"There was some open space between what he knew and what he tried to believe..."

[dly64]

Tell you what, I may be alone in this, but I have a problem with that final shot out the window of Ennis's trailer--well, actually I don't. What I'm saying is, for me that shot as we see it doesn't go with what the screenplay says about "the great bleakness of the vast northern plains."

Why? Whatever that green stuff is that we see blowin' in the wind across the road from Ennis's trailer, whether it be some type of grain or just some kind of tall prairie grass, still, it's green, it's alive, it's growing. For me that's a hopeful image. For bleakness I require brown, dried, dead vegetation.

I'm supposing that combined with/coming after Ennis's about-face agreement to go to Alma, Jr.,'s wedding, that final shot of the living, growing vegetation contributed to why I always left the theater feeling uplifted and hopeful. So if that final shot is intended to convey bleakness and despair, it doesn't work for me.

I see what you are saying … maybe you can surmise that the green does offer some essence of hope. I can agree with that. Most of the shot, however, is brown, it is bleak. I foresee Ennis’ future life as being relatively empty and lonely without Jack. I doubt that he will ever have another relationship (with a man or a woman). 

Here is an interview with Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana in regards to the end of the film:

McMurtry: I don’t think Ennis would kill himself.
Ossana: He’s too tough. That would be a sign of weakness, and it would leave a memory of him as being weak, and I don’t think he would want that. But I do think that Ennis knows that people probably know that he’s homosexual, and emotionally [at the end of the film] I think he makes a tiny bit of progress, because he agrees to attend Alma Jr.’s wedding. Finally he compromises—
McMurtry: And doesn’t disappoint a woman.
Ossana: It’s the first time in the film that he doesn’t disappoint someone, male or female. It’s a tiny baby step, but he does it. I just don’t know how much [more] he’s capable of changing. I think if anything, he might become even more homophobic and bitter because of what he did, what he gave up, what he lost, what he’ll never have.

[urlhttp://www.advocate.com/currentstory1_w.asp?id=25277&page=[/url]

So, IMO, there is some hope. But, mostly he will internalize his loss and live a relatively lonely and empty life. (Whew …. I am a bundle of cheer, ain’t I?)

[Jeff Wrangler]

I see what you are saying … maybe you can surmise that the green does offer some essence of hope. I can agree with that. Most of the shot, however, is brown, it is bleak. I foresee Ennis’ future life as being relatively empty and lonely without Jack. I doubt that he will ever have another relationship (with a man or a woman). 

Here is an interview with Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana in regards to the end of the film:

McMurtry: I don’t think Ennis would kill himself.
Ossana: He’s too tough. That would be a sign of weakness, and it would leave a memory of him as being weak, and I don’t think he would want that. But I do think that Ennis knows that people probably know that he’s homosexual, and emotionally [at the end of the film] I think he makes a tiny bit of progress, because he agrees to attend Alma Jr.’s wedding. Finally he compromises—
McMurtry: And doesn’t disappoint a woman.
Ossana: It’s the first time in the film that he doesn’t disappoint someone, male or female. It’s a tiny baby step, but he does it. I just don’t know how much [more] he’s capable of changing. I think if anything, he might become even more homophobic and bitter because of what he did, what he gave up, what he lost, what he’ll never have.

[urlhttp://www.advocate.com/currentstory1_w.asp?id=25277&page=[/url]

So, IMO, there is some hope. But, mostly he will internalize his loss and live a relatively lonely and empty life. (Whew …. I am a bundle of cheer, ain’t I?)

Well, I didn't mean to overemphasize the hopefulness, and perhaps that's how it came across. I'm not left with any great hope that Ennis is going to change radically. I only meant to convey that for me the ending is not despairing.

I have to wonder, too. whether that "tiny baby step" that Diana Ossana speaks of isn't, in relative terms, a huge leap for Ennis.

[Michel4410]

I think it simply means that there was a wide gap between what he knew in his heart and what he tried to believe that he should conform to the societal norms and keep the status quo in the relationship with Jack. He could not break out the self-imposed shell and he realizes that he must endure the consequence of his decision ( if you can't fix it, you've got to stand it).

[nakymaton]

Hi Michel4410 (can I just call you Michel?), and welcome.

I'm not responding to all the individual responses because... well, because I don't think there's a right answer. I think it's fascinating, though, to see that different people see the same things (particularly about Jack's death) on opposite sides of the know/try to believe divide.

I think both the story and the movie leave a lot of open space for the readers and viewers, between what we're shown and what we all end up trying to believe. And it's fascinating to see all the different things that people find in that open space.

(Whether the flat green fields are a symbol of hope or despair is pretty interesting. Now I want to know where you're from originally, Jeff -- whether there's a correlation between feelings about particular landscapes and the impression people have of that last view out the window. I don't find the view to be unusually depressing, myself, but I also don't find it to be inspiring... not like, say, the backdrop behind the lakeside argument. Guh. Now that's a landscape. *swoons*)

[welliwont]

Ossana: .... But I do think that Ennis knows that people probably know that he’s homosexual,...

http://www.advocate.com/currentstory1_w.asp?id=25277&page=

Diane, I think we should kidnap Diana Ossama and make her parse that there statement; explain, dissect, justify, support, interpret, etc that bold conclusion!  Waddya think, could she do it?

