Well... since you asked, I guess I will give a definitive answer... I think they're dirty because they just finished having sex outside and his jeans got dirty from, well, having sex outside. The same is true of Jack's jeans in the flashback scene. By the way, I was not the first person to notice or comment upon these little details, but I do find them great little touches. This, I think is Lee's way of hinting at Proulx's line "They never talked about the sex, let it happen, at first only in the tent at night, then in the full daylight with the hot sun striking down, and at evening in the fire glow..."
Hi Amanda,
ok, but I mean really REALLY REALLY definitive.
I had a feeling that they just did something sexual outside, yeah. and it seems that they just finished doing so? But specifically what had they done? Ennis' knees were
very muddy, Jack's knees were not. if they were both on their knees doing the same as in FNIT, I would expect both guys' to have muddy knees. But Jack's knees were not muddy, sooo.... I wonder if Ennis had just gone on his knees in front of Jack and gave Jack a bj. It apprears that that may be the case, and if that is what they had just done, then that I believe would disprove that the Happy Tussle was the very next morning after SNIT. Hell I don't believe it
was the very next morning, bj or no bj, but there was a time when I had to puzzle this out for myself bcz it sure looks like it is the very next morning the way AL has both those scenes smack-dab butted up against each other that-a-way
. At first viewing it did seem that it
was the next morning... you know what I mean....
Anyway the other reason why I am
very preocupied with Ennis' muddy knees (aside from the fantasy-inducing aspects of this yummy topic
) is that of course what Ennis did sexually with Jack and
when he did it is VERY germane to his acceptance of his homosexuality.
I am still to this day trying to wrap my brain around everyting from when did Ennis *know* that he was gay, when did he *know* that it was love that he had for Jack, when did he *know* that Jack loved him, was Ennis trying to pull away from Jack, was Jack thinking about / planning to quit Ennis, what did all those things
mean, that Jack said to Ennis, and what did Ennis mean by what he said during the fight by the lake, the whole ball of wax. Because of reading differing viewpoints on the many ambiguous, critical scenes and climaxes in the film, I am still muddled. So many of the interpretations segue into the next, and the next, you know what I mean...
Sooo, that is why I am asking about the muddy knees, if I just go along with what AP wrote (or rather did not write) in the story, Ennis did not have much of a sexual repertoire, in other words he was very repressed sexually, and her line
... Nothing marred it, even the knowledge that Ennis would not then embrace him face to face because he did not want to see nor feel that it was Jack he held. And maybe, he thought, they'd never got much farther than that. Let be, let be.
says to me that he never accepted that he loved a man, ie never accepted that he was homosexual... ok now this is getting way to complicated, must go and read other light-hearted threads..... must watch Youtube.... must read fanfic..... To be continiued (but not on this thread).
I know I have gone waaay OT, so I will stop here.... One day, (not tonight I'm afraid) I'm gonna start me a thread about all this stuff....
Jane
