Blue parka
by seth19800 (Sun Jul 30 2006 12:32:53 )
When Jack asks Lureen if she had seen his blue parka, and she responds with "the last time I seen it, you was wearin' it..." ... Are we supposed to know when he was wearing it? I cant seem to remember.
Re: Blue parka
by tillerman-1 (Sun Jul 30 2006 14:12:23 )
We never saw him wearing it before that scene.Lureen says that the last time she saw it was when there was a big ice storm (in Texas) and he was in it. Where it went after that she doesn't know.
But he must have found it because in the next scene he is wearing a blue coat.
"Ennis you know somebody named Jack?...From Texas."
Re: Blue parka
by seth19800 (Sun Jul 30 2006 14:24:17 )
Oh Ok... I didn't know if he had been wearing with Ennis or something like that. Thanks!
Re: Blue parka
by idgeet (Mon Aug 7 2006 00:28:12 )
was this important to the story at all? is there something i'm missing???
Vote to get this higher in the top 250!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0388795/Re: Blue parka
by watergarden (Mon Aug 7 2006 01:05:48 )
UPDATED Mon Aug 7 2006 01:31:51
I think it is a humorous comment on Jack. He is fussing around trying to find the blue parka and can't and then in the next scene supposedly the trip he was preparing for he is wearing the blue parka. He probably found it shortly after in his pickup or some other obvious place. Similar to Jack saying earlier in the story he is good with a can opener and in the very next scene he is struggling with the can and opener and spills beans on himself.
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idgeet, that line has the Ang Lee inside joke...
by toycoon (Fri Aug 11 2006 16:54:55 )
Lureen says, "the last time I saw that parka you was wearing it. Remember, that Ice Storm last winter?"
'The Ice Storm' is the name of an earlier Ang Lee film.
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Re: Blue parka
by don8946 (Sun Aug 27 2006 21:10:53 )
"But he must have found it because in the next scene he is wearing a blue coat."
He must have given up and bought a new blue coat because the one he was wearing in the next scene wasn't a parka. (no hood).
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Re: Blue parka
by NewHorizons37 (Mon Aug 7 2006 07:23:12 )
When Jack asks Lureen if she had seen his blue parka, and she responds with "the last time I seen it, you was wearin' it..." ... Are we supposed to know when he was wearing it?
No, we're not supposed to know. Lureen answering that way, to me, just was her way of saying, "the last time I knew where the parka was, you did too" (because he was wearing it). Meaning, her knowledge of where the parka is/was is no more recent than his. Others also think that this line is put in there so she can refer to the ice storm, which is an in-joke reference to Ang Lee's "The Ice Storm."
I think the scene accomplishes a few things:
* Establishes that Jack and Ennis get together a few times a year, always in Wyoming, and this has been going on "all these years" as Lureen says, so some time has passed since the reunion.
* Establishes more of Lureen's character, especially in how she and Jack relate. She is all business, preoccupied while he searches, and gets a little exasperated with him "you're as bad as Bobby when it comes to losing things." They have a cooperative relationship and work together like a well-oiled machine (as shown in the discussion of who will handle Bobby's teacher), but no real closeness (that perfunctory kiss when he leaves.)
There is no real importance to the blue parka dialogue; it is more a way to lead into the scene where the important dialogue takes place.
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Re: Blue parka
by LauraGigs (Sat Aug 12 2006 09:36:43 )
UPDATED Sat Aug 12 2006 09:39:45
I agree with NewNorizon's post above, that the scene serves to show us about Jack and Lureen's relationship — how their marriage has settled in over the years. (We've had several Ennis/Alma scenes; the movie is now letting us check in on Jack/Lureen.)
So while it's definitely not a pure 'throwaway' scene, I can't agree that it's imbibed with as much meaning as the shirt scene.
There is a small metaphor with the Parka though: Blue is the Chinese color of love. In the scene with Lureen, Jack hasn't "found it." But by the time he reaches Ennis, he has.