J

[serious crayons]

For me that's a hopeful image. For bleakness I require brown, dried, dead vegetation.

I'm supposing that combined with/coming after Ennis's about-face agreement to go to Alma, Jr.,'s wedding, that final shot of the living, growing vegetation contributed to why I always left the theater feeling uplifted and hopeful. So if that final shot is intended to convey bleakness and despair, it doesn't work for me.

What, you want the entire audience to walk out of the theater feeling suicidal? 

Jeff, I do think the green vegetation implies a hint of hope. As Mel implies, not so much hope as if it had been a mountainous landscape. The mountains -- and all they represent -- are gone for Ennis now. The final shot joins Jack's blue with Ennis' tan and green between them. It could be read as hopeful (green) or despairing (flat). But it's not hard for me to believe that Ang may be more of an optimist than Annie and would prefer to end the movie on a subtly upbeat note.

 

[Jeff Wrangler]

a subtly upbeat note.

For me, that's it exactly, Katherine: "subtly upbeat."

(Nakymaton, I grew up in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, traditionally a great farming county that bills itself as "the Garden Spot of America," the heart of the traditional "Pennsylvania Dutch Country," where Harrison Ford's Witness was filmed.)

[Penthesilea]

I'm astonished how many different interpretations people have for the last sentece of the book.
To be honest, I'm puzzled that there are different interpretations at all. Guess I shouldn't be (puzzled), since I'm aware of the ambiguity of both, book and movie.

I see the last sentece in connection with the two before:

"The spoon handle was the kind that could be used as a tire iron. And he would wake sometimes in grief, sometimes with the old sense of joy and release; the pillows sometimes wet, sometimes the sheets."

Both senteces refer to the mystery of Jack's death. Spoon handels which transform into tire irons in his dreams. "sometimes in grief": bad dreams about Jack being beaten to death (wet pillows). "sometimes with the old sense of joy and release": good (and hot) dreams about Jack (wet sheets).

So for me the last sentence is about Jack's death. Ennis knows that it has been murder, but what he wants to believe it that it was an accident.

[Mikaela]

Reading through the various replies on this thread has been very rewarding. There's always more insight to be had with this group of people! 


I reached the conclusion some time ago that I was unable to decide with certainty exactly what the last sentence means. As much as anything, it seems to serve as a reminder that we can never truly know what's hidden in the innermost heart of another human being. Despite having come to know Ennis well through this story, despite having followed him through the fear and pain and sorrow and joy and love of those 20 years, - his thoughts are still his own and sometimes indecipherable, to some extent he's still inscrutable, still an enigma. I wonder if Annie Proulx herself had one specific meaning and one meaning only read into that last line; - however that is, it seems certain she wanted to make it ambiguous to the readers to interpret in whatever way makes the most sense to them.


What seems certain to me though is that the brief paragraph preceding it covers the whole of Jack and Ennis's time together. The beans and spoon handles of Brokeback, the plans and dreams that came to nothing, the shadow of the tire iron that loomed over their relationship the entire life because of its significance to Ennis, the love, the sex, the grief and tears. That it's cast in "cartoon shape(s) and lurid colours that (give) the dreams a flavour of comic obscenity" seems very harsh, entirely unsentimental, and pointing to a great deal of tragic irony in Ennis's situation at the end of the story. And *that* makes me think that if I had to choose *one* meaning for the last sentence, I think it is the following:

Ennis *knows* without a doubt, in his heart, what Jack meant to him - that he loved him. But he doesn't know that Jack ever fully knew or was made to understand how deeply Ennis loved him, - the way Ennis never spoke up, the way he behaved, from punching Jack out to omitting any verbal response to the "Sometimes I miss you so much....."  to blaming Jack for making him a "noone". Ennis can only try to believe that despite his silences and fears and his constant holding back, what he did do was still enough, so that Jack *did* at one point experience the confirmation of Ennis's love for him without any doubts lingering and lurking, *did* believe all that Ennis "swears" to Jack after Jack is gone. It seems to me one of the worst regrets Ennis has to live with is that he never managed to tell Jack his feelings right out, loud and clear. Despite their relationship taking up and shaping Ennis's entire life - he never said the words, except indirectly, and as a part of a bitter accusation. Sure, he has to try to believe and hope that what he did do was somehow still enough - but there's a huge space of doubt between that and certainty.

[stevenedel]

A lot of interesting viewpoints - and that's only one sentence!

Thinking about it, I still feel though that interpretations focussing on the manner of Jack's death or his probable relationship with Randall are too topical. It is the final sentence of the story, and my guess is that it sums up its entire essence, i.e.: the conflict between the knowledge of deep love, and the belief that it is impossible to turn this particular love into a living reality. There is some space between those because the strength of their love as such might have made possible the 'sweet life' Jack dreamed of.

(Though frankly I should add I'm not all that optimistic about the way things would have worked out had Jack and Ennis set up house together).