Author Topic: "Did your foks run you off?"  (Read 10654 times)

Offline twistedude

  • BetterMost Supporter!
  • BetterMost 1000+ Posts Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,430
  • "It's nobody's business but ours."
    • "every sort of organized noise"
"Did your foks run you off?"
« on: May 10, 2006, 01:10:59 am »
I thought it was a remarkably interesting question, but probably easily explained. There were, i thought, folks so poor that when their children reached a certain age, they "ran them off." But a friend of mine said "Parents have been running their kids off since there have been parents and kids, because they're poor, because they don't like the kids, because they didn't want any to begin with,  because they're bored with them, because they're sick of the concept of kids" My friend is more cynical than I.
"We're each of us alone, to be sure. What can you do but hold your hand out in the dark?" --"Nine Lives," by Ursula K. Le Guin, from The Wind's Twelve Quarters

TJ

  • Guest
Re: "Did your foks run you off?"
« Reply #1 on: May 10, 2006, 03:46:31 am »
Jack never said, "Your folks run you off?" in the book. But, Jack, himself in 1963, "was crazy to be somewhere, anywhere else than Lightning Flat."

I can imagine that if Ennis's parents had not had that accident, he could have still been working on his father's ranch at 19 years of age.

Where Annie Proulx states facts in the narrative in certain locations, those "facts" show up in dialog days, months and even years later in the movie.

Offline Penthesilea

  • Town Administration
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 14,745
Re: "Did your foks run you off?"
« Reply #2 on: May 10, 2006, 04:04:48 am »
Quote
Parents have been running their kids off since there have been parents and kids, because they're poor, because they don't like the kids, because they didn't want any to begin with,  because they're bored with them, because they're sick of the concept of kids" My friend is more cynical than I.

Your friend is right. Sadly. I worked with children from "troubled families". Abandoned children, abused children, children who were uncared-for, children who were beaten up by their parents, children who rarely ever got a warm meal at home, children who were allowed to play with their Christmas "presents" for only one day, then the father sent them back to get his money back. And on and on...
And I had only the "less bad" cases. Because all the children still lived in their families (or lived again in their families after the parents decided to give it another shot) and were not given to the youth welfare office. The really, really bad and worst cases are the ones you see when working at the youth welfare office or a children's home.

A schoolmate of mine came home from a trip with the school and found all his personal possessions outside the flat in some bags and suitcases. Literally. His single-mother had decided to move in with her boyfriend during my schoolfriend's vacation. He was 16 then.
The boyfriend of my cousin had to move out when he was 18, too. Same story: his single-mother rent a new flat together with her boyfriend and cancelled the old flat. No more room for him. The parents of his girlfriend (my aunt and uncle) took him in. They also took in a (female) friend of their other daughter for some months, who was Turkish and had bad trouble with their strict Muslim parents.

Such things happen far more often than you may think. So sad.
« Last Edit: May 10, 2006, 04:13:55 am by Penthesilea »

Offline ednbarby

  • BetterMost Supporter!
  • BetterMost 1000+ Posts Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 3,586
Re: "Did your foks run you off?"
« Reply #3 on: May 10, 2006, 03:35:03 pm »
The first time I saw the movie, I thought Jack was saying it as if implying his folks (or one of them) had run him off because he was gay and was asking Ennis as if to feel him out on the same subject.  But I was reading too much into it, probably - most likely he was referring to being run off because they were too poor to continue supporting him, as you all have said.

Oh, well.  It was an interesting dream while it lasted.  ;)
« Last Edit: May 10, 2006, 03:36:44 pm by ednbarby »
No more beans!

Offline David

  • BetterMost 5000+ Posts Club
  • *******
  • Posts: 5,097
Re: "Did your foks run you off?"
« Reply #4 on: May 10, 2006, 04:56:53 pm »
Barb,  I was thinking the same thing!      Either that Jack was asking Ennis if he was run off by his folks, perhaps fishing for info that Ennis was Gay.

Or perhaps Old Man Twist ran Jack off the ranch with his constant belittling of him.

Offline RouxB

  • BetterMost Welcome Wagon & Contributor
  • BetterMost Moderator
  • BetterMost 1000+ Posts Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 2,471
  • ...a love that will never grow old
Re: "Did your foks run you off?"
« Reply #5 on: May 10, 2006, 08:15:57 pm »
I never saw it that way. But I don't see that either of them were that aware or in touch with their sexuality at that point in time. Why at that first meeting would Jack assume that Ennis was gay and his parents kicked him out for that? Ennis has spoken 5 words up to this point and won't even make eye contact. I think there is alot of projection of motive based on what we know about the entire story rather than the story (movie) up to that particular time.

 O0

Heathen

TJ

  • Guest
Re: "Did your foks run you off?"
« Reply #6 on: May 10, 2006, 11:40:58 pm »
Let's put it this way: There is lots of dialog in the movie which is not supported by Annie Proulx's original story.

In the book, Ennis and Jack shake hand INSIDE Aguirre's trailer office. In the movie, they don't even do that until the leave the office.

I think the line of dialog is funny; but, when it comes to the telling of Ennis's folks' vehicle accident, the story introduces that when Annie Proulx describes his situation just before Jack drives up in his truck.

Offline David

  • BetterMost 5000+ Posts Club
  • *******
  • Posts: 5,097
Re: "Did your foks run you off?"
« Reply #7 on: May 10, 2006, 11:55:50 pm »
Very true.   Larry McMurtry says on the DVD interview that the screenplay was twice as long as the original book.   Still I am amazed that 98% of the original dialog is woven into the movie.  I can see why a few things were moved around so they could film better.

TJ

  • Guest
Re: "Did your foks run you off?"
« Reply #8 on: May 11, 2006, 12:14:51 am »
One of thesed days I am going to take a break from the internet and watch the DVD and copy down all of the dialog that is in the movie.

There is a lot of movie dialog which is close to what is in the movie; but, even then, a great deal of that is not the same place as in the book and not even in the same scene as the book.

Some of the dialog that is said up in the mountains on the 2nd night of the 1967 reunion was actually said in the Motel Siesta in Riverton the night before. There is nothing in the book about what was actually said on the 2nd night. In fact, there is nothing in the book to state they actually went camping for a few days; Jack only suggested that they do that and when Ennis hears the phone ring in the next room, he picks up the phone in their motel room.

The only time that Lureen talks in the original short story is when Ennis talks to her own the phone.

moremojo

  • Guest
Re: "Did your foks run you off?"
« Reply #9 on: May 11, 2006, 11:42:45 am »
Even though Ennis was not run off by his parents (and may not have been, had they lived), he was essentially run off by his siblings, and seems to have little if any relationship with them for the remainder of the story.