Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
Post-Divorce Scene
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: nakymaton on January 26, 2007, 01:47:52 pm ---In your re-watching, did it feel like the dozy embrace was from Jack's POV in the movie? Or did it seem like it was simply a memory for everyone of what had been, a compare-and-contrast kind of moment so that the "deceased" postcard would hurt even more than it does?
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Interesting question. I've never thought about the scene in that way before, and now I'm trying to remember exactly what the shots are immediately right before and immediately right after the dozy-embrace flashback; e.g., after the flashback, what do we see first, Jack's face or Ennis's pickup driving away?
Regardless, I've always seen the flashback as Jack's memory--but maybe that's because of my familiarity with Annie Proulx's text.
(Edit: Just to note that I'm leaving work early this afternoon, goin' a visit my daddy for a few days, so I'll be out of computer touch from around 3:00 this afternoon EST until I return home Sunday evening. So if I drop out of the conversation, that's why. ~J.W.)
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on January 26, 2007, 02:38:36 pm ---after the flashback, what do we see first, Jack's face or Ennis's pickup driving away?
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Jack's face. It segues from young Jack watching Ennis ride away on his horse to old(er) Jack watching Ennis drive away in his truck. For this reason, I see it as being Jack's POV, too. As if he's thinking back on that other time (on all the other times) he watched Ennis go away. Nothing ended, nothing begun, nothing resolved.
--- Quote ---(Edit: Just to note that I'm leaving work early this afternoon, goin' a visit my daddy for a few days, so I'll be out of computer touch from around 3:00 this afternoon EST until I return home Sunday evening. So if I drop out of the conversation, that's why. ~J.W.)
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Gonna go help out with the ranch? Have fun! :)
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: latjoreme on January 26, 2007, 02:51:50 pm ---Gonna go help out with the ranch? Have fun! :)
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Gonna lick it into shape! ;D
southendmd:
Boy, this discussion has strayed from poor Uncle Harold!
I wanted to share a few thoughts on the sex/love thing.
I'm reminded of the trolls' complaints over at IMDb initially: "this film is just about sex, that's all gay men want" etc. etc.
That's clearly just a simplistic and superficial interpretation of what we see. I think sex is at the forefront because these guys don't have much language for love. Remember, they have a "thing": "one-shot thing we got goin' on here" and "this thing grabs hold of us again...", Ennis says.
The evidence for love is there, but more subtle. Including Ennis collapsing in the alley: even he doesn't know what it means. (Story Ennis says it took him a year to figure out he never should of let Jack out of his sight.)
Also, don't be so hard on Jack! If he were really just looking for sex, why drive 1200 miles for it when you're right next to Mexico?
I think the tragedy is that they don't understand each other. It's not just Jack not understanding Ennis's internal homophobia. "I got the girls...." is just another excuse, the passing white truck=paranoia, Jack says "I get it". Ennis doesn't understand what the divorce postcard would have meant to Jack, who had clearly stated his intentions of wanting a life together.
IMO, Jack goes to Mexico not just out of anger or spite, but mostly out of sadness and loneliness. His face in the alley does not say "horny", rather it says "despair".
Jack's dozy embrace: as Jeff said, even he doesn't understand it. Annie uses the word "sexless" to describe it. (The scene in the film wasn't bookended from Jack's POV, only afterwards, but very effective pairing of Ennis's riding away and Jack's facial expression of pure love, to his hardened expression watching Ennis drive away in the truck.)
They don't understand each other, use sex as a metaphor, blame each other for how their lives turned out, and that's their tragedy. Ennis embodies regret.
Paul
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: southendmd on January 26, 2007, 04:13:55 pm --- His face in the alley does not say "horny", rather it says "despair"
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That's the perfect word for it, Paul!
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