Ennis' reaction to Jack's death.

[Tristann]

I did a quick search through the forums but couldn't find ideas on this topic. If it has been discussed, my apologies.

When Ennis receives the postcard with the words "deceased" on it, we don't get to see any real emotion from Ennis. Also, when he talks on the phone to Maureen, his emotions seem under control. This really bothers me. I don't think an elaborate all-hell-breaks-loose reaction would be appropriate but I really want to see some emotion from Ennis. Do you think that Ang did this deliberately so that the shirt scenes would have more impact? Or are you thinking that it isn't in Ennis' character to show emotion even at this critical moment in his life? Please share your views on this, because, like I said, this really bothers me.

[jpwagoneer1964]

In the book he really doesn't believe it, thinks it's a mistake, hence the call. I do agree that his usual stoic demeanor is protrayed as well.

[Tristann]

Hi Jane, thanks for the welcome and your much appreciated comments on the topic. I only saw the movie last Monday for the first time (It didn't open in our local cinema and was only released for DVD hire this week here in South Africa). On friday I searched every shop that sells DVD's but it isn't up for sale yet. Because the movie is almost constantly in my thoughts I rented it again. With so many questions in my mind, I really needed to find likeminded people and after following a couple of links, I found these forums. I am so glad I did, because I now realize that the impact that the movie has on me is something shared between so many others. Guess I'm a Brokie now too! I like the sound of that!

[Brown Eyes]

The scene where he is crossing the street and he is reading the postcard, same thing, he is showing his usual demeanor, not exhibiting his feelings.  But even more so, and I am projecting myself into this for a moment, seeing the postcard with the word stamped in red, I don't think Ennis' brain could process that.  Not at all, in any way, at least not instataneously.  I think his first mental reaction was incredulity, incomprehension.  I know mine would have been.  for more than seconds, more like many minutes...  Then he had to be functional enough to make the call, find all the small change, speak to the operator to place the call....

Heya,

This is a good topic for a thread... thanks for starting it Tristann!  My sense of Ennis's immediate reaction is somewhat similar to Jane's comment here.  I think he's sort of in shock or stunned.  Yes, I'm sure (as in the story) there's a good deal of disbelief too.  I also get the sense that he might feel a little dizzy or feel like the world is turned upside-down.  The camera movements and the really fast-moving truck (probably a symbol that Jack is gone) that drives by Ennis and exits the frame all help give the audience a sense of this stunned dizziness.

But, it's true that Ennis is also an expert at supressing his feelings, so there's probably a little of that too... espeically because he's in public. 

My favorite thing about his conversation with Lureen is that he actually tells her what Brokeback is.  I think this is enormous for Ennis.  It's also a little bit like he's staking his claim on Jack here... in a very subtle way he's telling Lureen that Jack's favorite place was where he and Jack were together.  This happens in a somewhat round about way though... Lureen tells Ennis that Brokeback was Jack's favorite place after Ennis says that it was where they herded sheep together back in '63.  In a way, Ennis is pushing Lureen to put two and two together.  And, on Lureen's part, it's quite kind of her to let Ennis know that Brokeback was Jack's favorite place.  I get the sense that Ennis has never discussed the topic of Brokeback with anyone other than Jack... so this is huge for him.

And, one more observation about the phone call... I've always thought it was very poignant that Lureen says she thought that Brokeback was "some pretend place"  because after all it is a fictional place.  The fact that Brokeback Mountain (in reality) is one of the made-up locations in the story/ film it just adds to the sense that Brokeback was an ideal paradise for Jack and Ennis and one to which they truly can never return.

[nakymaton]

I think Ennis does respond to the postcard... but his reaction is very, very subtle. He's got the merest hint of a smile as he pulls the rubber band off of his mail and unfolds the catalog. It's almost as if this little ritual of checking the mail has become a source of pleasure in his life, like there's one little moment every day when his heart beats just a little bit faster, wondering if there will be a postcard in the mail. (Notice how the first thing he does is unfold the big stuff to see what's hidden inside?)

But then as he turns over the postcard and reads it and realizes what it says, the smile fades. We don't see his full reaction; the camera angle changes so that we're looking over Ennis's shoulder... and then we read the postcard too.

And at the end of the phone call to Lureen, when Ennis holds the phone's ear piece to his lips... he looks like he's trying to hold in a sob there. It's a public phone booth, after all, on the street in Riverton. But Ennis is pretty near tears through the entire conversation, it looks like to me.

