Author Topic: An Epiphany for Ennis?  (Read 3920 times)

Offline brokeplex

  • BetterMost Supporter!
  • BetterMost 5000+ Posts Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 7,247
  • LCARS
An Epiphany for Ennis?
« on: August 20, 2007, 09:11:23 pm »
In the last scene of the movie when Ennis looks at the shirts in the closet and tears-up, is he beginning a journey of emotional self-awareness? Does he begin to think of himself as a Gay man? This is the great unresolved question in my mind about the movie and the source material.
Clearly Ennis undergoes an emotional trauma, starting with his last scene with Jack, continuing thru his surprise at receiving word of Jack's death, and culminating when he found the two shirts together in Jack's closet.
I have to tell you that until those scenes I really disliked Ennis del Mar. I hated the way he treated Jack and Alma. But when I saw his emotions after Jack's death, I began to care for him, and wanted the best for him. Maybe I want him to free himself from his prison, his denial of his feelings, and I see something that isn't really there. Maybe his emotions at the end of the movie are just reflecting his regret and loss, not a development of a new identity and increased self-awareness.
Does anyone have any thought on this?

Offline Front-Ranger

  • BetterMost Moderator
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 30,287
  • Brokeback got us good.
Re: An Epiphany for Ennis?
« Reply #1 on: August 31, 2007, 02:09:56 pm »
I agree that something happened to him in the closet with those shirts, because of the way he interrelated with Jack's mother after coming down the stairway. But...it seemed like he regressed afterwards, as he appears in the prologue of the story and in the last scene of the movie. His real spirit and passion is hidden away, in his dreams, in the closet, in the trailer. But at least he can access it at times, rather than repressing his spirit completely, as he did while he was younger.
"chewing gum and duct tape"

Scott6373

  • Guest
Re: An Epiphany for Ennis?
« Reply #2 on: August 31, 2007, 02:19:49 pm »
This pretty much sums up how I feel the stroy left Ennis.  I think it's broader than acceptance of his homosexuality.

Regardless of what the liberal left thinks, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN is a profoundly Christian film.  Unfortunately, the radical religious right, who have launched many campaigns against this film, haven’t seemed to catch onto this.  Not much of a surprise, considering their own profoundly blinkered view of Christianity.

As a gay man, and a former Catholic, I still find myself struggling to reconcile who I am with the religious foundations I have been given.   This personal perspective isn’t a film review, but a reaction, or if you prefer, a revelation.  One that comes as close as I may ever get to that elusive reconciliation.  What I did learn is that this reconciliation is not between me and a church, but rather, my heart and my head.  My head yelling loud and clear that the concept of “God” is a relic and completely irrelevant, and my heart speaking in hushed tones that nothing as fundamentally beautiful as this earth and our collective humanity, could have emerged from anywhere but “God”.  The truth for me, has landed, still uncomfortably, somewhere smack in the middle of the argument.  So what is the answer to my spiritual excursion?  Keep walking.

“The Gay Cowboy Movie”, may be the first, and arguably the best film with homosexual central characters, that is only superficially about homosexuality.   BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN is about far more than two men having sex. People, straight, gay or somewhere in between, are responding to this film because of themes that run deeper than sexual orientation.  It gets to the subjects that haunt contemporary Americans in a way that has almost nothing to do with gay rights.  This story and this film are about grace. 

On its own, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN delivers a story that serves as the deepest kind of nightmare for religious folk of all political stripes: the nightmare of grace denied, dreams deferred, and most terrifying: responsibility to the consequence of our choices.  Grace is a choice.  Grace isn’t something merely to pursue.  It is something with which you can fulfill passions, something to commit to unconditionally, something to proclaim.  That’s what gives life meaning.  To choose not to embrace it when it is offered, is to become a phantom human being. 

Ok, so what is grace?  The Greek word for “grace” is charis, and is kindred to the word chara, meaning joy.  Ironically, it was the British Evangelical Preacher G. Campbell Morgan  who said, “Grace is that which gives joy.”  Theologian Dr. R. W. Dale’s definition is worth remembering:  “Grace is love which passes beyond all claims to love.  It is love, which after fulfilling the obligations imposed by law, has still an unexhausted wealth of Kindness.“  To me, it is ultimately indefinable in any meaningful collective way.  This is what I believe grace to be.  It’s very simple.  Grace is love, and sometimes, we need to go as far down as we can possibly go before we recognize that.  Sometimes, we have to be “crucified” and “die” before we resurrect ourselves by the acceptance of grace into our hearts.

Having seen the film several times, what struck me first is how much it brings into sharp relief the difference between the “law” and the “gospel,” as well as the direct parallel with the life  and teachings of Jesus Christ.  The “gospels”, as we have come to know them, were written many years after the death of Jesus.  In their time, they were considered heretical by all the “laws” that existed.  What Jesus taught, or tried to teach in his lifetime is contained in those gospels, though more than likely floridly embellished by his zealous disciples.  His teachings were almost in total opposition to the religions and political powers of his age, and yet here we are, fighting the same battles that he was fighting, only this time, his teachings are being twisted and re-invented as weapons that promote and encourage oppression, hatred, and persecution.  This stark light of reality is perhaps one of the reasons (among many) why this film is making so many, so uncomfortable. 

Like Jesus’ teachings, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN is one of the great statements that proclaims the triumph of a gospel over the law.  In that, it is in company with the greatest work of American Literature: Mark Twain's "Huck Finn."

It is author Annie Proulx's greatest literary moment, when "BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN" references Twain's "Huck Finn."  When Huck, convinced that by freeing "Jim" from slavery, he will go to hell, declares, "Then I will go to hell!" It is a stunning and provocative moment in the greatest of all American novels. The ignorant Huck, in damning himself to hell, actually opens himself to the grace that gets him into Heaven.

