What is the happiest scene?

[Brown Eyes]

In my last posts here in 2008!!!   I was talking about really subtle moments of happiness and elements in the film beyond interactions between Jack and Ennis that indicate happiness (music, light, sounds in nature)... I think I would add the sound of the rushing water in the night camp scene following the reunion kiss (and just prior to Jack proposing the cow and calf operation).  I think that scene has the potential to be one of the happiest, but it's cut short and becomes among the saddest and most difficult. Really interesting emotional shifts there.

But, I also agree with Chuck that the reunion itself is probably the most exuberant and over-the-top joyful.

[Front-Ranger]

If you define happy as contented, I would vote for the scene where all the sheep and dogs and the two men on their horses head up the mountain for the first time. It's so positive and happy.

[serious crayons]

I haven't reread this whole thread, so please forgive me if I've already posted this anecdote.

I have a friend whose mother had some emotional/cognitive problems. The first time they watched Carrie together, her mother was delighted when Carrie and the hot popular guy go to prom together. Just when Carrie and the guy are called up onstage and Carrie is at her peak of happiness, my friend sprang across the room and turned off the TV, leaving her mother to think the movie ended on that happy note, rather than in the mayhem that followed.

Someday, maybe my kids will do the same for me in the middle of the "sweet life" scene. 

[Front-Ranger]

Someday, maybe my kids will do the same for me in the middle of the "sweet life" scene. 

Is the sweet life scene where Ennis says he's "sending up a prayer of thanks" which is just before he tells Jack what happened to the two tough old birds? The only other "sweet life" I can think of is when Jack says, "We could have had a sweet life, but you didn't want it, Ennis" which is commonly called the lake scene. But that's near the end of the movie! I guess I'm cornfused.

[Brown Eyes]

Someday, maybe my kids will do the same for me in the middle of the "sweet life" scene. 

I think this is a fabulous idea K!  And, yes, Lee here we're talking about the "prayer of thanks" camping trip immediately following the reunion. 

I've always felt like if you turn the movie off before Jack suggests the cow and calf operation, it is a fairly happy movie (at least as far as the Jack-Ennis story line goes... I guess not for the wives).  I actually do this a lot.  It's one reason why I've probably seen the first half of the movie twice as many times as the second half.

[serious crayons]

And, yes, Lee here we're talking about the "prayer of thanks" camping trip immediately following the reunion. 

Right.

I've always felt like if you turn the movie off before Jack suggests the cow and calf operation, it is a fairly happy movie (at least as far as the Jack-Ennis story line goes... I guess not for the wives).  I actually do this a lot.  It's one reason why I've probably seen the first half of the movie twice as many times as the second half.

Good idea, A! For when you want to watch a/the movie, but you want to come out of it cheerful rather than sad. Which is often the case for me (I avoid movies that I know are going to be brutally depressing, but of course for the most part BBM is an exception).

Anyway, that is definitely the movie's turning point. I remember sitting in theaters thinking, "It should just end here. It should just end here." And also, somehow thinking each time that it would magically end differently.