Water Walking Jesus - 'Christ in Our Home' -- by CaseyCornelius

[TOoP/Bruce]

Water Walking Jesus - 'Christ in Our Home' -- by CaseyCornelius
      
UPDATED Fri May 4 2007 23:23:03
by - CaseyCornelius (Thu Mar 30 2006 17:05:30 )   

UPDATED Fri Mar 31 2006 07:14:15
I've commented on the songs which Jack and Ennis sing to each other in a prior thread titled Ennis and Jack Serenading which has long since been deleted,
But, I'm offering portions of it which I'd saved:
1] in memory of the numerous valuable and thought-provoking threads which have been deliberately sabotaged and or deleted out of spite
2] because the hatred and intolerance of some of the posts using so-called Biblical justification appearing on this Brokeback board needs to be challenged by some of the obvious Christian imagery and allusions contained in both the story and the film
3] as we prepare to celebrate His eminence with the coming Passion week and Easter

Jack's singing of the final fragment of Water Walking Jesus - a fictional hymn written by Larry McMurtry's son, Annie Proulx and another person listed in the credits for the film - is another subtle allusion, this time Biblical, which provides another layer of depth to Jack's character.

I'm moved to tears by the pathos of Jack's fondness for the Biblical account of the miracle of Jesus walking on the water and encouraging the disciple Peter to leave the rest of the disciples and join him on the tumult of the sea. What an apt Christian symbol to reflect Jack's more adventuresome, open, and daring spirit in complete contrast to that of the taciturn, mistrusting, fearful Ennis.

We could begin another whole discussion here with reference to Jack's Mother and how her acceptance of Jack's love for Ennis is not incompatible with her faith. Remember that in that final hallucinating wonderous Lightning Flat scene in the Twist kitchen she is prominently framed with the crucifix and its inscription "Christ in our Home". And, hence, in both Annie Proulx's eyes and Ang Lee's interpretation obviates any conflict between true Christian faith and the tolerance for a man loving another man.

Remember that in the story Jack serenades Ennis with a favored hymn, "Water Walking Jesus" learned from his mother who believed in THE PENTECOST [emphasis mine].
It's touching in the film that Jack cannot explain the Pentecost to Ennis, despite his up-bringing. He confuses it with the Last Judgement, whereas it is actually the beginning of the Christian church, with the first descent of the Holy Spirit, the enlightening 'paraclete' or comforter, upon all believers. Roberta Maxwell's brief, but astonishing portrayal of Jack's Mother sympathy towards Ennis, who has himself offered condolences to Lureen and Jack's parents, is all the more moving as she is the first and only person to realize the enormity of his own loss and offer comfort to HIM.



Re: Water Walking Jesus ------ 'Christ in Our Home'   
by - starboardlight (Thu Mar 30 2006 17:26:37 )   

Roberta gave us one of the most beautiful depiction of a Christian woman. The word that comes to mind when I think of her is "light", "grace", and "compassion". She brought so much love in her brief moment, and lifted us when the scene threaten to become oppressive. Jack's mother just shook me to the core, in how accepting she was of Jack and of this man who meant so much to Jack. It is clear that Jack was open to love and to his feeling because he learned it from her. Thanx Casey for reposting that. I loved reading it the first time around, and I love being reminded.



Re: Water Walking Jesus ------ 'Christ in Our Home'   
by - amandazehnder (Thu Mar 30 2006 17:56:51 )   

great observations. I love the idea of inviting another to also walk on water.


Re: Water Walking Jesus ------ 'Christ in Our Hom   
by - delalluvia (Thu Mar 30 2006 18:11:32 )   

Excellent observations.

But I'm fond of the idea - having roughed it myself in the wilderness areas of Wyoming - that the boys simply sang any song that they knew. The short story seems to back up this idea, otherwise we will have to make sense of 'Strawberry Roan' and Carl Perkins in the context of the story.

Jack, with his Pentecost mother would have been familiar with various hymns he probably heard her sing while at her knee as a boy.

I know I'm very familiar with my mother's favorite hymns, but not because of any religious fervor.

