P.O. Boxes, Mailboxes and the No. 17

[moremojo]

Hey, Diane--

I do think the end sees a regeneration for Ennis, however difficult it might be to discern, especially upon an initial viewing. He is opening up to his daughter, to another, in a new way, and this is clearly due to the lessons he has learned from Jack. So 1+7=8(regeneration) makes sense to me from this angle.

As for resurrection, Jack's spirit lives on within Ennis's heart. He remains a vital force within the aging ranch hand's life, however materially circumscribed that life might be. So the resurrection theme makes sense from that perspective as well.

Thanks for the elucidation on the symbolic value of these numbers.

Scott

[Front-Ranger]

These questions are popping up again so I'm going to resurect this topic.

Somebody told me there were two postcards in the movie, but I count four: The first one from Jack, the return card from Ennis to Jack, the "fish should be jumping" card, and the deceased one.

Did any of these by chance have a picture of Half Dome at Yosemite on them??

[Lynne]

I remember reading during my "lurking on IMDb days" that someone observed that 'Q' is the 17th letter of the alphabet = 'Queer'.  Interesting.

[jpwagoneer1964]

 

Did any of these by chance have a picture of Half Dome at Yosemite on them??

  No, I think  the first was Carlsbad Caverns. I satand corrected, El Capitan.

[jpwagoneer1964]

These were my thoughts on the subject that I wrote on 'Photo Captions'.

Ennis thinking: Puttin' these here numbers on my mail box. 17 don't mean nuttin', just that Ah live in space number 17 in this here trailer park. Some folks get upset thinking everything has to mean somethin'.

[Toast]

Lee,
Your friend was telling you that there are two photo postcards that circulated through the mails in the movie.

The first one from Jack,  is a photo card and features a photo of El Capitan and Signal Peak (New Mexico and Texas) NOT Yosemite (which is in California)


Possible source of confusion:  There is another peak called El Capitan which is in Yosemite, and it can be photographed with the Yosemite Half Dome.    Link   But this is not the El Capitan from the postcard.

the return card from Ennis to Jack, is NOT a photo card.



the "fish should be jumping" card,  This pastoral scene does not seem to have any "Half Dome" rock formation on it.




and the deceased one is NOT a photo card - we are looking at the "photo" side (the address is on the reverse side) 
This card is like the other one we see Ennis sending to Jack.


By the way the Brokeback Mountain postcard was not from Yosemite either.
That card was not mailed and was purchased at Higgins' store in Riverton, south of Brokeback Mountain.

[Ellemeno]

Look how clean Ennis's fingernails are when he reads Jack's first card, and how dirty they are for the deceased postcard.

Toast, you are one of my favorite visuologists here. 

[Ellemeno]

Also, that last postcard reminds us that November 7th is Pine Creek Day, one of the High Holy Days of our calendar.  Is that right, Meryl? 

[Toast]

Thank you Clarissa.

Visuologist - I like that.
I was going to take all the numerals in the photos, add them up, subtract the number of cards, add the number of postmarks, divide by the smallest numeral and then look up the answer in google.  But then I realized that I am not a numerologist. 
I'll settle on visuologist.
Cool.

[Phillip Dampier]

What is curious about the handwriting on the postcards is that the actual handwriting, which seems a bit too ornate to be authentic for two ranch hand types.  I did notice the misspelling of "Genral" on the 1967 postcard.  But look at the capital letters "F" and the curly-styled capital "C."  Also, the capital "T" which varies a bit on Ennis' postcard to Jack and the capital "H" in how the fish were jumping.  I would almost expect printing more than writing.

I immediately recognized the style in the cursive Ennis uses as Eastern Scholastic, circa early 1970s, which refers to the educational materials distributed to schools mostly on the east coast of the United States.  I say that because that was precisely the same cursive style I was taught myself.  Large loopy cursive, with few breaks was the classic form this script was taught.  My handwriting and Ennis' is actually remarkably similar, and I find that surprising, because a lot of guys resisted the Eastern Scholastic style because it was considered more feminine, and a lot of my classmates developed handwriting which greatly reduced the bubbly-large and loopy stylings of this cursive into something more confined, closer to Jack's handwriting.  In fact, I was one of the few guys in my class who kept to the style.  My signature is loop city.  I almost wonder if those postcards were actually written by a female crew member because the overwhelming majority of people who stayed true to the original styling are women.

The "Jack" handwriting is definitely more masculine.  I doubt either actor actually wrote the cards themselves.

Also interesting is the actual worsening of Ennis' grammar as the years ostensibly pass.  He can no longer be bothered with capitalizing place names and months at the end.