Here is a recent post from imdb by marlb42. It's an interesting and different view of the movie, so I'm posting it (with marlb42's permission) for anyone who would like to read and/or discuss it here.
A totally different viewpoint.........
by marlb42 1 day ago (Fri Jan 12 2007 14:50:55 )
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UPDATED Fri Jan 12 2007 15:51:39
A a newbie (but I have already watched BBM at least 20 times) I have been reading a lot of these threads and also threads on the other boards and I have not seen my current interpretation anywhere,
I will admit that even though I am a female in my 40's I relate more to Ennis then any other character ever, especially in terms of the of the withdrawing from people and well the loneliness, and although I never had a Jack or Alma (people who cared that much about me) I do always make excuses to pull away or not even try to form relationships. Upon seeing BBM and getting obsessed over it I have vowed to change although I find it really hard to even meet people now.
Anyway I do take Ennis's point of view but, I now have some different theories then most I have read.
I think that the driving forces for the relationship was Ennis' fear of being abandoned by Jack, not just his homophobia (which exists), or not being able to admit to his love.
On BBM after TS 2 I think Ennis saw themselve as a team. It was Ennis who said "What if we need to work for Aguire again, did you think of that Jack". I think that despite Alma (who he never talked about on the mountain after the first day or so}, he was so in love with Jack and he thought they would be a pair. In fact I started to think the 'one-shot thing, I ain't queer' means that there couldn't be any other man ever for him except for Jack. And it was Ennis who started the dozy embrace.
Then Ennis was devastated to come off the mountain, Jack wasn't and Ennis was devastated by that. In fact when they rode down the mountain, Jack spit in Ennis's path, which I think Ennis took to mean its over.
Ennis was waiting for Jack to say something at the truck, he never did. Ennis broke down after that because he thought that Jack was abandoning him like his parents(yes, in his mind) and his brother and sister did before.
At the motel Ennis said, "I thought that I would never see you again", meaning he believed during those four years Jack left him forever and did abandon him too. I believe that Ennis was never able to forget that Jack had once left him over all the remaining years. I think that that despite all the other reasons, Ennis was always afraid that it would happen again and that is what held him back.
By the time of the lake Ennis was even more sure that he would lose Jack, and that was the real reason why it was getting harder and harder to meet him, not just financial. After all, Jack had a much better life and Ennis's was a total mess, so began to deliberately avoid him so he would't have to face it.
"I did once" and "I wish I could quit you" was the culmination of all Ennis's fears, and that was what set him towards his anger and his last terrible breakdown, he saw that he did lose Jack. After that he was a totally broken man (the bus stop)
I think that when he found the shirts, the revelation was that for the first time Ennis realized not just that he loved Jack or that Jack loved him, but that Jack did love him truly after that summer, and that he really didn't ever mean to abandon him at all like everyone else had done. It was Ennis's growing fear of abandonment that led to everything going bad. I truly believe that throughout the whole relationships Ennis was always trying to show Jack the truth (the Kiss, sending a prayer of thanks etc.) but Jack never realized the true intensity of Ennis's feelings.
When Ennis asked Junior if Kurt loves her and then he looks out the window for a long time it was because he finally knew after all those years, because of the shirts, that Jack really did love him at 19, and never really meant to abandom him.
I don't agree with so many of you that the whole tragedy was Ennis's fault
I don't know, its all just my opinion, and I had to get it out. Why, I don't know....