Team Jolie


Re: Water Walking Jesus ------ 'Christ in Our Hom   
by - Shuggy (Thu Mar 30 2006 18:38:54 )   

I wonder if Annie Proulx, had in the back of her mind when she coined the title "Water Walking Jesus", the Gershwin aria and chorus, "Clara, Clara...Jake, Jake" from Porgy and Bess?

From memory (Google didn't find it):

Jake, Jake, there's no use a sorrowin'...
Jesus is walking on the water, comin to carry me home...

"If you can't stand it, you gotta fix it" and more at www.cafepress.com/ahua/1167379


Re: Water Walking Jesus ------ 'Christ in Our Hom   
by - amandazehnder (Thu Mar 30 2006 18:44:32 )   

How about this... maybe another "bookend" idea...


Here we see Jack singing a song from his Mother to Ennis. In the flashback, Ennis is recalling the saying (and maybe the lullaby he hums too?) from his long deceased Mother.

They both seemed to have had loving Mothers.


Re: Water Walking Jesus ------ 'Christ in Our Home'   
by - naun (Thu Mar 30 2006 19:04:22 )   

Casey, the movie and the story seem to be practically inexhaustible.

I'm moved to tears by the pathos of Jack's fondness for the Biblical account of the miracle of Jesus walking on the water and encouraging the disciple Peter to leave the rest of the disciples and join him on the tumult of the waters.

Unless memory is playing tricks, isn't there a shot where Jack walks across the river carrying a lamb, and makes a sort of gesture for Ennis to follow?

What an apt Christian symbol to reflect Jack's more adventuresome, open, and daring spirit in complete contrast to that of the taciturn, mistrusting, fearful Ennis.

It struck me only recently, after reading a comment by another poster, that Ennis' typical mannerism when speaking is to shake his head, while Jack characteristically nods in encouragement.




Re: Water Walking Jesus ------ 'Christ in Our Hom   
by - delalluvia (Thu Mar 30 2006 19:08:29 )   

See this is the thing. We've run the poor sheep and lambs and slaughtered them left and right in our quest for symbolism, Christian or not, but as someone very wise once pointed out to me:

There are only two major types of livestock ranched with any regularity in Wyoming - sheep and cattle.

If Proulx didn't use one, she had to use the other, so while the choice may have been symbolic, it was also practical.

Team Jolie


Re: Water Walking Jesus ------ 'Christ in Our Hom   
by - naun (Thu Mar 30 2006 19:20:36 )   

UPDATED Fri Mar 31 2006 04:41:34
From memory (Google didn't find it):

Jake, Jake, there's no use a sorrowin'...
Jesus is walking on the water, comin to carry me home...


Here's the version given in the CD issue that I have of the 1951 Columbia recording. The second line is even more evocative of BBM:

Jake, Jake, don't you be downhearted,
Jake, Jake, don't you be sad an' lonesome.
Jesus is walkin' on de water,
Rise up an' follow Him home.

Interesting, in the light of Casey's remarks, that the version that Jack sings is about the Day of Judgement, while the version in Porgy & Bess is about being comforted.



Re: Water Walking Jesus ------ 'Christ in Our Hom   
by - naun (Thu Mar 30 2006 19:26:12 )   

There are only two major types of livestock ranched with any regularity in Wyoming - sheep and cattle.

If Proulx didn't use one, she had to use the other, so while the choice may have been symbolic, it was also practical.

Okay, but there was probably also a limited variety of livestock in the ancient biblical lands, but that doesn't stop them being symbolic in the Bible, either.

Re: Water Walking Jesus ------ 'Christ in Our Hom   
by - delalluvia (Thu Mar 30 2006 19:28:09 )   

Okay, but there was probably also a limited variety of livestock in the ancient biblical lands, but that doesn't stop them being symbolic in the Bible, either.

Naw, they didn't have very many cattle, they had mostly sheep, goats and pigs.

Team Jolie


Re: Water Walking Jesus ------ 'Christ in Our Hom   
by - Julie01 (Thu Mar 30 2006 19:40:49 )   

He's the Lilly of the Valley,
he's the Bright and Morning Star
he's the fairest of 10,000 to my soul.

