Author Topic: Scene 1: Jack getting out of pickup  (Read 16484 times)

injest

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Re: Scene 1: Jack getting out of pickup
« Reply #30 on: January 10, 2007, 11:43:58 pm »
*Jess opens the door....tosses her hat in the ring*

I think Jack was getting busy the summer before and the half smile he gave when he saw Ennis was exasperation that his partner from the last time didn't come back...

and NO I have no back up for that position .....that is just what I think! I also think it didn't MEAN anything to him or the other guy and he didn't really think of it as being gay...

 ;D ;D ;D

ok my only 'proof'? He seemed to be pretty smooth grabbing that hand and sliding it down there...he knew what he was doing...

injest

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Re: Scene 1: Jack getting out of pickup
« Reply #31 on: January 11, 2007, 12:51:09 am »
What I really like about that scene is the transition between Jack getting out of the truck after that spectacularly bad entrance, kicking it, looking at it, then turning around to look at Ennis, first the quick glance then the leisurely  stare.

Here's the series of screen captures:

http://www.stripedwall.com/cpg/thumbnails.php?album=170&page=3

http://www.stripedwall.com/cpg/thumbnails.php?album=170&page=4

It's a great effect, that sputtering and lurching and door bang and kick thunk, then the silence as the machine and the noise recede, replaced by the silence, just the two men and their careful looks.  Jack's situation is presented in just a few seconds there, his poverty and his loneliness, the germ of the rest of his story.  The glance comes just a few seconds after the kick, but Jack's life is going to fork out in two opposite directions to address the two issues, to Texas and Lureen for the humiliating poverty represented by the truck, to Wyoming and Ennis for the loneliness.   In a way the contrast between the noise and the juxtaposed silence represents that.

I thought it was interesting in almost EVERY screening...this is the one spot that ALL the audience laughed...for that one moment we were united in laughter...nice laughter...

after that it is as if there is something telling us to be quiet...something really big is coming...

(like the opening score of a classical movement....if that makes sense to you...the loud and momentous train and truck getting our attention and then silence; like when you hear shouting that fades away...you strain to follow the sound...paying attention more than you would have otherwise)

injest

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Re: Scene 1: Jack getting out of pickup
« Reply #32 on: January 12, 2007, 01:11:58 am »
dang I done kilt this thread....

sorry ya'll!!

Offline Katie77

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Re: Scene 1: Jack getting out of pickup
« Reply #33 on: January 12, 2007, 01:40:07 am »
Needed to do some research into this, so yesterday, "forced" myself to watch the movie again..............isnt it a great movie, no matter how many times I see it, it still does things to me......

Anyway......watching this scene, again, I think Jack was sizing Ennis up, as "the new kid on the block", cause he had been there before....he tries to show authority to Ennis, by the way he leans about on the truck and then later on showing how good he can ride a horse.

Noticed something, when he was riding the horse, while Ennis was tying the knots, and Ennis said, "you better watch yourself, that horse has a low startle point"....Jacks answer..."aint no filly ever thrown me".......I wondered if by using the term "filly", was he referring to all females, human and horses.......

Being happy doesn't mean everything is perfect.

It means you've decided to see beyond the imperfection

Offline serious crayons

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Re: Scene 1: Jack getting out of pickup
« Reply #34 on: January 12, 2007, 01:53:16 am »
I wondered if by using the term "filly", was he referring to all females, human and horses.......

I'd go even further. I think by "filly" Jack was unknowingly referring to the future -- he didn't expect Ennis, despite his low startle point, to "throw" him. But he did.

Offline adrian

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Re: Scene 1: Jack getting out of pickup
« Reply #35 on: January 13, 2007, 05:27:38 am »

Ennis did glance over at Jack, but purely out of curiousity of seeing who his competition for the job was.   

I think Jack was thinking the same thing.  Remember jobs were scarce and they were competing for what might have been only one position.  BUT when Jack realized they both got hired, he then became that happy, freindly Jack that we all know.



Adrian
There were only two of them on the mountain flying in the euphoric, bitter air, looking down on the hawks back and crawling lights of vehicles on the plain below....they believed themselves invisible.   A. Proulx

injest

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Re: Scene 1: Jack getting out of pickup
« Reply #36 on: January 13, 2007, 11:51:33 am »
I think Jack was thinking the same thing.  Remember jobs were scarce and they were competing for what might have been only one position.  BUT when Jack realized they both got hired, he then became that happy, freindly Jack that we all know.



Adrian

see that didn't seem like a job interview to me....seemed more like they already HAD the jobs...that comment about "You pair of deuces looking for work better get in here" (sorry I know that is not perfect...ya'll get the gist) is just Aquirre posturing...

