Double meanings: Lines that can be taken more than one way

[Brown Eyes]

It backfired both times.

I'm trying to figure this out, and this could be totally wrong. (Disagree with me! Please!) But it seems as though in each case, Ennis has... revealed something? And Jack either doesn't quite understand what Ennis is really saying, or he hopes he's hearing something and he's a bit hesitant about following up on it? And each time, Jack's response isn't the one Ennis wants (if Ennis has any idea what he wants in either case -- which, actually, I doubt; Ennis's feelings are so conflicted).

You're right.  I'm not quite sure what he wants from Jack in either situation.  And, like you said, he probably doesn't know either.  I especially don't know what he expects in the scene on Brokeback.  By offering the loan, Jack is not only offering money, but he's also laying the groundwork for keeping in touch after the sheep job is over.  A loan would imply Ennis paying it back sometime and thus a reason to stay in touch.  I think it's cute that Jack seems to be imagining running errands (like going to the bank) with Ennis as soon as they're down from the mountain.   Ennis is taking this parting sooo seriously because he really sees it with great finality, whereas Jack clearly doesn't understand that the end of the job means such a complete break until the conversation next to his black truck.  Well, he might have a sense of it with the punch.  When he offers the loan I'm sure he's thinking that the relationship will continue, so he's not as brooding as Ennis.  Katherine has noted in the past that Ennis is upset because Jack doesn't seem upset enough over the end of the job.  She's observed that Jack's perky tone is irritating and disheartening to Ennis who views the coming "good-bye" with such dread, which I think makes sense. 

Both of this scene and the later "find yourself someplace different" scene I think just demonstrate how different their personalities are (so that sometimes they're communicating at cross purposes).  Also, when Ennis is sad or scared he tends to lash out (though not always) so that aspect of the two scenes seems pretty consistent.

[Mikaela]

From Meryl
I think it backfired, though, because Ennis got even more alarmed when Jack didn't tell him his fears were groundless.  By suggesting he move he was, in a way, suggesting that maybe Ennis was right and people did "know."  Ennis probably blew up at him partly to cover that fear.

This absolutely is my interpretation of that scene.
Not knowing that she saw them kissing, Ennis thinks he's made a slip-up that made Alma see through him. And if she could do it, perhaps everyone can, -  and he's been fooling himself that he's fooling them? So he's frightened enough to actually confide something personal to Jack, deep down hoping Jack will set him straigth (pardon the pun) and tell him that his fears are utterly groundless. "Pffft- nobody knows, noone suspects, Ennis, you're seeing spooks!"

But instead Jack's suggestion that Ennis move somewhere else in my opinion is understood by Ennis as "Well, if that is so, maybe you should move somewhere else far away where people don't know about it".

I think Ennis's facial expression immediately after Jack's line says it all - Jack's reply shocks and frightens him  - though he's reining it in as usual.

(Tell me again just WHY Heath Ledger didn't get that Oscar, BAFTA, and so forth?  I still for the life of me can't understand it. )

Jack *did* miss an opportunity there, but - oh, as always in BBM - once more how realistically human his response is! He's been wanting and hoping, providing comfort, handling Ennis's skittish side, holding back....and more & more losing hope, and here's a chance that his wish to at least have Ennis nearer and to see him more often could in fact be presented to Ennis as common sense rather than a Jackish-flight-of- fancy. So he *pounces* on the opportuniy - and achieves only fuelling Ennis's fears.



Hm, lines with double meanings, here's another one which is pretty obvious, the way it's acted and all:

You forgettin' somethin'?

- You're forgetting your fishing gear
- You're forgetting kissing me goodbye
- You're completely forgetting and disregarding *me*

[tiawahcowboy]

Oh, I will say this: it seems obvious to me that even the screenplay writers took some of Annie Proulx's Wyoming rural expressions an they took them to mean something else different than what she originally wrote. They assumed that Jack had really been to Mexico when he responded to Ennis's question, "been a Mexico, Jack?" and he said, "Hell yes, I been. Where's the fuckin problem?"

