eye contact

[nakymaton]

Who makes more eye contact, Jack or Ennis?

I would have said "Jack" without hesitating, except that I just finished watching the DVD all the way through (made it to the end for the first time since buying the DVD, and started crying at the second tent scene, dammit). And it struck me that, although Jack makes a lot of eye contact when he's not talking (or leaving things implied; see the post-divorce scene, or when Jack is trying to pick up Jimbo the rodeo clown), that he usually looks away from Ennis when Jack is saying something that's really important to him. (Examples: Jack looks off at nothing, face as impassive as he can make it, when he proposes the cow and calf operation. And he doesn't look at Ennis when he tells Ennis that sometimes he misses Ennis so much he can't stand it.)

The big exception is in the fight scene at the lake... there both Jack and Ennis look straight at one another. And then Jack says what's on his mind. (Though they break eye contact during Jack's big speech.)

Ennis avoids looking at people as much as he can, it seems. But when he wants to make a point, especially with Jack, Ennis looks right at him. I think. But I can't remember the examples now.

Anyway. That just struck me.

[RouxB]

Oh, I sooo disagree with that. Ennis does indeed make eye contact, even in difficult situations. In all the scenes with Alma, and most of them are ugly, he looks her in the eye. With Cassie, even in the bus station scene, he looks her in the eye when he says he wasn't much fun. He doesn't avoid the loud bikers or his kids. When the boys are becoming friends and he becomes more comfortable with Jack, he always looks him in the eye, at at least at him if Jack is looking in another direction. Tent scenes one. tent scene two when he finally gives in to his feelings, not to mention reunion scene

Ennis is a pretty straight forward, if repressed, person. He takes his lumps.

 

[nakymaton]

Oh, yes, I agree about Ennis. I was having trouble putting my thoughts about Ennis together, so I went to bed instead.

I think my first reaction was based, to a huge extent, on the first scene, where Jack looks at Ennis and Ennis looks away. But then Ennis makes more and more eye contact with Jack as Ennis opens up to Jack.

And, yes, Ennis doesn't shy away from looking at people in difficult situations. It's like, when Ennis really wants to make a point, he makes eye contact as well. (Whereas Jack avoids eye contact when he's saying something that's really important to him.)

Ennis takes his lumps. That's a good way to put it.

[serious crayons]

And in the first scene, Ennis looks away only because he's so shy. Back then, he could barely introduce himself or hold a normal conversation -- even after Jack says "pleased to know you" he looks away and says nothing. It's indicative of what his social life must have been like up to that point; hard to imagine how he and Alma ever met or got engaged (mostly Alma's doing, I suppose). But as the movie goes on, he becomes less shy, even with people he doesn't know well, like Monroe or the Twists. I think Jack's friendly attention boosted his self-confidence.

Jack, on the other hand, looks away with an impassive face when he's making an important declaration and is nervous about how Ennis is going to react. It's like he's holding his breath.

[j.U.d.E.]

There a SO many 'eye-contact' (or missed ones) or 'looks' scenes in this film!! I love them all! Some are totally subtle, but very telling! The combination of 'silent communication' and the eyes has a big part in making this a beautiful, romantic (to answer the question on the other thread) film, IMHO.

~ j U d E

[Kd5000]

Do you think Ennis has low self esteem???   There is a correlation between an inability to make eye contact and low self esteem. Ennis is poor and uneducated and no real family to speak of. However, it's the early 1960's in rural America so he's hardly alone in that situation. Low education level and rural poverty were a fact of life for many young men in those environments. 

When I first saw Ennis, there was such a contrast with Jack, who seems very confident and more worldy, for lack of better word choice. Ennis is so shy. Jack emerges from his truck in a confident manner, surveys his surrondings, check Ennis out. Ennis I think glances from underneath his cowboy hat.

Of course, cowboy hat, and sunglasses for that matter, can be used as shields from prying eyes.  I can see you, but you can't see me under that hat. Well the way he was wearing his hat at at the beginning of the film gave me that impression.

Jack could have been a bit more confident in that situation as it's a job he's already done and knows what the mgr is like, etc etc.  His appearance is hardly downcast...

As Ennis and Jack get aquainted with each other, Ennis and Jack eye contact becomes more equal. 

