Scene Discussion: Nursery Window

[shortfiction]

This also shows how Jack doesn't get much in the way of embracing, except by Ennis when they reunite.  No hugs or cuddling with Bobby, just one dance, then a quickie in the car, then a perfunctory kiss with Lureen when he's looking for his blue parka.

[Front-Ranger]

This scene is so eerie, the way Alma's ghostly face is facing toward Ennis and Jen. She's looking at them, unbeknownst to them, the way she looked at Ennis and Jack as they were embracing on the stairs. As well as the way Aguirre looked at Ennis and Jack too, through glass as well.

I also just noticed that Jen is embracing Ennis with her little arm!!

Small details: Ennis's cuff is unbuttoned. I wonder in what other scenes are his buttons buttoned or unbuttoned??

Everything in this scene, as in the entire movie, is tinged in blue. The film was shot with a blue-tinged film stock. Shades of Jack.

[moremojo]

Everything in this scene, as in the entire movie, is tinged in blue. The film was shot with a blue-tinged film stock. Shades of Jack.

That's interesting, and notice also how Ennis is wearing a blue denim jacket...further suggesting a link to Jack (as if he has learned to be nurturing through Jack's influence).

[Front-Ranger]

This also shows how Jack doesn't get much in the way of embracing, except by Ennis when they reunite.  No hugs or cuddling with Bobby, just one dance, then a quickie in the car, then a perfunctory kiss with Lureen when he's looking for his blue parka.

Not that he's looking for it! 'Member? "Husbands...don't never like to dance with their wives."

[Brown Eyes]

I think the closest thing we see to Jack 'cuddling' with Bobby is when Jack is helping Bobby drive the tractor around in the parking lot.  I think that's a really sweet little detail to have added.

It is a good observation that poor Jack has a pretty cold family situation as an adult. With L.D. always picking at him and Lureen really being more of a friend than a spouse or mate, Jack's home life seems a little abrasive.  And, of course, he'd already endured growing up with his Dad.

[Marge_Innavera]

One of the things that's really striking about this scene, every time I've watched it, is that Ennis looks tired but not particularly unhappy, and that he doesn't even need Alma to ask him to look in on the babies, he just does it. And in the later scene, he's obviously the one who puts them to bed at night (or at least some nights).  Very unusual for any young American father in the mid-1960s. It gives you a glimpse of the kind of man Ennis could have been.

Ironically, when the film first came out I read some angry essays mentioning this scene as trying to show heterosexual marriage and family life as being "squalid." (Part of the Gay Agenda, donchaknow)

[mvansand76]

This has always been one of my favorite scenes even though there's no Jack in it:



I'd love to hear your thoughts on this scene.

Oh, you can see Alma in the kitchen in the background! 

[Front-Ranger]

Oh, you can see Alma in the kitchen in the background! 

Yes, and they are separated by panes of glass. The grid of the windows seems to echo the plaid in Ennis's shirt.

[Front-Ranger]

Ironically, when the film first came out I read some angry essays mentioning this scene as trying to show heterosexual marriage and family life as being "squalid."

It doesn't come across squalid to me at all. It is the realization of Annie's words, "the sounds were of squalling and sucking and Alma's sleepy groans, all reassurring of fecundity and life's continuance to one who worked with livestock."

[Front-Ranger]

Since we are talking about windows in the church, I'll resurrect this discussion about the window in the little nursery where Ennis comforts his crying daughters.