Ennis borrows Jack’s lighter at the bar. There’s a little spark between them as their fingers touch.
And as someone (sorry forget who) pointed out, Ennis is smoking outside Aguirre's trailer earlier so his asking for Jack's lighter at the bar is unnecessary and is his first kinda flirty thing.
And thinking of cigarettes, one part of the story which I wish was shown in the film is from the motel scene:
"Ennis pulled Jack's hand to his mouth, took a hit from the cigarette, exhaled. 'Sure as hell seem in one piece to me[....]'" There is something about the sharing of a cigarette in that way that gets me good. The next line also makes me feel a bit wibbly inside, though I can see why they might not have wanted Movie Ennis to say it.
What do you make of the scene when they've come down from the mountain and Aguirre is chewing them out? Ennis silently holds out his cigarette to Jack, and Jack turns his hand to show Ennis that Jack already has a cigarette of his own.
Almost seems to contradict the dynamic of the goodbye scene, where Jack seems to hope that the relationship can continue the next summer, and Ennis talks about getting married.
And as someone (sorry forget who) pointed out, Ennis is smoking outside Aguirre's trailer earlier so his asking for Jack's lighter at the bar is unnecessary and is his first kinda flirty thing.
If Ennis truly is offering Jack his cigarette here... wow, that really would be flirty and surprisingly open for Ennis. It seems sort of out of character that Jack would reject a relatively open act of friendship/ affection. So, maybe we're supposed to think he's still really mad here. I wonder if this is a little "bookend" to the early bar scene with the shared lighter.
I haven't smoked on a regular basis for about 20 years, but whenever I watch the movie I always feel like buying a pack and firing one up.
I've always seen Ennis asking Jack for a light in the bar before Brokeback as frugality on Ennis's part - perhaps he'd just used his last match. The way he carefully saves the half-smoked cigarette and then decides to splurge and smoke the rest of it there in the bar, although holding back from using his own match or lighter....... - to me all of it that illustrates how much he's used to "hard life and privation". How much frugality has become his second nature.
Jack lights up on the steps before he introduces himself to Ennis, doesn't he? (He lights up figuratively, too, with a great open smile during the "Your folks just stop at Ennis?" line.)
On Ennis's first night going up to the sheep, Jack is also smoking, isn't he? He stands there, smoking, while Ennis rides away?
Ennis getting ready to go up to the sheep the very first time, directly when they switch jobs. He's standing besides his horse twiddling with the saddle bag, cigarette first in left hand, then in his mouth as he mounts the horse.
Don't know if there's any deeper meaning to it, but I love this scene. And Ennis little coughing.
Ennis's whole demeanor is so typical here.
Thinking back to that half-smoked cigarette at the beginning of the movie... I've always looked at it as a very subtle way of showing us how poor Ennis is. But to play along with the fire-as-sexuality symbolism here, the fact that Ennis puts out his own cigarette, deliberately, by squashing it between his fingers, could also say something about the way that Ennis has repressed his sexuality. (And then he hides it in his pocket!) Maybe pushing a symbol too far, though. I dunno.
Yes he does. He's holding a cig, but it's after he's watched Ennis ride off that he takes a mighty puff of smoke. It's as if, having watched the one who makes him light up figuratively ride away, he needs the proxy, the comfort that the small literal fire of the cig gives him.
Another "fire" image I've been thinking of is Jack, trying to place his feet as close as possible to their camp fire without actually sticking his boots directly into the fire. It looks as if he's precariously close to being singed and hurt, never quite finding a good, comfortable position that is close to the fire's heat and light without being dangerously close. That does seem to illustrate his relationship with Ennis......
But Ennis smoking while dancing with Cassie seems like a sign of disinterest.
Going back to the warshing scene, I was struck last time I saw it how the smoke from Jack's exhalation swirls around the out-of-focus image of naked Ennis in the background, further obscuring him (dang!) just at the time when we hear the swishing of the warshrag in the bucket of water. It's a potent image.
Ennis smoking while lying in bed with Jack is hot enough to make the whole damn motel spontaneous combust (or maybe that was just the audience).
Thinking back to that half-smoked cigarette at the beginning of the movie... I've always looked at it as a very subtle way of showing us how poor Ennis is. But to play along with the fire-as-sexuality symbolism here, the fact that Ennis puts out his own cigarette, deliberately, by squashing it between his fingers, could also say something about the way that Ennis has repressed his sexuality. (And then he hides it in his pocket!) Maybe pushing a symbol too far, though. I dunno.
Jack lights up on the steps before he introduces himself to Ennis, doesn't he? (He lights up figuratively, too, with a great open smile during the "Your folks just stop at Ennis?" line.)
On Ennis's first night going up to the sheep, Jack is also smoking, isn't he? He stands there, smoking, while Ennis rides away?
She had two women friends, Pamela Gratt and Ruth Wolfe, both of them burning at a slower rate than Josanna, but in their own desperate ways also disintegrating into drifts of ash.