Author Topic: The dark side of the mountain  (Read 6299 times)

moremojo

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The dark side of the mountain
« on: June 07, 2006, 01:37:42 pm »
I posted the following today in reply to a thread originated on TOB on the IMDb ("Tent don't look right"):

I find it interesting and poignant, when reflecting on how the mountain can be seen as the boys' Garden of Eden, to consider how dangerous the mountain really is, despite its offering of refuge to the illicit love between Jack and Ennis. The mountain is cold, subject to harsh, potentially lethal weather (the hailstorm, the lightning strike that killed the sheep the year earlier), and is replete with bears and coyotes. Ennis and Jack found love amidst dangerous circumstances, and bore their love through unending peril and fear (culminating perhaps in Jack's own murder).

Offline Mikaela

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Re: The dark side of the mountain
« Reply #1 on: June 07, 2006, 01:49:52 pm »
Good  topic!  :)

Seeing the mountain as  the Garden of Eden, the filmmakers have made certain to ensure that there are serpents around too, as it were - and the boys are aware of them. They may feel like they're outside of civilization but even their paradise has issued rules for them to follow, and breaking those rules it comes with a risk.....  Game and Fish might catch them out. Forest Service is snooping around. And "what if Aguirre finds out" is emphasized when Aguirre himself shows up and very pointedly uses his binoculars in the middle of his conversation with Jack, to let Jack know they're being watched. No, the boys are not alone with the elements and the animals both domestic and wild....... the dangers and strictures of society are still present even if the dangers and freedom of the wild may seem more present, and more real.
« Last Edit: June 07, 2006, 02:21:23 pm by Mikaela »

Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: The dark side of the mountain
« Reply #2 on: June 07, 2006, 02:12:37 pm »
Mikaela,

Good point about Aguirre and the binoculars when he's talking with Jack. I never thought about that! Almost six months since my first viewing and I'm still learning new things! Thanks!

Good  topic!  :)

Seeing the mountain as  the Garden of Eden, the filmmakers have made certain to ensure that there are serpents around too, as it were - and the boys are aware of them. They may feel like they're outside of civilization but even their paradise has issued rules for them to follow, and breaking those rules it comes with a risk.....  Game and Fish might catch them out. Forest Service is snooping around. And "what if Aguirre finds out" is emphasized when Aguirre himself shows up and very pointedly uses his binoculars in the middle of his conversation with Jack, to let Jack now they're being watched. No, the boys are not alone with the elements and the animals both domestic and wild....... the dangers and strictures of society are still present even if the dangers and freedom of the wild may seem more present, and more real.
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline serious crayons

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Re: The dark side of the mountain
« Reply #3 on: June 07, 2006, 02:43:37 pm »
It is a good topic, Scott!

One example of this that always strikes me is how dangerous the trail looks the morning after TS1, as Ennis is riding along and thinking about the night before. The shot comes from below, up a steep rocky hillside, dark clouds in the background. In its aridity it slightly resembles the setting of the scene with Earl (another reason, beyond the slaughtered sheep, that this scene mirrors that one). One false step by the horse and they could both go over the edge. It's threatening and forbidding and literally a slippery slope.

Of course, they've presumably been commuting on this same trail all along. But up until now, we've only been shown the pretty, verdant, forested parts of it.

Offline nakymaton

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Re: The dark side of the mountain
« Reply #4 on: June 07, 2006, 05:12:44 pm »
It's a pretty realistic view of living in the wilderness for a summer, though. I've been kind of annoyed with reviewers who focus only on the Edenic qualities of the mountain, in contrast with the drudgery of the small towns. Lightning, hail, bears, coyotes, cold, running out of food... I've worried about almost all those things during my summers living in tents. Seems believable to me. Neither safe nor unusually threatening.

Good point about why their second sheep pasture was on limestone with thin soil and not enough grass, though -- comparison with Ennis's flashback. (It's the limestone that makes it so bleak-looking.)
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Offline serious crayons

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Re: The dark side of the mountain
« Reply #5 on: June 07, 2006, 08:06:58 pm »
Good point about why their second sheep pasture was on limestone with thin soil and not enough grass, though -- comparison with Ennis's flashback. (It's the limestone that makes it so bleak-looking.)

Mel, thanks for the geologist's perspective!