If it's good enough for Richard Right and Alice Munro, it's good enough for me.

Is anyone remotely interested in the fact that the Pentecost was when the Holy Ghost descended upon Jesus' deciples, making them able to speask in tongues, and thus spread the love of God exponentially? Or don't you like movies?


Those in darkness, we don't see.--Brecht


Re: Water Walking Jesus ------ 'Christ in Our Hom   
by - starboardlight (Thu Mar 30 2006 20:17:32 )   

How about this... maybe another "bookend" idea...


Here we see Jack singing a song from his Mother to Ennis. In the flashback, Ennis is recalling the saying (and maybe the lullaby he hums too?) from his long deceased Mother.


I love that observation. great catch.



Re: Water Walking Jesus ------ 'Christ in Our Home'   
by - starboardlight (Thu Mar 30 2006 20:21:52 )   

Unless memory is playing tricks, isn't there a shot where Jack walks across the river carrying a lamb, and makes a sort of gesture for Ennis to follow?

I love that interpretation. I just thought of it as a scene of them going up the mountain, and it may be just that. but I like being able to read into it.








Re: Water Walking Jesus ------ 'Christ in Our Home'   
by - laxdoctor (Thu Mar 30 2006 22:29:06 )   

Good post, good thread, good thoughtful contributions. Thank you all.

The scenes in the Twists' house are some of the most profoundly moving and important in all the thousands of films I've ever seen. The so-called Christians who won't see this film because they're paralyzed by fear are depriving themselves every bit as much as they would if they refused to look at the Pieta. The Christian friends I've taken to this film have every single one of them been awed and deeply moved by these scenes. It's not a Christian film, that's not the point. It's that in these scenes the love of Christ shines through the character of Jack's mother, courageous, unending, generous, wholly accepting, empowering.


Re: Water Walking Jesus ------ 'Christ in Our Hom   
by - Shuggy (Thu Mar 30 2006 22:45:14 )   

Of course your words are correct. What a treacherous thing memory is, to be sure.

"If you can't stand it, you gotta fix it" and more at www.cafepress.com/ahua/1167379


Re: Water Walking Jesus ------ 'Christ in Our Hom   
by - naun (Fri Mar 31 2006 04:39:08 )   

Of course your words are correct. What a treacherous thing memory is, to be sure.

Your memory was good enough to make the connection in the first place, all I had to do was look up the words.

Isn't it amazing how many associations Annie Proulx touches off in her writing? The woman has a mind like a pinball machine. One of the tremendous things about the movie is how Lee, Ossana and McMurtry pick up on this aspect of her work and run with it. I never realized how pervasive the Christian imagery is in this film until I read some of the postings on this board. Like the way the telephone poles right at the beginning visually recall the Calvary. And yet I'm fairly sure that we don't see an actual cross until that literally crucial Lightning Flat scene.

Re: Water Walking Jesus ------ 'Christ in Our Hom   
by - Lost_FrenchyGirl (Fri Mar 31 2006 05:14:09 )   

I know that's song "Water Walking Jesus " has been written by James McMurtry, Stephen Bruton and Annie Proulx.

But where can I find lyrics ? Please.


Re: Water Walking Jesus ------ 'Christ in Our Home'   
by - taj_e (Fri Mar 31 2006 05:42:43 )   

naun
***Unless memory is playing tricks, isn't there a shot where Jack walks across the river carrying a lamb, and makes a sort of gesture for Ennis to follow?***

Thanks for bringing up the scene. I always thought that Jake was asking Ennis to hurry up 'will you hurry up!'
I never thought about connecting it to the song
When Jake told Ennis about judgement it was actually regard to Pentecost

[TOoP/Bruce]

Re: Water Walking Jesus, Lyrics   
by - taj_e (Fri Mar 31 2006 05:48:13 )   

I'm interested on the lyrics too
And which was the exact original song when Proulx first mentioned it in the book

When Jesus asked Peter to come to him, it was a test of faith. If ever Jake was asking Ennis the same, perhaps Ennis hasn't got enough 'faith' just yet

Re: Water Walking Jesus, Lyrics   
by - kid-8 (Fri Mar 31 2006 06:47:19 )   

Annie wrote the title in her short story, that's why she's credited on the song.

