The mettle of a man

[Front-Ranger]

And what about Jack's belt buckle? Did it make him into a human lightning rod?

[Front-Ranger]

In China, there are five elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. Wood produces fire when it is burned, fire produces earth (ashes), earth produces metallic ores, metal produces water (dew which forms on mirrors), and water produces wood (nurturing trees). This concept must have been in the back of Ang Lee's mind when he worked on the imagery for Brokeback Mountain.

[SFEnnisSF]

In China, there are five elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. Wood produces fire when it is burned, fire produces earth (ashes), earth produces metallic ores, metal produces water (dew which forms on mirrors), and water produces wood (nurturing trees). This concept must have been in the back of Ang Lee's mind when he worked on the imagery for Brokeback Mountain.

No doubt.  And this in particular has always facinated me.

[Front-Ranger]

Another person who conjured up metal in his works is Bob Dylan. On this topic I relayed part of an interview with him that talked about metallic sounds:

http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php?topic=1157.msg83783#msg83783

Neil Young is another songwriter who conjures up the jingle jangle of metal in his songs. One of his most famous songs is named "Heart of Gold" and another, "Long May You Run" which he sang at the closing ceremony of the Olympics in Canada says, "With your chrome heart shining in the sun."

[Front-Ranger]

We've barely mentioned many of the metallic objects in this story...only a passing mention of the can opener, and nothing about the "sharp serrated knife" that Mrs. Twist was plying on an apple at the end.

In fact, the apple always occurs in close connection with metal in this story and movie. Ennis eats apple pie with a metal fork, Ma Twist cores an apple with a sharp serrated instrument, and the coyote with balls the size of apples meets its end through a bullet fired from a gun.