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Ennis, Cassie and the Twists (revised title)

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David:
This was mentioned on the old board and I thought we could explore it better over here.

At the last night by the lake, Ennis tells Jack about Cassie and her dreams of nursing school.  But then he ends the statement about seeing her with :"but I don't know".

Was Ennis trying to tell Jack that he was just killing time with Cassie?   Or was there a deeper meaning there?   

Did Jack miss out on the importance of that comment?   After all, he mentions his affair right afterwards.   

Was Ennis coming to grips with his own situation after all these years?

something to think about...

serious crayons:
Good topic, David! And good idea to poach promising topics from the old board.

Ennis' tone really captures his lack of enthusiasm for the relationship. Not just the "but I don't know," but also the "wants to be a nurse or sumpn." Like he has barely paid attention to her talk about her plans. Some have said the news makes Jack jealous, which is why he responds with the lie about the ranch foreman's wife. But it's hard to believe Jack doesn't pick up on how blase Ennis sounds.

And my opinion is that, yes, by this point Ennis has realized that he is gay and has partly come to terms with it. I know many people find this view debatable, to say the least. But he seems so unexcited and passive about Cassie -- far less so than he was about Alma, even. He gets dragged into the relationship because Cassie came on so strong and he figures that's what he's "supposed" to do. But when he breaks up with her, it's because he realizes there's no point in keeping up the pretense.

And while we're on the subject, I've wondered if there's any deeper significance to Cassie's "girls don't fall in love with fun." I saw an essay on the old board about this; it was interesting but I didn't agree with the author's point (he was arguing that in the end Jack decided to break up with Ennis as a favor to Ennis and somehow the question of Ennis being "fun" or not worked into it). But given that this line is given such dramatic emphasis and is actually the first time in the movie the word "love" is used -- not, as is sometimes claimed, in the final scene with Alma Jr. -- you'd think it must mean something.

ednbarby:
I guess I've always found the "Girls don't fall in love with fun" line significant because I think it's the first time Ennis realizes that Jack is in love with him.  Or at least it's the first time he associates that word with what Jack has been trying to tell him all those years.  I think that when Ennis says, "I guess I wasn't much fun, was I?" he's saying it not just in relation to her, but it's how he thinks of himself in general.  He dislikes himself so much that he can't imagine anyone finding it "fun" to be with him.  When she says that, I think he realizes that Jack found being with him fun, so to speak, because he loved him.  Just as Cassie has just admitted she did.

Front-Ranger:
I agree with both of you. What makes the end of the movie so tragic for me is that Ennis was almost there, he had almost traveled all the way around the coffeepot to find the handle, the answer. And he was almost ready to agree to a life with Jack. That's why he broke off with Cassie. But I don't think Jack recognized it, because he was embittered.

David:
Well,  many have said, and I agree, that Jacks spirit died the day he drove up when Ennis got his divorce.  You never see him smile after that.

But at the last lake scene he brings up the topic.  "So after all these years you never found someone to marry?"   Jack was fishing for Ennis's feelings.     Of course, we also know that Jack has been seeing Randall for 5 years now.    Bittered yes, hopeful?  maybe.   

What I think we forget is that these two guys know very little about eachother lives other than the info they share during these fishing trips.    And it's all them things they don't know about eachother that feed the jealousy I think.

And that is the beauty of the story.   These two want each other so much yet can't get it.    And for alot of us, we also seek this pure form of love.    We all face obsticals, some of them our own doing, others tossed in front of us.

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