Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
"If your can't fix it, Jack...You gotta stand it."
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: atz75 on December 14, 2006, 10:33:56 pm ---By saying "as long as we can ride it" Ennis seems to be saying he wants the relationship to last forever (or for as long as he has anything to say about it in terms of control, i.e. the reins).
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Dunno. Could be. His demeanor and the way he says it makes me feel he's as afraid of himself and his feelings as he is of what happens to two guys who ranch up together. I think he's feeling that he doesn't have his emotions under control--"Ain't no reins on this one"--and that's at least part of what's scaring him.
--- Quote ---This is the first time that I really noticed the "Jack" thrown into the middle of that famous motto. I'm so used to thinking about it as simply "If you can't fix it, you gotta stand it" that seeing the "Jack" in the middle is a little jarring. It makes it seem a lot more personal this way and less like an abstract life-philosophy, which is what it really seems to be for Ennis. It's so interesting to me that the screenwriters decided to put this line (the last line of the story) in here at this moment in the film. It has tob be important.
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I agree, throwing the "Jack" in there does make it more personal. Combined iwth the look on Heath's face, and, again, his demeanor, it makes me think Ennis wants to fix "it" (their situation), but he doesn't believe fixing it is even possible.
nakymaton:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on December 14, 2006, 11:04:16 pm ---I think he's feeling that he doesn't have his emotions under control--"Ain't no reins on this one"--and that's at least part of what's scaring him.
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Yes. Definitely.
You know, that line, "if you can't fix it, you got a stand it," appears twice in the short story: once in the Motel Siesta scene (which is the source of a lot of the dialogue on the camping trip), and once as the final line in the story. A lot of its power as a "life philosophy" comes from being the last line in the story, when it's got all the weight of Jack's death heaped on top of it, and where it sounds to me like a really depressing statement about Ennis's future. But the earlier time, in the Motel, that line comes across in the same way in the movie and the story (except that, in the movie, the rest of the camping scene really does scream "I love you, Jack, even if I can't bring myself to say it" to me).
Did anyone else expect to hear the line without "Jack" in the middle of it? In the trailer, the "Jack" is cut out of that line. (It's just in a short splicing of critical lines from the movie, along with things like "You have no idea how bad it gets" and "I wish I knew how to quit you.") It jarred me the first time I heard it, and I think I probably didn't think of the significance of the change as a result.
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: nakymaton on December 14, 2006, 11:54:22 pm ---Did anyone else expect to hear the line without "Jack" in the middle of it? In the trailer, the "Jack" is cut out of that line. (It's just in a short splicing of critical lines from the movie, along with things like "You have no idea how bad it gets" and "I wish I knew how to quit you.") It jarred me the first time I heard it, and I think I probably didn't think of the significance of the change as a result.
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Since I never saw a theatrical trailer for the film, I didn't know this. Thanks! Imagine--a year on and there are still things I can learn about Brokeback Mountain! :D
fernly:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on December 15, 2006, 09:49:41 am ---Since I never saw a theatrical trailer for the film, I didn't know this. Thanks! Imagine--a year on and there are still things I can learn about Brokeback Mountain! :D
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The trailer's what led me to the story and then to the film. Couldn't begin to say how many times I watched the trailer while waiting for the film's release. Never caught the change in that line, though.
Here's a link:
http://www.focusfeatures.com/viewer.php?f=brokeback_mountain&c=trailer&ext=wmv&w=480&&h=270
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: fernly on December 15, 2006, 10:32:50 am ---The trailer's what led me to the story and then to the film. Couldn't begin to say how many times I watched the trailer while waiting for the film's release. Never caught the change in that line, though.
Here's a link:
http://www.focusfeatures.com/viewer.php?f=brokeback_mountain&c=trailer&ext=wmv&w=480&&h=270
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Yeehaw! ;D Thanks, Fern! I think I'd better wait to check it out at home, however. ... ::)
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