Life and this movie are messy

[Front-Ranger]

We haven't talked about blood yet...another very messy thing in life and this movie!!

[nagsheadsea412]

Blood, mud, bad cooking, bloated beans feeling...but a little ditty....'There wasn't a fence in the world that we knew, for the West an' its people was honest and new, ENNIS AND jACK) And the range stretched away with a sky for a lid---I'm old but I'm glad I lived when I did.'

[Front-Ranger]

So true agin - back to the wedding ceremony and the whole garden of Eden idea - and all just in a few lines in the story! The whole story amazes me, because just when you think you've spotted everything, something crops up that's glaringly obvious when you look at it again.

Here's what ClancyPantsNasty had to say about the wedding idea in his thread "Why BBM is a Masterpiece of Art":

Jack and Ennis came together at Aguirre’s trailer. The short story says “they came together on paper as herder and camp tender for the same sheep operation.” This has a marriage license/contract imagery to it. They stand before Aguirre who hands out rules to them for how they will live their lives. This is an imagery for a wedding ceremony. But it is turned on its head by the phone call in which Aguirre keeps saying “No.” In Ennis’ trailer, the discussion with Jr. is about her upcoming wedding. She’s the same age as Ennis was when he met Jack. She drove up to him waiting outside his trailer the same way that Jack drove up to Ennis waiting outside Aguirre’s trailer. This time, the wedding ceremony imagery is not turned on its head. He shares a toast with Alma and he makes a pledge to her to go to her wedding. Then, the very next thing he does is go to the closet, adjust Jack’s shirt and he says (according to the short story): ““Jack, I swear—” he said, though Jack had never asked him to swear anything and was himself not the swearing kind.” This is not talking about cursing (swearing) or Ennis being at a loss for words, there is a definite vow imagery at work here. It is also significant that the “wedding clothes”, so to speak, in the end, are the same ones that were on the boys in Aguirre’s trailer.

[Front-Ranger]

Ang Lee exchanged places of a lot of things in the movie. One of them was...spit! The actors spit at pivotal times in the movie. In Annie Proulx's story, Ennis applied spit during the FNIT, as well as the clear slick. 

[Front-Ranger]

There are 60 "guests" and no "users" at this site right now, and one of the guests is perusing this thread!! 

[Sason]

There are 60 "guests" and no "users" at this site right now, and one of the guests is perusing this thread!! 

Well, there had to be at least one user, since you were here, Lee!   


This seems to be a highly interesting thread. I'll dive into it as soon as I get the time.

[Front-Ranger]

Bumping an interesting topic, for Throwback Tuesday, I guess.