The dark side of the mountain

[moremojo]

I posted the following today in reply to a thread originated on TOB on the IMDb ("Tent don't look right"):

I find it interesting and poignant, when reflecting on how the mountain can be seen as the boys' Garden of Eden, to consider how dangerous the mountain really is, despite its offering of refuge to the illicit love between Jack and Ennis. The mountain is cold, subject to harsh, potentially lethal weather (the hailstorm, the lightning strike that killed the sheep the year earlier), and is replete with bears and coyotes. Ennis and Jack found love amidst dangerous circumstances, and bore their love through unending peril and fear (culminating perhaps in Jack's own murder).

[Mikaela]

Good  topic! 

Seeing the mountain as  the Garden of Eden, the filmmakers have made certain to ensure that there are serpents around too, as it were - and the boys are aware of them. They may feel like they're outside of civilization but even their paradise has issued rules for them to follow, and breaking those rules it comes with a risk.....  Game and Fish might catch them out. Forest Service is snooping around. And "what if Aguirre finds out" is emphasized when Aguirre himself shows up and very pointedly uses his binoculars in the middle of his conversation with Jack, to let Jack know they're being watched. No, the boys are not alone with the elements and the animals both domestic and wild....... the dangers and strictures of society are still present even if the dangers and freedom of the wild may seem more present, and more real.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Mikaela,

Good point about Aguirre and the binoculars when he's talking with Jack. I never thought about that! Almost six months since my first viewing and I'm still learning new things! Thanks!

Good  topic! 

Seeing the mountain as  the Garden of Eden, the filmmakers have made certain to ensure that there are serpents around too, as it were - and the boys are aware of them. They may feel like they're outside of civilization but even their paradise has issued rules for them to follow, and breaking those rules it comes with a risk.....  Game and Fish might catch them out. Forest Service is snooping around. And "what if Aguirre finds out" is emphasized when Aguirre himself shows up and very pointedly uses his binoculars in the middle of his conversation with Jack, to let Jack now they're being watched. No, the boys are not alone with the elements and the animals both domestic and wild....... the dangers and strictures of society are still present even if the dangers and freedom of the wild may seem more present, and more real.

[serious crayons]

It is a good topic, Scott!

One example of this that always strikes me is how dangerous the trail looks the morning after TS1, as Ennis is riding along and thinking about the night before. The shot comes from below, up a steep rocky hillside, dark clouds in the background. In its aridity it slightly resembles the setting of the scene with Earl (another reason, beyond the slaughtered sheep, that this scene mirrors that one). One false step by the horse and they could both go over the edge. It's threatening and forbidding and literally a slippery slope.

Of course, they've presumably been commuting on this same trail all along. But up until now, we've only been shown the pretty, verdant, forested parts of it.

[nakymaton]

It's a pretty realistic view of living in the wilderness for a summer, though. I've been kind of annoyed with reviewers who focus only on the Edenic qualities of the mountain, in contrast with the drudgery of the small towns. Lightning, hail, bears, coyotes, cold, running out of food... I've worried about almost all those things during my summers living in tents. Seems believable to me. Neither safe nor unusually threatening.

Good point about why their second sheep pasture was on limestone with thin soil and not enough grass, though -- comparison with Ennis's flashback. (It's the limestone that makes it so bleak-looking.)

[serious crayons]

Good point about why their second sheep pasture was on limestone with thin soil and not enough grass, though -- comparison with Ennis's flashback. (It's the limestone that makes it so bleak-looking.)

Mel, thanks for the geologist's perspective!

Their campsite is certainly a lot more Edenic for them than it would be for me. (What, no heated pool? No minibar? No extended cable?!  ) One detail that really makes this vivid to me is when Ennis stretches out to sleep with his head on a LOG. Me, I bring my own pillow when traveling because hotel ones are usually too hard.


But sometimes they do acknowledge the dangerousness -- as when Ennis looks up with concern at Jack riding up the mountain and the threatening clouds coming up over the top.
 

[alec716]

This thread it a great idea!  Much thought to be mined.  OK, maybe I am not remembering some details, and maybe I am having an uncharacteristically naive day.  Nonetheless, it seems to me that a possible lesson to be drawn here is: it was ultimately the dangers posed by the human species, not by nature, which kept our heros physically separated for all that time (including eternity, if one subscribes -- as I do -- to the theory that Jack was murdered).  Some of their travails in nature brought them closer together: Jack's nurturing of Ennis after Ennis' fall from the horse thanks to the bear in the stream, the intensity of the time spent segregating out the storm-mingled sheep flocks, the simple beauty of campfire chats under glorious skies, the skinny-dipping dive, and, critically, the cold which drove Ennis into Jack's bedroll on their first fateful night of physical love.  Nauture certainly handed them some challenges (such as by truncating that first summer with early snow), but it was human bigotry (and Ennis' internalization of it) which kept our boys from having that little cow and calf operation.  People definitely tore asunder what nature brought together.  Maybe I am wrong -- just my thoughts at the moment.

[starboardlight]

It's a pretty realistic view of living in the wilderness for a summer, though. I've been kind of annoyed with reviewers who focus only on the Edenic qualities of the mountain, in contrast with the drudgery of the small towns. Lightning, hail, bears, coyotes, cold, running out of food... I've worried about almost all those things during my summers living in tents. Seems believable to me. Neither safe nor unusually threatening.

