Importance of the Jimbo Scene

[Brown Eyes]

I don't usually find it dangerous to try to connect with a potential partner, but I do find it can be very awkward outside of the context of a specifically gay environment.  Guaging a situation can be very, very tricky... and is something Jack needed to learn to do in the context of his social environment.  And, as many of us have said in this thread... Jack seems to have very good gaydar in this regard.  This is one of the things that makes the Jimbo scene interesting, because nothing is entirely clear cut.

To me this awkwardness is what Jack experiences... he's a bit embarassed by Jimbo's rejection and he's frurstrated by the bartender hovering and making annoying comments.
To me that's the main reason he leaves the bar.  He may have had a slight worry about what was going on around the pool table too. 

But, again, we really have no idea what Jimbo says to them or why they're looking in Jack's direction.  I do find it somewhat unlikely that Jimbo would go right up to them and tell them what just happened between himself and Jack.

[Artiste]

Merci atz!

Because I am late to go do my creations, I will be very brief for now OK!

Thanks for elaborating well again !
<
Atz: I agree with most of your points, but have to disagree strongly with some! That I will elaborate later, if you like; for example: stressing again that Jimbo, as a danger, forecasts Jack futur: death, even !

Au revoir,
hugs!  P.S. Didn't Jack was told to become a pederast ? Maybe, I got the wrong word... here and will add that too to explain in other posts... if you like !

[Brown Eyes]

  P.S. Didn't Jack was told to become a pederast ? Maybe, I got the wrong word... here and will add that too to explain in other posts... if you like !

No.  There is no evidence of discussion of this topic whatsoever in BBM.  If you want to discuss this topic that you mention, please start another thread.





This thread is about the issue of Jack seeking out male partners in the context of his community during the years before he reunites with Ennis.  It's about how difficult finding a partner could be.  And, the Jimbo scene is the moment in the film when this issue is addressed.

[Mandy21]

Hey Amanda, this is an interesting thread, thanks for starting it.  Just a couple quick questions, wondering about relationships and meeting people.  I'm not sure if you ever had heterosexual relationships in your life, but if you did, did you find them to be difficult to begin, as well?  I mean sometimes it's as easy as saying something clever to a cute guy in the produce section at the neighborhood store and before you know it, you're boyfriend and girlfriend, but also sometimes you can try for years to get somebody to return your love again -- somebody whose heart you broke in the past -- and fail.  I've never tried to pick up a woman in my life, but I would think it would be an equally tricky and unpredictable guessing game.  For that matter, what if I was to try to pick up some random guy, and he was actually gay -- would he be offended that I couldn't sense that about him just by looking at him?  Just seems like it's a slippery slope, all around, and as I've gotten older, I find myself attracted or drawn to or even noticing, less and less people when I'm out and about.  Don't know why that is.  Perhaps as you age, you lose that youthful bravado and confidence to approach and take that first leap.

[Brown Eyes]

Hey Amanda, this is an interesting thread, thanks for starting it.  Just a couple quick questions, wondering about relationships and meeting people.  I'm not sure if you ever had heterosexual relationships in your life, but if you did, did you find them to be difficult to begin, as well?  I mean sometimes it's as easy as saying something clever to a cute guy in the produce section at the neighborhood store and before you know it, you're boyfriend and girlfriend, but also sometimes you can try for years to get somebody to return your love again -- somebody whose heart you broke in the past -- and fail.  I've never tried to pick up a woman in my life, but I would think it would be an equally tricky and unpredictable guessing game.  For that matter, what if I was to try to pick up some random guy, and he was actually gay -- would he be offended that I couldn't sense that about him just by looking at him?  Just seems like it's a slippery slope, all around, and as I've gotten older, I find myself attracted or drawn to or even noticing, less and less people when I'm out and about.  Don't know why that is.  Perhaps as you age, you lose that youthful bravado and confidence to approach and take that first leap.

Heya Mandy!

No, I've never had a heterosexual relationship and I've not tried to pick up a guy before. 

And, yes, I'm sure that there's a lot of anxiety and it can be very difficult to approach someone you're interested in a heterosexual context.  I'm certainly not implying that finding an ideal partner is easy for straight people.

But, the odds are stacked against a gay encounter to a greater degree... simply based on numbers and percentages.

I've never in my life met a girlfriend outside the context of a specifically gay environment (either a gay bar, a gay discussion group, my all-female college where there was a ton of lesbian socializing/ parties, etc.).  In daily life, it truly, truly can feel like it would be similar to finding a needle in a haystack to even encounter someone who's (a) attrative enough to want to approach and (b) gay.  In daily life it's just so hard to tell what someone's story is.  And, I think there are far fewer opportunities for the kind of casual grocery store encounter that you mention simply because it's so hard to tell how a person would react to an advance like that.

This is why Jack's dilemma is so interesting to me.  In the four years prior to the reunion he is essentially operating as a single gay man trying to find a partner (since his hopes about Ennis are probably very slim during those four years).  Jack doesn't have anywhere to go in his community that would provide him with a gay environment.  So, he has to have the very awkward types of encounters that we see in the Jimbo scene.

