Why is the "dozy embrace" in the film?

[dly64]

Though they could have put it in the movie fairly easily if the movie had started the way the story did, with older Ennis in his trailer. Would that have been good? What do you all think?

I'm not sure, personally. I so love the movie's beginning I don't think I would like it any other way. And I can say this: it was stretching things to turn a 20-something-year-old into a 39-year-old (though they did a good job!). But making him even older might have pushed it too far.

I agree. I like the film's structure just the way it is. I wouldn't have wanted to see Ennis as an old man peeing in his sink. Not a very enticing way to start a film!

Everytime I come to this scene, I pause and remember a time when it meant a lot in my personal life, shed many tears of pleasure, and then get on with the movie.  Like so many others, this is my favorite scene....Doug

What is it about this scene that provokes such depths of emotion? I think about it and I can't quite put my finger on it. What about all of you?

[moremojo]

I agree. I like the film's structure just the way it is. I wouldn't have wanted to see Ennis as an old man peeing in his sink. Not a very enticing way to start a film!

This would certainly have given further emphasis to Ennis as a "stander", to see that he carried his grief into old age. But the movie opened on the perfect note.

What is it about this scene that provokes such depths of emotion? I think about it and I can't quite put my finger on it. What about all of you?

Jack's face here is just about the most tender, softest thing I've ever seen in a film. I remember shakestheground making a similar comment. The love conveyed in this scene is so real and powerful, unlike any comparable moment in any other love story I know.

[Momof2]

Jack's face here is just about the most tender, softest thing I've ever seen in a film. I remember shakestheground making a similar comment. The love conveyed in this scene is so real and powerful, unlike any comparable moment in any other love story I know.
[/quote]

This is one of my favorite scenes.  They were so young and so happy.  Before life really hit them.  I think it takes all of us back to the time in our lives when we were young and things were simpler.  I was 19 when I met my husband.  I look back on that now and think how young and naive I was.  It shows one of the few times they were actually affectionate.  Jack's face is so sweet.  It makes my heart skip a few beats.  As I have mentioned before, my sister died when I was a sophmore in college.  A lot of times when I dream of her she is young.  Not that she was old when she died but when we were kids. 

[Front-Ranger]

You made me think that one of the reasons this scene is so powerful is because it is a flashback, it is out of place in the chronological framework of the rest of the movie, and it contrasts in every way. And another thing, it makes the best use of Jake's eyelids. He has the best eyelids in the business (with Tilda Swinton a close second). Would you agree?

[moremojo]

He has the best eyelids in the business (with Tilda Swinton a close second). Would you agree?

I for one would certainly agree, on the basis of the 'dozy embrace' scene alone. I've never given eyelids much thought before, but now that I'm thinking about it (I'm a real thinker, all right ), Greta Garbo was wonderfully expressive yet subtly nuanced in that area. Of course she's no longer with us. Among living thespians, Amy Sedaris does some amazing comedic things with her lids.

[dly64]

You made me think that one of the reasons this scene is so powerful is because it is a flashback, it is out of place in the chronological framework of the rest of the movie, and it contrasts in every way. And another thing, it makes the best use of Jake's eyelids. He has the best eyelids in the business (with Tilda Swinton a close second). Would you agree?

I agree that the contrast between the past and the present makes the scene much more poignant. That scene just kills me every time I see it because I know what they had and what they could have had.

As for Jake’s eyelids …. Can’t say I’ve ever noticed them before. I have always noticed his beautiful blue eyes (but I’ll check out the eyelids tonight).  

[Front-Ranger]

Good eyelid scenes (besides the flashback) are: peeling potatoes and best of all, the smoldering look just before Jack lassos Ennis on the Last Day.

[dly64]

Good eyelid scenes (besides the flashback) are: peeling potatoes and best of all, the smoldering look just before Jack lassos Ennis on the Last Day.

I love it! Something new to check out! (Not that I mind checking anything out on Jake! )

[Katie77]

Beautiful eye lids....absolutely beautiful.......

[Front-Ranger]

Jennifer Anniston's character even commented on it in "The Good Girl", about how his eyelids gave him a faint look of tragic melancholy. But as a redneck, I don't think she phrased it exactly that way.