James McMurtry and Stephen Bruton wrote the lyrics.

I wish they had added James's and Stephen's singing version of the song to the soundtrack...


Re: Water Walking Jesus, Lyrics   
by - alex-gowans (Fri Mar 31 2006 13:27:12 )   

taj_e wrote: When Jesus asked Peter to come to him, it was a test of faith. If ever Jake was asking Ennis the same, perhaps Ennis hasn't got enough 'faith' just yet


I find the issue of faith a very interesting one. For instance, my take on right-wing Christian political organizing in North America is that many politically active self-identified Christians have their telescope turned the wrong way around.

Instead of living a life of faith, and trusting that God will sort everything out, many "Christians" - in a vain attempt to "prove" their faithfulness - are agitating vigourously in the political arena to control the lives of everyone.

Despite routine jokes about The Rapture, many "Christians" seem determined to mandate paradise in this world by legislation. In this scenario, paradise seems mostly concerned with controlling who we screw, what we drink, whom we marry, and what we can see on television.

I've never seen so many people so desperate to act out their doubt and faithlesness so publicly.


Calvary   
by - CaseyCornelius (Fri Mar 31 2006 15:56:30 )   

naun:

It's getting scary how often you and I pick up on the same images. I've been afraid or timid to admit on this Board or even to myself that the last 4 or 5 times I've seen the film, the first thing that popped into my mind watching the semi pull up and drop off Ennis within that 'garden' of wooden utility poles was 'empty crosses'. Even though there is not a horizontal cross-bar in sight.

Also love your characterizing the mind of Proulx as akin to a pinball machine and how thoroughly that the film-making triumverate were able to build upon her genius. What a miracle of a film. We're only beginning to realize its symbolic depth, sub-conscious proddings, and Rorshach-like quality in allowing thoughtful, sensitive, intuitive viewers to read into its seeming placid surface a host of interpretations and allusions.
Every time I sit through the final credits I'm still shaking my head wondering HOW the film has achieved so much.


Re: Water Walking Jesus ------ 'Christ in Our Home'   
by - SnickerD (Fri Mar 31 2006 18:23:15 )   

beautiful.


Re: Calvary   
by - naun (Sat Apr 1 2006 08:41:21 )   

Casey,

I wish I could take credit for that observation about the utility poles, but the truth is it was noted by another poster on this board some while ago. Once someone put that thought into my head I could never see those opening shots any other way.

But yes, it's very gratifying to find one's responses to the film converging with someone else's. To take only one recent example, your musings about the religious significance of the objects outside the Twist home in your "pentagram/scythe" thread encouraged me in several ideas that I'd been entertaining about some of the objects seen inside Jack's room -- and in particular the bloodied shirts, which I've since come to think of as a veritable Shroud of Turin.

I wonder if any film has ever been explored in such depth and with such wonderment as this one has been on this board these past few months. Let me echo the thanks of many others for your part in initiating and encouraging these explorations.


Re: Calvary   
by - delalluvia (Sat Apr 1 2006 09:29:40 )   

Hmmm, never saw the telephone polls as 'crosses' since you could hardly see the cross-bars. Instead, they reminded me of the lonely sentinels, society I suppose, watching, always watching, down even in the empty areas of the bottomlands.

Team Jolie


Re: Water Walking Jesus ------ 'Christ in Our Hom   
by - retropian (Sun Apr 2 2006 11:21:40 )   

Casey.

As always your posts are highly illuminating. I wanted to put my 2 cents in.

It seemed to me that Jack was always calling Ennis to live an authentic life in love with him, as Christ does with us. Ennis refuses (his maledictions as you pointed out in another thread.) It is only when Jack dies that Ennis realises what he missed, just as many realised too late what they lost upon the death of Christ. However, an authentic life, lived in love is still possible for Ennis and us. For us, it is in Christ's resurrection, for Ennis it is the love between he and his daughter. I posted on another thread my observation that when we 1st see Jack he is screen left. On screen right, behind him is a wind blown grassy field (a sign of love to come?) which is duplicated, bookended, in the closing shot through Ennis's trailer window. All Ennis has to do is step outside the trailer(himself) and that love is there for him, eternally.


