Author Topic: If I were Jack Twist in 1967 . . .  (Read 2062 times)

TJ

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If I were Jack Twist in 1967 . . .
« on: May 14, 2006, 11:34:13 pm »
I had a guest today who had not seen the movie.

While viewing it, I remember what Ennis Del Mar said to Jack Twist during the night of June 24, 1967 in the book. Some of what Ennis said there is scattered throughout the dialog later in the movie and not in the movie's motel scene.

Here are some quotes of Ennis from the Motel Siesta room in Riverton, Wyoming in the original short story.

Quote
You know, I was sittin up here all that time tryin to figure out if I was -- ? I know I ain't. I mean here we both got wives and kids, right? I like doin it with women, yeah, but Jesus H., ain't nothin like this. I never had no thoughts a doin it with another guy except I sure wrang it out a hunderd times thinkin about you. You do it with other guys? Jack?"

 
   
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"That summer," said Ennis. "When we split up after we got paid out I had gut cramps so bad I pulled over and tried to puke, thought I ate somethin bad at that place in Dubois. Took me about a year a figure out it was that I shouldn't a let you out a my sights. Too late then by a long, long while."

 

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"I doubt there's nothin now we can do," said Ennis. "What I'm sayin, Jack, I built a life up in them years. Love my little girls. Alma? It ain't her fault. You got your baby and wife, that place in Texas. You and me can't hardly be decent together if what happened back there" -- he jerked his head in the direction of the apartment -- "grabs on us like that. We do that in the wrong place we'll be dead. There's no reins on this one. It scares the piss out a me."


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"Whoa, whoa, whoa. It ain't goin a be that way. We can't. I'm stuck with what I got, caught in my own loop. Can't get out of it. Jack, I don't want a be like them guys you see around sometimes. And I don't want a be dead.

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Two guys livin together? No. All I can see is we get together once in a while way the hell out in the back a nowhere --

   
   
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"No," said Ennis, forbearing to ask whose fault that was. "I goddamn hate it that you're goin a drive away in the mornin and I'm goin back to work. But if you can't fix it you got a stand it," he said. "Shit. I been lookin at people on the street. This happen a other people? What the hell do they do?"


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Jack's final response -  "It don't happen in Wyomin and if it does I don't know what they do, maybe go to Denver," said Jack, sitting up, turning away from him, "and I don't give a flyin fuck. Son of a bitch, Ennis, take a couple days off. Right now. Get us out a here. Throw your stuff in the back a my truck and let's get up in the mountains. Couple a days. Call Alma up and tell her you're goin."
 

I would have said, in words to this effect if I were Jack Twist in 1967,  "Come on, Ennis, you just shot my airplane out a the sky -- I will take you back home after we get dressed and I will move on with my life without you. I won't forget the times we had up on Brokeback and the fun we had tonight before you started talkin' trash about you are trapped. What did you mean when you said, 'Alma? I ain't her fault'? Did you have to marry a woman with whom you never was in love with in the first place?"

Offline Kd5000

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Re: If I were Jack Twist in 1967 . . .
« Reply #1 on: May 16, 2006, 12:29:04 pm »
Well did Jack have to marry someone he might not have been in love with?  Some have posted on TOB that they both betrayed each other when they got married. Of course, the wheels were set in motion, the outside world does close in.

And what home would Jack take him to... Oh, in his mindset would be "oh i'll think of something."  I mean he can't bring Ennis back to his parents home in 1967.  Gotta think of way to explain the "situation" to the folks. Or maybe they would be so accepting. Obviously he can't bring Ennis back to his home with his wife. 

"Jack, don't wanta be like those guys you see around sometimes...."  I wonder what he meant by that, i.e. socially shunned homosexuals hangin out in Riverton in the 1960's... It's not liked, I gather, he's ever made any trips to urban centers where I think you'd see visible gay men.   No indication that Ennis pays attn to current events as he and Alma seem to watch sitcoms. Of course any news portrayal of gays in that time period would be negative, hardly the type of thing to make you want to take a chance I suppose "and move to Denver."  Of course, Jack always dreams of a better place, with Ennis  :)