Like Twain’s masterpiece, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN is steeped in the Christian concept of grace and the Pentecost. Proulx makes the discussion of the Pentecost a key moment in her short story, and it is retained beautifully in the screenplay.

Poor, ignorant Jack, whose mother never told him what the Pentecost really was, misunderstands it as being the theology of the Rapture.  Strangely enough, it is Hollywood itself that has perpetuated this notion of the Pentecost being that horror film time when the bodies of the “true believers” disintegrate, leaving a pool of blood behind, while the soul is transported to paradise…somewhere just to the east of Aruba I think. Jack explains it this way to Ennis as meaning that since they are “sinners“, they are not going to “heaven” when the end of the world arrives.  What the Pentecost actually means, in Christian theological terms, is the descent of the Holy Spirit, whoever he or she is.  For me, it is the offer of the gift of grace…the understanding of love.

The offer of this gift to Ennis and Jack, happens only when, and could only happen if, they break the "law".  Stated differently, by following their hearts, regardless of what they have learned to be right and correct, they open themselves up to grace.  This realization won’t come to Ennis until it is too late, but the last scene of the movie is one of the most beautiful representations of Paul's biblical declaration that beyond the law, there remains three things: faith, hope, and love.  For Ennis, faith and hope are gone, but he holds on to his love. He has loved, unconditionally, and in that, there is the hope of redemption. Indeed, the director of the film, Ang Lee, has said in interviews that he wanted the film to end on a note of redemption. Though difficult to see, it did!

Despite the multitude of detractors this film will have, many, many Christians will find this film a great representation of the concept that beyond the law that condemns, "faith, hope, and love, abide, these three, but the greatest of these is love."

It may be that by their last meeting, Jack and Ennis’s faith and hope for a future together is all but shattered, but what the ensuing scenes showed, was that their love remained. After faith and hope are gone, and all that remains is love. That is when we are saved.

In the final moments of the film, the reality of crucifixion and resurrection is wrapped in loss and devastation, and finally revealed in astonishing simplicity.

The "crucifixion" of Jack, opens up the possibility, however feeble, for Ennis to come to an understanding of the grace of resurrection.  His resurrection!  Ennis won't miss his daughter’s wedding, because he now knows what love means. Because of Jack, Ennis has joined the human race, and thus, he has joined the family of those who have been graced with the true meaning of love.

He has learned that there is only one law that needs to be followed in order to be loved by God unconditionally: one must come freely, and without prejudice, to love someone, sometime, somewhere unconditionally.  A simple enough requirement, and yet as difficult as a "camel passing through the eye of a needle.”  Jack and Ennis's love made it though the eye of the needle.

Getting one’s love through “the eye of the needle” is a lifelong spiritual journey.  It’s long, rewarding, arduous, joyful, devastating, and ultimately, the only thing we are really here to do. 

For me, “The Gay Cowboy Movie”, may be the first, and arguably the best film with homosexual central characters, that is, in totality, about grace.

Offline Jeff Wrangler

  • BetterMost Supporter!
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,165
  • "He somebody you cowboy'd with?"
Re: An Epiphany for Ennis?
« Reply #3 on: August 31, 2007, 02:49:16 pm »
Scott,

Oh, my God. ... That's profund and beautiful.

And "gospel" means "good news," the "good news" of love, I guess.
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline Front-Ranger

  • BetterMost Moderator
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 30,287
  • Brokeback got us good.
Re: An Epiphany for Ennis?
« Reply #4 on: August 31, 2007, 03:53:09 pm »
I second that. I also agree that Brokeback Mountain is a spiritual story and deliberately draws parallels to the Bible. Annie Proulx said herself, in answer to a question of mine, that Jesus was portrayed as riding into the city of Jerusalem on an unbroken colt. She implied that she modelled the character of Jack partially after Jesus.

"chewing gum and duct tape"

Offline Brown Eyes

  • BetterMost Supporter!
  • BetterMost Moderator
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 10,377
Re: An Epiphany for Ennis?
« Reply #5 on: August 31, 2007, 04:02:29 pm »
Wow!  That was an amazing post Scott!  Thanks for that!
:)



For what it's worth, I think Ennis has his epiphany (or maybe the first of several epiphanies) during the pie scene with Cassie.  I think that's the moment when he can begin to formulate the idea that he's a gay man in his head (I think he would be unable to articulate it outwardly... but I think it's becoming clearer for Ennis at least on a deeply personal level by that scene).  I think certain aspects of both the recent argument with Jack combined with certain things Cassie happens to say combine to form triggers that help Ennis begin to understand and/or accept himself.

I think the shirts are a continuation of this particular epiphany (that he's a gay man), but maybe more importantly and specifically, they're an outward sign of his grief and connected to the specific emotions involved in being in love with Jack.
the world was asleep to our latent fuss - bowie

Offline ifyoucantfixit

  • BetterMost 5000+ Posts Club
  • *******
  • Posts: 8,049
Re: An Epiphany for Ennis?
« Reply #6 on: August 31, 2007, 08:03:44 pm »


        Simply amazing Scott no words suffice. It rather ties in to Bro Patricks revelations
« Last Edit: September 02, 2007, 01:59:35 pm by ifyoucantfixit »



     Beautiful mind

Offline brokeplex

  • BetterMost Supporter!
  • BetterMost 5000+ Posts Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 7,247
  • LCARS
Re: An Epiphany for Ennis?
« Reply #7 on: September 02, 2007, 01:45:40 pm »
Scott: thanks for a thoughtful and moving reply.