The shirts and the Dozy Embrace

[brokeplex]

contrary to rumor I was too young to have been up on the mountain with the boys in 1963. Yes, today I have some gray hair, yes, I DEMAND a senior disount everywhere I shop, but in June of 1963 I was barely old enough to have started kindegarten. 

[Front-Ranger]

contrary to rumor I was too young to have been up on the mountain with the boys in 1963. Yes, today I have some gray hair, yes, I DEMAND a senior disount everywhere I shop, but in June of 1963 I was barely old enough to have started kindegarten. 

hehe!!

[Lynne]

What a great revelation, Elle.  I had never thought about it in just this way before.  A perpetual, everlasting, Dozy Embrace.  Thanks, Friend.

(and thanks to Amanda for digging up the screen cap showing Ennis' shirt sleeve!)

[fernly]

great topic and you are absolutely right. the twined shirts were Jack's way of trying to hold on in some substantial physical way to what he felt for Ennis. why did he leave then at OMT's house? what if Mama Twist went on a cleaning rampage and threw them out? 20 years hanging on a nail was a long, long time.

Sure is a great topic.

Far as Mrs. Twist...maybe what she said to Ennis, that she "kept his room like it was when he was a boy and I think he appreciated it" also, and most importantly, applies to her keeping the shirts safe.
I think she knew to at least some degree what they meant, whether Jack told her in so many words or not, and she was telling Ennis that she knew.
And after he found the shirts he would have understood what she meant.
He made sure that she knew what he'd taken from Jack's room, and believed that she'd give her blessing. All under the angry, and unknowing, stare of OMT.
The shirts would be safe in Lightning Flat. I can't see OMT being bothered to set foot in Jack's room.
I can't see the shirts being safe in Childress, where there was what looked like a lot of decorating (and the inevitable throwing out of 'these old things') that goes along with it.

[Brown Eyes]

Yes, the more you watch the Lightning Flat scene the more it seems really clear that Ma Twist knows all about those shirts.  When Ennis comes downstairs holding the balled up shirts she even nods at him in a sort of knowing way.  And, before he goes upstairs, the little push on Ennis's shoulder and her verbal encouragement to Ennis about going to Jack's room seems very purposeful.  Yep, I think she's really, truly hoping that Ennis will find the shirts.  And, I think it's her way of trying to make Ennis feel better about OMT's revelation about the "other fellow."  I think that helping to prod Ennis along to find the shirts is Ma Twist's silent way of trying to tell Ennis that he was Jack's one true love (regardless of what OMT said).

[mariez]

Ooooh, this is a great topic!

I agree that Ma Twist not only knew about the shirts, and did indeed understand their significance, but that she wanted Ennis to find and keep them.  I read the ss before I saw the movie, so I knew what was coming when Ennis went up to that room (although that didn't diminish the intensity and heartbreak of the revelation one bit). 

But what I wasn't prepared for was the very end, when we see that Ennis has reversed the shirts and that he is now protecting Jack, holding him forever in the very dozy embrace that Jack craved so badly to be repeated during his life    

And don't we have Heath to thank for that?  Didn't I read somewhere that it was his idea to reverse the shirts? 

Marie

[brokeplex]

Sure is a great topic.

Far as Mrs. Twist...maybe what she said to Ennis, that she "kept his room like it was when he was a boy and I think he appreciated it" also, and most importantly, applies to her keeping the shirts safe.
I think she knew to at least some degree what they meant, whether Jack told her in so many words or not, and she was telling Ennis that she knew.
And after he found the shirts he would have understood what she meant.
He made sure that she knew what he'd taken from Jack's room, and believed that she'd give her blessing. All under the angry, and unknowing, stare of OMT.
The shirts would be safe in Lightning Flat. I can't see OMT being bothered to set foot in Jack's room.
I can't see the shirts being safe in Childress, where there was what looked like a lot of decorating (and the inevitable throwing out of 'these old things') that goes along with it.

youv'e made some very good points. I agree, I think that Mama Twist was implying that she knew the "meaning of the shirts" and assented to Ennis's inheritance. But if she knew their meaning, why leave them on the nail in the inner closet? Farm women are very practical, she had to know that the shirts would last much longer as a legacy if they were placed in a cedar chest with some moth balls on them. Hanging on that nail would have caused the fabrics to deteriorate over the decades, esp since they were probably never washed.

