moment(s) of artless, charmed happiness?

[fernly]

"...that dozy embrace solidified in his memory as the single moment of artless, charmed happiness in their separate and difficult lives."
Setting aside the heart-breaking fact that Jack remembered one moment like that, do you think Ennis remembered the embrace the same way, did it have the same unique power for him? 
Or do you think there was a different moment for Ennis?

[ednbarby]

Great question, Lynn!  (So lovely meeting you and talking with you, albeit briefly, the other night, by the way.)

I'll take a stab at this:  My guess is that Ennis' moment would be when he receives Jack's first post card.  The way he holds it so reverently and re-reads it, mouthing the words the second time, and the way we all know he's been aching for Jack all those four years...  It struck me the other night that the reason he writes Jack's address from a piece of paper he brought with him to the post office isn't because he's always had his address, but because that post card is so sacred, he's kept it in a safe place where it can't be bent or marred and transcribed the return address on it to a scrap of paper for the post office, rather than bring it with him and risk defacing it in any way.  In the short story, Ennis goes out of his way to find a card that depicts Brokeback Mountain to live in the same closet in his trailer with the shirts.  In the movie, Jack's first card *is* a picture of Brokeback Mountain.

I guess a close second would be hearing Jack's truck pull up in the parking lot of his apartment, then seeing Jack climb out of the cab.  For Ennis, it was always the idea of Jack that most inspired him.  But for Jack, it was Ennis himself.

[Front-Ranger]

Have you heard the expression, "Still waters run deep." Well, to me, that describes Ennis. Even though he did not show it on the surface, I think he listened, watched, and took in everything that he encountered. He thought about and mulled over everything. He stewed over Jack and wrang it out for Jack for four long years. I wonder if Ennis ever had the capacity to just "let be, let be." He was so hung up on surviving, on not being found out, on hiding his real self, I don't that he could really enjoy just being in the moment. But, I remember the parts of the story where Ennis was so happy he felt he could paw the white out of the moon. And how he enjoyed riding at night on Cigar Butt after an evening with Jack around the campfire. Yes, he did have his moments of happiness on Brokeback Mountain. Where he was able to lose track of society and just enjoy being himself.

[jpwagoneer1964]

Great question, Lynn!  (So lovely meeting you and talking with you, albeit briefly, the other night, by the way.)

I'll take a stab at this:  My guess is that Ennis' moment would be when he receives Jack's first post card.  The way he holds it so reverently and re-reads it, mouthing the words the second time, and the way we all know he's been aching for Jack all those four years...  It struck me the other night that the reason he writes Jack's address from a piece of paper he brought with him to the post office isn't because he's always had his address, but because that post card is so sacred, he's kept it in a safe place where it can't be bent or marred and transcribed the return address on it to a scrap of paper for the post office, rather than bring it with him and risk defacing it in any way.  In the short story, Ennis goes out of his way to find a card that depicts Brokeback Mountain to live in the same closet in his trailer with the shirts.  In the movie, Jack's first card *is* a picture of Brokeback Mountain.

I guess a close second would be hearing Jack's truck pull up in the parking lot of his apartment, then seeing Jack climb out of the cab.  For Ennis, it was always the idea of Jack that most inspired him.  But for Jack, it was Ennis himself.

I always thought at the final scene with the shirts the card should be the first one Jack sent, writing turned out. The card Jack wrote is NOT of Brokeback though

[serious crayons]

I think the 24 hours or so leading up to "I'm sending up a prayer of thanks" were moments of ACH for Ennis. But there were probably plenty on Brokeback, too. The "happy tussle" also looks like one to me (if not to Aguirre).

[bbm_stitchbuffyfan]

Wait, wagoneer, what are you saying? I thought that the postcard Ennis has on his closet door was the same one Jack sent him in 1967. I remember them looking exactly alike.

By the way, if that's the case, then that was one of the best liberties they could have taken from the (amazing) story. 

[jpwagoneer1964]

Wait, wagoneer, what are you saying? I thought that the postcard Ennis has on his closet door was the same one Jack sent him in 1967. I remember them looking exactly alike.

By the way, if that's the case, then that was one of the best liberties they could have taken from the (amazing) story. 

If you look closely at the card when Ennis is reading it, it is from El Capitan, NM. In the book Ennis buys a postcard of Brokeback.

[Ellemeno]

I can't disagree with any of what I've read here, but here's something I've thought:

In the lake scene, when Ennis says, "we could go huntin' in November, kill us a nice elk," I think he's trying to soothe/tempt/mollify/attract Jack with the memory of what is Ennis's moment of ACH - when he shot the elk for Jack.  He couldn't provide him with soup or powdered milk or spuds (dumbass mules), but he wound up providing something even better - fresh meat.  I think the shooting, and then the shove, and Jack's glee were Ennis's ACH.

[vkm91941]

I can't disagree with any of what I've read here, but here's something I've thought:

In the lake scene, when Ennis says, "we could go huntin' in November, kill us a nice elk," I think he's trying to soothe/tempt/mollify/attract Jack with the memory of what is Ennis's moment of ACH - when he shot the elk for Jack.  He couldn't provide him with soup or powdered milk or spuds (dumbass mules), but he wound up providing something even better - fresh meat.  I think the shooting, and then the shove, and Jack's glee were Ennis's ACH.

Oh Clarissa I like that very much and I think you might just have hit on something here.  We all agreed long ago that Ennis ordered the soup for Jack who was the one "sick of beans" and then the food ends up strewn all over the trail and Ennis comes back to camp injured and there's Jack trying to pretend he wasn't worried and complaining about only finding beans when he was starving.  Yep Ennis shot that Elk for Jack, because he could and it would make Jack happy.

[whiteoutofthemoon]

"...that dozy embrace solidified in his memory as the single moment of artless, charmed happiness in their separate and difficult lives."
Setting aside the heart-breaking fact that Jack remembered one moment like that, do you think Ennis remembered the embrace the same way, did it have the same unique power for him? 
Or do you think there was a different moment for Ennis?

I think for Ennis, it was a lot simpler than that, and his "moment" was the one described in the book in the line in my signature below.    It was before their "relationship" started, and so incredibly poignant, in that Ennis had just discovered a close friend after a lonely, tragic young life.   I also feel that, more than just the sex, this was why he was so miserable about leaving the mountain early, that this unique bond and little paradise that they had had to come to an end, and they had to step back into reality.