'The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it --'   
by - CaseyCornelius (Sun Apr 2 2006 23:57:06 )   

UPDATED Mon Apr 3 2006 00:00:31
retropian:

Great to discuss this with you, as we've discussed so much of value in other threads. In the original post of the Classical Allusions thread I said that that final shot is so ambiguous - it can be taken as both a sign of hope and of intractible inevitability - either as a sign that Ennis is finally reunited with Jack's wind-blown spirit OR, peering through the window of his meagre trailer, that Ennis too has chosen to live a circumscribed life, looking down the only road he'll ever know, now that the chance of a life with Jack is truly gone.

I think both of us have noticed the Michelangelo Antonioni-esque juxtaposing of Jack on the left in that opening shot with the wind-swept fields [the essential details of which are recapitulated in that final shot]. Several of us have discussed on these boards the restless spirit of Jack being symbolized by the wind throughout the film, and, of course, there it is in that opening shot - whereas Ennis is always framed, circumscribed by the walls of the trailer against which he is leaning - a perfect summation of their characters and the direction of the story.

I've always had Biblical quotes running through my mind at key points in the film, because of the imagery. One key passage is from John 3:8 "The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is every one who is born of the Spirit." which enters my mind whenever I see that opening shot of Jack's profile.

But, that opening landscape also includes a tree towards which Jack appears to gaze, with a resolute stare into the distance as if to express the imagery of Psalm 1:1,3 - "How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked" -- " and he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season--"

No trees appear in the final shot and, in my opinion, this can be taken one way to express the desolation of Ennis's life - Jack IS gone, he is not coming back, and Ennis has only the memory and talisman/tokens of the shirts, their symbolic Brudershaft or blood oath, to remind him. In the opening shot the noble profile of a 'living' Jack was juxtaposed with the wind-swept landscape -- in the final shot that living profile is replaced by mere replacement tokens indicative of the life which Ennis was offered by Jack throughout his life, but which is now gone.


Re: 'The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it --'   
by - retropian (Mon Apr 3 2006 18:56:04 )   

Casey, those are exellent points. I am not a Christian and am not familiar with the Bible in any detail. I just have general knowledge gleaned from living in a predominately Christian culture.

I agree that the film is loaded with ambiguities including the ending. I think Ang Lee stated in an interview that he wanted to inject an element of hope in the end. One can take the final shot as confirming the desolation of Ennis's life, or one can view it as a promise of love, or at least the potential for love to come into Ennis's life. I choose the latter and here's why: Ennis's daughter.

When she leaves her sweater behind Ennis carefully fold's it and stores it in the same closet/cupboard as his shrine to Jack. I think this is no accident, and really are there any accidents in the symbolism contained in this film? Here Ennis saves his past and present loves. He is holding his love for Jack and his regrets about that, and the present love for his daughter, with whom he now knows he can have no regrets. His actions and decisions regarding Alma Jr. and her wedding indicate that he is ready to fully embrace the love for his daughter, which is clearly returned with a great tenderness on her part. To me the wind blown grass viewed through the trailer window is a promise of love for Ennis. It doesn't have to be romantic love, it can be the sweet tenderness he has for his child and his acknowledgement and realization of that love.


Re: 'The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it --'   
by - amandazehnder (Mon Apr 3 2006 20:15:15 )   

-"To me the wind blown grass viewed through the trailer window is a promise of love for Ennis. It doesn't have to be romantic love, it can be the sweet tenderness he has for his child and his acknowledgenment and realization of that love."

That's really nice. But, do we believe that there's absolutely no hope for Ennis finding romantic love again in the future? It makes me terribly sad to think that he's only 40-ish and alone. He's finally learned so much about being in love and about himself, it seems a shame to think the only life he'll have is as a Dad of grown daughters who have their own (conventionally sanctioned... assuming that Jenny is straight too and will eventually get married) lives. I know he would never find another Jack... but I don't even think Jack would want him to be alone.


