Amanda, I just wanted to mention that I love the Jack=wind metaphor, too. I've made a study of it, and I find that every time he is either in a scene or it's clear Ennis is thinking about him, we hear the wind howling in the background (and sometimes in the foreground). I love how it's almost at a fever pitch outside when Ennis is sitting on his bed in his undershirt with his eyes closed while Alma hugs him from behind, trying with all his might to pretend she is him. Same as when he's in his trailer at the very end, and the wind is just whipping up a frenzy outside.
I also *love* that Aguirre says when Jack returns the next summer looking for Ennis: "Well. Look what the wind blew in." Not look what the cat dragged in which is of course the most common way of saying the same thing, but what the wind blew in.
I should probably post this next bit in the most irrational reactions thread, but it follows here. The wind down here in South Florida has been howling every day for months. It's eerie and giving me a bad feeling about the upcoming hurricane season. March is usually very blowy down here, but February and April aren't so much. When it started up in February after I'd seen the movie a few times and discovered the wind metaphor, I walked outside one morning to get the paper, and it was whipping things up in such a Jack-like way, I just had to say out loud, "Hiya, Jack."
I'm not suffering from insanity - I'm quite enjoying it, actually.