[Katie77]

I just had a thought between the connection of the Jimbo scene one night followed by the Laureen scene the following night......if we are to assume that they were in fact on two consecutive nights....

If talk had got around the rodeo crowd about Jack, and his eye for men, well no doubt Laureen would have heard that talk too.  So, I'm wondering if, because of her brazeness and forwardness, was she maybe one of these women who think, that she can turn a gay man straight. After all it was her who was doing the flirting and made the approach to Jack. 

She was probably a natural flirt anyway, but if she had heard the rumours about Jack, then he would be a challenge and a bit of a trophy. A bit like, "well he might like men, but I'll give him a woman he wont resist".

Consequently, in the following years, if and when she ever had her suspicions about Jack and Ennis, she would not have been completely surprised about the fact, and realized that all those rumours back then on the rodeo cirucuit were true after all, and accepted Jack's lifestyle.

Maybe she even set up the meeting with him and Randall. She had obviosly became good friends with LaShawn and maybe she detected something from what she had said, and thought, that there may be a similarity between Randall and Jack.

As has been mentioned, Laureen was pretty street wise around men, what with the rodeo circuit and the business she was in. She would not have been bliind to what was going on around her, and she would be hearing things that most women would not be hearing.

I agree with Amanda, I like Laureen. I think she called a spade a spade, and I think she did that with Jack too.

[optom3]

I just had a thought between the connection of the Jimbo scene one night followed by the Laureen scene the following night......if we are to assume that they were in fact on two consecutive nights....

If talk had got around the rodeo crowd about Jack, and his eye for men, well no doubt Laureen would have heard that talk too.  So, I'm wondering if, because of her brazeness and forwardness, was she maybe one of these women who think, that she can turn a gay man straight. After all it was her who was doing the flirting and made the approach to Jack. 

She was probably a natural flirt anyway, but if she had heard the rumours about Jack, then he would be a challenge and a bit of a trophy. A bit like, "well he might like men, but I'll give him a woman he wont resist".

Consequently, in the following years, if and when she ever had her suspicions about Jack and Ennis, she would not have been completely surprised about the fact, and realized that all those rumours back then on the rodeo cirucuit were true after all, and accepted Jack's lifestyle.

Maybe she even set up the meeting with him and Randall. She had obviosly became good friends with LaShawn and maybe she detected something from what she had said, and thought, that there may be a similarity between Randall and Jack.

As has been mentioned, Laureen was pretty street wise around men, what with the rodeo circuit and the business she was in. She would not have been bliind to what was going on around her, and she would be hearing things that most women would not be hearing.

I agree with Amanda, I like Laureen. I think she called a spade a spade, and I think she did that with Jack too.

Lureen maybe having heard something about Jack on the circuit and wanting to "convert" him is such a good idea. It has always struck me as odd that a woman as beautiful as her would be sat all on her own.It is almost as if she is setting the whole thing up.
When I was getting divorced from my 1st husband, I lost count of the number of girls, friends and otherwise who thought I had just failed and they would be able to turn him on to women.
Never did work, but you can't tell some folk, not even when we went out, and he was with his boyfriend did they stop.We had and still do have a very good friendship.
I do think Lureen was confident enough in herself and maybe even conceited to think she could convert Jack.
It could also be the reason she becomes so brittle later on, because having initially asumed she had turned Jack, she starts to get an inkling that she probably hasn't.
I am sure in the missing Parka scene, all the muttering she does, is because she knows full well why Ennis never comes to Childress and why Jack is prepared to drive for 14 hours, for a fishing trip.
This opens up a whole new perspective on things.

[Gabreya]

I think Jack was putting out "feelers" towards Jimbo......buy him a drink, get talkin, and see if his gaydar picks up on anything.
 
I always feel that when Jimbo goes back to his mates playing pool, that he has told them, that he felt Jack was trying to pick him up. They all seem to look over at him in a curious way. Makes me think, whether Jack may have had a reputaton around the rodeo circuit of approaching the boys. And he seemed a bit OUT of the general crowd, not part of the group, no one to drink with. Was that because the rodeo crowd had picked up on him?

And when he got so shitty, with the bartender, it was like, "Im sick of the lot of you"......

And what was the comment those blokes made, when they were in the office with Laureen and they recognised Jack from the rodeos?......

Seemed like the only time Jack was really happy and comfortable was when he was with Ennis...and the same for Ennis when he was with Jack. No matter how much they tried to fit in or settle into all the other parts of their life, it just didn't work out.

Yeah.

[Artiste]

Atz, doesn't the waiter tells jack to become a pederastre ? What's his words?

[Brown Eyes]

The bartender asks if Jack has ever tried calf-roping, which is a rodeo event.  It requires a very skilled, trained and usually expensive horse... which is why Jack gets upset, saying that he couldn't afford to do that.