Author Topic: TOTW 18/07: Do you think classic cowboy icons like the "Marlboro Man" were proto  (Read 58518 times)

Offline Brown Eyes

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:laugh: I dutifully copied that quote from imdb but just now read it closely enough to see that it's a Yogi Berra-ism. If John Wayne were alive, he wouldn't have a grave to roll over in.

Sure enough!  :laugh: :laugh:

the world was asleep to our latent fuss - bowie

injest

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I think that's really profound.  The idea of Ennis (embodying visual aspects of an archetype and simultaneously subverting aspects of the archetype) makes the image of a cowboy in a cultural context seem to be a kind of a mask.  Ennis could comfortably slip behind the mannerisms of a stoic individualist cowboy... and sort of hide in plain sight (while the behaviors of being alone and quiet are also aspects of being an outsider or in his case a closeted gay man).  The inversion of the issue of freedom/independence vs. constraint/trying-to-fit-in-with-conventional-society in Ennis is pretty interesting.

I think the idea that the cowboy can mask lots of underlying realities is exactly what causes so much anxiety among folks who dislike BBM.

Crayons, at the moment this bit from one of your earlier posts really stands out as I'm thinking about this post...




see this is where I have to take exception. Ennis is not 'slipping' into anything....that is who HE IS....he is not acting...he IS who he is, quiet, withdrawn, individualistic in HIS way...


Offline serious crayons

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see this is where I have to take exception. Ennis is not 'slipping' into anything....that is who HE IS....he is not acting...he IS who he is, quiet, withdrawn, individualistic in HIS way...

Because people associate being withdrawn and stoic and lonerish as classic cowboy traits, they don't question why he has them -- on the contrary, in that context they seem respectable and even cool. But in his case, being a rugged cowboy type isn't the whole explanation for his behavior. The traits serve as a convenient and acceptable mask for Ennis ' real reason for hiding. So, although he's not slipping into anything at 19 and beyond, and those traits are partly just inherent in his personality, I also believe that he developed them as a way of hiding aspects of himself in a culture where he knew very well those aspects weren't considered acceptable.


Offline delalluvia

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It might be worth bearing in mind that Proulx has insisted over and over again in interviews and articles that Ennis and Jack were not cowboys...they wanted to be cowboys, but they came together as sheepherders on the mountain (the low end of the totem pole in the ranching culture in which they lived). Jack didn't even remain on the land but became a small-town gentleman-salesman of not insubstantial wealth (or at least with links to that wealth).

I don't get this.  Well, perhaps that's what Proulx intended but that's not what the movie ended up being.

Granted they did meet while they were sheepherders, instead of real cowboys...

But to say Jack had aspirations of being a rodeo cowboy?

Um, he was a rodeo cowboy.

Not a very successful one, it was all penny-ante small town stuff, but he still rode the circuit.  I think he achieved being a rodeo cowboy, even if he wasn't successful and eventually retired due to injury.

By the end, he's a man of some means, but he isn't dressing like the Marlboro Man, he's dressing like rich cattlemen do - leather western blazers, nice boots, silver jewelry and expensive felt hat

As for Ennis, he was a sheepherder for one season.  Then he was a ranch hand, shucking feed to cattle, helping with the calving, then by the end of the movie he's got a job on the cattle drive.  If that isn't a cowboy, I'm not sure what Proulx considers a cowboy.

Offline Brown Eyes

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see this is where I have to take exception. Ennis is not 'slipping' into anything....that is who HE IS....he is not acting...he IS who he is, quiet, withdrawn, individualistic in HIS way...

You could also look at it another way... Ennis is given these characteristics by the writers, costume designers and actor who all worked together to create the fictional character that we know as Ennis. 

Yes, Ennis is who he is within the narrative of BBM.  And, within the narrative of the story he was probably not deliberately assuming certain personality/character traits.  Although, some of his personality traits are somewhat within his control.  I do think he probably used his tough-guy stoic public image to his advantage when he wanted to.  And, in certain cases I think an argument could be made that he's being deliberate.