(That was the first time I watched that DVD chapter in isolation. The entire thing just about tore me to pieces. Gah. I don't think I've ever watched the dumping-Cassie scene without seeing the dozy embrace first. Ennis just looks so complete desolate there.  )

The attachment is a bad attempt to screencap that little hint of a smile on Ennis's face as he leaves the post office. Poor guy. He's never going to be able to pick up the mail in the same way again, you know?      No wonder he finally gets a mailbox outside his trailer at the end.

[jpwagoneer1964]

The attachment is a bad attempt to screencap that little hint of a smile on Ennis's face as he leaves the post office. Poor guy. He's never going to be able to pick up the mail in the same way again, you know?      No wonder he finally gets a mailbox outside his trailer at the end.

Never even made the connection about the mail box at the tralier. Your right he wouldn.t want to use the PO anymore.

[Amber]

And at the end of the phone call to Lureen, when Ennis holds the phone's ear piece to his lips... he looks like he's trying to hold in a sob there. It's a public phone booth, after all, on the street in Riverton. But Ennis is pretty near tears through the entire conversation, it looks like to me.

This was my first thought when I read the first post that Tristann wrote.  He is very subdued and seemingly very calm, but at the end of the phone conversation he holds that earpiece to his mouth.  I tear up everytime, you just know he wants to react so much stronger but he's in public and he's trying to maintain some kind of stoic reputation.  I think throughout the phone call you can hear hesitation in his voice.  And there is that point where he pauses and Lureen has to ask if he is still there.  He seems to be very emotional there as well, as if he needs a minute to gain composure and keep it together.

So, I think he does show some emotion.  Granted, not in the form of tears or an outburst of some kind, but I think in the only form of emotion that Ennis would let anyone out in the world see.

[dly64]

I agree with so many of you!

It would be out of Ennis' character to break down while reading the postcard or while talking on the phone. However, he is emotional. In typical Ennis fashion he tries to stuff his emotions. Yet, when he says to Lureen, “Thanks for your time …. I sure am sorry … we was good friends” he is desperately trying to hold it together. I think Lureen senses that. Ennis’ comment along with the acknowledgement that BBM was the place where Jack and Ennis met in 1963, solidifies the suspicion that she’s had for many years … her husband was in love with somebody else (whether or not she believed it was a man Jack loved prior to the phone call, I don’t know). Her reaction stems from the knowledge that the man on the end of the line is the person Jack really loved.

I agree with you, Mel, that it is no coincidence that Ennis has a mailbox at the end of the film. IMO, the post office is a reminder of when Ennis came to realize Jack had died. The trailer represents how Ennis feels without Jack … empty … “if you don’t got nothin’ … then you don’t need nothin’”. Within that void expanse is the one place Ennis feels safe to express his emotions … his love for Jack. It is there where he keeps the only part of Jack that he has left … the shirts and the memory of their idyllic time on BBM.

[serious crayons]

I think it's fair to assume Ennis DOES show emotion at the news of Jack's death, but Ang just didn't happen to film it. Mainly, I think, to enhance the drama of the closet scene. But also to show that Ennis is expert at controlling his emotions around other people -- which is not the same as saying he doesn't feel them. Think of how calm he is when he parts with Jack after Brokeback, but then he goes into the alley ...

The post office scene cuts off just after Ennis spends enough time reading the "deceased" to absorb its meaning. Then it picks up again some time later, in the phone booth. Who knows what happened in between? During the phone call, he is actually fairly emotional, by Ennis' standards. For instance, right hearing how Jack died, he can't speak and Lureen says, "Hello? Hello?" And after she hangs up, he doesn't just replace his own receiver and calmly go about his business -- he looks disparingly out the window (metaphor for thinking of Jack) and clutches the receiver. Again, the scene cuts off immediately, so who knows what he did after that.

Even at the Twists' ranch, while sitting at the kitchen table, he shows a lot of emotion. But as usual it's pretty tightly controlled, expressed in just the tiniest changes in his facial expression.

It's impossible to know exactly how he behaved during the times that the camera wasn't on him. But in any case, I think we can say that if we'd seen him sobbing uncontrollably in the post office scene and again in the phone booth and again in the truck as he's driving to the Twists, the emotional power of the shirt scene would be considerably undercut.

[dly64]

The post office scene cuts off just after Ennis spends enough time reading the "deceased" to absorb its meaning. Then it picks up again some time later, in the phone booth. Who knows what happened in between? During the phone call, he is actually fairly emotional, by Ennis' standards. For instance, right hearing how Jack died, he can't speak and Lureen says, "Hello? Hello?" And after she hangs up, he doesn't just replace his own receiver and calmly go about his business -- he looks disparingly out the window (metaphor for thinking of Jack) and clutches the receiver. Again, the scene cuts off immediately, so who knows what he did after that.

