Education and class in BBM

[serious crayons]

Hey folks, I decided we've been spending WAAAAY too much time discussing the thrillingly romantic and breathtakingly carnal aspects of the movie, and it's time for something dry and academic and potentially boring! Everybody agree? OK, here goes:

I'm really impressed by the way both education (lack thereof) and class are treated in this movie. I can't think of any other movie off the top of my head (I'm open to corrections) that handles these matters so completely unpatronizingly.

How many movies portray a main character as matter-of-factly poor -- yet that poverty is neither pitiful nor a major plot point? Yes, we see how poverty limits Ennis' life: he has to save half-smoked cigarettes, can't get away to see Jack easily, gets nagged by his wife to get a better job and apartment. But we are never asked to feel sorry for him or even spend much time dwelling on his finances. In most movies, if somebody's poor, that's pretty much the whole point of the movie.

And as for education, how many movies feature main characters who barely made it out of high school (Jack), or didn't (Ennis), and yet are portrayed so respectfully that they're the objects of enormous unbound affection for so many well-educated, intelligent people (us)? The only times their education level is even alluded to, it's just cute -- their grammar, the condiments thing, Jack's misspelled postcard and Ennis' lips moving as he reads it. Otherwise, who cares?!

Anybody else have any thoughts about this, or are you too busy pondering who fell in love with whom when and who's the hottest? (OK, me too.)

[nakymaton]

I want to have coherent thoughts other than YES! YES! But you've said it all extremely well, I think.

Poverty and poor education (and rural upbringing, as well) tend to be treated either as adversity to overcome for a hero (see Walk the Line) or as part of what is yucky about a villian (see Hilary Swank's family in Million Dollar Baby). And BBM could very easily have treated poverty and rural upbringing as The Villian... I mean, rural areas are particularly homophobic, and it's homophobia (at least in part) that kept Our Lovers apart. (And may have been what killed Jack, depending on which version of his death you believe is true.)

But class and education and everything are simply treated as part of the background, not idealized and not demonized. And that's one of the many, many things that I love about this movie.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Katherine, you put it so well it's difficult to think of anything else to say.

It's been a while now, and I don't remember, and I also don't have the screenplay with me here at work. Is there mention of Jack finishing high school? I think in the "AP original" they're both drop-outs. We just learn more of the circumstances of Ennis's inability to finish. Poor guy, he just wanted to be a sophomore, felt it had some kind of distinction.

It always surprised me that "back in the day" he could get a driver's license at 14 (!) in order to go to school.

[isabelle]

Katherine, this is a very good point to bring up. To me, both from reading the short story and seeing the film, their poverty and lack of education as given facts, not as the central plot, is one of the main aspects of this film that make the characters SO real, and therefore make me feel like I know them, they are like friends. I love them. To me, they HAVE existed, do exist - I will see Ennis, no doubt, when I go to Wyoming!
Also, I am a teacher, and became one in the first place because I believed in education to help kids - especially from poorer backgrounds - have better opportunities in life, and I'm not talking only of the financial aspect. However, even as a teacher, I have never given a fiddler's fart about people's level of education, i.e the number, or names, of degrees on their resumes, and have a definite soft spot for those who could not get an education, particularly for reasons like Ennis's (lack of money).
But you are right, I cannot think of any other film where poverty/class is not central to the plot.

[Kd5000]

Poverty/class is not central to the plot.

It's not central to the plot, but the poverty/family situation/time period/education attainment do play a role in the costly decisions they make. Would Ennis choose to get married to ALma at age 19. Would Jack have married a woman? Afterwards, Jack's marriage will certainly make his life more complicated, however it is a ticket to more material comforts.   I don't think Jack is anymore happier because he has attained, it would seem, the American dream.

Would you still feel sympathy for them if they were from affluent backgrounds, well educated, and wordly? They could escape far more easily. There would be more options and the situation wouldn't seem so HOPELESS from the get-go. 

PPl have posted on IMDB.com and newspaper articles about why didn't they just move to NYC or Denver for that matter? What would Ennis or Jack do in a highly urban environment, if they chose to escape the suffocating rural homophobia?  End up working in Times Square?

