June 10, 2006, 01:41:14 pm: My God, Alec, I'm tearing up all over again!!! Will the insights that this incredible film has evoked ever end? Maybe not -- they'll just go on reverberating forever. I am truly without words to express my feelings about all this . . . Iris.
Title: Re: Paper Bags
Post by: alec716 on June 10, 2006, 06:05:58 pm: "Reverberate" is TRULY a word which descirbes my ongoing experience of this story. Thanks, Iris, for bringing it to mind!
Title: Re: Paper Bags
Post by: whiteoutofthemoon on June 11, 2006, 01:18:18 am: Quote from: iristarr on June 10, 2006, 12:51:21 pm
After all this time, and my being away from these forums for many weeks, I'm hooked again by this thread and the insightful thoughts here. I always wondered where Ennis got the cloth bag he carried his belongings in when he left the mountain. Maybe it was a sack that flour came in while they were up there. Any other ideas?

Now see, in that scene, he COULD have used another paper bag, but of course we would never believe that a paper bag would have survived all that time in the damp weather, so i presume it was a potato sac. But also, it sets up the bookends....that is, if he used a paper bag in that good bye scene, then it would not be a perfect bookend with the paper bags at the beginning, and then at the end.

I'm sure someone also brought this up already, but I also wanted to add how well the paper bags ties in with the other main bookends.....the beginning of the movie has a dawn scene with a truck carrying Ennis going from right to left. Ennis, of course, has the original paper bag in that truck. Then after the Twist house, you see a dusk scene with the truck going left to right, and Ennis has the second more meaningful bag.

Ang Lee is genius here: Dawn to Dusk.... the twenty years summed up in a symbol of one day. Dawn with meeting Jack, Dusk with losing Jack. And the only thing that was different in those two scenes was the contents of a simple, poignant, humble paper bag. Furthermore, and if I'm not mistaken, even after 20 years, one of the shirts in the bag at the end is the very same shirt Ennis is wearing when we first see him at the very beginning. Pretty damn cool touch.
Title: Re: bookends
Post by: Front-Ranger on August 05, 2006, 07:25:54 pm: I found another pair of "bookend" scenes in the movie. I wonder if anyone else sees it this way. There is a corollary to the Ennis and Alma Thanksgiving scene and it's not the Childress T-giving. It's when Randall and Jack are sitting on the bench waiting for their wives to "powder their noses." In this scene, Jack is uncomfortable, just like Ennis is sitting at Monroe's table. Both scenes portray a confused exchange of words. Ennis's girls want him to be a rodeo star, and he tells them he is far from one. Jack wonders why women would "powder their noses" just to go home and go to bed. Shortly after, the women appear and it is eminently clear why they were "powdering;" it was a chance to gossip about their husbands and continue their exploration of what all they have in common, which they are finding to their dismay, is quite a lot. The nut of the two scenes is when a seemingly innocent comment mushrooms all out of proportion. Jack says, You'll like working for Roy Taylor, which inspires Randall's quiet seduction sequence...crappy house...lake...fish a little...drink whiskey. During this, we see that Jack has a fearful, anxious look, but also the cinematography is a mirror image of the Ennis/Alma Thanksgiving scene, with Jack in the foreground, out of focus, and the accuser (Randall) in the midground, sharp. And in both of the scenes, the spouses are away.
Title: Re: Paper Bags
Post by: serious crayons on August 06, 2006, 02:54:13 am: F-R, you are so observant! :)

Another thing. In both cases, there is earlier awkward tension between the lead character and his spouse (or ex). Lureen's "husbands never wanna dance with their wives" and Alma's queasy expression at the dinner table. In both cases, the men deflect it by turning friendly attention to some other female at the table: Jenny (and Alma Jr.) in one case, LaSahwn in the other.

It's a lucky thing Jack didn't grab Randall's wrist and threaten to make him eat the floor ... or is it? :-\
Title: Re: Paper Bags
Post by: Front-Ranger on December 28, 2006, 07:33:51 pm: Let's look for more bookends when we watch the movie together tomorrow.
Title: Re: Paper Bags
Post by: Toast on January 08, 2007, 08:50:44 pm: Gorgeous thread.
Ennis starts out and ends with all that matters in a paper bag.

Can I add one thing:
When Ennis comes down the mountain, he no longer has a paper bag, but he has a cloth bag. It is a cotton sugar bag. And the brand name of the sugar was Crystal.
(http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l173/nltoast/CrystalGranulatedSugarBag.jpg)
Crystal Granulated Sugar.
Title: Re: Paper Bags
Post by: Front-Ranger on March 06, 2007, 07:12:42 pm: IT occurred to me the last time I saw the film (which was on the big screen, thanks to BayCityJohn) that the paper bags serve a similar function to the bucket that we often see in connection with Jack on the mountain or whenever Ennis is thinking of Jack.
Title: Re: Paper Bags
Post by: Front-Ranger on March 17, 2007, 03:06:04 pm: Portentious appearance of an empty bag:

Quote
"Well, see you around, I guess." The wind tumbled an empty feed bag down the street until it fetched up under his truck.

That was Jack's truck, of course/
Title: Re: Paper Bags
Post by: Front-Ranger on March 30, 2007, 11:07:53 am: (http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-8/1210035/040_zkrocena_hora.jpg)

Anyone else here of the opinion that the buckets and bags, whether of the paper, fabric, or canvas variety, are THE SAME??

I'm watching the DVD today, just to look for buckets and bags!
Title: Re: Paper Bags
Post by: loneleeb3 on April 24, 2007, 09:36:03 am: I just saw this thread for the first time. I noticed that too about the paper bags in the begining and at the twist house. I thought it was just me.LOL
This community is showing me I'm not as different as I have been thinking.
I remember being struck when Ennis gets out of the truck that all he had was in a paper bag and how sad that was. When Mrs Twist puts the shirts in the bag you can't just let the fact that she's putting them in the same type of bag go by. Someone earlier put it so beautifully"Int he begining all he owned was in a paper bag at the end all he cared about was".
So beautifully put. This movie, this story is so deep and so multifaceted. Between the directors,actors and Annie herself, this whole presentation is a work of genius from start to finish.