Even at the Twists' ranch, while sitting at the kitchen table, he shows a lot of emotion. But as usual it's pretty tightly controlled, expressed in just the tiniest changes in his facial expression.

It's impossible to know exactly how he behaved during the times that the camera wasn't on him. But in any case, I think we can say that if we'd seen him sobbing uncontrollably in the post office scene and again in the phone booth and again in the truck as he's driving to the Twists, the emotional power of the shirt scene would be considerably undercut.

I agree completely! For the arch of the film, it is important that the most emotional reaction we see from Ennis is when he finds the shirts.

Interestingly, I never thought of the metaphor of the window. (Ennis looking out and is thinking about Jack). It makes sense. I can’t believe I missed that!  The only time I noticed that was in the trailer. But it is in numerous other scenes as well. Love that!

[ednbarby]

I agree with all that's been said here.  I just want to add that when my Mom - by far the best and truest friend I ever had - died suddenly and I got the news from my (at the time) semi-estranged brother, I didn't react with any emotion, either.  A close friend was over - I remember we were going to go see "The Prince of Tides" that night when the phone rang and changed everything - never could get through that movie ever since - and she would bear witness to that fact.  She still talks about it from time to time since as yet, thankfully, she has never lost anyone she loved deeply.  How my face just went kind of blank for a moment and then I just went on, although as if I were in kind of a trance, for the next 24 hours.  She stayed with me overnight as my at that time new husband was out of town, and she still talks about how she finds it amazing that I never once shed a tear, and after all those years of telling her so many stories about my mother and how close we were.

What she didn't see was the period of time about two months later when it suddenly all came rushing in, as if out of nowhere, and how everything I came in contact with reminded me of her and made my loss of her nearly unbearable.  I took three days off from work at that time because I could not stop crying.  Looking back, I was just numb those first two months.  It was very much like the depression I would experience much later, but I didn't know that at the time.  I just went through the motions.

When my brother first told me, it was as if I were in a dream.  Of course you know it's real when it's happening, but a part of your brain clicks on (or off?) to protect you - must be an evolutionary, natural selection type thing in my mind - from having a complete and irrevocable nervous breakdown.

Long story short (too late) this is yet another brilliant moment in a film of brilliant moments - brilliant in just how very real and authentic it is.  This is what really happens.  There is no breakdown at the time - just survival instinct kicking in.  That comes later.  Just as Ennis' breakdowns in the alley and at the lake did.

[jpwagoneer1964]

When my brother first told me, it was as if I were in a dream.  Of course you know it's real when it's happening, but a part of your brain clicks on (or off?) to protect you - must be an evolutionary, natural selection type thing in my mind - from having a complete and irrevocable nervous breakdown.

Long story short (too late) this is yet another brilliant moment in a film of brilliant moments - brilliant in just how very real and authentic it is.  This is what really happens.  There is no breakdown at the time - just survival instinct kicking in.  That comes later.  Just as Ennis' breakdowns in the alley and at the lake did.

In the book Ennis does not believe it at first, thinks its a mistake and when he calls, that Jack will answer

[cricket99999]

When my brother first told me, it was as if I were in a dream.  Of course you know it's real when it's happening, but a part of your brain clicks on (or off?) to protect you - must be an evolutionary, natural selection type thing in my mind - from having a complete and irrevocable nervous breakdown.

I agree.  When my sister told me of my father's sudden death, I asked a couple questions calmly (Where? She said "At the farm." When? She said "Earlier this afternoon.")  Then she asked me "How did you know?" and I said "I didn't."  Obviously some people, Ennis included, can use this reaction to shield themselves from overwhelming grief, at least for a time.   

[dly64]

Barb and Cricket ...

You are making me cry! It brings back all of those feelings when my dad died. Fortunately, I was with him when he died. But, I hardly slept for two days and I didn't completely lose it until his funeral. Even seeing him die, I kept thinking it was a dream. Needless to say, I have never gotten over it .... but have become less angry. It's only taken me 7 f--king years!

[Marge_Innavera]

I agree.  When my sister told me of my father's sudden death, I asked a couple questions calmly (Where? She said "At the farm." When? She said "Earlier this afternoon.")  Then she asked me "How did you know?" and I said "I didn't."  Obviously some people, Ennis included, can use this reaction to shield themselves from overwhelming grief, at least for a time.   

I think that is a kind of survival mechanism, the brain putting really bad news in a kind of holding pattern so it doesn't overwhelm too much. And added to that in BBM is Ennis' stoic nature. But even then, you can hear the catches in his voice in both the telephone scene and at Jack's parents'.

