Color coordination

[silkncense]

Jack is wearing (what? black leather jacket

Why would Jack be wearing the dark(black) jacket on his way TO see Ennis when he is happily believing they are going to be together from that point on?

I think there is something to the colors & types of clothing but I am not sure it is specific to every instance...esp since they don't always fit the scenario.  Jack has many different jackets & several different colors including brown.  Also, Ennis has a yellow rainslicker...  Would have to think of other instances.

[TJ]

This thread of discussion almost reminds me of the "white hat - black hat" discussion.

If the movie followed the short story line and considered the income of both of the lead characters, Ennis would have donned worn out clothing most of the time and well-worn but neat clothing when he was not working and Jack would have worn clothing like ranch boys and men who were of the upper lower income economic level.

Although Jack's folks owned a ranch, they were still almost dirt poor. Even Ang Lee's movie showed that.

In the beginning of the story, Jack, and even after he married Lureen, had a poverty level income. It was not after until his father-in-law died that he had a job with the farm and ranch equipment company. In 1967, Jack was still driving the old green pickup truck he owned in 1963.

[serious crayons]

Why would Jack be wearing the dark(black) jacket on his way TO see Ennis when he is happily believing they are going to be together from that point on?

I think there is something to the colors & types of clothing but I am not sure it is specific to every instance...esp since they don't always fit the scenario.  Jack has many different jackets & several different colors including brown.  Also, Ennis has a yellow rainslicker...  Would have to think of other instances.

Well, the pattern is definitely not without exceptions, Silk. I can think of a few myself. So no, it's not specific to every instance. But there are lots and lots of times when it follows the pattern and only a handful when it doesn't, so I still think there's something there. Why would Ennis always wear blue when Jack's away, and always wear tan when he's with Jack? Not only are tan and blue Ennis and Jack's signature colors, but in this case they also express Ennis' emotions -- blue when he's in Riverton, gazing off into the sky and thinking of Jack, tan when he's with Jack and stubbornly sticking to his earth-bound rules.

Also, I don't mean to imply the characters are aware of it at all, which explains Jack's wearing dark on the way TO see Ennis. He is still hopeful at that point, but Ennis' reaction is already predetermined. Just as Ennis wears a dark-colored jacket for the first time in the movie BEFORE he knows Jack is dead, then wears it when he finds out and the whole rest of the time, Jack wears a dark jacket before he knows Ennis will reject him.

[Ellemeno]

Why would Ennis always wear blue when Jack's away, and always wear tan when he's with Jack? Not only are tan and blue Ennis and Jack's signature colors, but in this case they also express Ennis' emotions -- blue when he's in Riverton, gazing off into the sky and thinking of Jack, tan when he's with Jack and stubbornly sticking to his earth-bound rules.

Also, I don't mean to imply the characters are aware of it at all, which explains Jack's wearing dark on the way TO see Ennis. He is still hopeful at that point, but Ennis' reaction is already predetermined. Just as Ennis wears a dark-colored jacket for the first time in the movie BEFORE he knows Jack is dead, then wears it when he finds out and the whole rest of the time, Jack wears a dark jacket before he knows Ennis will reject him.

You all are wonderful.  I'm just rolling around in your ideas like a cat in the sun.

[serious crayons]

OK, I just watched if for the SECOND time in two months (also in two days). Silk, I saw a lot of exceptions to my theory above. There are times when Ennis and Jack wear jackets even though they clearly are growing closer (the "Wha?" scene, the "You may be a sinner" scene). Ennis wears a grayish jacket on one earlier occasion, in the condiment aisle scene. He wears his jean jacket with Jack once, too: the time when Jack suggests that Ennis move to Texas. Jack wears red and other colors of shirts a few times, and although in the first half of the movie he usually wears bright or navy blue, he also sometimes wears a sort of muddy blue that could almost be called gray. In the last scene, Ennis isn't wearing a denim shirt, unfortunately, though it is light blue, almost solid, with a a faint blue plaid pattern. So there are quite a few exceptions.

Still, the vast majority of clothing choices DO match the theory. So I think there's gotta be something there. Unlike buckets or coffee pots, which only have to show up now and then to make their point, Ennis and Jack (almost) always have to be wearing clothes of some kind. Maybe it would look odd if they followed TOO rigid a pattern.

Anyway, everybody can just decide for themselves what they think.

[TJ]

Unless a person involved with the movie has put in writing that a particular color coordination agenda was actually used with the movie, all we can do is discuss our own theories about it.

If I still lived in North Hollywood, CA, I might ask someone whom I know would be in show business to find out for me. I did have actor friends in LA and even knew some guys who were executives in Movie Studios.

[serious crayons]

Unless a person involved with the movie has put in writing that a particular color coordination agenda was actually used with the movie, all we can do is discuss our own theories about it.

Absolutely right, TJ.

[silkncense]

Unless a person involved with the movie has put in writing that a particular color coordination agenda was actually used with the movie, all we can do is discuss our own theories about it.

Which IS the joy and interest in any piece of art.  Thankfully, there are still writers, directors and artists that don't find it necessary to spell out everything & treat their audience as unintelligent and/or unimaginative.

[TJ]

I am actually a professionally trained artist: that's why I was qualified to teach art classes in public schools.

In my art works, I have made realistic pictures of various types were everything as based on what I actually saw and people who had seen the same thing would know that it was a very close representation. I have created abstract art in which one or more things might be recognized in the picture but, those things were stylized representations of the real thing and did not even look like the real thing.

I have created non-objective art works, which people mistakenly call "abstract art," and there were just things I was playing around with for the fun of it or had a purpose as a gift for a friend. There were no real things in the non-object works and I just enjoyed making them. Sometimes, I might use some kind of color coordination and/or light vs. dark in those works which were related to what I had learned in color theory and design classes.

I have worked on stage play sets where everything had a special purpose and place because the script required it.

But, when I designed the stage sets for the Junior Class Play I directed when I was full-time teacher in the early 1970s, I made some modifications in some of what was suggested or written in the director's script for the play. The stage was not a full-sized one and some of the set backgrounds needed to look like there was depth to them. The name of that particular production was "Get Smart" and it was actually written by the same people who created the TV comedy series of the same name.

And in the early 1990s, I attended a taping of "Diff'rent Strokes" at Universal Studios Hollywood and I also saw how some of the rooms which appeared to be full size rooms on the TV screen were actually small set sections, too.