ORIGINAL POSTER’S NOTE: This post is dedicated to dly64 in friendship and with my thanks.
I posted this little essay once before and it generated some good discussions. Because of a different conversation dly64 and I were having, dly64 asked me my thoughts on this subject and so I decided I’d throw my opinion on the matter of “quitting” into the mix.
I wrote this long before I had read much about whether Jack “quit” Ennis. Since then I have read more, and, of course, all of the discussion that the post originally generated. So I have used that information to inform myself for this edited version.
A very important part of this post is the definition of “quit.” This has caused more confusion, disagreement, and argument than I could ever have imagined. Therefore, please take note that here, in my post, “quit” means “allow to go” or “set free” – it DOES NOT mean “stop loving” or “forget about.” And so I submit to you, my BBBs, this edited version for your high-class entertainment.
Why Jack Quit Ennis
Many people seem to believe that Jack did not “quit” Ennis when, in fact, quitting Ennis was the only thing that Jack could do. Here’s why:
During the last campfire scene, Jack came as close as either of them ever did to saying “I love you” when he said “Tell you what. The truth is… sometimes I miss you so much, I can hardly stand it.” No verbal response from Ennis. Jack twice offered Ennis the chance to live together. Ennis turned him down. Jack saved their two shirts from the mountain. Jack initiated the reunion. Jack was the first to initiate tenderness between the two of them. Jack longingly asked Ennis whether he’d be back to the mountain the next year. Jack drove 14 hours 2-3 times a year to see Ennis.
Jack loved Ennis AND Jack realized it AND Jack accepted it AND Jack moved on it. Ennis certainly loved Jack, but he did not recognize it as “love,” he certainly did not accept it, and he, in fact, moved from it.
When they had their final fight, Ennis broke down and blamed Jack for being the way he was – not gay; rather, alone and drifting. Ennis was utterly confused, angry and tormented by his and their situations even though he kept it going and, deep down, wanted it to continue – so much so that he broke down, crying, and angrily swearing and attacking Jack. This is one piece of the pair of bookends that truly show us Ennis’ torment. The other bookend is his breakdown after Jack drove away after their initial time on the mountain ended. He was retching and this turned into anger. Partly he was kicking himself for letting Jack go, but he was also kicking himself for not being able to understand what had just happened on the mountain. He wasn’t thinking about this on the mountain, in the situation; rather, it all hit him after the initial summer ended abruptly and early and he found himself walking back into his stilted and fearful life with a marriage and wife just around the bend. That had been his plan before the mountain and he was terribly confused and angry as to how his plan could have taken such a twist. And yet all the time, underneath all of himself, he loved and craved Jack. But it was not in Ennis’ character to allow deep-down feelings to rise to the surface and for him to admit them.
In the final fight, when Jack said “I wish I knew how to quit you,” Ennis responded “Then why don’t you? Why don’t you just let me be, huh?” Then Ennis broke down and blamed Jack and, in his truest moment of self-realization and openness, told Jack that “I’m nothin’. I’m nowhere.”
Now comes the moment of greatest revelation in the film. And it’s not Ennis’ realization. It’s Jack’s. Jack suddenly sees Ennis in a different light. He doesn’t see Ennis any longer as a guy who’s all too happy to get it a couple of times a year as long as he can keep his life going. Now he sees the true Ennis – a guy who’s doing this because something’s got hold of him… he can’t help himself… and he’s tormented by this dilemma in himself. Jack realizes that Ennis has never come to terms with his love or with their relationship or with himself, for that matter.
And it is here that Jack displays the greatest love shown in the movie. He quits Ennis. He does not quit Ennis for Jack’s sake, for Jack to be able to get it on with another man in a more open or convenient relationship. Jack quits Ennis for Ennis’ sake. Jack realizes that if Jack truly loves Ennis with all of his heart, then Jack must let Ennis be. Jack must be removed from the picture of Ennis’ life so that Ennis will no longer be tormented by something that he is simply not equipped to deal with – this is Ennis’ character. I’m sure that Jack knows that if Jack quits Ennis it will cause Ennis a lot of pain. But Jack also knows that the “quit” pain will ultimately be less disastrous to the man he loves (Ennis) than the “continue” pain is causing him. Ennis can cope with rejection and abandonment – on the surface -- as he has done since his parents died. But he cannot deal with his inner struggles – at least not this one. It’s just not his character. And when Jack realizes this, he shows his truest love for Ennis by letting him be. Jack could not fix Ennis, so Jack had to let him stand. And Ennis cannot do this anymore with a relationship with Jack.
Jack said "I wish I knew how to quit you." And in the greatest irony of the film, Ennis showed Jack just how to do that -- one of Jack's wishes came to pass.