But, all of the things having to do with Ennis were entirely within the control of the artists who created him.  And, thinking about those choices... which characteristics the writers/director/actors decided to give Ennis vs. say, Jack or other male characters like L.D. or Monroe... are interesting.  To me this is a question about the meaning behind artistic decision making.  I mean, as on example, I recall an interview with Heath where he talked about how he thought about Ennis's posture... how the way Ennis holds himself when he walks reflects all the bottled up tension that he carries around.  And, to me, Ennis's posture can probably be read a couple different ways.  It can be read as tense, reserved/shy and defensive (someone who is scared) or it could be read as tough, rigid and rugged (someone you wouldn't want to mess with).  Little things like that are carefully crafted and thought through.

The fact that Ennis as a figure within the narrative of BBM absorbs both the qualities of what we've been calling an "iconic" cowboy and those of a closeted gay man so easily and seemingly naturally on his part (with probably little conscious effort) may go towards demonstrating the way, for Ennis those things could, in certain cases, be two sides of the same coin.  Which, again, seems to be a good reason why both of the main characters in BBM are threatening to certain resistant audiences... because they challenge some long-held myths about certain American/masculine icons.


It's impossible for me to believe that Annie would have spent all that time and energy working all those Biblical allusions and classical myths and all the other subtle imagery into her story ... but not have meant anything particular when she chose cowboys as her characters. It's also impossible for me to believe Ang Lee went to all the trouble to set up an image of Ennis posed against a backdrop of exploding 4th of July fireworks without having it cross his mind that his movie is playing around with American myth. Or that either Ang or Annie -- who were so careful about establishing elaborate metaphors involving buckets and snow and bears and water and laundry and so on -- would not have given any thought to American feelings about cowboys and what they represent.


I think this point is really central to all of this.  The image of Ennis in front of the fireworks... lashing out in frustration is such a great example.  Here we have one of the symbols of the American west for many generations (the cowboy) at an entirely American/patriotic celebration demonstrating a great deal of masculine prowess in his ability to lay both of the annoying bikers out flat.  So on the one hand... that's the ideal.  But, just below this is the fact that we know (as Brokies) that Ennis is a super-painfully shy and, at this point, extremely frustrated gay man.  The fuel behind his lashing out here is multi-layered.

With the explosions going off behind him it's almost a visualization of the "explosion" (so to speak) of certain myths or icons. 


And, back to Jack... and his identity.  By the time of the reunion Jack is no longer a working cowboy in any sense (he's retired from the rodeo and the cow and calf operation is a pie-in-the-sky fantasy).  So yes, he continues to wear gear associated with cowboys throughout the rest of the film.  And, these are fashion/ image choices on his part.  Yes, he wears expensive hats, nice watches, etc. by the end. 

When LaShawn says "we came out here thinking ranching was still big hats and Marlboros, boy, were we behind the times..."

She's right.  She's talking about how images and realities in the west and in Texas have evolved... and again I think BBM is a pretty nuanced study in the way the west has changed in terms of cowboy culture, etc. in the late 20th century.


 
the world was asleep to our latent fuss - bowie

Offline Brown Eyes

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I'm posting again, because while glancing through the Story to Screenplay book tonight, I noticed yet another explicit and concrete example of a reference to a historic cowboy movie written into the screenplay (at least this published version of the screenplay).

Of course this one on p. 60 has already been discussed a lot on this thread:

"EXT: RIVERTON, WYOMING: RANCH: BACK OF HAY TRUCK: DAY: 1972:

ENNIS stands in the back of a hay truck, looking much like James Dean in 'Giant.' Throws open bales of hay out to the cows. 
       
        ENNIS
        Come on! Come on!"



And, this second reference actually comes right before the "maybe Texas" scene and is found on p. 70. It says:

"EXT: WYOMING MOUNTAINS: DAY: 1978:

JACK and ENNIS ride through the mountains, like Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea in 'Ride the High Country,' only more life-worn, more weather-beaten."


So, here are some images I found doing quick web searches for Ride the High Country (1962).

<img src="http://www.divshare.com/img/3843779-875.jpg" border="0" /> <img src="http://www.divshare.com/img/3843788-067.jpg" border="0" />

<img src="http://www.divshare.com/img/midsize/3843782-764.jpg" border="0" />

<img src="http://www.divshare.com/img/3843781-7e3.jpg" border="0" />

The most interesting component of the Ride the High Country reference, I think has as much to do with Randolph Scott as with the film itself.  In Hollywood there is longstanding and fairly well substantiated speculation that Scott may have had an affair with Cary Grant. They Scott and Grant lived together for many years.  So, again here we have an example of subtext hovering just below the surface of a famous western image.

