"Little Darlin"

[maggiesmommy GayLee]

I have been thinking on BBM latley, and decided to watch some of my favorite parts for lack of time to watch it all the way through...there has been something that has been bothering me i just haven't been able to put my finger on it, nail it down, but it's there kind of a restless feeling like something is missing....I thought and thought about it trying to figure it out...i think my recent viewing coupled with my listening to the audio book on the way to work today has made me aware of what has been troubling me....
I raised 4 kids and twice that many horses in my life...we live in town now, and don't have the big 4 leggeds anymore, but they will always be a part of me, i loved my horses, loved training the babies...the smell of them, feeding, grooming, shoveling shit and putting up hay....i LOVED all of it...ahhh the memories...ANYWAY....my horses and my children (ok, my husb too) but there is just that special thing about your kids and for me, my horses...i guess its the nurturing that they need that fulfills something in me...and from the book, i take it that Ennis felt that way about his girls and his horses....enough so that his term of enderement was to call the girls and the horses "little darlin"...for a man that was always short on words...this spoke voulmes and it was , in my opinion, his way of saying "I love you". In the book Ennis said "little Darlin" to Jack. and i think that was Ennis saying I Love You to him in the only way he knew how....and you know what? they didn't put that in the MOVIE!!! after listening and watching and disecting the movie here with all of you, i just find this wierd...now i know Ang had a really good reason, he must have, with all of the other minute detail in the film, but why would that most important line be left out??
i hear him say it in my head...so s'alright, but i'd sure love to have heard it in the reunion scene....how bout you??

Oh, and a song that reminds me of BBM....Annie Lenox's "Why"....umumum...
Gay Lee

http://www.alennox.net/
when you get to the site, select music, DIVA and Why, you can play the music or the video....the words of this song jsut show me the progression of the realtionship....

[Ellemeno]

Yes, it's really, really missing in the movie, I agree, an example of the difference between story-Ennis and film-Ennis.  Story-Ennis is much franker, really.

Thanks for the Annie Lennox link, I wound up there for quite a while.

[maggiesmommy GayLee]

whew, i'm glad i got an answer i thought maybe this was one of those thangs that had been wrang out a thousand times before i even saw the movie!!
Annie Lennox is new to me, but i listened to alot of her stuff last night and i love her voice...and that song, WHY...goosebumps...
 

[Amber]

Actually I just commented about that the other day on some random thread somewhere on this site *lol*

I use the line in my signature because like you I felt that it conveyed a LOT of emotion for Ennis.  As much as I would have loved to hear Ennis say "little darlin'" to Jack in that reunion scene (how powerful would that have been!) I guess I get why Ang Lee decided not to go that route.  I think, by that point in the movie it just wouldn't have fit the movie-Ennis character and maybe it would have seemed out of place. 

I haven't seen anyone else post about this so I'm glad I'm not the only one who was wondering what happened to that line! 

[maggiesmommy GayLee]

another BBM mystery...but in my mind i have married up the book and movie, and if he doesn't say in the movei..the thinks it.i just know he does...

[MaineWriter]

another BBM mystery...but in my mind i have married up the book and movie, and if he doesn't say in the movei..the thinks it.i just know he does...

This has come up other places but I'll repeast myself again. For me, the story and the movie are two totally separate experiences. Other books have been written and turned into movies. I always compare the movie to the book and the vast majority of the time, the movie comes up short. With BBM, I started doing the same thing (I had read the story just a few weeks before seeing the movie), but in the process, I realized that there were enough fundamental differences between the two that it is not really fair to compare them. There is BBM, the story, and BBM, the movie. They each stand on their own merits. There is also the screenplay (many versions) which some have described as the first BBM fanfic ever written.

Leslie

[maggiesmommy GayLee]

thanks for your opinion, and i agree, movies seldom live up to the book, take DaVinci Code for instance, no way...
I watched BBM BEFORE reading anything...even reviews...and it was well after the movie was released and i never saw it in the theater.  And you'll need to excuse me, i haven't read every thread going back to infinity, just don't have the time, even if i wanted to...so i thought i'd throw the thought out there and see if i caught anything...so i appreciate your repeating your comments here. I just feel such a feeling on the incompleteness of theE&J relationship, that i wish it was something that had been included in the movie, not because it belonged there, not because it should have been there, not because it would have or have not been appropriate, but just because it would have made it easier for me to accept in the final moments...
i think we all bring 100% of ourselves into a movie like this and i'm sure Ang Lee didn't include it for the very reasons I stated above...it wouldn't have touched us on so deep and personal a level if it weren't so poignant.  we all draw from our own experiences, and for me having a person very close to me die of aids just a year ago, and the fundamental life change BBM made in me, I have my own regrets for things left unsaid. maybe this is why this is so difficult for me...those things left unsiad, then there is no time, and no chance of redemption...
anyhoo....thanks for your response...
gaylee

[MaineWriter]

Gaylee,

Do you read fanfic? If not, you might want to consider delving into a story or two. For many people (myself included) these stories have been fundamental to their healing process and finding the "complete" place for the incompleteness of which you speak.

You have lots of different options. Some folks (I fall into this category) have posited a scenario in which Jack and Ennis manage to get together and have the sweet life Jack envisioned. Others pick up where the story/movie ends and envision Ennis's life post-Jack. Others go into wildly alternative universes (Jack and Ennis as stormtroopers in Star Wars, Ennis as a vampire). I will admit, this latter category does not appeal to me at all. However, I have read stories in the first two genres and can give you some good suggestions, if you are interested.

Shameless plug for myself: here's a link to my story, if you are interested

http://lazylfarm.livejournal.com/417.html

Jack and Ennis get together after Ennis's divorce. They have some difficult moments, but basically, it is the story of them begining to build a life together. Mature themes and language, including sex.

Leslie
MaineWriter

[newyearsday]

Hi Maggiesmommy, or Gaylee, as I believe your name is,

Nice to see this topic brought up again in such a heartfelt and personally relevant way, as you described your love of your horses so beautifully. I think that the reason this line wasn't included was because it might have been hard to get in all the information that Annie gives when she writes that Ennis used "little darlin" when talking to his daughters and horses. There would have to be some scenes of him saying that to each of them, and NOT to Alma, for it to register as a significant event, which I agree it is.

Annie is able to convey all that with hardly a sentence, but it would probably take too long to set it up in the movie. It might come across as a beautiful bit of affection if he just said it to Jack out of the blue (there's that color again!) in the reunion scene, but I like the detail and significance of how he calls his daughters and horses that too, and that might be missing.

There's my two cents.

[maggiesmommy GayLee]

Thanks, Leslie..after big brother, i', gonna check it out..no i never have read any of it, but inteneded to...it seems monumental to wade through all of it...but i will got to your link later...THANKS

 NWYRDY..thanks for your obsevations. yrd, i so loved my orses and i think that is a link with ennis and i...but you are right, the movie would have to involve way too much manuvering to get in and make it make sense...but when i'm dozy..i like to think on it...
maybe i need to do a bit of fanfic of my own!!