I think we're debating the chicken-and-egg question, or not seeing the forest for the trees, or something like that. In my mind, there is absolutely no question that Annie Proulx was aware, when creating the characters of Jack and Ennis, that she was messing around with an American archetype symbolizing rugged manhood -- that very fact is part of what makes the story so interesting. Proulx was playing with our assumptions about what constitutes masculinity. The Marlboro man, along with John Wayne, are the most famous manifestations of that icon, so of course those images are going to be intertwined in readers/viewers minds when they think of Ennis and Jack. And yeah, for that same reason, it's definitely a Western. Not a traditional Western, like
3:10 to Yuma, but an anti-Western. A revisionist Western.
Proulx could have made Jack and Ennis accountants or social-studies teachers or oil-field roughnecks or anything else on the face of the earth. She made them cowboys (OK, sheep herders; let's not get into that!
) because that is the image Americans most associate with rugged masculinity. Yes, she often writes about cowboys anyway. But so what? That just made her particularly qualified for this job. The fact that they're cowboys is also a big reason homophobes find the story so disturbing. Ernest Borgnine, in declaring that he wouldn't watch BBM, said, "If John Wayne were alive, he'd be rolling over in his grave."
It's impossible for me to believe that Annie would have spent all that time and energy working all those Biblical allusions and classical myths and all the other subtle imagery into her story ... but not have meant anything particular when she chose cowboys as her characters. It's also impossible for me to believe Ang Lee went to all the trouble to set up an image of Ennis posed against a backdrop of exploding 4th of July fireworks without having it cross his mind that his movie is playing around with American myth. Or that either Ang or Annie -- who were so careful about establishing elaborate metaphors involving buckets and snow and bears and water and laundry and so on -- would not have given any thought to American feelings about cowboys and what they represent.
Of course the costumes are authentic because that's what people in the West actually dress like. Did Ang Lee hand the costume designers pages of old cigarette ads to copy and instruct them not to consider any other models? Of course not. But like the advertising people who invented the Marlboro man, Ang was very careful about creating images that invoked cowboy stereotypes. I'm thinking of Ennis leaning against the trailer, hat pulled down. Or Jack propping himself against the back of his pickup. Or Ennis sitting on his horse looking down at the dead sheep. You may not look at these and consciously think "Marlboro man," but at some level you look at them and think, "classic American cowboy," which is exactly the intention the advertising people had in mind in creating the Marlboro man.
BTW, do you all know that Marlboro was originally designed to be a "woman's cigarette"? Here's some background from Wikipedia:
Philip Morris, a London-based cigarette manufacturer, created a New York subsidiary in 1902 to sell several of its cigarette brands, including Marlboro. By 1924 they were advertising Marlboro as a woman's cigarette based on the slogan "Mild As May".
The brand was sold in this capacity until World War II when the brand faltered and was temporarily removed from the market. At the end of the war, three brands emerged that would establish a firm hold on the cigarette market: Camel, Lucky Strike, and Chesterfield. These brands were supplied to US soldiers during the war, creating an instant market upon their return.
During the 1950s Reader's Digest magazine published a series of articles that linked smoking with lung cancer. Phillip Morris, and the other cigarette companies took notice and each began to market filtered cigarettes. The new Marlboro with a filtered end was launched in 1955. In the early 1960s Philip Morris invented "Marlboro Country" and distilled their manly imagery into the rugged cowboys known as the "Marlboro Men." Philip Morris quickly gained market share and saw their sales increase 5,000 percent within 8 months of the ad campaign's premiere. It emerged as the number one youth-initiation brand, largely on its reputation as a full-flavored brand considered delicious by many smokers.
The brand is named after Great Marlborough Street, the location of its original London Factory. Richmond, Virginia is now the location of the largest Marlboro cigarette manufacturing plant.
And on a personal note, back in my smoking days I smoked Marlboros.
Cool photo, Brad, of your man on the roof. At first I thought it WAS Ennis. That should be your Christmas card next year.