Here's just a nice photo of Scott:

<img src="http://www.divshare.com/img/midsize/3843780-918.jpg" border="0" />

And here are two apparently, somewhat famous photos of him with Cary Grant taken at their home.  I found one on Wikipedia and one on Answers.com:

<img src="http://www.divshare.com/img/3843786-20d.jpg" border="0" /> <img src="http://www.divshare.com/img/3843787-0de.jpg" border="0" />

Here's a link to the Wikipedia page about Scott (it's a very large page on his film career, his military service, etc.  and then at the end there's a long section called "Rumored homosexuality"). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randolph_Scott

And, here's a link to the Answers.com page about Scott, which is almost a duplicate of the Wikipedia page in many regards, but this also has lots of nice thumbnails of many of his movie posters. http://www.answers.com/randolph+scott?cat=entertainment

Here's just a taste of the blurb from Answers.com
Quote
Rumored Homosexuality

Although Scott achieved fame as a motion picture actor, he managed to keep a fairly low profile with his private life. Off screen he became good friends with Fred Astaire and Cary Grant. He met Grant on the set of Hot Saturday and shortly afterwards they began rooming together in a beach house in Malibu that became known as "Bachelor Hall."

    They would live together, on and off, for about ten years, presumably because they liked each other's company and wanted to save on living expenses (they were both considered notorious tightwads).[3]

As Scott shared "Bachelor Hall" with Cary Grant for twelve years, it was rumored that the two actors were romantically involved, and that the name "Bachelor Hall" and the reported parade of women there were invented by the studio who wanted to keep their valuable actors away from any public scandal...


Anyway, just thought this was interesting.  Reading the direction notes in the Story to Screenplay book is actually pretty revealing about certain scenes.  And, of course it's fun to find the places where the screenplay differs (sometimes greatly) from what the finished film actually seems to show.


the world was asleep to our latent fuss - bowie

moremojo

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If that isn't a cowboy, I'm not sure what Proulx considers a cowboy.
I certainly agree with everything you write here, del. I was just reiterating Proulx's assertion as a means to bolster the line of thinking that Jack and Ennis were influenced by the images and stories of what cowboys were and what they were supposed to be. I do think it nonsensical to describe the two men only as sheepherders and never as cowboys, since, as you point out, Jack rode the rodeo circuit as a rodeo cowboy and Ennis did work with cattle (the very definition of a cowboy). All these things are just as evident in the original story as they are in the film.

Offline serious crayons

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Here's what Proulx wrote in "Getting Movied":

Quote
Both wanted to be cowboys, be part of the Great Western Myth, but it didn't work out that way; Ennis never got to be more than a rough-cut ranch hand and Jack Twist chose rodeo as an expression of cowboy. Neither of them was ever a top hand, and they met herding sheep, animals most real cowokes despise. Although they were not really cowboys (the word "cowboy" is often used derisively in the west by those who do ranch work), the urban critics dubbed it a tale of two gay cowboys. No. It is a story of destructive rural homophobia.

That last part has been discussed a lot, the part about the urban critics' term being unfairly reductive. But the first part is interesting, showing why Proulx distinguishes so sharply between sheep herders and cowboys. Apparently she felt it important to portray them as aspirational rather than actual cowboys.


moremojo

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Apparently she felt it important to portray them as aspirational rather than actual cowboys.
I actually see them as both. They were both honest-to-God ranch men who subscribed to the myth of the rugged Western male.

moremojo

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So, here are some images I found doing quick web searches for Ride the High Country (1962).
Note the date of this film's release...one could imagine Ennis or Jack having gone to see this picture the year before their meeting.

Ride the High Country (incidentally, considered by many aficionados to be director Sam Peckinpah's masterpiece) is a melancholy, rather contemplative Western delineating the passing of an era, much as Brokeback Mountain alludes to changing economic and social circumstances. Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea were very famous and popular as old-time stars of the Western, and their double casting is widely seen as an allusion to the quiet closing of the curtain on a major genre and its influence on the wider culture. Ennis and Jack's story was unfurling when the myth of a myth was receding into history, and Brokeback Mountain could be understood as a post-Western Western, if it is approached as a Western at all.