Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
Ode to the First and Second Tent Scenes
jpwagoneer1964:
--- Quote from: atz75 on June 19, 2006, 12:47:29 am ---Yikes! ednbarby, this post is too hot to touch! Thanks for that!
jpwagoneer, I'm guessing that they're facing opposite directions in the two scenes, maybe simply to emphasize to the audience that the two encounters are vastly different. I somehow don't feel like this is a continuity error. I'd think that these two scene are so crucial to the film and so attention-getting (everyone would know that audiences, critics, etc. would fixate on these scenes) that they'd be very careful and deliberate with them. I think it's an interesting idea to suggest that Ennis acknowledges Jack when he rides away... but if he does it's so subtle and ambiguous to leave other possible interpretations open. I've always heard his "Yep" as a prod to the horse... but it would be nice to think he's answering Jack. Still, Jack doesn't seem too pleased with this exchange.
Katherine, I really like the idea that layers of clothing have lots of meaning, especially in scenes like this. One thing that had to happen between the "I ain't no queer" conversation and the second tent scene... is Ennis had to change clothes. He's wearing a different shirt than he was wearing in the first tent scene. The first tent scene shirt is the one with broad blue and brown intersecting stripes and the second tent scene shirt is the shirt that he finds at the end in Jack's closet. I'd love to imagine the level of shyness that probably accompanied Ennis bathing in front of Jack this time. Or would they have dared to be flirty...?
--- End quote ---
And remember Jack washed that shirt for Ennis as well as his own clothes as well as himself (also for Ennis). I like to think they made their supper together and cleaned up dishes etc. as well finding comfort in their newfound closeness but not quite understsnding it. I am sure Jack did everything he could to make Ennis feel confortable and had his clean clothes laid out. Ennis probabily bathed as always but under the shroud of darkness.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: atz75 on June 19, 2006, 12:47:29 am --- the second tent scene shirt is the shirt that he finds at the end in Jack's closet.
--- End quote ---
Oooh. Another reason for Jack to feel sentimental enough to steal it!
--- Quote from: ednbarby on June 18, 2006, 10:31:49 pm --- I think that in Jack, Ennis found not only the friend but the lover he'd always dreamed of having but was afraid to admit to himself he was dreaming of. I think the "You know I ain't queer" was him saying to himself and to society that he wasn't what he feared he was, and *not* saying that specifically to Jack. I think he thought about him all day and wanted him more than he could begin to understand. He saw his opportunity at the campfire, felt emboldened by the heat of it (and had to know deep down that Jack would welcome it), and went for it.
--- End quote ---
Barb, this is exactly how I see it. Although I have always assumed that, not only did Ennis know Jack would welcome it, but that tacitly they both expected it and knew that each other expected it, too.
ednbarby:
--- Quote from: latjoreme on June 19, 2006, 08:48:43 am ---Barb, this is exactly how I see it. Although I have always assumed that, not only did Ennis know Jack would welcome it, but that tacitly they both expected it and knew that each other expected it, too.
--- End quote ---
Yes, definitely. (I realize I was a little murky in my last description of it - you are right.)
As to what transpired between the conversation on the hill and Ennis entering the tent, I like the way JP thinks of it - that they sat in silence for a long time before returning to camp, and that the silence was not an uncomfortable one. And they made and ate and cleaned up after supper together like an old married couple, again in comfortable silence (or mostly silence).
I also like how you mentioned, JP, that the first tent scene is not just rough sex. I never understand how some people seem to see it as only that. I see the hands on each other's faces and the foreheads touching as being very tender. Jack also looks very deeply into Ennis' eyes as if to ask permission, and Ennis looks deeply back as if to grant it. There's no forcing of anything on anyone. It's just the shape such a lurking passion and lust as theirs takes sometimes when you finally throw caution to the wind and just go for it. Add to that the fact that at least in Ennis' case, this is the general passion he's had and been repressing all his adolescent life, and KA-BOOM. Makes perfect sense to me. But like Katherine said, I do think the second tent scene is imperative, too, to show that what truly underlies the passion and lust in their case is love.
nakymaton:
Heresy:
You know, it's possible that more time passes between the 1st and 2nd tent scenes than just the one day. Not something I'd thought of until reading the 2004 script (in which the writers really seemed to be struggling with how to portray the relationship after the 1st night -- it falls somewhere between the story version, where they keep having sex but seem to be in denial about it the entire time, and the movie version, in which the 2nd tent scene establishes that this is about love and not only sex). But you know... it's possible that the events we see between the two tent scenes took place over several days. (The threatening music and threatening sky have always connected them into a single day in my mind, but... well, there aren't any clear time markers that I'm certain of.)
I know that I, at least, can't imagine the silence after the hill conversation as comfortable at all. I mean, they don't look at each other during the conversation. Ennis is essentially still trying to deny that anything happened, or that anything is going to continue happening. Jack has his "I'm not saying what I really feel" mask on when he says "me neither." I don't see comfort anywhere in that scene -- I see confusion and longing, but not comfort.
Mikaela:
--- Quote ---I don't see comfort anywhere in that scene -- I see confusion and longing, but not comfort.
--- End quote ---
The discomfort has a different source in each of them. Ennis's is based on his confused and ashamed "I'm not queer!?! but I can't help but follow up on this anyway...!" reaction - Jack's comes from Ennis showing such strong reluctance to address what happened as well as such an (at best) ambiguous reaction to it all.
Whether one or more days passed, Ennis seems to continue struggling much in the same vein until he yields to Jack's kiss and caresses in the SNIT.
But something must still have happened inbetween IMO, because at the beginning of the SNIT *Jack* is more relaxed and more confident. He's giving Ennis the time he needs, but also seems to feel relatively sure about what will transpire. When Ennis approaches the tent, Jack seems to anticipate and even expect it - it's as if he was certain it would happen but thought Ennis might need a little more time.
All that could be based on Jack's interpretation of the "one shot thing we've got going" line - but I'd absolutely like to think it's based on something more, something that happens after Jack's "me neither" and before the film picks up again. They must have talked some, or have let their eyes meet directly to do the talking for them - exchanged unguarded glances - or even touched; - at any rate some understanding has formed and passed between them that makes for less uneasiness on Jack's part (and probably also on Ennis's) than in the mountain scene we get to see.
I think there's no narrative need in the film version for the time period between the FNIT and SNIT to be more than one day, - the journey Ennis makes is still the same, and with the same emotional impact. Whether fast or slow, the direction and destination are the same. (Yes, I do use Brokeisms in my writing, haven't I mentioned that? ::) ) I do see what they were trying to do in the revised script though, where the understanding built more slowly and it took longer time for realization to hit.
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