Why was the Dozy Embrace so sad?

[serious crayons]

I've often wondered about the potential of the flashback to confuse people who were not familiar with the story, since it momentarily confused me, and I've known the story since it was first published in The New Yorker in 1997.

There are lots of people, maybe more on imdb than here, who thought at first it was a blooper that Jack suddenly appeared without a moustache! 

As I recall Heath Ledger did not like the fact that the scene was written in a way that made him look like the sheep were more important than Jack. He didn't like the fact that he just turns away and rides off to the sheep camp,

How sweet that he thought that! Happy birthday again, Heath! 

However, I think Ennis' behavior in the flashback is totally in character -- there's always that conflict between wanting to be with Jack and at the same time feeling it's his "responsibility" to ride away.

I believe this scene happened, chronologically, the night before the snowstorm that ended their time on the mountain, for reasons of symmetry and symbolism. When Ennis says "See you in the morning," then turns around and leaves, he assumes he WILL see Jack in the morning. And technically, he does -- but in a figurative way, he doesn't. In the morning there is snow, and when he next sees Jack he's tearing down the tent and their summer is effectively over and things are no longer the same between them (until the reunion).

The dozy embrace is mirrored in the lake scene, when Ennis is again driving away (apparently without looking back), and Jack is again gazing after him. Again, there is snow: snow on the mountains, snow in Jack's prediction the night before and implicitly in his complaints about the cold. Again, Ennis fully expects to see Jack "in the morning" -- that is, in November, the next time they're scheduled to get together. But this time he doesn't. After that, things will never be the same again.

To me, that elevates the phrase "see you in the morning" to a higher level of meaning. See you in the next life? See you someday in a world where homophobia won't keep us apart? I'm not saying it's meant to be literal. But it resonates so much more to think of if as the last words they exchange before not seeing each other again.

[Phillip Dampier]

I'm under the impression that it was to be shortly after the first love making scene right before the "first snow" scene to show how the relationship was going from awkward to loving and tender. We also spent almost a week on a scene with them rescuing a bunch of Hippies that got there flower power van stuck in a creek bed on one of there rendezvous. It was totally cut but was an afterthought written by one of the Producers and Ang hated the scene but shot it anyway and obviously never included it in his final cut.

Oh God... the Mystery Machine & Scooby Doo on Brokeback Mountain.    Jinkies....

Of course, all of this stuff never showed up on the "collector's edition" DVD which was essentially pointless.  Considering the amount of time people here spend on reviewing every single frame of this film, having a deleted scenes reel to contemplate would have been an amazing gift to the community.  One thing that I noticed is that outside of Aguirre that first year, nobody ever intruded on their mountain time together.

As an aside, the very first time I saw the film, I didn't realize it -was- a flashback to that first year, but I was numb by that point in the film anyway.

[Phillip Dampier]

Pulled temporarily because the wrong revision got posted... it'll be back shortly.

[southendmd]

Thanks, Phillip.  I have a question:  I can make out Ennis humming "Cowboy's Lament/Street of Laredo" just before he comes on the bear.  I assumed that was what was being credited.  Did you hear Ennis humming the same in the dozy embrace?  I could never make it out, especially with the swelling soundtrack.

BTW, I learned "Streets of Laredo" in Catholic school in Massachusetts!  They didn't change it to the "Streets of Lowell". LOL

Paul

[Front-Ranger]

What? You grew up in Lowell?? That is Jack Kerouac's hometown!! Wow!!

[Phillip Dampier]

Thanks, Phillip.  I have a question:  I can make out Ennis humming "Cowboy's Lament/Street of Laredo" just before he comes on the bear.  I assumed that was what was being credited.  Did you hear Ennis humming the same in the dozy embrace?  I could never make it out, especially with the swelling soundtrack.

BTW, I learned "Streets of Laredo" in Catholic school in Massachusetts!  They didn't change it to the "Streets of Lowell". LOL

Paul

Yes, that is what he's humming before the bear scene.  My apologies that I wasn't more clear about that - the wrong revision got posted - I was working on this in a different editor.  I have to fix an issue with the final revision and then it will be back in more clarity!

[moremojo]

I need some clarification on the song element. It was my understanding that the tune Ennis is humming early on in the film, when he's bringing back the victuals picked up from the Basque at the bridge, and right before he encounters the bear, is "The Cowboy's Lament", which is indeed cited in the film's closing credits. So I gather that the tune/lullaby that Ennis briefly hums to Jack in the dozy embrace is also "The Cowboy's Lament" (aka "The Streets of Laredo", aka "My Home's in Montana")?

By the way, I never could really hear the humming in the earlier sequence in my theatrical viewings, and couldn't really discern any distinctive tune in the dozy embrace, either. It was only with my exposure to the DVD that I finally picked up on the earlier humming, though I still can't really pick out the tune, either here or in the dozy embrace.

[southendmd]

What? You grew up in Lowell?? That is Jack Kerouac's hometown!! Wow!!

No, Lee, just riffing on the Laredo/Larkin change.  

But, I believe Louise did!

[Phillip Dampier]

This is not my day.  After putting up the wrong revision of my message, the database decided to corrupt the whole thing and poof --- away it went.  So my apologies to folks, because unless someone happens to have saved a copy of it, I am going to have to rewrite it from scratch.  Argh!!!!   One of the annoying things about this software is that once you modify a message, what you wrote before is gone.  I would have been safer deleting it, because that would have stuck around until the forum software did its compression routine.

I'm like the angry bear in the creek right now.  Grrrrr.....

[Cameron]

The dozy embrace is mirrored in the lake scene, when Ennis is again driving away (apparently without looking back), and Jack is again gazing after him. Again, there is snow: snow on the mountains, snow in Jack's prediction the night before and implicitly in his complaints about the cold. Again, Ennis fully expects to see Jack "in the morning" -- that is, in November, the next time they're scheduled to get together. But this time he doesn't. After that, things will never be the same again.

To me, that elevates the phrase "see you in the morning" to a higher level of meaning. See you in the next life? See you someday in a world where homophobia won't keep us apart? I'm not saying it's meant to be literal. But it resonates so much more to think of if as the last words they exchange before not seeing each other again.

I was thinking about this, and I watched it again several times, and I now totally agree.  I believe that "I gotta go" and "see you in the morning" can totally be taken as not just literal statements, but also I guess as representations of their whole lives.

The DE is one of the very few moments when Ennis is at peace.  I think that "I gotta go" means not just that he has to leave Jack to go to the sheep, but that he has to leave this world with Jack where he is at peace, because of all the pressures that he has put on himself and that society has put on him.  I think Ennis's/Heaths expression is remarkable, it's not happiness really, it seems to be almost a recognition that being with Jack like that was the only time since being with his Momma that he is complete and whole in a way.  But he had to leave because he didn't have the strength to live in that world of peace and comfort with Jack and go against his internal demons and societies pressures.

I also agree that "see you in the morning'' could have been a prophecy, that he will see Jack in the next life, or whenever the time came when Ennis would be able to live the life that he needed to with Jack, and all the pressures that have stopped him previously don't exist anymore.

I hope this makes sense at all.