This brought to mind the blue parka scene. Is that partly why that scene is in the movie at all, that looking for the parka in Childress is somehow connected to later realizing the shirts were kept safe in Lightning Flat?
Hi Elle,
I think this is a really interesting question. I do think that the scene may indicate (retrospectively, once the viewer knows about the Lightning Flat double shirts) that Childress was not a safe space for the shirts or that in general, Jack was "lost" and not in his element in his Childress house. But on the other hand, Lureen is so wrapped up in her own business that she clearly isn't paying much attention to where Jack puts his clothing... so in another way it could be argued that Lureen may not have ever really noticed if Jack were to hide the shirts someplace in the Texas house.
There are two really important ways that this scene functions, I think. One way is to simply further the metaphor of the "closet" which is so powerful in the film and of course becomes vital when we learn about Jack's Childress closet and which culminates as a theme in the final scene in the trailer. And, the other is to further the theme of shirts and coatracks, which pervade the film (and are probably closely related to closets as a concept and in terms of potential metapor).
The blue parka scene shows Jack futilely opening, what appears to be an empty, closet... followed closely by the parallel scene of Ennis packing and digging in his crammed closet in Riverton.
The coatracks and other instances of paired shirts are particularly interesting I think. We first see the coatrack in Aguirre's office near Jack at the beginning with one shirt. And, then later when he returns the next summer Jack stands near that same coatrack, but this time it has at least two shirts/jackets on it. And, later during the reunion sequence, the coatrack in Riverton is very prominently placed in the background of the encounter (between Jack and Ennis) when Jack and Alma meet each other. Essentially, we're given lots of reasons to think about and notice, garments in closets or on racks throughout the film and in probably significant ways.
To me, all these prominent details of shirts, closets and coatracks almost feel like foreshadowing or clues leading up to the highly charged, emotional Lightning Flat/ end-trailer scenes. In a way, all these instances of shirts and closets remind me of things like the black hats/ white hats and even the yin and yang symbols that seems to haunt both Jack and Ennis in different ways.
