Black Hats, White Hats

[brokebackjack]

By the way, hats are used symbolically throughout the film, and evenat least once  in the book.
When Aguirre watches them, they are in the middle of nowhere yet they HIDE THEIR LOVE FROM THE WORLD BEHIND A HAT.

There is a LOT of that in BBM

[Brown Eyes]

 

How did this one fall so far down the list!!!??

[Penthesilea]

On request of Amada, I post this pic here. Not for Alma jr. but for the hats in the background.

To be honest, I don't see a pair of men in cowboy hats here. I see a man with cowboy hat sitting at a table with a woman, one guy stand behind him, playing at a gambling machine, and possibly the reflection of a guy with a lighter cowboy hat in the pane of the gambling machine right of the second guy.

Amanda, please tell us were in this pic you see a pair of cowboys.

[Brown Eyes]

Heya,

Well, I should have been more specific in that other thread.  I did mean the guy sitting at the table with the woman... this guy is directly overlapped with the guy standing up at the gambling machine.  You're right, they're not really a "couple", but they are paired visually.  It just seems to be a particularly interesting visual detail (especially because they are overlapped) given the context of the situation and what Alma Jr. may (or may not) be thinking or realizing.

 


It's also something I'd never noticed before you posted this picture.
 

[Brown Eyes]

I'm bumping this one for marlb42 and anyone else here new to Open Forum.  This thread is just so amazing and can really change the way the film is understood (I think).
 

[ednbarby]

Glad you bumped it, Amanda.

'Cause a new twist (ha ha) has been running through my mind.

Why do you all think it is that Jack's hats get lighter from the Reunion Scene on - they go from black (the summer up on Brokeback and upon his return the following summer, looking for Ennis) to medium brown.  I still am kinda partial to my black sheep/white sheep analogy, and if that applies, perhaps the lighter shade means that by marrying money and having a son and a successful (at least on the surface) career, he's not quite the rebel he once was.

On the other hand, if you apply brokebackdev's theory that the black hats symbolize Jack's security within his own sexuality, perhaps the lighter shade means that his marrying and having a son and playing the role of being straight is obscuring his true nature/feelings for Ennis - at least on the surface.

What do you think?

[serious crayons]

Why do you all think it is that Jack's hats get lighter from the Reunion Scene on - they go from black (the summer up on Brokeback and upon his return the following summer, looking for Ennis) to medium brown.  I still am kinda partial to my black sheep/white sheep analogy, and if that applies, perhaps the lighter shade means that by marrying money and having a son and a successful (at least on the surface) career, he's not quite the rebel he once was.

On the other hand, if you apply brokebackdev's theory that the black hats symbolize Jack's security within his own sexuality, perhaps the lighter shade means that his marrying and having a son and playing the role of being straight is obscuring his true nature/feelings for Ennis - at least on the surface.

Those are both really interesting theories, Barb! To tell the truth, I'd never noticed the fading hat phenomenon. But now that you've pointed it out, either of these makes sense to me. Another possibility is that his hats are the equivalent of Alma's hair -- they represent his fading hope and spirit.

[mouk]

Hello

This is the first time I post here although I have been completely obsessed with BBM for almost a year now, and I have done a lot of lurking. You guys never cease to amaze me with your insights and your eye for details!

As regards the hats, Jack wears a brownish hat, ie darker than Ennis but lighter than his own, on 3 occasions and on all those occasions he asks Ennis to come and live with him: at the Reunion, after the divorce, when he suggests Ennis moves to Texas. This intermediate colour could therefore be something like mingling, becoming one? By the final weekend at the lake he has a black hat again, he has lost hope of being together.

Randall has a brownish hat too - willing to share a cow and calf operation, if only Jack asked him?

As for Ennis's grey coat at the end of the film, it has a very distrubing resemblance with that of his father when he showed him Earl : Ennis is convinced that homophobia has killed Jack. Perhaps he even thinks that his own homophobia contributed to Jack's death: without this prejudice he would have had the sweet life with Jack.Jack would not have died this way.

[ednbarby]

Oh, MY, mouk!  What wonderful insights!  And you praised *us* for having an eye for details!

I think you've hit the nail on the head on both of those observations.  I was thinking after I made my post that it seemed Jack's hat went back to being black at the lake, and I could see how it worked with both of my theories to some extent, but with yours it works perfectly.

And Ennis' jacket!  My GOD.  I don't believe anyone has ever drawn that comparison before here or anywhere, that I know of.  That's just brilliant.  And totally in keeping with my theory that in a sense, Jack was killed by the very thing he loved - Ennis - because the latter couldn't move beyond the homophobia that had been ingrained in him BY HIS FATHER.

Wow.

[Brown Eyes]

Good points everyone!  And welcome mouk, those really were great insights!

I think it's important to ask the question that Barb raises here, which is why does Jack's hat go back to being black at the end?  I also find it interesting that Jack continues to wear the more traditional cowboy hats throughout the movie while we don't really see Ennis wearing a classic cowboy hat again after Brokeback (I mean he wears the cane hat which is cowboy shaped, but he never goes back to the really classic look he had on Brokeback).

This goes to my theory (which I've probably mentioned somewhere in this long old thread) about the boys' images as cowboys.  Well, Jack maintains an image of being a cowboy through the movie through fashion, but once he quits the rodeo he isn't really a cowboy anymore in terms of the type of work he does.  Ennis on the other hand, is a literal cowboy.  Actually working with cows.  He does work at a cow and calf operation (as he lets us know through the grocery store conversation with Alma)... this is real and hard labor for him... not a component of a fantasy as it becomes in Jack's dream.  Jack's dream to be with Ennis seems to be linked with his desire to go back and be a real cowboy again.  Jack's hat at the end is almost like a caricature of his first hat.  The last hat is black, but it's a little too large... a little too Texas and probably a little too expensive and designer.

That point about Ennis's coat is very interesting.  I don't remember it being discussed that way before either.