A REPOST from TOB
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by - jshane2002 (Wed Apr 19 2006 12:50:28 )
UPDATED Wed Apr 19 2006 17:17:47
One thought I've had in the back of my mind is the image of the bear that startles Ennis' horse on his way back to camp with the weekly food supplies.
Ennis get thrown from a horse even though he's a very good rider. Something about the bear reminds me of Joe Aguirre, like the shape of his face and his growliness. Ennis and Jack get observed by Aguirre without their knowledge and observes them having forbidden sex and also it appears they are not doing their job.
Is there something about the bear anyone has other thoughts about? This question is apart from the plot that established that Jack cares about Ennis after he's been thrown. Does the bear represent a threat to Ennis alone? Jack doesn't actually get thrown by a horse although it almost happens once. Jack is not as intimidated by outside society and he is strong willed. Ennis is very dutied bound but very weak willed inside.
Just a thought since there are still enough Brokies who post messages here although many have been scared away by growly trolls. When the good Brokies have elk meat in their bellies they come up with good ideas about BBM symbolism.
Note : See correction below from momoro" ( Jack does get thrown from a horse but you don't
see it, he tells Ennis his harmonica broke when he fell )
"That harmonica don't sound right neither."
Jack :
"Where the hell you been? Up with the sheep all day, I get down here, hungry as hell and all I find is beans..."
"What in hell happened, Ennis?"
Ennis:
"Come on a bear."
"Goddam horse spooked, the mules took off. Scattered food everywhere."
"Beans 'bout all we got left."
"Ya got whiskey or somethin?"
by - atackkel (Wed Apr 19 2006 12:55:12 )
Couldn't the bear also be used to represent Ennis' feelings towards Jack? Ennis is thrown off his horse, due to his surprise and shock at seeing the bear. This could be used to represent the shock he feels at recognising he has homosexual feelings for Jack. Ennis has minor injuries after falling off the horse, just as the ability to conduct a relationship with Jack has it's flaws.
by - momoro (Wed Apr 19 2006 12:57:26 )
Jack doesn't actually get thrown by a horse although it almost happens once.
Actually, Jack does get thrown at least once, though we never see it onscreen. When we first hear Jack playing his harmonica, and Ennis comments that it doesn't sound quite right, Jack replies that it got flattened when the mare threw him--claiming she got lucky.
As for the bear, I think it's interesting that Ennis seems far less frightened of it (though he certainly is surprised to see it) than his horse and mules are. There could be some symbolism at work here, but I'd need to think on it before speculating on what it might be.
by - jshane2002 (Wed Apr 19 2006 13:05:25 )
"Jack replies that it got flattened when the mare threw him--claiming she got lucky. "
Thanks for the correction, glad there are good brokies here who know the movie.
Ennis : "I thought you said that mare couldn't throw you."
Jack: "Well she got lucky."
Ennis "Well if I was lucky that harmonica would a broke in two."
Jack ; "Woo- hee."
Ennis: "Gettin tired of your dumb ass missin."
by - afhickman (Wed Apr 19 2006 13:31:17 )
I think the bear sequence simply illustrates the dangers of life in the wild. It's the same function the bear serves in Shakespeare's "A Winter's Tale", with its famous stage direction, "Exit. pursued by a bear." Lest we become too sentimental about the primitive setting, the author reminds us that bears happen in the wild and that people get hurt. Jack and Ennis have their moment of bliss in the garden, but they can't remain there, not without paying a price. Of course the incident also serves to bring the boys closer together, when Jack attempts to minister to Ennis' wound. Someone mentioned Aguirre. Aguirre serves a similar function in the film to the bear when he derides Jack and Ennis' lovemaking. He's a nagging reminder that the course of true love never runs smooth. Adam and Eve had Paradise, yet they couldn't sustain it. Adam and Steve, er, Jack and Ennis, have Paradise of a sort on Brokeback, but that doesn't mean they can let their guard down. For my part, I'd like to see them make a go of it in the wild, with just their love to sustain them, but I realize how unrealistic that probably is.
