Working for Aguirre

[ranchgal]

I agree with those who think Ennis is just keeping his options open for employment---because I got the feeling that JA is into more than just running sheep on BBM--and if he has several endeavors working at once, later there could well be another job doing something different.

[mvansand76]

I can't make up my mind if at this point Ennis sees a possibility of an ongoing companionship (if not relationship) at this point?

Yes!!! Yes! I always think he does. It's on his mind, and this is almost an automatic response based on what he would like to happen, but something that will not happen because of his fear!

[nakymaton]

Well, this isn't the first time, in the movie at least, Ennis expresses his concern for the job. When he rans into the bear and the mules ran away, scared, dropping all the food, Jack proposes to kill a sheep. And Ennis says "We're supposed to guard them not eat them". I don't think he was being ethical or anything, since he had no problem killing an elk on a preserved forest land. I think he was a bit afraid Aguirre might find out about it.

Just a note on cultural attitudes, in general: to a ranch kid, there's a huge, huge difference between killing a wild animal and killing a domesticated one. National Forest land isn't really "preserved" in the US -- it's officially run by the Department of Agriculture, and it's supposed to be the "Land of Many Uses." It's land that wasn't successfully homesteaded, for some reason or another. (And I still don't have a clue why the Bureau of Land Management ends up in charge of some land, and the National Forest Service runs others. And there's BLM land right beside my house, too.) Anyway, I think that urban and suburban Americans are beginning to see National Forest land as something that exists for environmental preservation and/or for recreation, but the longterm residents of the rural West (and the current government) see National Forests as land that exists to be used, whether for hunting or grazing or mining or extracting oil and gas.

Anyway, hunting on Forest Service land isn't a big deal. Odds are that Jack and Ennis have both gone hunting for something or another many times before. The only issues with hunting the elk are that 1) they didn't have a hunting license, and 2) they were shooting it out of season. (Elk season would be in the fall, right around now, around when the snow starts falling.) So legally they were poaching (thus the comment about Game & Fish catching them), but in terms of perceived violations of the local ethical code? It's not a big deal, not in the way that shooting a sheep would be.

Edit: And to get back on track, I agree with Katherine here -- that this is a case where the line is both very in character for Ennis, poor and wanting to be able to keep working, and also serves to make the audience forget that the relationship on the mountain is only a temporary thing. And the choice of the word "we" is important there.

I don't know if Ennis is actually thinking that the relationship will go on forever, but I think that Ang Lee and Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry are deliberately trying to lull us into believing that it will.

[David]

"what if we want to work for him again?"

......y'all are missing the obvious.

Ennis at this point is in love with Jack.    He also is carrying the mental baggage of the homophobia brought on by his father.    Even at this point Ennis sees the only possibilty of getting together with Jack is to be isolated up on Brokeback.   

    You really need to fast forward to the post reunion weekend.   Ennis tells Jack only then that no matter how much they enjoy each others company that it can only be on these get aways.     

   Working again for Aguirre would have put Ennis back on the mountain with Jack, thus Paradise to him again.   That was his concern in my opinion.

[Brown Eyes]

I think that there are at least two levels (of course, knowing BBM, probably more) of meaning at work in the mixed sheep scene and Ennis's choice of words.  The clearest level of meaning is, yes, that he's being practical and responsible as usual and worrying about future job prospects.  But, then as a subtext he uses the word "we" (as others have pointed out.  It's almost like a Freudian-slip (I hate to use that term, but I guess it gets my point across).  Ennis is subtly exposing how much he is thinking of them as a couple at this stage.  In the movie I think this scene is meant to be something like "comic relief" (the implications are more serious in the story I think, based on the way thes scene it written).  Like some have pointed out, we're supposed to see this as a moment of happiness in working together, highlighted by the end of the scene when Jack plays the harmonica.  Ennis's pleasure, evident in his facial expression, at just gazing at Jack drives home the point that these are still the "good days" on Brokeback where they can enjoy each other's company (no matter how annoying the job itself is). 

I guess maybe a third meaning of this scene as it plays out in the movei is related to the elk topic.  Jack demonstrates that he's willing to rebel against an authority figure (in the f*** Aguirre remark) and Ennis again is worried about breaking the rules.  I get the feeling that neither character is thinking coherently about what will really happen at the end of the summer.  I think they're both still too wrapped up in the moment to ponder the implications for the future.  In a way, this seems realistic to me since they're both still teenagers.

[David In Indy]

Can you even imagine working for somebody like Aguirre?

I'd rather stick hot needles in my eyes. 

[Kelda]

never thought of this - interesting interesting.

After 9 months we still have questions to pose - I love BBM for that!

[moremojo]

"what if we want to work for him again?"

......y'all are missing the obvious.

Ennis at this point is in love with Jack.    He also is carrying the mental baggage of the homophobia brought on by his father.    Even at this point Ennis sees the only possibilty of getting together with Jack is to be isolated up on Brokeback.   

    You really need to fast forward to the post reunion weekend.   Ennis tells Jack only then that no matter how much they enjoy each others company that it can only be on these get aways.     

   Working again for Aguirre would have put Ennis back on the mountain with Jack, thus Paradise to him again.   That was his concern in my opinion.

But then what do we make of Ennis rebuffing Jack's coded suggestion that they return to the mountain to work together in the future, right after they have been called back down from Brokeback and are saying goodbye in Signal? Jack is eager to keep this option open, but Ennis strongly implies that he is unlikely to return. Did Ennis see Brokeback as a haven while actually there, but saw it as an impossibility when he has been brought down to earth, so to speak?

I'ts also interesting to remember that in the story it is specifically stated that the two men never return to Brokeback, even in nearly twenty years of furtive high-altitude get-aways. This further emphasizes the mountain's resonance as a lost paradise.

Edit: Meryl's bump gave me the opportunity to correct a small typo.

[Meryl]

bump

[Brown Eyes]

I just re-discovered this really interesting old thread because I noticed a Guest looking at it.  This actually happens to me quite frequently... I'll see a Guest listed as viewing a thread that's buried somewhere and either discover it for the first time or re-discover it... like now.

I have a few further thought I have about this really interesting little statement from Ennis about maybe needing to work for Aguirre again next summer.  I wonder if this is a moment where Jack may get his hopes up (already in this early stage of their relationship).  I mean, Jack brings up the subject of "are you going to do this again next summer" during their parting scene after they come down from the mountain.  To me this implies that he may be remembering Ennis's suggestion during the Chilean sheep scene.  And, then he actually goes so far as to come back the next summer hoping that Ennis would be there.  So, I think even this passing comment by Ennis was taken very seriously by Jack.

And, in another way, I wonder if this statement by Ennis relates somehow to the "people on the pavement" question he poses much later in their relationship... when he's worried that random people might look at himself and Jack and "know".  Maybe in this suggestion of working for Aguirre again and in his later worry about people perceiving that he's gay... Ennis is letting slip bits of information or hints about his desires that he himself isn't fully aware of.  Maybe in wondering about working for Aguirre again, he's betraying a deeper desire to do so.  And, in asking whether people can tell he's gay... he's admitting to the audience and to Jack, that yes he understands he's "queer."  Even if he might still deny both those things if asked directly.