Now that you say it, yeah, it's surprising it was never brought up as a topic, given that we discuss vividly about coffee pots, fans, a single cherry in a pie and thousand other subtle details.
When I first saw the movie, I found it really cool that Ang Lee let the pot smoking happen so casually and naturally. Because this is what it is in reality: people do smoke dope in their leisure time just as casual as they have a drink. But in movies either it is non-existent or it's made a big deal.
Annie Proulx describes it in the story in the same way:
Jack and Ennis passed a joint back and forth, the fire burning late, Jack restless and bitching about the cold, poking the flames with a stick, twisting the dial of the transistor radio until the batteries died.Her essay "Getting movied" ends with the words:
[...] an accumulation of very small details gives the film authenticity and authority: Ennis's dirty fingernails in a love scene, the old highway sign ENTERING WYOMING not seen here for decades, the slight paunch Jack develops as he ages, [....] Ennis and Jack sharing a joint instead of a cigarette in the 1970s, [...] the speckled enamel coffeepot, all accumulate and convince us of the truth of the story. People may doubt that young men fall in love up on the snowy hights, but no one disbelieves the speckled coffeepot, and if the coffeepot is true, so is the other.Annie Proulx is spot-on: it is one of the unnumberable details that make this movie so real.
But it wasn't in the 70s, it was at their last meeting, May 1983, in both story and movie.
And what of Ennis? Where on his coffee pot would the other pot have ever made its presence known?
I like your phrasing here, lol
Reasoning from what we see, it was not their first shared joint. Thinking about it, it may be a little bit surprising, regarding Ennis. I think it was Jack who brought the dope. And I like the thought that, being together with Jack, Ennis was relaxed enough to have a shot at it.
Somehow I can't see Ennis in his trailer smoking a joint, but I don't have a problem picturing him nursing several (too many, probably) beer bottles.
But maybe I should give Ennis more credit here. He may have lived in rural Wyoming, travelling only around the coffeepot, but he clearly wasn't living under a rock. So maybe their first time sharing a joint was just like the one time we witness: no big deal.
What was Jack's party habits?
I don't know when and where Jack may have made his first aquitance with dope. Maybe in the Rodeo curcuit? But I don't think so. His rodeo days ended when he met Lureen, mid-sixties. Probably too early. I don't think smoking dope was as widespread in the mid-sixties as it was in the 70s.
But in the 70s I think it
was widespread. And Jack had more of a social life than Ennis. He came around, travelling for Newsome Farm Equipment, and he and Lureen apparently had an active social life in the communitiy of Childress.