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If you were Alma............

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j.U.d.E.:
With everything being said so far, I agree mostly. Back in 1967 in rural America (or anywhere else) it was hard for a woman like Alma to stand strong and getting a divorce. But I do think she got stronger with the years. She did after all, put her will through to go working, instead of staying home cooking for her family (the scene with the girls on the swing). And earlier in the film when Ennis drops of the girls at the place where Alma works, she does challenge (even though not very successfully) Ennis as to whose job is more important. It just took a while/few years, to get to the divorce.

And I think also, that, though Alma really loved Ennis, she might also have been scared of him. He had quite a temper and was basically double her size or at least weight..

To answer Victoria's question, now 2006 (back then I don't know) I wouldn't wait long or re-consider much. I wouldn't kick him  :o  but I wouldn't give him endless number of chances..

My father was mostly out of work when me and my sister were toddlers. In 1972 my mother discoverd my father cheating on her. She left him and by 1974 they were divorced. But my mother was not in Alma's situation, though it was pretty tough for her still!

~ j U d E

serious crayons:

--- Quote from: JudeW on May 08, 2006, 04:29:09 pm ---And I think also, that, though Alma really loved Ennis, she might also have been scared of him. He had quite a temper and was basically double her size or at least weight..

--- End quote ---

Jude and Jeff, if one purpose of the 4th of July scene is to show that Alma has reason to fear Ennis' violence -- and it may well be -- it's lame. Beating up slop-bucket-mouthed bikers is pretty different from beating up your wife. My husband is non-violent, but say if he got in a fight with some guy in a bar, I can't imagine getting scared he would go after me next.

j.U.d.E.:

--- Quote from: latjoreme on May 08, 2006, 04:51:43 pm ---Jude and Jeff, if one purpose of the 4th of July scene is to show that Alma has reason to fear Ennis' violence -- and it may well be -- it's lame. Beating up slop-bucket-mouthed bikers is pretty different from beating up your wife. My husband is non-violent, but say if he got in a fight with some guy in a bar, I can't imagine getting scared he would go after me next.
--- End quote ---
I was thinking of that exact scene too. Though I wasn't suggesting Ennis being a wife-beater, but there is one scene - just after the Jack Nasty bit - where Ennis does grab Alma. And before that - when he's having sex with Alma and turns her around without her consent... I'd say that's considered aggressive!

And he can be aggressive towards Jack too.. I wonder how much Jack 'accepted'..

Though I give him this -> he does not ever seem to direct his anger/aggression towards his girls.

~ j U d E [I can never figure out whether to write about the characters in present tense or past tense.. odd..]

Jeff Wrangler:

--- Quote from: latjoreme on May 08, 2006, 04:51:43 pm ---Jude and Jeff, if one purpose of the 4th of July scene is to show that Alma has reason to fear Ennis' violence -- and it may well be -- it's lame. Beating up slop-bucket-mouthed bikers is pretty different from beating up your wife. My husband is non-violent, but say if he got in a fight with some guy in a bar, I can't imagine getting scared he would go after me next.
--- End quote ---

Indeed it is. Nevertheless, others have said they think she looks terrified in that shot where she's in the background holding the girls and Ennis is silhouetted against the fireworks, which is why I brought it up. Lame or not, I repeat, she certainly knows he's capable of violence after the Fourth of July if she didn't know it before.

On to some other thoughts, now that I'm home with Story to Screenplay in front of me.  :)

Can we be sure "Story Alma" doesn't know exactly what's going on when she opens the door and sees Ennis's "straining shoulders"? Personally, I'd say, What else could Ennis and Jack be doing--and what else could Alma think they're doing--except kissing?

But never mind me. More to the point, as early as minutes later when Ennis introduces Jack to Alma, AP tells us that Alma "had seen what she had seen." Yet at some undetermined time later, she still put the note in Ennis's creel.

serious crayons:

--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on May 08, 2006, 06:06:18 pm ---Can we be sure "Story Alma" doesn't know exactly what's going on when she opens the door and sees Ennis's "straining shoulders"? Personally, I'd say, What else could Ennis and Jack be doing--and what else could Alma think they're doing--except kissing?

--- End quote ---

The way I read it, she knows what is going on.

And here's another thing: I was just thinking (in that ridiculous way I have of devoting all my daily thoughts to what characters in BBM should or shouldn't have done, as opposed to devoting them to my own work) that however much Alma was wronged over the years, her confrontation on Thanksgiving is unspeakably rude. She waits all those years when it would have made sense to mention something -- and then finally does so gratuitously, on a holiday, with their daughters in the other room. Is it because Ennis seems so much more manly than Monroe and that makes her uncomfortable? Is it because she feels financially secure enough at that point to express her bitterness openly?

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