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

...if you don't get stomped winning it

(1/3) > >>

nakymaton:
I could swear somebody brought up this conversation in the thread about lines that can be read more than one way:

(From memory; please correct me if you have the STS book available or if you have memorized the dialogue better than I have.  ;D )

Ennis: What's the point of riding a piece of stock for eight minutes?

Jack: Money's a good point.

Ennis: Sure enough. If you don't get stomped winning it, hunnh?

(Is there a "hunnh?" there? I *gasp* can't remember.)

I've been thinking about the conversation as a metaphor for taking risks in general. (For Ennis and Jack, it could be seen as a metaphor for taking risks in love in particular, but I especially relate to Ennis's POV here if I broaden the metaphor to include all kinds of risks.) Ennis is cautious about taking the risks and sees the potential dangers; Jack sees the rewards. And as somebody who yells "don't hit him, kiss him!" at Ennis during the "angry tussle" and who yells "turn around and go back!" to Jack after the divorce, well, I admit that sometimes I take the story as a lesson in the hazards of being too cautious in life.

But: whoa. Bull-riding as a metaphor for risks that we should just get up the nerve to take? You know, I was in a restaurant/sports bar Saturday night, and looked at the TV at the other end of the room to see what my three-year-old was staring at. It was professional bull-riding. And three things struck me. 1) Hey, the bull-rider being interviewed is wearing a blue denim shirt and black hat!  ;) 2) Yikes, why exactly are they showing a guy in a hospital bed? 3) Eek, my three-year-old is watching this and thinks it looks cool. No, honey, I'm not going to put you on the woolies. I don't want your oil getting checked by a horn dipstick someday, sweetie.

I mean: bull-riding is genuinely dangerous. Ennis has got a point. A real good point. And the money that Jack sees as the main reward -- most people don't win it. Jack certainly doesn't when he tries to make a living doing it.

And I guess Ennis has a darn good reason for not wanting to take the risk of living with Jack, too, given what Ennis saw as a child. Maybe the metaphor really is appropriate in Ennis's mind. But I don't want bull-riding to be the right metaphor, you know? I want the appropriate metaphor for risks in love to be, oh, maybe a water slide, something that looks really scary from the ground but is actually really fun and not dangerous at all.

But maybe this story is too dark for that.

Mikaela:
I think there's a "hunh" there. Or possibly a "huh".


--- Quote ---I mean: bull-riding is genuinely dangerous. Ennis has got a point. A real good point. And the money that Jack sees as the main reward -- most people don't win it. Jack certainly doesn't when he tries to make a living doing it.

[  ]But I don't want bull-riding to be the right metaphor, you know? I want the appropriate metaphor for risks in love to be, oh, maybe a water slide, something that looks really scary from the ground but is actually really fun and not dangerous at all.
--- End quote ---


I think that whole "what's the point" conversation is very illustrative of the duality in Jack's character that I may have happened to mention in another post...  ::)

The boy who grew up on that poor, dreary little farm knows he has to be able to present mundane, down-to-earth reasons for what he does. He has to even believe in them himself, far as they go. Hence the "money is a good point"-  whether it's riding bulls.... or marrying Lureen. But the money-earning reasons (the "realist" side) don't go far enough for Jack. Sometimes they go directly contrary to the "real" him. The other side of his character, (the "dreamer"), an even more important driving force IMO, has him do things not mainly for mundane reasons but inspired by long-reaching dreams, strong emotions, self-insight...... and motivated by a pairing of thrill-seeking and acceptance that taking risks may be necessary to achieve his most important (and non-monetary) goals.

He faced the dangers of bull-riding much more in order to gain his father's approval, to experience thrills, to be noticed as *someone* in the crowd.... than in order to earn money, I think. Though he had to earn money to live - noone can deny the realism in that.  Correspondingly there is his "safe", lucrative marriage - and that undeniable willingness to take risks in love - from the moment he takes Ennis's hand in the first tent scene (could have gotten him stomped on real good....), via his willingness to run that little cow and calf operation despite knowing and being reminded of the real dangers to men taking such a chance. And, in my view, - in the end his deliberate risktaking in love (or rather, in living out his sexuality) makes him just daring enough to get him noticed by the wrong people - and so he ends out *literally* being stomped on, (that big boot stomping him thoroughly in the crotch....  >:( ) and killed.

He rode it for as long as he could - and it wasn't safety or money made him do it, but a longing to live as his true self and to live according to his dreams and desires. But in the end that got him killed.

So yeah, the bullriding's a very good methaphor. Though I wish it wasn't.

nakymaton:
Good for you for taking the chances, goadra. Since you're here talking, can I assume you didn't get stomped?

I wondered about the metaphor, in part because I am a big chicken about a lot of things, and I feel pretty silly about it a lot. But perhaps the metaphor is realistic -- that really important chances really are risky.

Mikaela -- yeah, I don't see money as being the driving force behind Jack, either. I agree, he's more of a dreamer than that. But does the money work as a metaphor for other rewards that are worth risking everything for?

Mikaela:

--- Quote ---But does the money work as a metaphor for other rewards that are worth risking everything for?
--- End quote ---

I can't really manage to see that... I don't think money works as a methaphor, we've all got too many preconceived notions related to (the struggle for) money. It's simply too realistic that the guys would necessarily have to strive for money, and have to focus on how to get hold of it, and that the portrayal of their lives must show that..... It's intended as a deliberate contrast I'd say - since what Jack is seeking despite his "money's a good point" can't be bought.

serious crayons:

--- Quote from: goadra on August 03, 2006, 12:37:49 am --- I am not saying Jack didn’t care about money or that he threw it around, but perhaps he never thought about money the way Ennis did.
--- End quote ---

All good points, Barbara!  :) Clearly there was a slight class difference between Jack and Ennis even when they met, and it got wider as they went along.

There is one thing that suggests Jack did care about money: he married Lureen.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page