by - clockworkgirl21 (Wed Apr 19 2006 13:36:36 )
Sorry, but I think you guys are reading too much into it. I think the bear was just there because the horse needed to get spooked by something and make Ennis fall and loose all the food.
by - clancypants (Wed Apr 19 2006 13:37:51 )
The bear, or encountering a dangerous animal or situation, is a common symbolic element of great works of art. No difference here. The bear serves as a symbolic focus on their relationship and Ennis’ struggle with accepting the same. In the film, Ennis encounters the bear and is thrown from his horse, from himself as the horse represents Ennis. He falls to the ground and runs, chasing his first objective, getting the food, instead of dealing with the bear head-on. This is how he is throughout the film, always chasing after society’s imposed idea of what his relationships should be, Ennis never tackling it on his own terms, head-on. This changes when he goes to Lightning Flat. It is here that he first “comes out”, or takes control, if you will. Old Man Twist is the second appearance of the bear. He is seated at the table, between the stairs (that have their own climbing rhythm, symbolic of climbing Brokeback) and Jack’s mother, symbolic of the love of Jack. In this scene, Ennis has to pass by the bear with what he got. His first purpose was to get the ashes, but he got the shirts. In the first bear scene, his primary purpose was to get soup, but all he ended up with was beans. In the first scene, he lost; in the second, he overcame by walking past the bear, Old Man Twist, with the shirts, walking to Jack’s love, symbolized by Jack’s mother. In this scene, Ennis deals with his relationship with Jack head-on by being “open” about it – at least as open as Ennis will ever get. These two scenes are mirroring scenes in what they represent to us symbolically about how Ennis deals with the relationship. Note that in the first bear scene, Ennis is injured by encountering the bear and gets ministered to by Jack -- the kerchief washing. In the second, Ennis was again thrown by the bear when Old Man Twist told Ennis about the other guy. Here, again, Ennis goes up the mountain to the camp -- Jack's room is a metaphor for their camp with its tent-like ceiling over the small bed, the radiator as the fire, and the stool as the log -- and gets ministered to by Jack when Ennis finds the shirts. In the first bear scene, Jack shows his first act of loving toward Ennis by trying to minister to his wound and Ennis rejects it. In the second, we see Jack's final act of love toward Ennis, the keeping of the shirts for twenty years regardless all they had gone through, and Ennis actually embraces the love of Jack.
The bear serves a similar purpose in the short story. Even though it comes later, the bear (representing their relationship) startles both of them. Jack is the one who grabbed the gun to take action, Ennis did not. The bear ran off as if falling apart, symbolic of their relationship and foreshadowing their relationship’s demise.
by - slcm (Wed Apr 19 2006 13:38:48 )
Glad you asked about the bear. In the movie, it has moved to an earlier scene and serves as a bonding moment. In the book, it appears on one of their post-reunion trips and nothing happened--it just ran off. I wondered what it's function served in the story.
by - onebluelily (Wed Apr 19 2006 13:45:59 )
Perhaps the the sudden appearance of the bear represents the idea that life can take a dramatically unexpected turn, catch you off guard when you least expect it in much the same way the unexpected passion rises between Jack and Ennis. Also a brush with death can lead to a generally "heightened" awareness and sensitivity , in this case possibly allowing Ennis to open up to the unexpected experience that is soon to follow with Jack.
The bear, a symbol of things primal, dangerous, unpredictable, exciting, volatile might offer a lead in to the first sexual encounter in the tent which for me was all those things and more.
