Author Topic: Black Hats, White Hats  (Read 61033 times)

Offline RouxB

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Re: Black Hats, White Hats
« Reply #30 on: May 10, 2006, 08:23:34 pm »
Barb-

He is saying 1963 is his second summer. "(it's my) second summer up here. Last summer...). He is just leaving off the first part of the sentence as they frequently do.

I think that point has been covered in the interviews and making ofs.


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TJ

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Re: Black Hats, White Hats
« Reply #31 on: May 10, 2006, 10:24:00 pm »
While the Ennis Del Mar character wore clothing in the movie which is even more expensive than what I might spend fof my own clothes and he was supposed to be dirt poor, the wardrobe for him could have been purchased at a local Goodwill store, a Salvation Army thrift shop or similar 2nd hand clothing store.

And, that included the hats, too.

Offline serious crayons

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Re: Black Hats, White Hats
« Reply #32 on: May 10, 2006, 10:46:26 pm »
Well, here is my report after last night's viewing.  He is wearing a patterned shirt underneath a light grey canvas jacket.  But the interesting thing about the patterned shirt is that the stripes are so close together as to seem almost solid.  So it's certainly the most solid shirt he wears in the entire movie.  I like to think this means that he wasn't quite there yet - but almost.  Another thing I noticed about this ensemble is that he seems to have *the exact same* one on in the Lightning Flat scene, as if he contacted Jack's parents (Mrs. Twist looks like she expects him when she comes to the door) immediately after getting off the phone with Lureen, got in his truck, and drove straight there.

Also, even though it is summer (or late summer? I'm not up on my BBM dates) he wears the lightweight solid gray jacket in three of the last five scenes, not including the one where he gets the postcard nor the one with Alma Jr. -- right? He wears it in the pie, phone booth and Twist ranch scenes. In my understanding, none of those occur on the same day. And one more thing: he's wearing a shirt like Ennis' but different, as you noted above, under a solid-color jacket that is like Jack's but different.

So although I'm disappointed that the shirt is not a skeleton key that unlocks the entire end of the movie, it stlil could mean something ...


TJ

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Re: Black Hats, White Hats
« Reply #33 on: May 10, 2006, 11:36:06 pm »
Unlike the deal about the costume movie people in the slate link, no fancy high-priced clothing would even have been needed if the movie's screenplay writers and the director and his crew had ADOPTED more stuff that was in Annie Proulx's original story.

Most of the clothing needed for the role of Ennis could have purchased at a used clothing store. And the clothing for Jack could have been purchased at a chain department store where lower-middle income and lower income people shop.

Heath's character wore what he could afford on his poverty level income. Even the Book Jake's character was rather poor until after Lureen's father died and SHE hired him on giving him a vague managerial title. Jack was a buyer for her company, not a salesman.

Offline Brown Eyes

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Re: Black Hats, White Hats
« Reply #34 on: May 11, 2006, 01:11:30 am »
Back to the hats for a moment...

So, I just watched the whole movie twice tonight (someone please help me...).  Once with a friend and once by myself.  And,believe it or not... I noticed a new significant white hat moment.  When Jack is in Mexico and first enters the dark alley, he is immediately preceded in his walk down the alley by a man in a white hat and a white shirt.  You can see him begin to enter the alley in the shot of Jack with the crowded scene behind him... as Jack looks down the alley.  Then there's another shot as the camera travels down the alley (sort of following Jack's gaze/ footsteps) where the white-hatted man is essentially centered in the alley (we see him from behind) and he slips into the darkness at the end of the alley just as Jack's gaze focuses on the prostitute.  It's a bit as if Jack is chasing him or pursuing him.

So, it turns out that Mexico must also really have something for boys like Ennis too. (at least visually *like* Ennis)

I love this movie. :)  (as if there was any doubt)  ::)
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Re: Black Hats, White Hats
« Reply #35 on: May 11, 2006, 02:07:28 am »
I was somewhat shocked to hear the MOVIE Ennis say, "Boys like you," to Jack.

IMO, the only reason that Jack brought up "Mexico" in the first place was he wanted them to meet were it was warmer in the spring, summer, and the fall than it was in the high altitude mountains of Wyoming.

In the book, Ennis only asked Jack if he had been to Mexico. I don't think Annie Proulx was claiming that Ennis believed Jack could be sex with a guy when he wanted it anytime he wanted it in Mexico; I think that he had heard queer guys got murdered in Mexico. And, understanding what kind of homophobic man Ennis's father was, Ennis might have heard that from Daddy Del Mar himself.

All of Ennis's homophobia was rooted into what he saw when he was about 9 years old and his father made him see the beaten with "the tire iron" and mutilated body of Earl, the partner of Rich and the member of the old ranching couple near Sage, Wyoming.

Jack's private life away from Ennis was, IMO, none of Ennis's business since they did not have a covenanted relationship in that Jack would not have sex with any other man.

Quote
"Hell yes, I been. Where's the fuckin problem?" Braced for it all these years and here it came, late and unexpected.

The above quote is from the book. I believe that Jack "lied," claiming that he had been down there; when really he used "Mexico" as a metaphor, so to speak, to admit the fact that he had been having sex with other guys besides Ennis. Jack had plenty of opportunity when he was on the road between Childress, Texas and Lightning Flat, Wyoming and when he was working for the farm and equipment company in a managerial position of sorts (the books' version is different from the movie).