[delalluvia]

I for one was very glad to see a movie that showed that poverty and lack of education were not limited to inner city people.  They were/are problems for everyone.

I'm with kd, poverty plays a crucial part in this movie.  Ennis is essentially trapped.  He cannot be anything more than a hired hand because he doesn't have the job skills or education to be anything else and that severely limits him professionally.  Unless Alma Jr. gets more education than she has before getting pregnant by her oll-worker rough neck fiance, she is likely to be no better off than Ennis was.  Matter of fact, the movie ends in the early 1980's.  The oil slump happened in the late 80's.  Likely Junior was going to have a couple of kids by then and her husband would be out of a job.

Jack managed to get out of his trap by marrying up.  Otherwise he would have been no better off than Ennis.

[hermitdave]

 I agree with everything that has been said so far. I am not particularly well educated. I grew up poor, and from the south. In my experience folks dont spend a lot of time thinking about those who have more and are better educated. Life is just lived as it is. Like Ennis said- "you dont have nothin, you dont need nothin."

[Jeff Wrangler]

Reading through this thread, I'm reminded of those other sad lines from Ennis:

"I'm stuck with what I got here. Makin' a livin's about all I got time for now."

In context the "stuck" part may specifically refer to his marriage and family, but it pretty well covers his economic situation, too, I think.

[serious crayons]

Thanks for your thoughts, everyone! This is one of the (many, obviously) things that impresses me about BBM and I'm glad to have a place to discuss it. Good point, KD and Del, that poverty and education are not completely immaterial to the plot; if Ennis and Jack were more affluent and educated they would made different choices and had more options (though surely the general outlines of their tragedy have played out many times among people at every socioeconomic level).

But though their economic situations help shape their circumstances, I find it refreshing that they aren't the CENTRAL issue of the plot.

Nakymaton, speaking of well put, this was really good:

Poverty and poor education (and rural upbringing, as well) tend to be treated either as adversity to overcome for a hero (see Walk the Line) or as part of what is yucky about a villian (see Hilary Swank's family in Million Dollar Baby). And BBM could very easily have treated poverty and rural upbringing as The Villian... I mean, rural areas are particularly homophobic, and it's homophobia (at least in part) that kept Our Lovers apart. (And may have been what killed Jack, depending on which version of his death you believe is true.)

But class and education and everything are simply treated as part of the background, not idealized and not demonized. And that's one of the many, many things that I love about this movie.

Thinking about your post, Naky, led me to make the following -- very generalized -- conclusion: In most contemporary American films, heroes who are poor are required to overcome the poverty by the end of the movie, either by hard work (countless examples) or by marrying up (Pretty Woman). At the very least, they must somehow symbolically transcend their economic situation through bravery, pluck and/or talent (Norma Rae and Titanic, among others -- Erin Brokovich does this AND gets a big check at the end). Poor and/or uneducated people who just go about their lives, who don't improve their lot or aren't at least struggling to do so, are portrayed as trailer trash or pathetic victims.

BBM does not fit this pattern, and that's one of the many, many things I love about it, too.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Thinking about your post, Naky, led me to make the following -- very generalized -- conclusion: In most contemporary American films, heroes who are poor are required to overcome the poverty by the end of the movie, either by hard work (countless examples) or by marrying up (Pretty Woman). At the very least, they must somehow symbolically transcend their economic situation through bravery, pluck and/or talent (Norma Rae and Titanic, among others -- Erin Brokovich does this AND gets a big check at the end).

Not in any way intending to disagree--because I don't--but what you've described here, Katherine, is a lot older than contemporary American films, or even movies, period. You've more or less described what used to be called the Horatio Alger story--poor person makes good--which has been standard in American entertainment since at least the last third of the nineteeth century.

[serious crayons]

Right! But my point is, how many movies DON'T fit that mold? The only one I can think of is BBM. I don't have an encyclopedic brain, so I'm sure there are other exceptions, and I'd love to hear about them (I'm guessing they would be a few decades old, but I could be wrong about that, too). What impresses me about Brokeback us that it deviates from a format that has become not just a cliche but practically a requirement in this society.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Oh, absolutely! I was just pointing out how old that theme of "poor person makes good" is in American popular entertainment. If anything I hope that reinforces your observation as to how different Brokeback is for departing from that scenario.

