Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum

Thoughts on first scene at Agguires trailer

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serious crayons:
I was under the impression that each applied for the job that he ended up getting. But I'm not sure where I got that idea.

alec716:

--- Quote from: wolf on June 13, 2006, 12:14:49 am ---I've always seen it as some serious sizing up and male posturing.  Youthful bravado on Jack's part, 'don't talk to me' quasi-aggression on Ennis's part.  End of the day it has never struck me as sexual, that first encounter, only as two males sizing eachother up in the usual competitive way.

--- End quote ---

From a purely subjective angle, I saw it differently.  I thought that Jack was hot for Ennis from the moment he leaned against the side of his beat-up truck in Agurire's parking lot and stared at Ennis, and from when he was looking at Ennis in the truck's rear-view mirror as he shaved.  And there is that great side-long glance that Jack throws Ennnis' way when Aguirre is talking to them inside the trailer.  But maybe my perception was skewed because I knew ahead of time that the 2 of them became, shall we say, "BetterMost" friends. 

Yet another interesting ambiguity in this film... thanks for sharing your opinion... I enjoy hearing other views and experiences with the story!

wolf:

--- Quote from: alec716 on June 14, 2006, 10:42:41 pm ---maybe my perception was skewed because I knew ahead of time that the 2 of them became, shall we say, "BetterMost" friends. 


--- End quote ---

that was pretty much my experience.  the first time I saw it, I didn't know how or when or in what form it'd come (so to speak!).  ergo, that opening scene struck me as an exquisitely composed look at young males circling eachother in a competitive and ever-so-slightly 'rutting season' quest for dominance.  that it should morph into actual rutting isn't necessarily a stretch, given the clearly spoken testosterone on display.  so while it wasn't specificially sexual to me, it certainly contained the seeds.

HOWEVER, on second viewing I found myself reading way too much sexual stuff into it.  More than I wanted to and more than I consider is actually there.  I've had a friend or two point out Jack's 'blatant' sexual posturing when leaning on his truck - but I'd argue (from an informed platform) that cowboys often do just that when in company with other cowboys.  They're 'leaners', and they tend to have a decidedly but unconsciously sensuous way of moving.  I once spent a week at a roping and reining workshop with a bunch of Texans and I think I may have been 'in season' myself for the duration - just watching those boys lean suggestively on trucks, horses, hay bales, and sometimes each other. 

w

alec716:

--- Quote from: wolf on June 14, 2006, 11:27:58 pm ---that was pretty much my experience.  the first time I saw it, I didn't know how or when or in what form it'd come (so to speak!).  ergo, that opening scene struck me as an exquisitely composed look at young males circling eachother in a competitive and ever-so-slightly 'rutting season' quest for dominance.  that it should morph into actual rutting isn't necessarily a stretch, given the clearly spoken testosterone on display.  so while it wasn't specificially sexual to me, it certainly contained the seeds.

--- End quote ---

Great way to put it, wolf -- exquisitely composed, indeed.  I like the "rutting season" imagery -- and not just in a sexual sense.  I think it sums up the complex dimensions of this encouter very well.

quote author=wolf link=topic=2458.msg43106#msg43106 date=1150342078]
 I once spent a week at a roping and reining workshop with a bunch of Texans and I think I may have been 'in season' myself for the duration - just watching those boys lean suggestively on trucks, horses, hay bales, and sometimes each other. 
[/quote]

no pictures to post, I imagine?  ;)

serious crayons:
I read a good review where the guy said the first time he saw the scene he thought Jake was overacting and posturing. The second time he watched, he realized the posturing was deliberate -- it's not so much how a cowboy stands, it's Jack's idea of how a cowboy stands. That always sounds about right to me.

But why paraphrase? I have it bookmarked:

Gyllenhaal’s performance at first seems a little out of place; everyone around him (at this point, essentially Ledger, Randy Quaid, and some sheep) seems entirely at ease and unactorish, but on a second viewing I realized that what I was watching wasn’t Gyllenhaal’s performance — it was Jack’s. Jack is constantly trying to fill the role of Western hero, trying to impress; when we first see him, waiting with Ennis outside Joe Aguirre’s trailer-office, he leans against his truck in an exaggeratedly casual posture, with a “hey, cowboy” leer.

Here's the whole review:

http://www.pajiba.com/brokeback-mountain.htm

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