It is just not plausible for me to believe that when Jack was rebuffed by Ennis when he showed up unannounced after Ennis's divorce that Jack would redline it all the way to Juarez, Mexico just to have sex with a male prostitute because he didn't get any from Ennis.

I have encountered "straight" guys who went looking for sex with gay guys after their wives and/or girlfriends would not put out for them when they were horny . . .  but they would not have driven more than 10 miles to do that.

Offline starboardlight

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Re: Black Hats, White Hats
« Reply #36 on: May 11, 2006, 10:24:04 am »
Back to the hats for a moment...

So, I just watched the whole movie twice tonight (someone please help me...).  Once with a friend and once by myself.  And,believe it or not... I noticed a new significant white hat moment.  When Jack is in Mexico and first enters the dark alley, he is immediately preceded in his walk down the alley by a man in a white hat and a white shirt.  You can see him begin to enter the alley in the shot of Jack with the crowded scene behind him... as Jack looks down the alley.  Then there's another shot as the camera travels down the alley (sort of following Jack's gaze/ footsteps) where the white-hatted man is essentially centered in the alley (we see him from behind) and he slips into the darkness at the end of the alley just as Jack's gaze focuses on the prostitute.  It's a bit as if Jack is chasing him or pursuing him.

So, it turns out that Mexico must also really have something for boys like Ennis too. (at least visually *like* Ennis)

I love this movie. :)  (as if there was any doubt)  ::)

interesting observation. i also reinforce the idea that he's there not just for sex but because he is still seeking that connection with Ennis.
"To do is to be." Socrates. - "To be is to do." Plato. - "Do be do be do" Sinatra.

moremojo

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Re: Black Hats, White Hats
« Reply #37 on: May 11, 2006, 11:40:00 am »
Just a little observation, for what it's worth (don't know how well this ties into the discussion already present in this thread):

The last time we see Ennis wearing his large white (Resistol?) cowboy hat, the one we see him wear on the mountain, is in the grocery-store scene in Riverton. And before that, after his sojourn in Brokeback, we see him sport a straw (or straw-like) hat, and a baseball cap in the Timmy/asphalt-laying scene. The straw hat is also what he wears when he goes off with Jack after the reunion, first en route to the motel, and then to the "out in the middle of nowhere" tryst. After that point, save for the flashback scene (the last time, sequentially in the film, that we see the large white hat), we always see Ennis wearing the smaller-styled white (or off-white) hat, which always makes me think of a fishing hat (appropriately enough).

Jack alone seems to retain the same large-style (again, Resistol?) cowboy hat that we first see him wear, though he seems to shift from black to a more neutral tan shade for the color choice (the exceptions, as I recall, are the dance with the Malones, the flashback scene, and Ennis's POV imagining of Jack's supposed murder).

Offline Penthesilea

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Re: Black Hats, White Hats
« Reply #38 on: May 11, 2006, 12:47:46 pm »
Quote
Also, even though it is summer (or late summer? I'm not up on my BBM dates) he wears the lightweight solid gray jacket in three of the last five scenes, not including the one where he gets the postcard nor the one with Alma Jr. -- right?

He's wearing the light gray jacket in the scene were he gets the postcard, too. And he also wears it in the trailer scene with Alma jr.
He wears it from the pie scene on (directly after the flashback and the one shot of Jack) through the entire rest of the movie: pie scene, receiving the postcard, phone call, Twist home, sticking numbers on the mailbox outside the trailer, Junior arriving, inside the trailer, up to "Jack, I swear".

Do we see Ennis in that light grey jacket before Jack's death? I don't think so, but I'm not sure. Hmmm...
I believe, before Jack's death we see him only in brown jackets, after Jack's death in only in a grey one.

What about the pie scene? Is Jack already dead at this point? Maybe the grey jacket indicates that.
"Ennis didn't know about the accident for months..." (from story). At the pie scene neither Ennis nor the audience know about Jack's death, but maybe the pie scene takes place in one of the months Ennis doesn't know about it, but it already had happened.

Any thoughts, someone?

« Last Edit: May 11, 2006, 12:51:27 pm by Penthesilea »

Offline serious crayons

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Re: Black Hats, White Hats
« Reply #39 on: May 11, 2006, 01:00:10 pm »
He's wearing the light gray jacket in the scene were he gets the postcard, too. And he also wears it in the trailer scene with Alma jr.
He wears it from the pie scene on (directly after the flashback and the one shot of Jack) through the entire rest of the movie: pie scene, receiving the postcard, phone call, Twist home, sticking numbers on the mailbox outside the trailer, Junior arriving, inside the trailer, up to "Jack, I swear".

Do we see Ennis in that light grey jacket before Jack's death? I don't think so, but I'm not sure. Hmmm...
I believe, before Jack's death we see him only in brown jackets, after Jack's death in only in a grey one.

What about the pie scene? Is Jack already dead at this point? Maybe the grey jacket indicates that.
"Ennis didn't know about the accident for months..." (from story). At the pie scene neither Ennis nor the audience know about Jack's death, but maybe the pie scene takes place in one of the months Ennis doesn't know about it, but it already had happened.

Any thoughts, someone?



I like that theory a lot, Penth. Well, except for the fact that it's sad. I also liked Barb's idea that it indicates Ennis has accepted his sexuality. Either one works perfectly.

I'm about to go watch the movie for the first time in about two months. When I get to the gray-jacket scenes, I will keep an eye out for more clues.