Author Topic: Ennis Stands It; Jack Fixes It  (Read 7488 times)

Offline Kd5000

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Re: Ennis Stands It; Jack Fixes It
« Reply #10 on: April 17, 2006, 02:00:11 pm »
ATZ75 says
Lately I've been hearing Ennis's last unfinished sentence as a response.  Something as simple and symmetrical as  "Jack I swear, sometimes I miss you so much I can hardly stand it."

Very good. I do agree that it would seem on the surface that Jack is the less tragic of the two figures, a capacity for self re-invention it would seem, whereas Ennis is resigned to leading a cautious life which ends up being just an existence, living to work, to sustain oneself. His situations worsens as the years progress. 

Jack seems somewhat paradoxical in that he can't quit Ennis. Nothing changes. Of course, John Twist Sr says that his son never finishes anything that he starts, in so many words.  He can't "finish" Ennis or that rather long chapter (20 years) in his short life,  so he just rides along.

Offline starboardlight

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Re: Ennis Stands It; Jack Fixes It
« Reply #11 on: April 17, 2006, 03:31:44 pm »
yes, the Yin-Yang is very appropriate descripiton. Not only are they opposite, but they exert a push-pull dynamic upon one another.

To add to this "push-pull" dynamic that the 2 men shared, one scene that always gets me - during the confrontation scene, when Ennis starts crying, Jack comes over to console him, he screams out "Get the fuck off me!", what does Jack do without even giving it a second thought or a moment's reflection?  He grabs hold of Ennis, holds onto him tightly.  Jack knew Ennis so well, he understood that Ennis was literally saying the opposite when he pushed Jack away, Ennis needed Jack more than he ever admitted, I think Jack understood this, although it was killing him that Ennis couldn't face this truth and accept it for himself.. :'(

Jack's patience and love was overflowing ... and Ennis needed every drop of it.

dam you Lucise, for making me cry. that's just the so painful and beautiful.
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Offline kirkmusic

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Re: Ennis Stands It; Jack Fixes It
« Reply #12 on: April 18, 2006, 06:44:40 pm »
Bump for an interesting thread.  ;)

Offline Brown Eyes

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Re: Ennis Stands It; Jack Fixes It
« Reply #13 on: April 18, 2006, 08:01:53 pm »
In recent viewings I've been increasingly struck by a couple lines that are just heartbreakingly sad and good examples of Ennis's "stand it" attitude.

In the motel when Jack asks what they "should do now" Ennis says "I doubt there's nothing much we can do.  So I'm stuck with what I've got here."
I think those qualify as some of the saddest lines in the movie.  The heartbroken look on Jacks face as he leans against Ennis's head just kills me.

 :'( :-\ :(

Oh, Ennis....
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Offline DeeDee

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Re: Ennis Stands It; Jack Fixes It
« Reply #14 on: April 18, 2006, 09:17:17 pm »
The one line that sticks a knife in my heart, is when Ennis tells Jack, (last scene together) "its because of you, Jack that I'm like this." 
The sad look on Jacks face and the absolultely tortured look on Ennis' had me bawling in that movie theater.
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Offline nakymaton

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Re: Ennis Stands It; Jack Fixes It
« Reply #15 on: April 18, 2006, 11:30:24 pm »
I got to thinking earlier today -- you know, the elk is really somewhere between "standing it" and settling for beans, and "fixing it" and shooting one of the sheep.

Beans: that's what they're supposed to be eating. Settling for beans is following the rules that society sets forth.

Sheep: a total transgression. They're going to be counted at the end of the summer. They're domesticated, associated with farms and ranchers and people.

Elk: still breaking the rules, but with something that's wild. Somehow shooting a wild animal seems a bit less like rule-breaking than shooting the sheep is, even though Ennis is technically poaching. But they're off in the middle of nowhere, and Fish and Game are unlikely to actually catch them at it. So it's a compromise.

So, the relationship. All those years of meeting in the wilderness. Is that settling for beans?

I think the relationship equivalent of beans would be even more bleak than what Jack and Ennis end up doing. Beans would have been going their separate ways after the reunion, Ennis continuing to try to be what he was taught he should be, refusing to ever see Jack again.  :'(

Sheep would be Jack's "cow and calf" operation: having their relationship out in the open, in human society, to hell with the rules. It's a big wide world, and why would anyone notice Jack and Ennis in a world of thousands of sheep, and besides, it's nobody's business but theirs.

But what they do is a compromise, breaking the rules that Ennis (and probably Jack) learned early on, but breaking them in the wilderness, where the rules don't hold in quite the same way. Kind of like shooting the elk.

Except that the bull elk is a huge, magnificent beast, enough meat to keep two hungry 19-year-old boys satisfied for quite some time. Two or three meetings a year is hardly equivalent to an elk; it's more like a jack rabbit or a ptarmigan (a bird the size of a guinea hen), hardly enough to sustain two hungry boys for one meal, let alone a lifetime.  :'(
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Offline Meryl

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Re: Ennis Stands It; Jack Fixes It
« Reply #16 on: April 19, 2006, 12:02:10 am »
Wow, great analogy, Mel.  Thanks!  8)
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Offline two_bloody_shirts

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Re: Ennis Stands It; Jack Fixes It
« Reply #17 on: April 19, 2006, 12:07:52 am »
That is a very good explanation.  I daresay it's much more accurate than my attempt was!   :)
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Offline Brown Eyes

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Re: Ennis Stands It; Jack Fixes It
« Reply #18 on: April 19, 2006, 12:19:05 am »
Yes, I agree.  I really like that analogy of Elk as a creative way to subvert authority.

There's another reason why they can't kill a sheep within the 'ethics' (so to speak) of the movie.  Sheep- specifically as 'sacrificial lambs'- are equated symbolically with gay men in the movie.  The only images of bloody, violent death are those of the dead sheep, Earl, and the image of Jack's murder in Ennis's mind.  Actually, all of these visions of violence are through Ennis's perspective (he's the only one who sees the mutilated sheep, we know about Earl through Ennis's memory and we see Jack's death in Ennis's imagination).  Anyway, all three -sheep, Earl, and Jack (in the murder scenario)- are victims of 'predator loss'.  Ennis and Jack absolutely cannot become the predators here (when it comes to the idea of killing a sheep for dinner).  Also, early in the movie we see Jack sitting in the field gently tending to the hoof of a lamb that's lounging in his lap.  I think this is meant to re-enforce the idea that Jack = lamb.  In a way Ennis's emphatic statement "we're supposed to guard the sheep, not eat 'em" becomes really, really touching when you think about it in terms of this metaphor.

By the way, I think it's interesting that before Ennis gets the first postcard from Jack, he's driving through town back to the apartment and passes a building that has a big white "ELKs" sign on it.  What a contrast... the wild elk that's a sign of their romance on the mountain and the dismal, run-down Elks lodge in average society.  But, I think that the word "ELK" here is a sign that romance is right around the corner again.

(I just posted this elk sign idea on the old board yesterday in the "notice anything so subtle" thread)
« Last Edit: April 19, 2006, 09:05:58 am by atz75 »
the world was asleep to our latent fuss - bowie

Offline Ellemeno

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Re: Ennis Stands It; Jack Fixes It
« Reply #19 on: April 19, 2006, 02:07:55 am »
Amanda, that's awesome.  Thank you.