I agree that if Jack had hung the shirts in any closet in Childress, they would have been tossed by Lureen or a maid within 5 years. But, given the importance Jack gave to the shirts, why didn't he buy a lock box to put them in and hide them somewhere? Again that would preserve the shirts and make them available to Jack for remembrance year round.

Did Jack leave a note detailing his legacies? He did state somewher that he wanted to be cremated and the ashes tossed on Brokeback, wouldn't he also have left some letter to Ennis? And maybe Lureen knew of his final testament and didn't want to tell Ennis. I remember her words, when she instructed Ennis to carry out Jacks wishes, she used the phrase : "I mean about the ashes". In my paranoid mind, I see her hiding a legacy Jack had for Ennis.

[Penthesilea]

And don't we have Heath to thank for that?  Didn't I read somewhere that it was his idea to reverse the shirts? 

Marie

You're correct. It was talked about back in 2006, when BBM came out. And Diana Ossana repeated the fact in her wonderful tribute to Heath in the March, 11th issue of The Advocate:


Quote by Diana Ossana, from The Advocate:

HEATH WAS AN OLD SOUL in a young man's frame, extremely masculine, extremely competent in all things, and yet sensitive beyond belief. In person Heath was animated and kinetic and full of life, far different from the character he portrayed in Brokeback Mountain. He was always disheveled, unconcerned with his appearance, because--like my writing partner, Larry McMurtry--Heath lived in his head. Heath was a pure actor, much like Larry is a pure writer, and I was moved by the similarities between these two seemingly very different men.


One of my most endearing memories of working with Heath on set was the day we filmed the final scene in Brokeback. Before the first take, Heath walked over to me, a big smile on his face, and said, "I think you're going to like what I've done with this scene." Then he headed inside that bleak little trailer house, and the cameras rolled. I watched the monitor as Ennis opened his tiny closet door and revealed the two shirts he had found hidden inside Jack's childhood bedroom, like skins, one inside the other ... and realized that Heath, as Ennis, had chosen to reverse the order of those shirts, with his on the outside, embracing Jack's. Such was Heath's commitment to the truth of our story and to the rawness and depth of his portrayal. Afterward our grizzled and thoroughly macho first assistant director marched over to me, bent down, and whispered in my ear, "Diana, I've worked in this business 50 years. This is the first time an actor's brought a tear to my eye."

Heath was generous and dear, painfully shy and gifted, and I will miss him for the rest of my days.

---end of quote---


Myprivatejack posted scans of the article in the Heath Remembrance  Forum:

http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php/topic,16718.msg351486.html#msg351486

[Jeff Wrangler]

Did Jack leave a note detailing his legacies? He did state somewher that he wanted to be cremated and the ashes tossed on Brokeback, wouldn't he also have left some letter to Ennis? And maybe Lureen knew of his final testament and didn't want to tell Ennis. I remember her words, when she instructed Ennis to carry out Jacks wishes, she used the phrase : "I mean about the ashes". In my paranoid mind, I see her hiding a legacy Jack had for Ennis.

Well, since Jack was only 39 years old and clearly wasn't expecting to die--and Lureen controlled all the money--I suspect he hadn't done much more than mention casually, maybe even when he was under the influence of alcohol, that he wanted to be cremated and his ashes scattered on Brokeback Mountain. Lots of people are reluctant to do things like write wills and make other preparations for the Big Chill. Maybe Jack was one of them.

[Jeff Wrangler]

contrary to rumor I was too young to have been up on the mountain with the boys in 1963. Yes, today I have some gray hair, yes, I DEMAND a senior disount everywhere I shop, but in June of 1963 I was barely old enough to have started kindegarten. 

You get your AARP card yet? I got mine in May.