Our BetterMost Community > The Polling Place
What Scene Could have been left out
ednbarby:
--- Quote from: DavidinHartford on July 05, 2006, 04:40:01 pm ---But I love the way Jack looked frustrated and anxious even after he yells at L.D.
--- End quote ---
NO doubt. I've said before here how I think the way the blood rises in Jake's (yes, Jake's) neck and face during that scene, and then the way his hands are shaking and his breathing is choked with emotion when he goes to stand up and start carving is a thing of beauty. He just nailed that scene. And I've seen it and heard it for real in my husband after he let my stepmother have it when she *so* richly deserved it once when Will was eight weeks old and he'd had it up to his eyeballs with her constant criticism of our parenting (and years of her propagation of negativity about everything else we ever did before then). Ed was just stunned by it when he saw it, and reacted perfectly to Lureen's little smile of satisfaction just the way I expected him to, because he's seen that for real, too.
About a minute later, he said 'ignorant ass...' and chuckled under his breath, as if he were thinking 'wish I'd used that one.'
Mikaela:
--- Quote ---As for the "used to ride bulls" scene, I think that was supposed to convey how little respect Jack earned from the folks in his community. For reasons that are unfathomable to me, Jack, in spite of his tender, nurturing nature, seems to inspire love in no one save Ennis, Lureen, and Mrs. Twist.
--- End quote ---
and
--- Quote ---This just reinforces that Jack always tries hard but never gets any respect. ( ) But as I said, it was to show that Jack was unappreciated in so many ways....
--- End quote ---
I'm sure you are both right in this. But I still don't see what the film achieves in showing us that Jack is not respected and appreciated. For one, I find it hard to believe that someone as affable and charming as Jack wasn't well- liked in his community. And surely his plight in loving and longing for Ennis wouldn't have been any less poignant or difficult if he was respected by people in the local community? Quite possibly, and on the contrary, showing him as a well-liked person would also have meant opportunities to showcase how empty all of that was to him, when he couldn't have the one thing he really wanted in his life....
David:
I think it goes back to some of Jacks other statements. "I can't please my old man no way no how". Jack is full of hope and dreams. But like his father says, "Like much of the things Jack says never come to pass". Jack is always being shot down by Ennis too. As even Jake Gyllenhaal said about his character: "What Jack is to me is someone that tries real hard even if he fails all the time."
The "Pissant" scene also shows how Lureen is passive about Jack too.
David:
--- Quote from: ednbarby on July 05, 2006, 04:58:01 pm --- I've said before here how I think the way the blood rises in Jake's (yes, Jake's) neck and face during that scene, and then the way his hands are shaking and his breathing is choked with emotion when he goes to stand up and start carving is a thing of beauty. He just nailed that scene.
--- End quote ---
Barb! I love ya! You understand exactly what I see in Jake/Jack there.
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: DavidinHartford on July 05, 2006, 05:51:38 pm ---
Barb! I love ya! You understand exactly what I see in Jake/Jack there.
--- End quote ---
Oh, I love the Twist Thanksgiving scene, and I love the way both Jake and Anne play it. (Love that, "Daddy. [Pause] DADDY." It's actually my favorite Lureen scene.) But I had to set some standard for picking an answer.
We could probably have gotten by without seeing Old Man Twist spit into his cup (eeew) but I interpreted that choice as not just what I might have called the shot of Old Man Twist spitting into his cup, but the whole scene of him telling Ennis about the ranch neighbor, etc., which is essential to the plot.
Maybe "dancing with Lashawn" could have been left out, but I looked at that in light of Jack's line to Ennis about having something going with a ranch foreman's wife.
But the Twist Thanksgiving scene was clearly invented just to balance the uber-essential "Ennis and Alma Thanksgiving confrontation," and I don't think it really does much for the plot. That was the basis for my decision.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version