Author Topic: "It ain't right."  (Read 26750 times)

Offline Brown Eyes

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"It ain't right."
« on: July 08, 2006, 07:52:34 pm »
Hey there Friends,

I'm starting this thread as the flip-side of the "lovable details" thread.  Now we all know we love, love, love this film.  But, I'm sure for all of us there are little things that we find ever-so-slightly annoying, funny, off, etc. in the film (and the story for that matter).  I thought it might be fun to have a thread that pokes some gentle and loving fun at our BBM.  I think continuity errors could fit in here too.

To start, I think the best and most famous example of something that doesn't ring quite right (mentioned sometimes on BetterMost and on TOB) is the portrayal of Bobby Twist... and his goofy, almost New York accent.
 
« Last Edit: July 09, 2006, 01:05:23 am by atz75 »
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Offline tamarack

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Re: "It ain't right."
« Reply #1 on: July 08, 2006, 11:23:02 pm »
I wondered since my first viewing why, since Jack drove straight in toward the building beside Aguirre's trailer to park his truck, the truck was facing out when Ennis was helping him get it started after they got down from Brokeback.

Offline Amber

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Re: "It ain't right."
« Reply #2 on: July 09, 2006, 12:27:05 am »
There are two that I always notice.

One - is the scene where Aguirre comes down to camp.  When he's coming down Jack has a log on the chopping block and after Aguirre leaves the log has disappeared.

Two - In the "Mexico" scene ... the same boy in a stripped shirt runs behind Jack twice.

They don't really bother me though - at least they don't ruin any storylines! ;)

"... and Ennis, not big on endearments, said what he said to his horses and daughters, little darlin." ~Proulx

"Life is not a succession of urgents nows; it is a listless trickle of why-should-I's."  Johnny Depp as the Second Earl of Rochester.

Offline Brown Eyes

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Re: "It ain't right."
« Reply #3 on: July 09, 2006, 12:35:18 am »
I wondered since my first viewing why, since Jack drove straight in toward the building beside Aguirre's trailer to park his truck, the truck was facing out when Ennis was helping him get it started after they got down from Brokeback.

Oh wow!  Good catch!  I've never thought of that before, but you're right.  His truck definitely seems to be pointing the wrong way.
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Offline serious crayons

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Re: "It ain't right."
« Reply #4 on: July 09, 2006, 12:51:51 am »
Here's the one that has bugged me the most lately, because it has such impact on the story itself. I've posted it elsewhere, but ...

If the charity dance at which Jack met Randall happened in 1978, according to the banner over the stage, and presumably Jack and Randall started seeing each other not too long after that, and if Ennis met Cassie sometime just before that, then ...

... by the time Jack and Ennis each discussed their relationships with the "good looking little gal in Riverton" and the "ranch foreman's wife," those relationships had been going on something like FOUR F'IN YEARS. (The screenplay in "Story to Screen" says three, but that's unmistakably flawed, based on the chronology of events following that lakeside scene.)

Anyway, it's illogical that they would have gone four years (or even three) without mentioning these other involvements -- AND YET, when the subject happens to come up in conversation, they nonchalantly spill as if it's no big deal. If they were keeping these involvements secret for years, fine. Or if they had only been going on a short while and so they don't mind casually discussing them, fine. But not both!

Offline Brown Eyes

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Re: "It ain't right."
« Reply #5 on: July 09, 2006, 01:11:29 am »
Yeah, either 3 or 4 years seems awfully long for the Randall/ Cassie relationships to seem as casual as the film seems to imply.  It helps explain a little bit why Cassie was so hopeful and heartbroken.  It occurs to me that it would have been fun to see a little more of Randall... just to get more of a sense of what he was like (especially if he turns out to have been important enough to Jack to warrant an invitation to live at Lightning Flat).
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Offline serious crayons

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Re: "It ain't right."
« Reply #6 on: July 09, 2006, 01:42:09 am »
  It occurs to me that it would have been fun to see a little more of Randall... just to get more of a sense of what he was like (especially if he turns out to have been important enough to Jack to warrant an invitation to live at Lightning Flat).

My take on this is that the banner is wrong.

I just can't buy either relationship having gone on four f'in years without more progress, or frustration on the part of Randall/Cassie, or allusion by Jack or casual mention by Ennis (there's less at stake in his thing with Cassie). Of course, Alma Jr. does seem to age a little between the date and her appearance at the trailer ... But my conclusion is that it's more like a couple of years, at the most.

In any case, I just can't see this conversation:

Jack: All this time, and you ain't found nobody to marry.

Ennis: Well, I've been puttin the blocks to a good-lookin little gal in Riverton for the past four f'in years ...

OT for this thread, more suited for the Brokieisms thread, but will I ever be able to just say "four years" again without putting f'in in the middle of it?

Offline Bucky

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Re: "It ain't right."
« Reply #7 on: July 09, 2006, 05:40:20 am »
In the case of Ennis and Cassie I don't think it could have been four or five years.  The Del Mar divorce was granted the 6th day of November,  1975.  Ennis met Cassie after a reunion scene with Jack at the greyhound bus diner.  I know the song Cassie played and she and Ennis danced to was the "Devil's right hand."  That song wasn't released until 1988 but it didn't really affect the story in my opinion.  One thing that I did laugh at though were the wild looking clogs Cassie had on when she danced with Ennis.  I can remember when girls used to wear them.  No wonder Cassie's feet were killing her.

Offline Mikaela

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Re: "It ain't right."
« Reply #8 on: July 09, 2006, 06:09:51 am »
What bugs me, is another timeline matter, even though it's much more explainable and less conspicuous than those Cassie/Randall silent years.

It's the whole "Troy and Kurt" exchange between Ennis and Junior.

Daddy, that was 2 years ago?  ???

Yes, I get that they're aiming to imply that Ennis, who was shown to previously stay in close contact with his daughter(s), was so devastated by Jack's death that he dropped off the surface of his family's earth for much more than a year. If not physically, then at least mentally.

For one, I find that somewhat hard to believe, the way Ennis's relationship with Junior has been depicted up till then.

But if I accept that they've not communicated in a long time, then I would have expected more surprise, more hints of "this is a big deal" when Junior eventually appears. If not on his part, then on hers. At the very least, I wouldn't have expected her to be exasperated, as if it's weird that he still talks about Troy - why would she be, if she was still dating Troy last time she had contact with her father? That scene outside Ennis's trailer just doesn't *look* or come across to me as the meeting of people who despite their love for each other haven't seen or heard from each other in such a long time. And therefore, to me, the whole "Troy" discussion ain't quite right.
« Last Edit: July 09, 2006, 06:23:14 am by Mikaela »

Offline tamarack

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Re: "It ain't right."
« Reply #9 on: July 09, 2006, 06:54:15 am »
Mikaela, IMHU, I took Ennis' not realizing that Junior wasn't dating Troy anymore to be more of a result of Ennis just forgetting it when she mentioned it, not any big issue with time passing and them not communicating at all. Who she was dating was probably not an issue for Ennis, especially since she didn't live with him and he didn't have much, if any, control over it anyway. Not as though he saw this boy picking his daughter up for dates, had input into whether Troy was suitable for his daughter, etc. It just wasn't that big a deal to Ennis.

The line actually got a little smile out of me, thinking that here's something she probably mentioned to him when they visited that would have been really important to her, but he couldn't even keep her boyfriends straight! Not untypical at all, I don't think.

(P.S. Love your name! My son would have been Michaela if he had been a girl.)