My own father's death wasn't sudden, but I did have a delayed reaction. He'd been ill for a number of years and I was very calm about it until I got to the airport to fly home. Until the last year, he'd always been at that airport to meet me with my Mom, and it suddenly hit me that while I might fly into that airport again, he wouldn't be there.  Going through his things, giving a eulogy at his funeral, none of that phased me but that damn airport made me break down completely.

[ednbarby]

I agree.  When my sister told me of my father's sudden death, I asked a couple questions calmly (Where? She said "At the farm." When? She said "Earlier this afternoon.")  Then she asked me "How did you know?" and I said "I didn't."  Obviously some people, Ennis included, can use this reaction to shield themselves from overwhelming grief, at least for a time.

I can still remember it distinctly, too.

Andy:  Barb.  Are you sitting down?  (Right then, I think I knew.)
Me:  Yeah.
Andy:  It's Mom.  She's dead.
Me:  What happened?  (Very calmly.)
Andy:  They think it was a massive heart attack sometime last night or this morning.  We found her in her apartment about an hour ago.
Me:  OK.
Andy:  Are you gonna be all right?
Me:  Yeah.
Andy:  Is Ed there?
Me:  No, but a friend is.  I'm not alone.
Andy:  OK.  I've gotta call Jay.
Me:  OK.  Thanks.  Bye.

When it hit me was almost two months later when I went to call her phone number out of habit and heard the "out of service" message and then it all came crashing down on me.  Then, like I say, I couldn't stop crying for three full days.

[coffeecat33]

I tell you what, the first time I saw this scene with the “deceased” stamped across it, I felt stunned disbelief and thought there must be some mistake. (It is what I have felt hearing about other untimely deaths. One time, before my brain had time to think and react, I said very loudly, “Oh my god, you’re kidding!” when someone told me our friend’s husband died.)

And thanks for the connection, I hadn’t thought about picking up mail in the P.O. as a pleasure then getting a mailbox at his home. It still amazes me how many connections there are in this movie! – Thanks for pointing them out everyone.

As for my own experience, I could hardly face it when my granma was in hospice. When my mom called me to tell me she’d passed, she said, “You know why I’m calling.” Even now after so many years I still get a scared empty sad feeling inside. I don’t recall crying at her funeral although most of my family was crying a little, none of us “broke down” sobbing. I don’t think it’s suppressing emotions as just being overwhelmed by the enormity of the loss; we have to deal with in pieces.

IMO Ennis is feeling a great many emotions when he sees the postcard. I speak from experience as I am a female Ennis. It looks like I’m calm but my insides are churning and I can hardly express myself. The grief Ennis is feeling is so overwhelming (as big as the open prairie) that he can hardly take it in. IMO when Ennis is on the phone he is shaking and can barely speak. He does start to choke up at the end and has to hang up. And he gets tears in his eyes at the sight of the shirts and at the Twist’s house. And of course the “Jack, I swear…”

Gosh someone get a box of tissues!

[bbm_stitchbuffyfan]

In the book Ennis does not believe it at first, thinks its a mistake and when he calls, that Jack will answer

This is sooo sad (as are all of your guys' stories).

[jpwagoneer1964]

Because the Lightning Flat kitchen is dim, it’s difficult to tell for sure--I think the shirt Ennis is wearing is different from the one during the “Deceased” scene. I used to think he drove there right away, but now I don’t. I wonder what the day(s) in between would have been like. Probably just more classic Ennis, freezing his feelings to get by.

 

It is the same outer jacket, but I don't thingk the same shirt.

[dly64]

When I was 21, I had the task of calling people to tell them about my father-in-law’s death. Most of his friends had known him for at least 40 years, but did not know he’d been fighting cancer for only a few months. Some were matter-of-fact (“Where’s the funeral? Should I bring something to eat?”). Some repeatedly said, “Oh, I’m so sorry.” One screamed and dropped the phone.

Barbara - you are so right. You have just illustrated how everyone responds to tragedy in a very personal and different way. It is interesting that we see Ennis on two occasions completely losing it (right after Ennis and Jack separate and during the lake scene). But, it is Jack’s death where we are left guessing. The timing is very purposeful. We don’t see Ennis immediately after he sees the postcard and we don’t see him after he hangs up the phone. Because Ennis and Jack had a very intimate and loving relationship, I can only surmise that Ennis’ reaction to Jack’s death was treated in a similar fashion. What I mean is that Ennis needed to be alone to grieve Jack’s death in a way that we cannot be a part of. (Hope that makes sense).