Life can come at you very fast. Confronted with the bear, Ennis ran. All my life (and especially at summer camp!) I've heard running from a bear is the most dangerous thing you can do. Why does Ennis an "experienced cowboy" run? Shouldn't he have known better? A bit later Ennis doesn't run when confronted with Jack's advances in the tent however shocking and surprising those advances may have been to him. For me it speaks to Ennis going with his "gut" and not thinking within the confines of logic, reason, consequences when confronted with a shocking situation. I like the parallel. Any ideas on this? Throughout the movie, it seems to me that the more Ennis thinks about consequences, reason, duty, obligation, duty, safety, social mores and restrains himself within those confines the more miserable he becomes in life.
by - afhickman (Wed Apr 19 2006 13:48:51 )
There's always the greater context. I think clancypants has it right. Several posters have explored the "bookends" angle. Ennis is definitely being tested throughout the film. Like Stephen Daedalus in Joyce's "Portrait of the Artist" Ennis must escape the "nets" of country, family, and religion to be in a right relation to the ones he loves. Symbolically, Jack's father represents a sort of composite of these obstacles. Ennis finally manages to make things right with Jack, albeit after Jack's death, and with Alma Jr. It may not be a very happy conclusion to Ennis and Jack's story, but it's a satisfying (read "cathartic") one.
by - jlilya (Wed Apr 19 2006 15:57:51 )
In the story it says " the startled bear galloped into the trees with the lumpish gait that made it seem it was falling apart." I always found this line quite meaningful, and it often gets me emotional when I read it. I find it to be a metaphor to the guys relationship and a foreshadowing of the arguement to come in the trail head parking lot.
by - slcm (Wed Apr 19 2006 17:20:34 )
nice, jlilya. thanks.
by - doelcm (Wed Apr 19 2006 18:58:08 )
Sorry, but I think you guys are reading too much into it. I think the bear was just there because the horse needed to get spooked by something and make Ennis fall and loose all the food.
I agree with this. I also think that the screenwriters liked the image of the bear from the short story, but felt it was better put to use in the first act.
In the story they were never in any real danger from the bear, and Ennis wasn't in danger of being attacked in the movie either. If he had been knocked out by the fall, the bear would have probably come over to "investigate" (which wouldn't have been very healthy for Ennis), but his real concern was the loss of the food and chasing down the pack animals.
I think it's to their credit that they didn't show the bear as some kind of monster, but just as a startled bear fishing in a stream.
by - jlilya (Thu Apr 20 2006 10:14:44 )
I don't think anyone is reading too much into it. I think that great art, which I believe this to be, can be read, interpreted on many different levels. There is the basic level of the story taken as it is. There is the level of symbolism and metaphor. There is the level of themes, plots, character arcs. And there are more levels that I am sure I am not even aware of. All great art is like this, Melville's Moby Dick, Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, Tony Kushners Angels in America and Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain, just to name a few.
by - atackkel (Thu Apr 20 2006 11:13:54 )
"Sorry, but I think you guys are reading too much into it."
You read "To Kill a Mockingbird?" There are thousands of pieces of imagery and phrases that have deeper meanings. Just like there is in BBM, people interpret things differently I guess.
by - doelcm (Thu Apr 20 2006 11:31:16 )
And sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
by - jshane2002 (Thu Apr 20 2006 12:21:39 )
"What are you talking about, there are thousands of them." – Jack
by - tfmisc (Tue Apr 25 2006 06:10:50 )
As i always like to point out, the phrase "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar" implies that sometimes a cigar is not just a cigar.
For myself, i'll invest Brokeback Mountain with meaning and symbolism. This broke back can bear the weight.
Re: Symbolism about the bear --- by jshane2002 (REPOST)
by VlnByzRSxy (Fri Mar 16 2007 22:36:41 )
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Great repost. Thank you. Clancy has always had the ability to make me look even deeper into this story, finally see the connections that were right under my nose, and have me watching BBM again within 20 minutes.
There are no words to describe how this movie makes me feel inside.
"It's nobody's buisness but ours"
"Love Is A Force Of Nature"
~Brokeback Mountain