They part and the look on Jack’s face as Ennis drives away says a thousand things. Most notably, to me, the look says “Goddamn you Ennis. If it was up to me we could have had it. But it wasn’t just up to me. And you couldn’t “stand” it. So I’ll give you what you say you want (even though he really doesn’t), that which I know you really need – I’ll let you be.” Jack knows he is saying good-bye to Ennis for the last time here. And not for himself, but for his love. This is the greatest sacrifice shown in the film.
Jack has just seen his lover crumple up into a ball of unmanageable emotions, fears, conflicts, and inner struggles. And Jack knows that Ennis can neither fix it nor stand it. The destructive effects of rural homophobia (the theme of the film) have taken their ultimate toll on Ennis. Jack has only two realistic options: Let Ennis go or hold him captive. It is because of Jack’s love for Ennis that he lets him go. Otherwise, Jack never loved Ennis at all because his other option is to say: “Damn! I just saw my lover crumple into a ball of despair. Oh, well, I can still get a few high-altitude fucks out of him every year.” Because neither of them can fix it and because Ennis cannot stand it, Jack must quit Ennis.
Jack goes back to Texas. At some point he takes up with Randall. So much so that after twenty years of telling his folks “me and Ennis,” he now tells them “me and this other guy.” And Jack does this before Ennis’ postcard about Pine Creek in November.
Now, I do NOT mean to get into an entire discussion about HOW Jack communicated all of this to Ennis. That’s grist for another thread some day. Suffice it to say that I do not believe that Jack told all of this – including “quitting -- to Ennis after Ennis’ breakdown and before Ennis drove off. If he had, Ennis’ final postcard, as written, would not fit. Jack may have told Ennis “You have to decide by next November.” Then, Ennis’ postcard could fit. But then Jack’s telling his parents of the other guy wouldn’t fit. Maybe Jack needed time to process all of this and intended to communicate it to Ennis somehow, somewhere later – before or at November. I do not believe that Jack would have simply let Ennis go and not somehow let Ennis in on it. That’s not Jack’s character. I also believe that since Jack loved Ennis so much, Jack would have succeeded in letting Ennis be, even though it would have wrenched Jack’s guts out for the rest of his life.
But as for Ennis, even after the final scenes with Jack, Ennis still had not changed. He didn’t send a postcard saying “OK, let’s set up housekeepin’ together.” It was just another invite – initiated this time by a guy who thought he may have lost Jack forever by his words and actions during the final scenes of the two of them. This being much like when he thought that Jack wasn’t contacting Ennis for four years after the mountain because Ennis thought maybe Jack wouldn’t forgive Ennis for punching Jack.
I do believe that Ennis finally figured out that Jack loved Ennis – but it took a bit of doing. In the bus station, Ennis told Cassie “I was probably no fun anyways, was I?” (Harkening back to Ennis’ comment to Jack in the final lake scene about “a good time.”) And she informed him that “Ennis, girls don’t fall in love with fun” – preceded by a ‘huh’ that drips with “I can’t believe you just said that. Are you that foolish?” Here, Ennis realizes that his times with Jack were not just fun and that Jack did not just fall in love with fun. Ennis looks as if he’s thinking, “Wow! Jack didn’t fall in love with fun, Jack fell in love with me.”
Deep down in an area that Ennis doesn’t communicate with, Ennis loved Jack. But on the surface – which is where Ennis (island) del Mar (of the sea) lives – it was all just fun – it was a “thing” that grabbed him – at least, this is how Ennis rationalized it to himself. In the final scene between Jack and Ennis, as the camera pans from Jack’s right to his left, and Jack is, presumably, weighing Ennis, Ennis says “We had a good time that year, didn’t we?” Ennis would only allow himself to believe that his dalliances with Jack were just fun, like going out hunting, fishing, or camping, with any other buddy, except that in Jack’s case, “something grabs hold of us.” But Cassie made Ennis realize on the surface, where Ennis lives, that Jack fell in love with Ennis.
Note also that when Junior tells Ennis she’s getting married, he doesn’t respond with the usual “Do you love him?” – as most fathers would. Ennis says “Now this Kurt fella… he loves you?” This signals to us that Ennis has made the connection that Jack loved Ennis (thanks also to the shirts).
And so we end our story of Ennis del Mar at a closet, with a postcard and the two shirts. He has carefully arranged his memories of Jack and of Brokeback Mountain. He keeps the picture of Brokeback hanging straight. He snaps a button. When the shirts were in Jack’s closet, Jack’s shirt was on top of Ennis’ shirt. Jack had his arms around Ennis, comforting him. Now, in probably his only act of true acknowledgement that what he felt for Jack was love, Ennis has hung the shirts with Ennis’ arms wrapped around Jack, holding him forever.
