Author Topic: The Laundry Room  (Read 114353 times)

Offline Front-Ranger

  • BetterMost Moderator
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 30,287
  • Brokeback got us good.
Re: The laundry
« Reply #10 on: July 04, 2006, 05:51:39 pm »
Some of you seem to be a little cornfused! This is the laundry room. The I love everything Ennis room is down the block. In fact there's a whole streetful of I love everything Ennis rooms for your pleasure! (I'm a Jack person myself. Have too many Ennises littering my past; in fact I am an Ennis myself!)
"chewing gum and duct tape"

Offline Penthesilea

  • Town Administration
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 14,745
Re: The laundry
« Reply #11 on: July 05, 2006, 04:00:41 am »
Some of you seem to be a little cornfused! This is the laundry room. The I love everything Ennis room is down the block.

 :laugh: Thinking of Ennis confuses me every time  ::) But you're right, let me do some more laundry:

When we see Alma taking off laundry from the clothesline outside the little house/ranch (before they move to Riverton), we see noticably Ennis's brown patterned shirt, and we see Alma taking it off. It's the same shirt that he wears in TS1 (and when they come down the mountain). This is another detail, which I noticed, but don't know what to think about it. It's like the one cherry in the cherry cake: demonstrative.
I'll attach pics of the three scenes below.


I'm with you there! (As you well know.  ::)) I could go on and on with examples, myself. Oh wait -- I think maybe I've done that already.
:laugh: :) :laugh: :) :laugh: ;D :laugh: :)


Quote
Penth, your mention of flaws compared to the extreme care given to so many minute details is interesting. I hope it's not too OT, but that baffles me. And I don't just mean details like the microphone cord on little Alma Jr. or the magical peanuts and chopping-block log -- flaws that, as somebody pointed out, may have been prohibitively expensive to fix by the time they were discovered. But there are even flaws that seemingly resulted from poor planning -- date glitches, particularly -- which is strange, given how beautifully so many other things are planned.

Strange is the word I would use, too. It puzzles me. Since it is OT here, maybe you could open a new thread for it?



The pics:
In the first pic, you can the at the sleeve, that it's the brown patterned shirt:


Coming down the mountain:


Alma at the clothesline (click to enlarge):
« Last Edit: July 05, 2006, 04:03:26 am by Penthesilea »

Offline Front-Ranger

  • BetterMost Moderator
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 30,287
  • Brokeback got us good.
Re: The laundry
« Reply #12 on: July 05, 2006, 04:23:46 pm »
Thanks for the pictures! Say, I was watching the movie last night (wanted to see the 4th of July scene again!) and I noticed that I have a shirt that is exactly like the one Jack wears in the post-divorce scene! It has diamond snaps and is in a dark blue-gray color with a chalk stripe. I got it at Rockmount Western Wear which is where the two starring shirts are from, in Denver, of course. (Notice how I so cleverly worked Jack into this post?!)
"chewing gum and duct tape"

Offline serious crayons

  • Moderator
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 22,711
Re: The laundry
« Reply #13 on: July 05, 2006, 06:09:58 pm »
F-R, you're the third or fourth person here I've seen say they watched the movie yesterday in honor of the 4th. Must be an unofficial Brokie holiday!

Offline Front-Ranger

  • BetterMost Moderator
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 30,287
  • Brokeback got us good.
Re: The laundry
« Reply #14 on: July 05, 2006, 06:22:37 pm »
The Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, the first full moon in June, and the Oscars have all changed in my mind, Katharine. New rituals for a new way of thinking!
"chewing gum and duct tape"

Offline Brown Eyes

  • BetterMost Supporter!
  • BetterMost Moderator
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 10,377
Re: The laundry
« Reply #15 on: July 05, 2006, 09:39:17 pm »
I have very little to add here at the moment... but I thought I'd pop in and say this is a lovely thread Lee!  I love the idea that we're seeing Ennis doing "laundry" (of a sort) at the very end when he folds Alma Jr's sweater and buttons Jack's shirt.
 :'(

Well, this may seem obvious and it also may have been mentioned here and there before... but I think it's a sign of "partnership".  Yes, doing laundry is certainly an intimate act (I think it's no accident that we see Jack washing Ennis's shirt... naked... after TS1... they're about as intimate as possible at this point) and it's the kind of thing you'd only likely to do for your partner or family.  I think this is meant to demonstrate that Jack was already very comfortably (and naturally) in the role of Ennis's partner up on Brokeback before Ennis settled down with Alma.  It seems important for the story/ film that Jack was Ennis's first love/ domestic partner despite the fact that he was technically engaged to Alma already.  I think this is why we hear the "opportunity" conversation... to be sure the audience knows that Jack is Ennis's first.  It makes Jack's "claim" on Ennis for the rest of the film seem appropriate... and unfortunately and unbeknownst to Alma it makes her seem like the usurper.  And this role of "partner" or the place where they could be "partners" is the place where they can never really return...  But, they both know that they were both happiest when they were living together as partners (Ennis admits he realizes this during the argument about him moving to Texas... when he says in a flippant way..."we could just live together herding sheep... and whiskey would flow in the stream..."  he's showing that he does recognize this as an ideal... so much so that it's now a fantasy).
the world was asleep to our latent fuss - bowie

