The shirts and the Dozy Embrace

[Penthesilea]

youv'e made some very good points. I agree, I think that Mama Twist was implying that she knew the "meaning of the shirts" and assented to Ennis's inheritance. But if she knew their meaning, why leave them on the nail in the inner closet? Farm women are very practical, she had to know that the shirts would last much longer as a legacy if they were placed in a cedar chest with some moth balls on them. Hanging on that nail would have caused the fabrics to deteriorate over the decades, esp since they were probably never washed.

I agree that if Jack had hung the shirts in any closet in Childress, they would have been tossed by Lureen or a maid within 5 years. But, given the importance Jack gave to the shirts, why didn't he buy a lock box to put them in and hide them somewhere? Again that would preserve the shirts and make them available to Jack for remembrance year round.

Did Jack leave a note detailing his legacies? He did state somewher that he wanted to be cremated and the ashes tossed on Brokeback, wouldn't he also have left some letter to Ennis? And maybe Lureen knew of his final testament and didn't want to tell Ennis. I remember her words, when she instructed Ennis to carry out Jacks wishes, she used the phrase : "I mean about the ashes". In my paranoid mind, I see her hiding a legacy Jack had for Ennis.

I think that's too far-fetched. Jack knew a possible letter he left to Ennis would go through Lureen's hands. Also we don't know if Jack had a testament at all. And even if he had one, it possibly might have concerned only business (monetary) issues.
He had told Lureen he wanted to be cremated and his ashes scattered on Brokeback:

"...He use to say he wanted his ahses scattered on Brokeback Mountain, but I wasn't sure where that was. [...]"

"Well, he said it was his favorite place. [...]"

Big difference to making a testament. My husband and I for example have talked about things like that from time to time. He knows I never would want to get cremated, but I don't have a will whatsoever.


As for Mrs. Twist:
I think Mrs. Twist simply did not touch them because she "kept his room like it was when he was a little boy". She did not touch anything, the room was like a relic to her even when Jack was still alive, and much more so after his passing.
Additionally, had she changed something with The Shirts while he was alive, he would have known that she knows about them. But Jack had hiddem them. They were not hanging among his other things in the closet, but hidden for a reason and she did not want to disturb this. She was simply tactful.

[brokeplex]

I think that's too far-fetched. Jack knew a possible letter he left to Ennis would go through Lureen's hands. Also we don't know if Jack had a testament at all. And even if he had one, it possibly might have concerned only business (monetary) issues.
He had told Lureen he wanted to be cremated and his ashes scattered on Brokeback:

"...He use to say he wanted his ahses scattered on Brokeback Mountain, but I wasn't sure where that was. [...]"

"Well, he said it was his favorite place. [...]"

Big difference to making a testament. My husband and I for example have talked about things like that from time to time. He knows I never would want to get cremated, but I don't have a will whatsoever.


As for Mrs. Twist:
I think Mrs. Twist simply did not touch them because she "kept his room like it was when he was a little boy". She did not touch anything, the room was like a relic to her even when Jack was still alive, and much more so after his passing.
Additionally, had she changed something with The Shirts while he was alive, he would have known that she knows about them. But Jack had hiddem them. They were not hanging among his other things in the closet, but hidden for a reason and she did not want to disturb this. She was simply tactful.

I'm going to disagree, Jack could have put something in a safety deposit box, a memento, a letter, maybe some cash, something he wanted Ennis to have. sure, it would go thru Lureen, but maybe he took a chance and relied on Lureen's honesty.  its Lureen's choice of words that make me suspicious, her words to Ennis left hanging whether the disposition of the ashes was the only request that he had made while alive in regard to his estate.

Mrs Twist probably did not touch the shirts because she just didn't look inside the inner closet, or she touched them and returned them to the inner closet recognizing their significance, or she deliberately moved them to the inner closet from another location such as a drawer or a box, hoping that Ennis might find them, but not wishing to actively give them to him. Regardless, it is the most touching of the motifs in the film. Who could love this film and not be bowled over by the simple almost pathetic childlike gesture of a grown man keeping two shirts one inside the other as a love token to an impossible romance.  

[Ellemeno]

Far as Mrs. Twist...maybe what she said to Ennis, that she "kept his room like it was when he was a boy and I think he appreciated it" also, and most importantly, applies to her keeping the shirts safe.

You know what?  I always assumed she meant since he was a little kid, but you're right, a nineteen year old is definitely a "boy" to his mom, especially twenty years later.  "I kept his room like it was when he was a boy" could totally mean "I left those shirts up there right where he put them."  Given the scene, it's barely even cryptic.

I can't see the shirts being safe in Childress, where there was what looked like a lot of decorating (and the inevitable throwing out of 'these old things') that goes along with it.

This brought to mind the blue parka scene.  Is that partly why that scene is in the movie at all, that looking for the parka in Childress is somehow connected to later realizing the shirts were kept safe in Lightning Flat?

Quote by Diana Ossana, from The Advocate:

Afterward our grizzled and thoroughly macho first assistant director marched over to me, bent down, and whispered in my ear, "Diana, I've worked in this business 50 years. This is the first time an actor's brought a tear to my eye."

---end of quote---

THANK YOU for re-posting the whole wonderful quote from Diana Ossana, Chrissi.  And on re-read, I just realized she is talking about Michael Hausman in the snippet above, the one who Pierre Tremblay raves about.  More and more I want to know more about him.

[Brown Eyes]

This brought to mind the blue parka scene.  Is that partly why that scene is in the movie at all, that looking for the parka in Childress is somehow connected to later realizing the shirts were kept safe in Lightning Flat?

Hi Elle,
I think this is a really interesting question.  I do think that the scene may indicate (retrospectively, once the viewer knows about the Lightning Flat double shirts) that Childress was not a safe space for the shirts or that in general, Jack was "lost" and not in his element in his Childress house.  But on the other hand, Lureen is so wrapped up in her own business that she clearly isn't paying much attention to where Jack puts his clothing... so in another way it could be argued that Lureen may not have ever really noticed if Jack were to hide the shirts someplace in the Texas house.

There are two really important ways that this scene functions, I think. One way is to simply further the metaphor of the "closet" which is so powerful in the film and of course becomes vital when we learn about Jack's Childress closet and which culminates as a theme in the final scene in the trailer.  And, the other is to further the theme of shirts and coatracks, which pervade the film (and are probably closely related to closets as a concept and in terms of potential metapor).

The blue parka scene shows Jack futilely opening, what appears to be an empty, closet... followed closely by the parallel scene of Ennis packing and digging in his crammed closet in Riverton.









The coatracks and other instances of paired shirts are particularly interesting I think.  We first see the coatrack in Aguirre's office near Jack at the beginning with one shirt.  And, then later when he returns the next summer Jack stands near that same coatrack, but this time it has at least two shirts/jackets on it.  And, later during the reunion sequence, the coatrack in Riverton is very prominently placed in the background of the encounter (between Jack and Ennis) when Jack and Alma meet each other.  Essentially, we're given lots of reasons to think about and notice, garments in closets or on racks throughout the film and in probably significant ways.









To me, all these prominent details of shirts, closets and coatracks almost feel like foreshadowing or clues leading up to the highly charged, emotional Lightning Flat/ end-trailer scenes.  In a way, all these instances of shirts and closets remind me of things like the black hats/ white hats and even the yin and yang symbols that seems to haunt both Jack and Ennis in different ways.