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Re: Blue parka
by NewHorizons37 (Sat Aug 12 2006 16:23:17 )
UPDATED Sat Aug 12 2006 16:38:49
There is a small metaphor with the Parka though: Blue is the Chinese color of love. In the scene with Lureen, Jack hasn't "found it." But by the time he reaches Ennis, he has.
I have posted about the symbolism of blue and love in the movie before, the significance of who wears blue, and when. Alma wears deep blue early on (washing clothes, a happy wife), then wears a light blue nightgown (her love has faded) when she waits crying for Ennis to come home from the motel, and then after a while you never see her in blue again. Jack wears a lot of blue in the earlier parts of the movie, but he starts to wear darker colors as he gets more disillusioned. The blue parka of course fits in with this. But I had not thought consciously about him not wearing blue when with Lureen. I had not really noticed what he wears in those scenes (except for twhen they meet Randall and LaShawn in which he is all in black) but of course that lack of blue with Lureen totally fits in with the blue symbolism, so thanks for that. And the fact that she couldn't help him find it also fits.
Also, just thought of this: while we don't see Jack wearing blue with Lureen, this scene references an (offscreen) occasion when he did -- he wore the blue parka during the ice storm. The only time we know of that he wore blue with Lureen, was because it was so friggin' cold out!
(The other blue wearers in the film include Mrs. Twist, Alma Jr's bluebird earrings, and Cassie wears a blue ring when they meet. Also, Ennis generally wears white or brown shirts, but when he sends the "You bet" postcard, he is wearing a brown and blue shirt, and for the reunion he is wearing a white and blue shirt. Symbolizing that Jack/love has crept back into his life.
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Re: Blue parka
by NewHorizons37 (Sat Aug 12 2006 17:56:56 )
Thanks for the reminders. If he is wearing blue in the scene with the newborn (I'll have to take your word for it), it still fits with the symbolism: up to that point he was trying to make things work with Lureen, but that scene marks the point where he realizes he will never be accepted and he decides to send Ennis the first postcard. The dark blue shirt at Thanksgiving goes along with what I said before -- his colors start to get darker as his mood gets darker over the course of the movie. Jack can't control the color of the flowers at his table
.
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Re: Blue parka
by NewHorizons37 (Sat Aug 12 2006 18:16:56 )
Unless, maybe if Jack and Randall open a nice little flower shop...
LOL. What if you and me had a little flower shop somewhere, a little rose and tulip operation. . .it'd be a sweet life.
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Blue + the Earl Scene
by LauraGigs (Sun Aug 13 2006 18:38:42 )
Also NewHorizons, when young Ennis is lead to Earl's body:
The beginning of that scene is shot from behind Ennis, his brother & his dad. The brother & Dad are all in brown, but Ennis is all in blue.
Re: Blue + the Earl Scene
by NewHorizons37 (Mon Aug 14 2006 04:50:47 )
Lauragigs, thanks for that. I think I do remember that. (I haven't seen the film in a while because when I got the DVD I kept playing the "best of" scenes over and over, and decided that the next time I watch it, it will be the whole thing from start to finish.)
Actually, that gives me chills because it makes the blue symbolism even more solid: young Ennis, before he is traumatized by his father, is in blue. He had the innocence and the capacity to love back then. After the trauma, he became more like his father, who dresses in brown. How different things could have been for Ennis and Jack, if not for that SOB of a father!
Re: Blue + the Earl Scene
by heydoozie (Mon Aug 14 2006 10:39:48 )
I think we agree that blue is Jack's color, and the color of love. To me, losing his blue & warm jacket was a symbol of Jack losing his sense of self in that luke-warm marriage. But he finds it with Ennis again.
Re: Blue + the Earl Scene
by heydoozie (Mon Aug 14 2006 11:04:03 )
and also he says "blue parka" implying he has more than one--he's well off, but wants to wear blue for Ennis--it was the color he was wearing when Ennis fell in love with him
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Re: Blue parka
by GeorgeObliqueStrokeXR40 (Thu Mar 15 2007 13:25:38 )
bump
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Re: bump: Blue parka
by GeorgeObliqueStrokeXR40 (Mon May 7 2007 11:44:44 )
bump