Offline Garry_LH

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Re: Scene 1: Jack getting out of pickup
« Reply #37 on: January 13, 2007, 12:51:41 pm »
Just letting my thoughts bounce here, as I'm reading this thread...

I'd have to drive a long five hours to even get to Wyoming. Though, I am from the rural mid west. Grew up among folks that could say, we were so poor, that when the Great Depression hit we couldn't tell the difference. This poverty, on both of these character's parts, is perhaps the most powerful force shaping their identities. For Ennis, it feels to me like he believes any change from what he knows would threaten his very survival. For Jack, it's something to escape however he can. Like, his marrying Lureen.

There's something I don't often see mentioned when it comes to talking about Ennis. It's just how much the fear of being noticed seems to bother him. In my mind, he can feel the attraction he might have for other men. However, his fear of this is to the point he wont let his thinking mind touch the subject. At least, he doesn't until after that first night in the tent with Jack.

I think each of us sees these characters through the lenses of our own lives. Not unlike how Mz. Proulx has said a story is not finished until each person has read it for themselves. I'm guessing my own personal lens would be one way closer to Ennis than Jack. Though in my case, I tended to use talking about everything, but what was important in life, to not deal with life. This colors my perspective on Ennis more than any other character in this story.

That first scene where they meet, I feel Jack is definitely putting on the strut. Part of Jack's escape from his own poverty its to see himself some what larger than life. That stance he takes leaning against the old black GMC is as much a statement of I got the right stuff, as it is a checking out Ennis. And I agree, that image of Ennis in the mirror of Jack's truck as he shaves, it is put there to show Jack's interest in Ennis as more than just a work partner for the summer. My vibe of this scene is Jack is going 'woo eee', this guy ain't hard on the eyes at all. What might be throwing us a curve in this dance between Jack and Ennis is how Ennis is giving off these signals of don't get close to me, don't touch me, I can't deal with that.

Ennis reminds me too much of a reaction I'm a bit familiar with. Even though Ennis might know he's being sized up. It's what he's being sized up for, that in his mind, that has him scared. Like, is this guy coming on to me just so he will have a reason to come at me with the tire iron.?  Not logical, I agree. Life has beat into Ennis that he is more an likely to be killed if anyone should know he might find some guys attractive. This fear has him so locked up, he can't even think he might be gay, even after he and Jack spent the summer on the mountain. Even at the first reunion, in the book, he can barely admit that it took him a year after they left the mountain to get through his thick head, he should never have let Jack out of his sight. Even at the end, after all those years, and the loss of Jack, the most Ennis can do is hold onto those memories  of one summer on Brokeback some twenty odd years gone, with the words, 'Jack, I swear...'  Even then, we don't really know what it is Ennis is swearing to.  Proulx's epilogue to those words is as cold as the long periods between their meetings in Wyoming.

On was Jack alone on the mountain the year before?  Well, we sure know that Jack, through omission or out right lying, will side step anything he feels his listener might not think too highly of. It makes me wonder who it is that Aguirre is talking to on the phone when he first talks to Jack and Ennis. Could it be the other man that was up on the mountain with Jack the previous year?   In the real world, I would think it would be highly unlikely to send one person to a remote area to herd a couple of thousand sheep. It wasn't like Aguirre was gonna ride up that mountain every couple of days to check on them.

In the who might get the job category, I can't really separate the short story from the film. Jack and Ennis had been hired through a service. They already knew they had the job... So...
« Last Edit: January 13, 2007, 01:04:28 pm by Garry_LH »
It could be like this, just like this... always.

injest

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Re: Scene 1: Jack getting out of pickup
« Reply #38 on: January 13, 2007, 01:03:36 pm »
well we have been discussing what Jack thought and did in this scene....I hadn't even given Ennis's thoughts any thought at all...

He is awfully buttoned up...both literally and emotionally. He strikes me as being so inept socially that he was unsure how to even introduce himself...let alone react to Jack's posturing...

and that thought....about "is this guy coming on to me just to have an excuse for using the tire iron." well that really happens doesn't it? Think Matthew Shepherd and countless others....

Ennis had internalized that so well he was trapped by his own walls..

Offline adrian

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Re: Scene 1: Jack getting out of pickup
« Reply #39 on: January 13, 2007, 03:24:16 pm »

In the who might get the job category, I can't really separate the short story from the film. Jack and Ennis had been hired through a service. They already knew they had the job... So...


Thanks Garry, the book does imply that.  I stand corrected.

So, then, why all the tension between the two?   Jack has never been the shy retiring type, I would've expected him to walk right up to Ennis with his hand out, "Jack Twist". ???
There were only two of them on the mountain flying in the euphoric, bitter air, looking down on the hawks back and crawling lights of vehicles on the plain below....they believed themselves invisible.   A. Proulx