[Brown Eyes]

I agree that it's nice that neither of these issues becomes the central focus of the film.  And, it is interesting that Ennis becomes a true hero by the end for reasons far removed from money and class status.   The fact that he's living in clear poverty in an under-furnished trailer is overshadowed by the incredible emotional aspects of his character.

I'm glad you noted that detail about Ennis's lips moving while he reads Jack's postcard.  I think that's one of those amazing and subtle details that just make the film shine.  Not only do we not really "pity" him or feel sorry for him, this is a moment when I feel happy and relieved for him... I'm more focused on how bright and happy his face looks usually at this moment.

As the differences in economic status between Jack and Ennis grow wider I do think class becomes just another issue and tension in their relationship.  I feel like the details of clothing and certain moments of dialogue between them (the talk about Lureen and her "adding machine") show a growing rift in an understanding of certain circumstances.  Maybe by the end Ennis really does feel like Jack had forgotten how it feels to be "broke all the time."  This is probably a worry that nags at Ennis and it bubbles out here.  I think Ennis's trip to Lightning Flat changes this for him... given the extreme poverty of Jack's parents he comes to learn that Jack could probably never forget what true poverty is all about.

This makes me wonder how successful they would have been financially, etc. if they had set up a cow and calf operation (presumably on Jack's parents' ranch).  Would living with Jack have helped pull Ennis out of poverty a little bit?  Without the Newsome money, how successful would Jack be as a self-sufficient ranch cowboy (well, self-sufficient with Ennis)?

[serious crayons]

Oh, absolutely! I was just pointing out how old that theme of "poor person makes good" is in American popular entertainment. If anything I hope that reinforces your observation as to how different Brokeback is for departing from that scenario.

Oh, OK! Thanks. I was too quick to launch into argument mode (my default).

Amanda, I agree with all of what you said (can't I just program a computer key somewhere to type that in one stroke, like a speed dial?) Your point about financial differences subtly, and almost unspokenly, adding to the tensions between them rift makes sense.

As for whether they'd have been successful at their cow-and-calf operation, I'm not sure. Nice at it is that Jack is a dreamer, it's probably not only Ennis' fault that his dreams don't always work out. For example, I'm not as confident as he was that L.D. Newsome would have forked over the money. (Course I wish they'd have tried, though.)

It's sad to recall that in that early beer-drinking scene, Jack tells Ennis he's saving up for his own ranch, and Ennis replies that he's saving for a place himself. Neither of their lives went the way they'd hoped.

[nakymaton]

Good points about their changing financial status becoming a source of stress later on. (I wonder if even things like sleeping in Jack's fancy dome tent bothered Ennis, at some level?)

This makes me wonder how successful they would have been financially, etc. if they had set up a cow and calf operation (presumably on Jack's parents' ranch).  Would living with Jack have helped pull Ennis out of poverty a little bit?  Without the Newsome money, how successful would Jack be as a self-sufficient ranch cowboy (well, self-sufficient with Ennis)?

I think it would depend on whether Jack's father was really willing to let Jack and Ennis set up a cabin on his property and eventually inherit the place... though even then, it might have been hard to keep the ranch going. Otherwise, Jack and Ennis would have needed to buy some property (and take out a mortgage), buy livestock, buy feed... Somehow I don't think that LD Newsome really would have paid Jack to leave Lureen. Jack's a sweetheart, but I don't think he was being realistic there. (And what were interest rates like in the late 60's/early 70's? By the late 70's they were incredibly high. That would have been a rough time to be trying to start a new business like a ranch.)

They would have had a lot going against them, even if Wyoming had somehow magically transformed itself into a gay-rights paradise. High school dropouts didn't have many prospects in the 70's, and it's only gotten worse since then. And ranches and farms have been folding and being sold for development, or consolidating into industrial farming businesses. (I currently live in an area where ranches are disappearing, and I grew up in a different rural area. Imagine a community that welcomes Wal-Mart because they consider it a source of good jobs. Yes, they are that desperate. And, ugh, I would hate to imagine Jack and Ennis as 60-something Wal-Mart greeters, though if they got to go home to each other at night maybe it would be worth it.)