I really don't think that Annie Proulx's Jack Twist could have afforded to make a bee-line trip to Mexico after Ennis had called and left a phone message that Alma had divorced him and Jack misunderstood the message and had high-tailed it up to Wyoming. I say that because it was quite a while after the divorce that Jack even worked for Lureen's family business, the farm equipment company. Jack did not work for the company until after her father was dead.

[Meryl]

I think Ennis's facial expression immediately after Jack's line says it all - Jack's reply shocks and frightens him  - though he's reining it in as usual.

(Tell me again just WHY Heath Ledger didn't get that Oscar, BAFTA, and so forth?  I still for the life of me can't understand it. )

Hm, lines with double meanings, here's another one which is pretty obvious, the way it's acted and all:

You forgettin' somethin'?

- You're forgetting your fishing gear
- You're forgetting kissing me goodbye
- You're completely forgetting and disregarding *me*

In a performance that is consistently remarkable for its real-ness, this scene in particular always strikes me with its absolute truth as Ennis opens up to Jack.   Heath simply disappears, and Ennis del Mar lives and breathes.   That's a rare thing in film, and no award show can add to or take away from it in the least.  But yeah, WHY?

The "forgettin' somethin'" line is a supreme example of double meanings!  I think you could safely add even a fourth meaning:  "If you're going to lie to me about fishing, the least you can do is keep up the pretense and take your gear."

[Mikaela]

from Meryl
The "forgettin' somethin'" line is a supreme example of double meanings!  I think you could safely add even a fourth meaning:  "If you're going to lie to me about fishing, the least you can do is keep up the pretense and take your gear."

And with a little speculation thrown in for good measure, possibly even a fifth:

"Since I've gone to the trouble of writing that note and placing it in the box to find out if you're really lying about the fishing, I'm certainly going to make sure you actually bring that fishing gear along with you!"

[Meryl]

And with a little speculation thrown in for good measure, possibly even a fifth:

"Since I've gone to the trouble of writing that note and placing it in the box to find out if you're really lying about the fishing, I'm certainly going to make sure you actually bring that fishing gear along with you!"

    

[Mikaela]

back at'ya!


Moving on to another line:

"I think my dad was right."


It's not till it's seen alone and out of context like this that it strikes me how much, in the context of the total film and story, that one may have a meaning beyond the immediate and joking response to Jack's rodeo fuck-up performance.

We get to know about Ennis's father's opinion on exactly two kinds of people: Rodeo cowboys and "queers". Ennis jokes about agreeing with his father on the former, but it's anything but a joke that his father instilled fear and homophobia into his son to such an extent that Ennis also thinks his father was right about the latter. 
 

[Meryl]

Yes, sadly, I don't think Ennis ever stopped feeling contempt for "queers."  It was instilled in him early by his father and supported by society, too.    As much as he loved Jack, he still had contempt for what he was ("boys like you"), and of course he hated himself for it, too. 

[Brown Eyes]

Another sad double meaning has occurred to me lately.  The words "tire iron" refer to both versions of how Jack could have died.  If Jack died in an accident while changing his tire... well he would have been using a tire iron as a normal tool.  And if he was attacked and murdered, Ennis believes that a tire iron would have been used as the weapon.  It's interesting, I've assumed that the idea of a tire iron immediately comes to Ennis's mind because that's what was used to kill Earl, but maybe the idea of fixing a car with a tire iron also caused that idea to come to Ennis's.

 

[Mikaela]

Amanda, I think "Tire Iron" surely  has become one of the most ominous concepts in the English language, to me! 

I was trying to find something more light-hearted with a double meaning, but it's not easy.
Here's one:

"Jack ain't the restaurant type"

Of course Ennis has to stop Alma from entertaining any notions she'll be going along with the two of them, - but it has a unintended hint of the humorous to it because it seems like a gentle dig at Jack's constant complaining about the food situation on the mountain and all the fussing over the beans.