BetterMost, Wyoming & Brokeback Mountain Forum
Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond => Brokeback Mountain Open Forum => Topic started by: henrypie on July 15, 2006, 01:46:05 am
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The usual caveat: this may have been discussed, perhaps ad nauseum, and I missed it, but it's been playing in my head for the past few days and I don't recall such point, outside of my head:
I know the clock, always ticking down on Jack and Ennis's time together, is a prominent theme: "time to go, cowboy" and "never enough time, never enough" spring to mind as actual spoken instances of the word.
Aguirre has two: "You're wastin your time," and "You boys sure found a way to make the time pass...."
And he throws Ennis a watch.
In a way I see him as a kind of Father Time, marking the beginning and the ending. Any other observations of Aguirre, or anyone else, measuring time?
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Great observations about Aguirre, Sarah! I totally agree about the Father Time thing. If I think of anything (other than bringing home some round steak) I'll come back and post it.
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Fast or slow, I just like that you're startin' a thread, Cowgirl. :)
These jump to mind from the film:
"All this time and you ain't found no one else to marry?"
"Daddy that was two years ago!"
These come to mind from the story (with a little help from the 'find' feature, and copy and paste):
"Friend this letter is a long time over due."
"I sure wrang it out a hunderd times thinkin about you."
"I got a say this to you one time, Jack, and I ain't foolin."
"Try this one," said Jack, "and I'll say it just one time."
"What Jack remembered and craved in a way he could neither help nor understand was the time that distant summer on Brokeback when Ennis had come up behind him and pulled him close, the silent embrace satisfying some shared and sexless hunger."
"I feel awful bad about Jack. Can't begin to say how bad I feel. I knew him a long time."
"Around that time Jack began to appear in his dreams"
"And he would wake sometimes in grief, sometimes with the old sense of joy and release; the pillow sometimes wet, sometimes the sheets."
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"I'm commutin' four hours a day."
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"Miss Lureen Newsome from right here in Childress, Texas...Oh boy...and her time is...sixteen and nine-tenths seconds."
"My daddy's the hurry. Expects me home with the car by midnight"
"...all the heifers must of decided to calve at the same time."
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Great topic!
:D
goadra mentioned this, but I think it's worth repeating... Jack seems to wear increasingly fancy wristwatches. The one that sticks in my head the most is the one he wears in his truck on the way up to Wyoming and back down to Mexico following Ennis's divorce.
Also, it seems like the many shots of the rushing streams and rivers seem to be symbols of passing time.
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"...Says I can use it any time I want."
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And he throws Ennis a watch.
This has been noted in some other thread somewhere (I apologize for forgetting the original author... so that's my caveat for the evening)... but this moment when Aguirre throws Ennis the watch seems very insignificant at the beginning of the movie. The kind of detail that seems forgettable or unnecessary or simply pragmatic. BUT! This it the beginning of the time line...
:o
It's the beginning of "never enough time"... it's almost like this is the beginning of a race the boys will be running together until Jack's death. And the horrible bookend to this is the stopped clock in Jack's bedroom in Lightning Flat. I guess we don't really know that it's stopped (other than the idea that Ennis's visit probably isn't happening at either 8:45 am or pm). Anyway, the stopped clock in Jack's room is sort of a signal that the chances have run out. They've run out of time, etc.
I've always wondered why Ennis is unable to put the watch on his wrist at the beginning of the film. Does it not fit him? What is that supposed to mean?
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It's the beginning of "never enough time"... it's almost like this is the beginning of a race the boys will be running together until Jack's death. And the horrible bookend to this is the stopped clock in Jack's bedroom in Lightning Flat. I guess we don't really know that it's stopped (other than the idea that Ennis's visit isn't happening at either 8:45 am or pm). Anyway, the stopped clock in Jack's room is sort of a signal that the chances have run out. They've run out of time, etc.
Very nice observation about the bookends, Amanda. 8)
I've always wondered why Ennis is unable to put the watch on his wrist at the beginning of the film. Does it not fit him? What is that supposed to mean?
'
I suppose it's because he 'doesn't have enough time' to put it on before Jack shakes his hand. ;D
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I've always wondered why Ennis is unable to put the watch on his wrist at the beginning of the film. Does it not fit him? What is that supposed to mean?
Hmm ... Random thoughts: if the watch represents their time together, Ennis' decision not to wear it on his wrist -- i.e., openly -- could represent his refusal to be with Jack in public. Instead, he puts it in his pocket, where he alone controls it, keeping it to himself and private ...?
(In terms of just the practical, non-symbolic meaning, my impression is that he is so unused to wearing a watch that he can't get it fastened easily, and decides it's easier not to bother.)
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More random thoughts about time:
Jack is the one who wears prominent (wrist)watches.
Jack is the one who says "Never enough time, never enough"
= it's Jack's time that is running out :'(.
On Brokeback neither of them wears a watch: on Brokeback, they they onwned the world and all time (a whole summer seems to be a huge, near endless amount of time, especially when you're 19), they believed themselves invisible and nothing seemed wrong. But they were wrong in two of these three assumptions: their time was cut short (by Aguirre) and they weren't invisible (Aguirre watched them). And it is Aguirre, who gives Ennis the watch. F*** Aguirre!
I think Ennis didn't wear the watch because they seemed and wanted to believe to own all time, they did not count it, they did not (yet) think about the end of summer. But of course the watch was always there, with them, in Ennis's pocket. To deny the existence of the watch could not keep the time from ticking down and summer was cut short.
"Never enough time, never enough." is said by Jack at their very last time together. Their time is over, it ends at this very day. So "never enough time" is an understatement: there's not only too little time, there's no more time at all. But they don't know it :'(.
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So when Aguirre throws Ennis the watch, does that mean time is flying?
(I thought Ennis didn't put the watch on his wrist because the watch band was too small.)
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I love these observations, particularly yours, Amanda -- the race they're running. I lent my book so can't look it up, but if I recall, Aguirre throws Ennis the watch primarily to demonstrate that Ennis isn't even worth the civil gesture of being handed the watch.
But all the symbolic understandings of it work beautifully too.
I like the "time flying" idea ::) -- a nice interpretation as well as a classic candy-wrapper joke.
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