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

Cowboy vs. cowboy-image

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HerrKaiser:
Nice topic to discuss! And one that actually causes us to think about a subject that extends beyond Jack and Ennis.

To me, the 'cowboy image' that Ennis retained was more about his never getting the opportunity to break away and expand from his specific few square miles in Wyoming than any particular job. He did try road building, considered electrical line work, and probably had a series of odd jobs at Alma's suggestions over their time together. Yet, he was always in the same spot. He was the old oak tree; never moving, changing with immediate local conditions, but always the same. Such was the classic cowboy who never got to the big city.

Jack by default got a breakaway. Had he not got his 8 seconds of glory, his connection to Lureen and the subsequent life together would not have happened, in all liklihood. Lureen was attracted to his prowess.

Even though Jack 'made it out' he was a country boy. Texans, from big oil to country bumpkins, wear the gear, but Jack never really rooted in Texas or suburban life. his heart was in a 'cow and calf' operation which would have been 'a good life'.

The classic cowboy imagery of independance, lonlienes, expressionlessness, was artfully themed in the film by all those scenes where ennis and jack are simply riding together, wading in rivers, setting up camp with only music playing. they go through the motions, speechless, and almost statuesque with time on their side year after year.

brokebackjack:
However they weren't cowboys. That was said by Annie Proulx herself less then 3  weeks ago on Oct 21st, 2006: 

" If I wanted them to be cowboys i wouldn't have had them herding sheep"

Brown Eyes:
They may not have worked with cattle up on Brokeback but, at least Ennis certainly did work with cows.  We see him feeding cattle later in the movie, he talks about his responsibilities with the calving when he's arguing with Alma in the grocery store and he seems to be talking about cattle operations when he talks about the "round up" all the time.

It's interesting that Jack's *fantasy* by even the early stage of the reunion is to run a "cow and calf" operation.  His fantasy is (obviously) first and foremost to live with Ennis, but a component of that fantasy is to become a literal, "true" cowboy in working with cows and calfs.  Also, juxtaposing this as Jack's ultimate fantasy with that exact argument between Ennis and Alma in the grocery store it interesting. In the grocery store, Ennis's real-life work with calfs is just work, is stressful, etc.  But, around the campfire a cow and calf operation with Jack is only the stuff of unattainable dreams.

Front-Ranger:
That reference to a little cow&calf operation always tears at my heart too, Amanda. During that period in the West, having a cow and calf operation was very well respected. Basically, the young heifers were impregnated, mostly artificially, and then both the mother and child were sold off, the mother as a dairy cow and the calf to a "finishing" operation where it was fattened and then slaughtered for beef. Men who worked the c&c operations spent a lot of time "husbanding" the pregnant mothers, inseminating them, "calving" them, and nurturing the mother and child until they were old enough to be sold. Certainly a reminder of fecundity and life's continuance, and the perfect job for Ennis and Jack!!

Brokebackjack--You were very close about what Annie said, but wasn't it, "If I had wanted them to be cowboys, I wouldn't have put them to work herding sheep." I loved the way she said that, cause I could clearly imagine her as a female version of Aguirre, but a more wise and prescient Aguirre, more a combination of an Earth Mother and a sorceress!!

brokebackjack:
The entire state is obsessed with cowboys and cowboy image. I love Jack and Ennis, and so were they. Jack,according to the author was 'marginally skilled'. He certainly was marginally skilled on film, he couldnt do anything right.  In the film, even Ennis had a poor opinion of Jack's cowboyin skills.
Ennis was 'self-hating'; one of the things he did to himself was stay so low on the ranch totem pole that he never became more then a ranch worker, no top hand status for EDM.
But he was more of a cowboy then Jack. jack was a tractor salesman

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