He is definitely checking out Ennis, especially when he is peeling the potato and Ennis is bathing, nude. (I find it humorous that Jack is trying not to look, but can’t help himself).
The way I see it: yes, he is trying not to look, yes, he really wants to -- but he actually doesn't!
In the story, it is Jack who says this is a one shot thing. Granted … here I go again, using the story and screenplay … I know the film can stand alone and should be looked as a separate entity. For me, however, it helps to show Jack’s frame of reference.
For me, the story doesn't help interpret the movie on this point. In the story, yes, their TS1 is portrayed as a mutually initiated, first-time-for-both thing. If anything, Ennis is the more aggressive one ("ran full-throttle"). The movie is different -- Jack initiates, Ennis stops to consider, then decides to go for it. Also, the movie goes out of its way to show Jack overtly checking out Ennis outside Aguirre's trailer. Also, in the movie Jack makes at least a couple of mini-moves before his big one in the tent: 1) his ministrations to Ennis after the bear and 2) "the point is, we should both be sleeping in this camp."
This is one of those cases in which I think the movie characters are more distinguishable and well developed than the story characters.
When Ennis says, “You know I ain’t queer” and Jack says, “Me neither” … I honestly think they both believe it. IMO, they are both homophobic … albeit Jack learns to accept it (privately) … but post BBM.
This would be a good issue to take up in a Jackcentric questionnaire (Amanda?). IMO, Jack has accepted his sexuality long before he shows up at Aguirre's trailer. Whether he's actually had sex, I don't know. But he knows that about himself -- hell, his
parents may already know it -- and has accepted it to the point that when he gets there and sees the hottie he's going to spend a summer alone with ... well, the gears are already turning there in the parking lot. Thus his self-consciously cowboy-macho poses and his rear-view-mirror checking out.
So no, IMO, Jack doesn't mean "Me neither" -- he's just saying that to placate Ennis (for that matter, I don't think even Ennis totally believes it). If Jack harbors any culturally imposed homophobia, he has done a remarkable job of freeing himself from it, given the place and time. That's one of Jack's amazing qualities: not to be intimidated by other people's opinions or criticism or rules.
That is why they both get married … to prove to themselves and others that they are straight.
That's why
Ennis gets married (well, less as a deliberate action to prove something, than because the marriage was already in the works and of course he'd go through with it because he's not queer). Jack gets married because he's broke, because he keeps striking out with men (Jimbo, IMO, is the tip of the iceberg). And here comes this lovely, wealthy woman aggressively pursuing him. He rather passively allows himself to be pursued, and next thing he knows ...
Jack is only 19, has been bullriding (testosterone city!!) and is living in Wyoming. I can’t see that he would have been sleeping around with men.
Impossible to know, IMO. As the movie shows, gay men exist in testosterone city, and somebody else may have already shown Jack the ropes. Or not. I can't tell.
Had Ennis and Jack both been sober, TS1 woldn’t have happened.
Had Ennis responded differently to Jack's ministrations, TS1 would have happened the night of the bear incident. Had they left Brokeback at the end of the summer without TS1 ever happening, Jack would have been mighty disappointed. (Ennis too, though less consciously.)
*** Amanda – I also am no pro at how painful it would be to have sex for the first time … umm … in that way (blush). I do think Jake tries to show ecstasy and a degree of pain. Not sure, either. Maybe someone with experience could enlighten me?
Seems like I just saw a discussion of this somewhere by someone with experience. If I run across it I'll let you know.