Author Topic: Missed opportunity...  (Read 5189 times)

Offline Kd5000

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Missed opportunity...
« on: May 09, 2006, 01:50:28 pm »
Ennis discusses with Jack about how sometimes he wonders if ppl can tell that he's (well he doesn't say gay).  Does this mean that Ennis at this point has recognized that he's homosexual and wonders if he can still "pass" as being straight?  ??? Well Jack's response is why don't you move to TX which just pisses Ennis off.  He should have carried forward with the a.m. conversation.

The other thing was when Ennis ask Jack if it's normal between he and his wife. Suppose it would have been too honest (he lies about seeing a woman on the side)  for Jack to say it's nothing like what we got here.  Though of course he does say something on the lines of "sometimes I miss you so much I can barely stand it." That was heartfelt and yet Ennis says nothing... Talked about his inability to express his heart. I mean I wouldn't have expected Ennis to say something like Love means never having to say I miss you:) However, Ennis makes no comment.   

I think those were two crucial missed opportunities.
« Last Edit: May 09, 2006, 04:56:23 pm by EnnisDelMar »

Offline Ellemeno

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Re: Missed opportunity...
« Reply #1 on: May 09, 2006, 01:59:04 pm »
Yes.  Lots of missed opportunities in Our Film. 

How come Jack didn't offer Ennis a ride when they first came down off the mountain, or suggest that they go try to find a month's worth of work somewhere else together, since they weren't expected back anywhere til the end of August?

How come Jack never actually invited Ennis to come to his parents' ranch, just a vague "cow and calf operation" suggestion?  He could have even asked him to just spend one of their weeks together there helping out, so that they could test how it would go.  He talked to his father about bringing Ennis, but never talked to Ennis about bringing Ennis.




Offline David

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Re: Missed opportunity...
« Reply #2 on: May 09, 2006, 02:00:09 pm »
First of all, I think those are two different get togethers you are mixing.

True, Ennis does say that, but I think it is not that he accepts that he is gay, but he is paranoid someone knows that he is having an affair with Jack.   As for Jack saying his marriage is normal,  he should have said "normal appearing".     

Jack saying "come down to Texas" was yet another attempt at fishing for Ennis's fealings.    He was hoping Ennis knew he had no reason to stay up in Wyoming.  No wife, poor jobs, why not a fresh start somewhere new?    Oh?  the kids?   Well, Leslie has shown us in her fan fiction story that it is possible to have it all.    :)

Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: Missed opportunity...
« Reply #3 on: May 09, 2006, 02:44:40 pm »
How come Jack never actually invited Ennis to come to his parents' ranch, just a vague "cow and calf operation" suggestion?  He could have even asked him to just spend one of their weeks together there helping out, so that they could test how it would go.  He talked to his father about bringing Ennis, but never talked to Ennis about bringing Ennis.

Good point. It's crossed my mind that perhaps the only realistic opportunity they might have had to make it work, the two of them having a place, was to take over or at least run Jack's folks' place. It was already a going concern, even if it was in sad shape. No land or equipment or cattle to buy to get started.
"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.

moremojo

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Re: Missed opportunity...
« Reply #4 on: May 09, 2006, 03:26:46 pm »
     

Jack saying "come down to Texas" was yet another attempt at fishing for Ennis's fealings.    He was hoping Ennis knew he had no reason to stay up in Wyoming.  No wife, poor jobs, why not a fresh start somewhere new?    Oh?  the kids?   Well, Leslie has shown us in her fan fiction story that it is possible to have it all.    :)

Ennis's paranoia would not have abated one iota if he had relocated to Childress, at the point in time in which the story is set. He would have been closer to Jack, and would have had occasion to see him more often, but he would have been just as fearful, and would have had just as much reason to be fearful, as he had been in Wyoming. And of course Jack (presumably) dies in or near Childress, and Ennis assumes that he was murdered (and he may be right).

Offline Kd5000

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Re: Missed opportunity...
« Reply #5 on: May 09, 2006, 04:14:37 pm »
So Moremojo,

Would you say that Ennis is a state of arrested social development (i.e. can't overcome his internalize fears, homophobia), for lack of better word choice? 

Maybe I'm being too blunt, but I do remember reading on TOB that if Ennis had a second chance with Jack, he would have blown it.  When someone had posted that, it got me rather incensed, as I thought if the gods give you a second chance, you will have learned what you have lost and make amends. Obviously in this film, Ennis won't get a second chance with Jack.

Regarding Childress, it's probably a smaller place then Riverton.  Someone might see Jack and Ennis together and report back to Lureen's dad. I don't think there's that much back country in the TX panhandle to get lost from civilization, but they do have some crappie houses for "fishin trips."  ;D   



This don't happen in Wyoming, maybe Denver....

moremojo

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Re: Missed opportunity...
« Reply #6 on: May 09, 2006, 05:32:23 pm »
So Moremojo,

Would you say that Ennis is a state of arrested social development (i.e. can't overcome his internalize fears, homophobia), for lack of better word choice? 
Tragically, I don't Ennis would/could have overcome his paranoia while Jack lived. It took Jack's death to awaken Ennis fully to how precious that man was to him, and the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that he represented. Now Ennis is seen to be emotionally evolving throughout the story, so who can say for sure, but the lakeside quarrel still seems to show the relationship at an impasse.

I'm not absolutely certain I believe that, at the end, if Jack were to be magically resurrected, Ennis would still be able to venture into the kind of life Jack always wanted for them. "Jack, I swear..." is ambiguous, and to my mind tells us for certain only that Ennis loves Jack immensely and will never forget him. Ennis is with Jack in spirit, though he will forever be bereft of him in body.

BTW, sorry to anyone if my above post in this thread sounded arrogant. I wasn't trying to presume to state with any kind of authority how Ennis would behave in such-and-such a situation. I was just trying to convey how I personally view Ennis's character and likely choices.

Scott
« Last Edit: February 15, 2008, 07:27:01 pm by moremojo »

Offline serious crayons

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Re: Missed opportunity...
« Reply #7 on: May 09, 2006, 06:15:54 pm »
No prob, Scott. It gets old prefacing every thought with "IMO" or "I think" ... Let's just declare that it goes without saying that there are no right answers, and we're all just stating opinions.

TJ

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Re: Missed opportunity...
« Reply #8 on: May 09, 2006, 10:12:41 pm »
According to the US Census of 2000, Riverton's population was 9,310 and Childress was 6,768. The differences in population size is not really that much.

While someone in the movie's version where Jack worked for his father-in-law might have reported seeing Jack with Ennis and Jack was in the ol' man's company, I really don't think that would have happened short story-wise; because Jack did not work for the company until after Lureen's father was dead.

Ennis's first missed opportunity, short story version, was that he did not understand why he felt like he had gut cramps when the guys drove their truck off in opposite directions and it took him a long time to figure out that the empty feeling which caused dry heaves had to do with "separation anxiety" because the man with whom he was in love drove off in the opposite direction.

Ennis should have turned that old truck around and followed Jack. He would have caught up with him eventually. After all, he knew exactly where Jack was headed.

Offline Ellemeno

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Re: Missed opportunity...
« Reply #9 on: May 10, 2006, 01:54:45 am »
When the movie was in the theaters and I was going every once in a while to see it, my husband and I had running (sad, not funny) joke.

Him: How was your movie?
Me:  I can't believe it - Ennis still blew it again THIS time.

I seriously think that one of the main reasons I kept wanting to see the movie so often was to give Ennis another chance to try it again and get it right this time.  Kind of like Groundhog Day.