Their campsite is certainly a lot more Edenic for them than it would be for me. (What, no heated pool? No minibar? No extended cable?!  :o) One detail that really makes this vivid to me is when Ennis stretches out to sleep with his head on a LOG. Me, I bring my own pillow when traveling because hotel ones are usually too hard.
:P

But sometimes they do acknowledge the dangerousness -- as when Ennis looks up with concern at Jack riding up the mountain and the threatening clouds coming up over the top.
 :-\

Offline alec716

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Re: The dark side of the mountain
« Reply #6 on: June 07, 2006, 08:21:24 pm »
This thread it a great idea!  Much thought to be mined.  OK, maybe I am not remembering some details, and maybe I am having an uncharacteristically naive day.  Nonetheless, it seems to me that a possible lesson to be drawn here is: it was ultimately the dangers posed by the human species, not by nature, which kept our heros physically separated for all that time (including eternity, if one subscribes -- as I do -- to the theory that Jack was murdered).  Some of their travails in nature brought them closer together: Jack's nurturing of Ennis after Ennis' fall from the horse thanks to the bear in the stream, the intensity of the time spent segregating out the storm-mingled sheep flocks, the simple beauty of campfire chats under glorious skies, the skinny-dipping dive, and, critically, the cold which drove Ennis into Jack's bedroll on their first fateful night of physical love.  Nauture certainly handed them some challenges (such as by truncating that first summer with early snow), but it was human bigotry (and Ennis' internalization of it) which kept our boys from having that little cow and calf operation.  People definitely tore asunder what nature brought together.  Maybe I am wrong -- just my thoughts at the moment.
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Offline starboardlight

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Re: The dark side of the mountain
« Reply #7 on: June 07, 2006, 08:26:33 pm »
It's a pretty realistic view of living in the wilderness for a summer, though. I've been kind of annoyed with reviewers who focus only on the Edenic qualities of the mountain, in contrast with the drudgery of the small towns. Lightning, hail, bears, coyotes, cold, running out of food... I've worried about almost all those things during my summers living in tents. Seems believable to me. Neither safe nor unusually threatening.

Good point about why their second sheep pasture was on limestone with thin soil and not enough grass, though -- comparison with Ennis's flashback. (It's the limestone that makes it so bleak-looking.)

from a guy's point of view. growing up, those things (weather, wild animals, food concerns) are exactly the romance of camping out. it's the test of masculinity. so yes, while they are real dangers, for the boys, I think they might actually be thrilling to have those elements. After all both Jack and Ennis at that age aspire to cowboy heroism.

This thread it a great idea!  Much thought to be mined.  OK, maybe I am not remembering some details, and maybe I am having an uncharacteristically naive day.  Nonetheless, it seems to me that a possible lesson to be drawn here is: it was ultimately the dangers posed by the human species, not by nature, which kept our heros physically separated for all that time (including eternity, if one subscribes -- as I do -- to the theory that Jack was murdered).  Some of their travails in nature brought them closer together: Jack's nurturing of Ennis after Ennis' fall from the horse thanks to the bear in the stream, the intensity of the time spent segregating out the storm-mingled sheep flocks, the simple beauty of campfire chats under glorious skies, the skinny-dipping dive, and, critically, the cold which drove Ennis into Jack's bedroll on their first fateful night of physical love.  Nauture certainly handed them some challenges (such as by truncating that first summer with early snow), but it was human bigotry (and Ennis' internalization of it) which kept our boys from having that little cow and calf operation.  People definitely tore asunder what nature brought together.  Maybe I am wrong -- just my thoughts at the moment.

come to think of it, now, the boys overcame these "tests of masculinity" by coming together. so, somehow, by being together they became men.
« Last Edit: June 07, 2006, 08:32:01 pm by starboardlight »
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Offline bbm_stitchbuffyfan

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Re: The dark side of the mountain
« Reply #8 on: June 08, 2006, 12:28:15 am »
Quote
come to think of it, now, the boys overcame these "tests of masculinity" by coming together. so, somehow, by being together they became men.

Ooh, I really like this...

You know, I've always felt a sort of "loss of innocence" sense to their hillside talk after their first sexual encounter.
If you'd just realize what I just realized then we'd be perfect for each other and we'd never have to wonder if we missed out on each other now
We missed out on each other now


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Offline serious crayons

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Re: The dark side of the mountain
« Reply #9 on: June 08, 2006, 12:44:24 am »
Well, and maybe this is kind of obvious, or perhaps implicit in previous posts, but the fact that their lifestyle is rugged and uncomfortable and hard-working also serves to underscore their "masculinity," in a traditional sense. Which nicely contradicts stereotypes.