It’s maybe one of those circumstances whereby Jack really didn’t want to deal with his bastard of a father.
So his father is a bastard because he never met his grandson, which he couldn't do because his son never introduced them, which he didn't do because his father is a bastard?
No, I know what you mean. And as I said, I definitely am not vying for a a position on the OMT Defense League. (The EDM Defense League is already a full-time job.)
As for your second point … are you saying that Mr. Twist is nonchalant about his son being gay? That he is impassive? I am not sure about that … I keep vacillating. I guess, for today, I can see your logic.
It would seem so. Of if he harbors homophobia in his heart of hearts, we're not shown it. The important thing is the filmmakers very pointedly did not present him as a homophobe, and their objective was not to elicit sympathy for the old man but to make a dramatic point.
As for others “not reacting strongly” …. to me it is not what they do. It is what they say and what they convey in their tone of voice. It’s disdain.
Sure. But the point is that the worst reaction -- in this particular story, excluding Earl -- happens in Ennis' mind. Besides, Ennis is used to facing disdainful tones in other circumstances. Look how disdainful Aguirre was, even before he knew of their sexual activities. In Ennis' mind, the repercussions of people "knowing" would be much more huge and unbearable than garden-variety disdain. On Thanksgiving, if Alma had accused him -- in the same disdainful tone -- of being a bad provider, he would have been pissed off. But I don't think he would have threatened violence, stormed out of the house and got himself beaten up. If Aguirre, instead of saying "You ranch stiffs ain't never no good," had said something about their sexual activities, Ennis would not have just stood there impassively, he would have freaked out. He could live with being called incompetent. But he was raised to believe that homosexuality was not in any way remotely acceptable, that it was the worst possible thing, that the consequences of being associated with the word were unspeakable.
However, that doesn’t prevent them from despising the individual and causing irreparable harm to his/her psyche.
Exactly!!!!! That's exactly the point the film is making about societal homophobia -- that it causes irreparable harm to an individual's psyche.
Although I can agree that much of the damage perpetrated on to Ennis is from Ennis himself,
But really I'm not saying that. I'm saying that actually the damage to Ennis was perpetrated by society, or maybe that the damage perpetrated by society causes Ennis to perpetrate damage on himself. In other words, I'm not letting society off the hook, and I don't think Ennis' problems came out of nowhere.
it does not preclude the fact that, especially in that time and place, he would have been hated, despised, and a target. (What I mean as a “target” – certainly discrimination and possibly the target of a hate crime).
Sure. The Earl story certainly proves that. I'm just saying it's interesting that the filmmakers chose not to focus on the external expression of homophobia (discrimination, hate crimes). In fact, Earl aside, those are conspicuously absent. Aguirre watches Jack and Ennis through the binoculars. Then we see him riding up to Jack and think "Uh-oh, now the shit's going to hit the fan!" (Ha ha ha: shit, fan -- get it?!) But in fact, it doesn't. Aguirre doesn't mention what he saw. He doesn't fire them or yell at them. In fact, he's not even all that rude, at least by his standards. Why not? (Though he does decline to rehire Jack the following year, so discrimination isn't entirely absent.)
BTW, understand that I'm
not saying, oh, they never show any hate crimes except for that trivial little subplot involving Earl. The horrifying shadow of Earl's fate looms over the whole story. I'm just saying that, having said it once, the film figures we get the message and doesn't need to say it again and again.
I had a great uncle who was gay. He lived in a rural Midwestern town. He did what society expected of him. He got married and had children (albeit 12 years apart). He was caught having sex with a man and was arrested. Of course all of this was extremely painful for everyone. Oh yes … one more thing …. he was murdered. Apparently everyone knew who did it, but no one was arrested.
Diane, I saw this on the other thread. I know you aren't saying it to get sympathy, but I AM really sorry, it's a horrifying story. And please please don't interpret my remarks here to indicate that I think stuff like that never happens. That's not what I mean at all.
Where I think we differ … even if someone is not outwardly homophobic, it does not eliminate the seething contempt perpetrated on the gay individual.
I don't think we differ on this.
This is how I see OMT. Granted, he probably would not have killed Ennis or his son. That is not to say, however, that he wouldn’t work hard to demean them and to destroy them emotionally. OMT is all about CONTROL, CONTROL, CONTROL.
We certainly agree that OMT is an SOB. Yet the film goes out of its way to suggest that OMT knows about Jack, shows him acting contemptuously, even hatefully, yet strangely enough does not show him saying anything homophobic.
IMO, Mr. Twist is not keeping the ashes because he longs to have Jack in the family plot. On the contrary. He is doing it because he knows this is not what Jack wanted. Back to the whole issue of control. I may have been too strong in saying that OMT didn’t care about his son (at all). But his motivations are not out of love for Jack. He is not being a bastard to Ennis because he blames Ennis for allowing Jack to die. He is being an old SOB because that is what he is.
I'm not sure what I think about why he keeps the ashes, or whether he blames Ennis. Ruthlessly's interpretation is interesting and in some ways appealing, but, hmm ... I'm still unsure about OMT's motivations. I don't think he doesn't care about his son at all. But in any case, IMO, that's not the main point.
The main point is that, in the case of OMT, asshole does not equal homophobe. Maybe it usually does. Maybe all other embittered and vindictive old bastards in rural 1980s Wyoming are homophobes. But this one isn't, or at least we see no evidence that he is. The filmmakers want us to set aside our preconceptions -- in effect, to disregard our own prejudices.
They're doing it to make a point, but the point isn't that OMT is actually a nicer guy than he seems, nor that homophobia isn't a problem in rural Wyoming, nor that gay people are never targets of prejudice or hate crimes. On the contrary, we've seen evidence of all those things. The point is that society's homophobia not only causes all that sort of objective damage, but it also wreaks subjective damage, that it injures people's hearts and psyches and souls -- and, in the case of Ennis, wrecks his life.
