Our BetterMost Community > Chez Tremblay
An umpteenth viewing and... three revelations
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: ednbarby on November 26, 2006, 10:53:12 pm ---1.) DavidInHartford was right - Jack would vote Republican. I got that from this line "Why bother earning it? - if the taxes don't eat it up, the inflation will." Taxes = Democrats. Why did I never see that before? In general? I've wondered for years why my blue collar brothers are such Republicans - why anyone who works basically minimum wage and barely squeaks by would vote Republican - and I got it answered for me tonight. Jack would vote Republican because he sees the Democrats as eating away the money he makes in taxes. Ennis, if at all, would vote Democrat because he secretly sides with them for pulling for the "little man." David was right.
--- End quote ---
I think it's possible that Jack might have voted Republican, though I would guess it might be more a matter of his being wealthy at that point (that, and his red-state environment) than his blue-collar background. My understanding is that traditionally Democratic working-class folks didn't start shifting to the Republican party in huge numbers until the '80s, when conservatives realized they could use wedge issues like gay rights and abortion and affirmative action and flag-burning and school prayer to divide socially liberal and socially conservative Democrats.
I'm not sure how Jack or Ennis would have stood on any of those issues (except maybe -- secretly -- gay rights and the fire and brimstone crowd's school prayer). Both seem pretty apolitical.
nakymaton:
--- Quote from: latjoreme on November 27, 2006, 03:29:19 pm ---I think it's possible that Jack might have voted Republican, though I would guess it might be more a matter of his being wealthy at that point (that, and his red-state environment) than his blue-collar background. My understanding is that traditionally Democratic working-class folks didn't start shifting to the Republican party in huge numbers until the '80s, when conservatives realized they could use wedge issues like gay rights and abortion and affirmative action and flag-burning and school prayer to divide socially liberal and socially conservative Democrats.
--- End quote ---
Except that regional differences are also very important. In the Northeast or the upper Midwest during the 1970's, a wealthy person would have been more likely to vote Republican, and a working class person would have been more likely to vote Democrat. But the Mountain West has been a Republican stronghold for a long time ("there were seven Democrats in Hinsdale County, and you, you voracious man-eating son-of-a-bitch, you ate five of them" -- quote from the trial of Alferd Packer, infamous Colorado cannibal, from sometime in the late 1800's). (And Texas was a Democratic stronghold until the 1994 election cleared out a lot of the Southern conservative Democrats -- remember that Republicans ran Reconstruction, and whites in the old Confederacy wouldn't vote for Republicans until the Democrats started supporting the Civil Rights movement.) The biggest question for me about Jack's voting would be whether he was loyal to his Wyoming roots and/or was rebellious against his Texan in-laws. (He probably would have voted for Reagan, though, regardless.)
I doubt that Ennis voted.
David:
I'm kinda glad I don't have HBO. I can't tell you the last time I watched the movie. It just depresses me too much. I have all the happy scenes in my head already thank you.
Other than Jacks Death, the part that disturbs me is the Lake scene. Jack has been seeing Randall since 1978, thats five years! His frustration peaked and broke him that day. I am still haunted by that look on his face as Ennis drove away.
Then the worse part. Ennis dumps Cassie as he now knows that Jack is the only one for him. Then the postcard comes back..... UGH. Well, we all know the rest.
No, I won't watch it again looking for more insight. I feel that I fully understand exactly what Anne Proulx was writing about. Love is hard. Love hurts sometimes. And sometimes Love gets away from you.
Front-Ranger:
Well, what a cheery place this is!! I am actually pretty happy right now--a Dem governor AND a Dem legislature in Colorado, for the first time since the Kennedy administration--so I feel like I could paw the white out of the moon. But speaking of the moon, is it gettin to be full moon time again? Seems to me some people are feelin the tug of the tides, so to speak. Time to organize one of those full moon chats.
silkncense:
David -
Maybe that is why I can (and do) still watch it. I see it differently. Jack repeatedly told his father that he and "Ennis Del Mar' would come up there someday. But only once did he mention "some ranch neighbor of his..." Frustrated. Hurt. Even at the brink maybe - but Jack didn't let him go, he still held onto Ennis. That's what I saw.
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