Re: 'The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it --'   
by - naun (Mon Apr 3 2006 22:01:27 )   

But, do we believe that there's absolutely no hope for Ennis finding romantic love again in the future? It makes me terribly sad to think that he's only 40-ish and alone.

It's hard to find a silver lining, but here's a try:

Bleak as his future is, Ennis is not left completely bereft. In the words of another great writer, William Trevor, he will "mourn, and feel in solitude the warmth of love". Jack's other "widow", Lureen, really is left with nothing: if love is ever to be a lasting presence in her life she will have to find it elsewhere.

Proulx does not give Ennis the comfort of knowing that love was still there for him at the end, but the knowledge of its reality, deep in his body and soul, is still the central fact of his existence. The penultimate sentence in the short story is confronting but also terribly poignant:

And he would wake sometimes in grief, sometimes with the old sense of joy and release; the pillow sometimes wet, sometimes the sheets.

The story and the film, in their different ways, offer us only the smallest of consolations, but they are as real as everything else that is shown to us.





Re: 'The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it --'   
by - retropian (Tue Apr 4 2006 01:24:36 )   

Amanda.

No don't mean to suggest that there is no possibility of future romantic love for Ennis. I just mean that where the film ends is a turning point or a fulcrum for him. He has lost Jack, he now understands and accepts the depth of love that Jack had for him and he had for Jack and that he cannot blow it with his daughters. That Ennis has grown more self aware is a hopeful sign that someday a new romantic love may enter his life once again. It is a hope or a possibility that I choose to hang on too. Others are of a different opinion and don't think there is any hope now for Ennis. One can choose either future for Ennis, it's part of the ambiguity of the film.


Re: 'The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it --'   
by - alex-gowans 6 days ago (Tue Apr 4 2006 13:47:54 )   

retropian,

At last someone has posted my exact reaction to the end of the film. I agree that it is left ambiguous what will happen to Ennis. What is NOT ambiguous, by the end of the film, is that Ennis has at long last stopped denying to himself what Jack meant to him.

I see this as hopeful, in that I think this also means that Ennis will have only known demons to fight: instead of wondering why he's miserable (if he stays miserable), he'll know the source of his misery, and can decide for himself how to move on with his emotional life.

There's a wonderful moment in the film Torch Song Trilogy in which Arnold (played by Harvey Fierstein) is counseled by his mother (played by the late, great Anne Bancroft) that it will take time for him to get over the murder of his lover (lover played by Matthew Broderick), but that eventually his relationship with the lover will become part of him ("but Arnold, it never goes away; it becomes part of you, like learning how to wear glasses, or a ring.") and part of his memories, without being blindingly painful forever.

I like to think that by the end of BBM we see Ennis (without a mother's wisdom to guide him) just beginning to figure out that life goes on. In a sense, we see Ennis WAKING UP for the first time in his forty years, realizing (just in time) that it isn't enough that ENNIS knows he loves his daughter: she needs him to SHOW that he loves her by going to her wedding.



Re: 'The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it --'   
by - retropian 6 days ago (Tue Apr 4 2006 17:44:34 )   

Alex.

Thanks for agreeing. I kinda think the ambiguity of the ending is a Rorschach test for the viewer. How we envision Ennis's future is a reflection of ourselves and how we view, or wish to view the world. Perhaps it is a reflection of our own emotional landscape. I guess it's just a question of does one view the glass half empty or half full?

Re: 'The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it --'   
by - mrbobs 2 days ago (Sat Apr 8 2006 08:23:58 )   

In a sense, we see Ennis WAKING UP for the first time in his forty years, realizing (just in time) that it isn't enough that ENNIS knows he loves his daughter: she needs him to SHOW that he loves her by going to her wedding. ...

Exactly. This shows that he finally understands. And also his question: "Now this Kurt fella ... he loves you?" reveals that he has finally learned that love is the only thing that matters. If only he had known that when Jack said:

... it'd be a sweet life