Offline jpwagoneer1964

  • BetterMost 1000+ Posts Club
  • ******
  • Posts: 1,720
  • Me and my 1951 DeSoto Suburban
Re: The laundry
« Reply #16 on: July 05, 2006, 10:01:01 pm »
I have very little to add here at the moment... but I thought I'd pop in and say this is a lovely thread Lee!  I love the idea that we're seeing Ennis doing "laundry" (of a sort) at the very end when he folds Alma Jr's sweater and buttons Jack's shirt.
 :'(

Well, this may seem obvious and it also may have been mentioned here and there before... but I think it's a sign of "partnership".  Yes, doing laundry is certainly an intimate act (I think it's no accident that we see Jack washing Ennis's shirt... naked... after TS1... they're about as intimate as possible at this point) and it's the kind of thing you'd only likely to do for your partner or family.  I think this is meant to demonstrate that Jack was already very comfortably (and naturally) in the role of Ennis's partner up on Brokeback before Ennis settled down with Alma.  It seems important for the story/ film that Jack was Ennis's first love/ domestic partner despite the fact that he was technically engaged to Alma already.  I think this is why we hear the "opportunity" conversation... to be sure the audience knows that Jack is Ennis's first.  It makes Jack's "claim" on Ennis for the rest of the film seem appropriate... and unfortunately and unbeknownst to Alma it makes her seem like the usurper.  And this role of "partner" or the place where they could be "partners" is the place where they can never really return...  But, they both know that they were both happiest when they were living together as partners (Ennis admits he realizes this during the argument about him moving to Texas... when he says in a flippant way..."we could just live together herding sheep... and whiskey would flow in the stream..."  he's showing that he does recognize this as an ideal... so much so that it's now a fantasy).
While I agree with you that laundry is an intimate act, I do think that it was Jack job as camp tender at that time to do laundry for the both of them just as it would have been Ennis's when he was tender. there just wouldn'y have been time for the herder to do it. The we a partnership at some level from the very begining.
« Last Edit: July 13, 2006, 10:38:40 pm by jpwagoneer1964 »
Thank you Heath and Jake for showing us Ennis and Jack,  teaching us how much they loved one another.

moremojo

  • Guest
Re: The laundry
« Reply #17 on: July 05, 2006, 11:10:38 pm »
Thanks, Front-Ranger, for a very perceptive and thought-provoking post!
I second that thought, stevenedel, and I also want to commend you on your avatar. That's Uhr-Ennis there, the living prototype for the tragic and beautiful cowboy we have come to know and love on the big screen. I feel you honor and immortalize that real human being by projecting his image here--thank you for that.

Regards,
Scott

Offline Brown Eyes

  • BetterMost Supporter!
  • BetterMost Moderator
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 10,377
Re: The laundry
« Reply #18 on: July 05, 2006, 11:28:47 pm »
While I adree with you that laundry is an intimate act, I do think that it was Jack job as camp tender at that time to do laundry for the both of them just as it would have been Ennis's when he was tender. there just wouldn'y have been time for the herder to do it. The we a partnership at some level from the very begining.

Yes, I'm sure that Ennis would have done Jack's laundry too and that it was part of the "job" description... but I don't think that either of them thought about it as if it were a job... know what I mean? 
 ;)
Or, maybe it started out feeling like a job, but as time went by they began to feel like it was a little thrilling to have such 'intimate' access to each other's clothes... it especially would have seemed like much more than a job once they'd become lovers.  By the way... I love how Jack pounds away at Ennis's shirt (the shirt, by the way) in the stream as if he's letting all his frustration and anxiety loose on it.
« Last Edit: July 06, 2006, 01:13:46 am by atz75 »
the world was asleep to our latent fuss - bowie

Offline Front-Ranger

  • BetterMost Moderator
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 30,287
  • Brokeback got us good.
Re: The laundry
« Reply #19 on: July 05, 2006, 11:38:10 pm »
Yes, I agree it's very satisfying the way he pounds on the shirt, Amanda!
"chewing gum and duct tape"