Sometimes I start to think (*putting on hardhat*) that Jack wasn't really all that committed to Ennis after that first summer. I have said, in debates about Jack's behavior in the last scene on the mountain, that I don't think he seems as upset as Ennis about the summer ending. And when Jack drives off watching Ennis in his rearview mirror he looks merely wistful, whereas Ennis in the alley is heartbroken and torn apart. After they part, Jack goes on to consider other men (well, one man anyway: Jimbo), seemingly open to the idea of a future with someone else, whereas Ennis goes haplessly along with the plans to which he's already committed, but for four years misses Jack constantly.
So, as I said, sometimes I start to think this way. Then I remember the shirts. And they change everything. They're undeniable evidence that Jack knew, even as they were leaving the mountain, how much Ennis would always mean to him, no matter what the future held.
I actually go back and forth between these two viewpoints. In thinking more about this, there are two different actions that Jack did: he took Ennis's shirt in the first place, and then he layered the two shirts together (
the pair like two skins, one inside the other, two in one). And though Jack's taking the shirt in the first place is significant, it's the way they are put together and hidden there that's so devastating. So I end up going back to the question of when Jack put the shirts together.
Part of me (a big part) thinks he didn't do put the shirts together until after the reunion. During Jack's time rodeoing, he seems to be trying to get over Ennis -- going to Texas (so far away), trying to pick up Jimbo, marrying Lureen. Would Jack have waited four years to send a postcard if he already knew that he wasn't ever going to really get over Ennis?
After the reunion, Jack knows how powerful the relationship is. That kiss on the landing... but then having his suggestion of ranching together turned down... but then Ennis's comment that "there ain't no reins on this one." All those conflicts and contradictions -- there's a part of me that thinks that it's those things, and not the joyous fling on the mountain, that Jack's dealing with when he puts the shirts together.
But then again... there's Jack's memory of the dozy embrace. And there's that year (well, nine months or so) when Jack's at Lightning Flat, before he goes back to Signal and asks if Ennis has been there. I guess maybe Jack could have put the shirts together, and then gone to Signal and seen no sign of Ennis, and then gone off to Texas to try to forget about him, until the memories got to be too much, or Jack got too lonely, or Jack got tired of being rejected by rodeo clowns and his father-in-law.
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Thanks for those links to the photos, belbbmfan. They really do look like the movie costumes.
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Hey, shakestheground -- I think you're the 2nd person who has mentioned that it makes complete sense for Ennis to take the shirts, so he can remember Jack. And I agree completely! I was wondering more about Jack's motivation -- Jack takes the shirts at the end of that summer on the mountain, when he's got his whole life ahead of him, when Ennis is still alive, though engaged to be married. And I wondered what
Jacks motivation was.