"I was supposed to control the weather"... Jack and the Wind

[Brown Eyes]

Heya Lee,

Well I wonder if the nautical associations (which I do agree seem to come up around Jack a lot) may have to do with his connection to Ennis. I seem to remember some old discussion somewhere about the anchor on Jack's wall maybe being a reference to Del Mar (the sea and all the references to water and islands that Ennis's name evokes).  And Ennis is uniquely qualified to know all about how Jack smells.
 

[Penthesilea]

Heya Lee,

Well I wonder if the nautical associations (which I do agree seem to come up around Jack a lot) may have to do with his connection to Ennis. I seem to remember some old discussion somewhere about the anchor on Jack's wall maybe being a reference to Del Mar (the sea and all the references to water and islands that Ennis's name evokes).  And Ennis is uniquely qualified to know all about how Jack smells.
 

I always wondered about that anchor, but never drew a connection to 'Del Mar'. So thanks for pointing it out.
What pops into my mind, thinking of Jack and nautical associations, is Jack's driving to Wyoming and back. Back and forth like the tides.

Here's the anchor. It is out of place (at a lonseome ranch in Wyoming) and therefore demonstrative.

[Front-Ranger]

Also, the covered wagon, of which there is a toy one on Jack's bureau, is often called a "prairie schooner."

[Brown Eyes]

I always wondered about that anchor, but never drew a connection to 'Del Mar'. So thanks for pointing it out.
What pops into my mind, thinking of Jack and nautical associations, is Jack's driving to Wyoming and back. Back and forth like the tides.

I like that you brought up the idea of Jack's movements back and forth between Wyoming and Texas being like water.  It's come up in beautiful discussions about the wind metaphor itself (probably buried somewhere here on this big thread)... that he's like wind sweeping across the plains... rushing over the terrain/ covering a lot of terrain (terrain/ Earth= Ennis).  It's interesting how Ennis's name evokes both water (Mar) and land/ earth (island).

[Brown Eyes]

Wow Bud,
Thanks for posting that pic (blurry or not)... It's a great moment to have thought of in terms of this discussion.

Yeah... those boots in Jack's closet are very rarely discussed...  Interesting.  They get overshadowed so quickly by the shirts.  It's interesting too, that the only cowboy hat in the Twist house is not in Jack's room, but is the one hanging on the hook while Ennis is sitting at the table with Mr. and Mrs. Twist. (Am I correct in thinking this... or am I forgetting a detail or two?).

[Ellemeno]

Hi Buds, I just read this (below) and knew I wanted it for this wonderful thread.  How's this for validation that we are on the right track and not overanalyzing:

The sounds of the American West were also vital for establishing the desired emotional backdrop for this story. “I would say that the critical sound component of the movie for Ang was wind,” says supervising sound editor Eugene Gearty, who also acted as sound designer, sound editor, and re-recording mixer on the film. “It was the most interesting, dramatic, and affecting sound that we worked with throughout the film. The juxtapositions in this film - from the intimacy of two people to the vastness of the natural landscape - were emphasized by the wind. We wanted to tell this story through the power of the wind - through nature's forces.”

http://www.avid.com/profiles/051219_brokeback_filmcomposer.asp?featureID=945&marketID

[Penthesilea]

Jack as the wind is not only in the movie, but also in the story. I'm sure this has already been mentioned at some point of this 8 pages long thread.

But what stuck me today is how similar Jack enters the scene in both, story and movie.
In the movie, Ennis is already at Aguirre's trailer. Then the wind refreshs and announces Jack's arrival.

In the prologue of the story, it's very similar: Ennis is already in his trailer. And even though Jack is dead at this point, he enters the story with the very first sentence: Ennis Del Mar wakes before five, wind rocking the trailer, hissing in around the aluminum door and window frames.

The next sentence even emphasizes his presence: The shirts hanging on a nail shudder slightly in the draft.

Jack is there, is with Ennis and is in the story even before he is introduced to the reader by name.

Somehow I find this thought oddly comforting: Wyoming is a very windy edge of the world. Jack will always be with Ennis.

[Brown Eyes]

Elle, thanks (really rather belatedly, hunh?  ) for that quotation.  In response to both your post and Penthesilea's... I think you're both right in pointing out how much evidence there is in the filmming and the way the story is written to support the idea of this metaphor of Jack and the wind.  While I believe that there's no way to give a symbol any one singular meaning (just because a symbol can be so open to personal interpretation), I also think that this "Jack= wind" idea is built up to be pretty readily legible to the viewer/reader.  I think that this symbol is like an anchor or a major clue that can lead you to see a lot of the other, perhaps more subtle nature symbols that we've all discussed all over the place.  I think by having Aguirre essentially articulate the Jack and the wind metaphor when he says "look what the wind blew in" (in combination with the things that you've pointed out Penthesilea) we're really meant to sit up and take notice.

Jack will always be with Ennis.

Yup, I think this is the main point of this wind metaphor.  By the time Jack dies, I wonder too if the wind functions as both a happy thing (a reminder of Jack's presence) and a sad thing (a constant reminder of Ennis's regret).  I know I've said this before, but I always feel that BBM becomes ever so slightly spooky once Jack dies... especially in the Lightning Flat scene.  He seems to be not only the wind but even more simply - the air - in his childhood bedroom (once the window is opened) that somehow nudges Ennis to look in the closet.  The wind I think functions a little bit like a ghost at times. Which brings us right around to Casey's classical allusions thread topic.

[fernly]

I wonder too if the wind functions as both a happy thing (a reminder of Jack's presence) and a sad thing (a constant reminder of Ennis's regret). 

To comment on just one point in many intriguing posts...
The story has a line that establishes this view of the wind as both happy and sad while they are still up on Brokeback - "There were only the two of them on the mountain flying in the euphoric, bitter air.."
And though this description occurs in 'real' time before Ennis has lost Jack (when, theoretically, the wind perhaps 'should' just be euphoric), in 'story' time, he already is grieving, since the prologue has established the loss. And even in 'real' time, they've already set their separation in motion with the "one-shot thing" exchange.

If this has been brought up before, I apologize...I agree that Jack is certainly symbolized by the wind, so....when he laments "like I was supposed to control the weather", then is what Jack is himself, something that he feels he can't control?

[Brown Eyes]

The story has a line that establishes this view of the wind as both happy and sad while they are still up on Brokeback - "There were only the two of them on the mountain flying in the euphoric, bitter air.."

Ooooo fernly, this is a most excellent phrase to point out!  You're right!  What a great little description of the air having simultaneously positive and negative aspects.  A bit of yin and yang there too (with simultaneous opposites or contrasts).

And, I think you're also right to question what Jack is bemoaning when he complains about controlling the weather.  With his clumsiness and awkwardness (which is also sometimes graceful and charming) he probably did feel a bit like he was out of control sometimes.  He couldn't hold his gun steady to hunt the coyote, or use the can opener without spilling, etc.  So, these are little things that demonstrate a sense of being a bit out of control... But, maybe this is a very early and Jack-version of Ennis's later "no reins on this one."