Good point about why their second sheep pasture was on limestone with thin soil and not enough grass, though -- comparison with Ennis's flashback. (It's the limestone that makes it so bleak-looking.)

from a guy's point of view. growing up, those things (weather, wild animals, food concerns) are exactly the romance of camping out. it's the test of masculinity. so yes, while they are real dangers, for the boys, I think they might actually be thrilling to have those elements. After all both Jack and Ennis at that age aspire to cowboy heroism.

This thread it a great idea!  Much thought to be mined.  OK, maybe I am not remembering some details, and maybe I am having an uncharacteristically naive day.  Nonetheless, it seems to me that a possible lesson to be drawn here is: it was ultimately the dangers posed by the human species, not by nature, which kept our heros physically separated for all that time (including eternity, if one subscribes -- as I do -- to the theory that Jack was murdered).  Some of their travails in nature brought them closer together: Jack's nurturing of Ennis after Ennis' fall from the horse thanks to the bear in the stream, the intensity of the time spent segregating out the storm-mingled sheep flocks, the simple beauty of campfire chats under glorious skies, the skinny-dipping dive, and, critically, the cold which drove Ennis into Jack's bedroll on their first fateful night of physical love.  Nauture certainly handed them some challenges (such as by truncating that first summer with early snow), but it was human bigotry (and Ennis' internalization of it) which kept our boys from having that little cow and calf operation.  People definitely tore asunder what nature brought together.  Maybe I am wrong -- just my thoughts at the moment.

come to think of it, now, the boys overcame these "tests of masculinity" by coming together. so, somehow, by being together they became men.

[bbm_stitchbuffyfan]

come to think of it, now, the boys overcame these "tests of masculinity" by coming together. so, somehow, by being together they became men.

Ooh, I really like this...

You know, I've always felt a sort of "loss of innocence" sense to their hillside talk after their first sexual encounter.

[serious crayons]

Well, and maybe this is kind of obvious, or perhaps implicit in previous posts, but the fact that their lifestyle is rugged and uncomfortable and hard-working also serves to underscore their "masculinity," in a traditional sense. Which nicely contradicts stereotypes.

[starboardlight]

Well, and maybe this is kind of obvious, or perhaps implicit in previous posts, but the fact that their lifestyle is rugged and uncomfortable and hard-working also serves to underscore their "masculinity," in a traditional sense. Which nicely contradicts stereotypes.

this film, as much as it is about love and regrets, is also about masculinity.

[moremojo]

I have really enjoyed reading through all the wonderful, insightful posts in this thread, and I just wanted to let you all know that, and thank you for contributing. Nipith, I particularly found your emphasis on masculinity as a primary theme of the film to be illuminating, and realize that this is an important element in viewers' powerful responses to the movie. It's true that both Jack and Ennis idealize the life of the cowboy, and aspire to be successful cowboys themselves. One senses the mutual respect, as well as admiration, that the two men come to feel for one another, and this is very much tied into the masculine qualities in their personae.

Alec716, I thought you expressed beautifully how the mountain, in its very harshness, brought the boys together and fostered their love. This dichotomy between harshness and tenderness/sheltering is very poignant to me, and enhances the beauty of the story's themes immeasurably. And you're right to point out that the human world was ultimately much more unforgiving and cruel to who Ennis and Jack really were than the world of nature ever was. In fact, through the postcard of the mountain that Ennis cherishes, it is intimated that he longs to return to that harsh, austerely beautiful world, if ultimately only in spirit.

Great job, everyone.

Scott

[whiteoutofthemoon]

I posted the following today in reply to a thread originated on TOB on the IMDb ("Tent don't look right"):

I find it interesting and poignant, when reflecting on how the mountain can be seen as the boys' Garden of Eden, to consider how dangerous the mountain really is, despite its offering of refuge to the illicit love between Jack and Ennis. The mountain is cold, subject to harsh, potentially lethal weather (the hailstorm, the lightning strike that killed the sheep the year earlier), and is replete with bears and coyotes. Ennis and Jack found love amidst dangerous circumstances, and bore their love through unending peril and fear (culminating perhaps in Jack's own murder).

In the short story, I found it rather profound when it is described that Ennis and Jack felt themselves "invisible" to the world below when they were on the mountain.  It was their safe haven, and despite all the dangers of nature, ironically safer to them compared to the dangers of society.   This is why I presume Ennis was so upset about leaving the mountain too early, it wasn't just losing a "month's pay", but he would have to step back in reality.    In the book, as well, as they are riding down the mountain, it says something about Ennis feeling like he was spiralling down out of control, like he was losing everything.

A very striking scene for me is just after the Thanksgiving dinner, after Alma confronts Ennis, and he goes to the bar and gets in a fistfight with the towtruck driver...you see the crap being pounded out of him, and pity the miserable existence he must be living due to his conflicted emotions, and it immediately cuts to the beauty of the mountains (regardless of whether or not it's actually Brokeback), it's such a stark contrast from darkness and cold to light and beauty, the music starts playing.....really profound for me every time I see it.  That's the only time that he has peace and happiness, with Jack, in the mountains, but there's never enough time with that, "never enough".

"you know it could like this, just like this, always".....   but then, it can't.

[gattaca]

This is why I presume Ennis was so upset about leaving the mountain too early, it wasn't just losing a "month's pay", but he would have to step back in reality.    In the book, as well, as they are riding down the mountain, it says something about Ennis feeling like he was spiralling down out of control, like he was losing everything.

I believe this to be the case as well - of course Ennis could not say that (or he thought he couldn't, or he did not know how to express that) - so he 'saves face' by stating his irritation is about the lost income. I think they (Jack & Ennis) both knew that it wasn't about the money at all.