Smokes and Fire

[nakymaton]

I think I've seen a full ashtray in front of Alma in a screencap from the fullscreen version of the movie. (I don't have the fullscreen version, though, and it's been a long time since I looked at those screencap comparisons. But I think there is an ashtray that's invisible in the widescreen version.)

[nakymaton]

If Ennis truly is offering Jack his cigarette here... wow, that really would be flirty and surprisingly open for Ennis.  It seems sort of out of character that Jack would reject a relatively open act of friendship/ affection.  So, maybe we're supposed to think he's still really mad here.   I wonder if this is a little "bookend" to the early bar scene with the shared lighter.

Or maybe it's a way of reminding us of how comfortable they were together on the mountain? It does seem really open and flirty for Ennis, but, well, Ennis was pretty open and flirty at times on the mountain. They might have been in the habit of passing cigarettes back and forth. (And that makes me wish we had seen Ennis smoke from Jack's cigarette in the hotel... )

But it does seem out of character for Jack to reject the offer... though since he already had a lit cigarette, what else would he do? Smoke two at once? Even the sheep might have noticed that something was odd about that...

[Ellemeno]

Not sure of the wording, it's been a long time since I seen it:

Cassie: "Cowboys like you drinkin' and smokin', it gets tiresome."


Updated below.

[Front-Ranger]

I think you're almost right. Isn't it "Cowboys like U demandin beer after beer, smokin...it gets tiresome."

About Jack showing Ennis his hidden cigarette, does it mean that he's keeping his fire for Ennis hidden and protected? And is Ennis, by offering to share the cigarette, saying that his fire still burns for Jack, even after the mixup on the last day on the mountain?

I think this episode you point out, Mel, will have to go into the catalogue of favorite wordless moments, too!

[Meryl]

I like how Ang shoots the second tent scene so that the campfire is visible between their bodies.

[Mikaela]

There is an ashtray in front of Alma when Ennis returns after the motel night, but it is by no means overflowing. I doesn't seem to me they tried to make a point of her having been smoking heavily all through the night. Maybe rather the opposite - that her fire(s) were being quenched as the night progressed?


I've always seen Ennis asking Jack for a light in the bar before Brokeback as frugality on Ennis's part - perhaps he'd just used his last match. The way he carefully saves the half-smoked cigarette and then decides to splurge and smoke the rest of it there in the bar, although holding back from using his own match or lighter....... - to me all of it that illustrates how much he's used to "hard life and privation". How much frugality has become his second nature. But I rather like the idea that he's subconsciouly flirting a little. 


I suppose that the scene where Jack sees Ennis as far-off "night fire, a red spark on the huge black mass of mountain", is too obvious to be mentioned amid the subtlety of this thread. But I'll mention it nevertheless, because I love that little scene and how faithfully it manages to illustrate the short story's evokative description.

[serious crayons]

It's "Drunks like you, demandin beer after beer, smokin ... Gets tiresome." (Confirmed by the STS book, by my elbow.)

I haven't smoked on a regular basis for about 20 years, but whenever I watch the movie I always feel like buying a pack and firing one up.

[Ellemeno]

Thanks to goadra, FR, and latjoreme's elbow:

Cassie: "Drunks like you, demandin beer after beer, smokin ... Gets tiresome."

[Penthesilea]

I haven't smoked on a regular basis for about 20 years, but whenever I watch the movie I always feel like buying a pack and firing one up.

 


Another favourite smoking moment of mine:
Ennis getting ready to go up to the sheep the very first time, directly when they switch jobs. He's standing besides his horse twiddling with the saddle bag, cigarette first in left hand, then in his mouth as he mounts the horse.
Don't know if there's any deeper meaning to it, but I love this scene. And Ennis little coughing.
Ennis's whole demeanor is so typical here.

[nakymaton]

I've always seen Ennis asking Jack for a light in the bar before Brokeback as frugality on Ennis's part - perhaps he'd just used his last match. The way he carefully saves the half-smoked cigarette and then decides to splurge and smoke the rest of it there in the bar, although holding back from using his own match or lighter....... - to me all of it that illustrates how much he's used to "hard life and privation". How much frugality has become his second nature.

Thinking back to that half-smoked cigarette at the beginning of the movie... I've always looked at it as a very subtle way of showing us how poor Ennis is. But to play along with the fire-as-sexuality symbolism here, the fact that Ennis puts out his own cigarette, deliberately, by squashing it between his fingers, could also say something about the way that Ennis has repressed his sexuality. (And then he hides it in his pocket!) Maybe pushing a symbol too far, though. I dunno.

Jack lights up on the steps before he introduces himself to Ennis, doesn't he? (He lights up figuratively, too, with a great open smile during the "Your folks just stop at Ennis?" line.)

On Ennis's first night going up to the sheep, Jack is also smoking, isn't he? He stands there, smoking, while Ennis rides away?