[serious crayons]

Do you think Ennis has low self esteem???   There is a correlation between an inability to make eye contact and low self esteem. Ennis is poor and uneducated and no real family to speak of. However, it's the early 1960's in rural America so he's hardly alone in that situation. Low education level and rural poverty were a fact of life for many young men in those environments. 

Yes, I do think so. Not because he's poor and uneducated, though. It's more about growing up gay in a family and culture that hates homosexuality so much they would murder someone for it. And about being a friendless orphan forced unwillingly to drop out of school, whose siblings may have "raised" him but were unconcerned enough about him to tell him, once they got married, that there was no more room for him.

[nakymaton]

latjoreme:

Jack, on the other hand, looks away with an impassive face when he's making an important declaration and is nervous about how Ennis is going to react. It's like he's holding his breath.

Yes. Yes, exactly.

About Ennis's self-esteem: yes, Kd5000, I think Ennis probably has low self-esteem. (I don't understand where low self-esteem comes from, though, so I hesistate to speculate about the reasons for it.)

And associated with low self-esteem -- it struck me, during the last scene with Cassie, that Ennis either doesn't understand how people can love him, or doesn't realize that they do, or doesn't think that they should. When he says "I probably wasn't much fun anyways," that seems like the subtext. (Not, unfortunately, "You're better off without me because I'm in love with a man." Instead, it seems like he's saying "You're better off without me because other men are more fun/more loveable/more worthy of love than I am." And then I wondered if Ennis thought that Jack didn't think Ennis was much fun either. And then Cassie's answer had even more weight to it... it isn't just Cassie who doesn't fall in love with "fun.")

There's been really interesting discussion on one of the other threads about whether Ennis knew he was in love with Jack. But I wonder, did Ennis understand that Jack was in love with him?

(Ennis has clearly never been on the receiving end of his own wonderful smile.)

[TJ]

Do you think Ennis has low self esteem???   There is a correlation between an inability to make eye contact and low self esteem. Ennis is poor and uneducated and no real family to speak of. However, it's the early 1960's in rural America so he's hardly alone in that situation. Low education level and rural poverty were a fact of life for many young men in those environments.

Yes, I do think so. Not because he's poor and uneducated, though. It's more about growing up gay in a family and culture that hates homosexuality so much they would murder someone for it. And about being a friendless orphan forced unwillingly to drop out of school, whose siblings may have "raised" him but were unconcerned enough about him to tell him, once they got married, that there was no more room for him.

The movie's K.E. Del Mar got married and then there was no room for Ennis; but, Annie Proulx only wrote that during the conversation about Ennis's siblings, only their sister got married and moved to Casper. The book K.E. was living IN Signal when Ennis went upon Brokeback Mountain in 1963.

There are many details related to Ennis's lack of, or low, self-esteem in Annie Proulx's story. One of the things related to guys with low self-esteem is that they often get into fights to defend themselves when picked by others. Ennis's father, instead of whipping K.E. for picking on his little brother, Ennis, taught Ennis to ambush his brother as often as possible to put a stop to the harassment. I would say that both Mr. Del Mar and K.E. were bullies in that situation. While a boy should be taught to defend himself when outsiders bully him, a parent should put a stop to a child in the family from being a bully. But, some thick-headed men think that one is not a real man unless he can fight.

Oh, slightly OT here: in the book Ennis does not get into a fight with a pickup truck driver in front of a bar on Thanksgiving, he gets into a dirty fight after he gets drunk in the Black and Blue Eagle.

[moremojo]

And about being a friendless orphan forced unwillingly to drop out of school, whose siblings may have "raised" him but were unconcerned enough about him to tell him, once they got married, that there was no more room for him.

The apparent non-relationship that Ennis has with his siblings really hurts my heart the more I think about it. In the short story, we learn what a brutal and harsh dynamic developed between Ennis and his brother, and which was actually encouraged by their father. As someone who always wanted (but never had) a little brother, and who as a result has probably tended to idealize these relationships, it pains me to reflect on the lack of fraternal affection and bonding that seemed to pertain to the Del Mar household.

And Ennis sadly seems no closer to his sister, who remains an even more shadowy figure in the narrative than K.E. Ennis seems to transfer all his familial affection almost wholly to his children, who must provide most of the solace that Ennis can hope to obtain from life after the loss of Jack.

Scott