You shut up about Ennis - this ain't (all) his fault

[serious crayons]

Thanks, Chuck and Lee.

[BBM_victim]

I still think the chronological order of events is water-walking-Jesus-sinner-talk -> dozy embrace -> FNIT.

Friends! I had a new observation!  Too many of them lately!! 

Regarding my above statement on when the dozy embrace took place. I recon Ennis is riding (on a horse) away from Jack three times in the move - see below screenshots (wanna guess when they were?  ).

[At this point i MUST say just how b-e-au-tiful the first ride-off was!!! That big guy riding off magnificently surrounded by those swirling cigarette smoke clouds!... Ahhhh, that would be MY personal fall-in-love moment!]

I noticed that while Ennis is riding off slowly and relaxed at the first one, he is literally fleeing from Jack at the second and third occasions. I think we do know why he is galloping away in the second scene, right? Because that's right after FNIT, Ennis totally confused and he cannot face Jack at all.
Then, can we draw some similar conclusion for the third ride-off? I would put it this way to line it up with my above theory:

========
Ennis considers Jack his dearest friend, he loves him to pieces already, just for the fact that he can be himself around Jack without fear or shame. Ennis hugs Jack, hums, says "i got a go" and leaves. He just had done something he never did before - hugging a man and humming! He is unsure whether it is alright, whether he made himself too vulnerable by revealing a tender side of him and by sharing some childhood memory. He is maybe a bit embarrassed of himself - like it was at the "i ain't yet had the opportunity". He doesn't dare to check upon Jack's reaction, so he quickly leaves the spot.
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Waddya think?  I do think that he walks to the horse quite relaxed and seemingly at peace, though. Playing cool?

[Front-Ranger]

I quite agree, BBM-vic. . . and I would add that on the first horseback exit, the swathes of cig smoke around his head make me think about when he was bathing himself in the background, surrounded by the swathes of smoke from the potato-peeling Jack in the foreground.

Lee, Ledger and Prieto had challenges translating Proulx's words into graphic images and they succeeded beautifully in translating "paw the white out of the moon" into these lyrical images.

I also agree a hunert percent with your assessment of the third ride-off. 

[BBM_victim]

Oh, thanks Front-Roger with agreeing with me - i'm happy now 

Regarding the "paw the white out of the moon" - i think the scene where Ennis rides through the woods and hums just before he meets the bear is actually how they represented this line from the story. I LOVE this scene, too! Ennis looks just so happy like a little boy (*-*).