And much as I prefer to hear it the other way, I can't entirely blot that possibility out of my mind. Jeff, is that the way you used to interpret the scene before you changed your views?
Tell you what, Katherine, until for some reason that I cannot explain this scene hit me like a ton of bricks back in August, to the best of my recollection my focus on this scene was limited to the similarities and differences between the story's motel scene and the film's motel-and-camping scene.
As a matter of fact, I might as well say it, at the risk of upsetting a lot of people, but getting slammed by this scene back in August has pretty much changed my entire emotional response to the film. I won't say I see it as less tragic, because that wouldn't be correct, but I now do see it as less--I don't know--operatic (?)--in the intensity of its emotions. And hand in hand with that, Film Ennis now looks more like Story Ennis to me than he did six months ago. I can't explain it, I just know this to be how I'm feeling.
And then again, I am hoping this Sunday evening to make the time to watch the DVD again. By calendar date, Sunday is one day shy of the first time I saw the film in the theater. And who knows but that something
else will hit me like that proverbial ton of bricks and my understanding will change again.
In any case, as far as what is meant by the "ain't no reins on this one" comment, if I'm understanding them correctly, I agree with Mel and Mikaela. I think Ennis is talking about his (their?) emotions, rather than about society's rules. I think the intensity of the feeling that caused him to slam Jack up against a wall and kiss him outdoors in broad daylight scares the piss out of him (to use an Ennisism
).
