Why is the "dozy embrace" in the film?

[Mikaela]

Lots of interesting thoughts - thanks everyone. 

The fact that the story description (Jack's thoughts on how Ennis couldn't face him) is left in the screenplay doesn't mar the moment scene for me. Just looking at the film scene on stand-alone basis I'd *never* have figured that any such point was being made about Ennis there, and this is one time when the film scene is so perfect that I can't manage to worry about script or story. I'll take the film scene and leave it at that. 

And what the film scene does do is give us the last image of Jack and Ennis together. As the story's progressed there's been so many tense scenes, painful scenes, scenes where one or the other is walking away..... the lakeside quarrel that hurts a person's heart to watch. But the last time we get to see the two of them together, we get the dozy embrace - and that is what remains imprinted on our retinas and in our minds until we get to the shirts a little later on. The scene summarizes the entire film, Jack and Ennis's story: "Hey, *this* is what their relationship is and was all about. Don't you ever lose sight of that!" Making the contrast to the older Jack's sad and bitter face in the here and know all the more poignant, and the upcoming blow of Jack's death all the more devastating.

An iconic scene, deceptively simple, beautifully expressive, brimming with shared love and with the shy wondering at having found such love - revisiting that at the end, to contrast the pain and longing of their otherwise so separate and difficult lives after they left the mountain. Was the dozy necessary in the film? You bet!

(It also happens to be my computer's wallpaper. Can't ever tire of that image, seemingly.)

[jpwagoneer1964]

Lots of interesting thoughts - thanks everyone. 

The fact that the story description (Jack's thoughts on how Ennis couldn't face him) is left in the screenplay doesn't mar the moment scene for me. Just looking at the film scene on stand-alone basis I'd *never* have figured that any such point was being made about Ennis there, and this is one time when the film scene is so perfect that I can't manage to worry about script or story. I'll take the film scene and leave it at that. 

And what the film scene does do is give us the last image of Jack and Ennis together. As the story's progressed there's been so many tense scenes, painful scenes, scenes where one or the other is walking away..... the lakeside quarrel that hurts a person's heart to watch. But the last time we get to see the two of them together, we get the dozy embrace - and that is what remains imprinted on our retinas and in our minds until we get to the shirts a little later on. The scene summarizes the entire film, Jack and Ennis's story: "Hey, *this* is what their relationship is and was all about. Don't you ever lose sight of that!" Making the contrast to the older Jack's sad and bitter face in the here and know all the more poignant, and the upcoming blow of Jack's death all the more devastating.

An iconic scene, deceptively simple, beautifully expressive, brimming with shared love and with the shy wondering at having found such love - revisiting that at the end, to contrast the pain and longing of their otherwise so separate and difficult lives after they left the mountain. Was the dozy necessary in the film? You bet!

(It also happens to be my computer's wallpaper. Can't ever tire of that image, seemingly.)

Very well put. And with the change in camera angle midway it was a long one.

[dly64]

I am so glad to hear all of your thoughts! I think there is a lot that I have not yet considered.

I think it's absolutely necessary for the same reason Ruthlessly thought it was - because that was the moment when Jack first realized he was in love with Ennis.  Having him remember that as he watches Ennis drive away, as it turns out for the last time, then flash forward to the present of him standing there with all the life and hope drained out of his eyes and his jaw set shows us not exactly that he was resolute in quitting Ennis, like Ruthlessly (and I for a long time) thought, but that he realized he couldn't go on with things the way they were going.  I think this is the moment when, as Jake has said, Jack realizes he can't be with Ennis.  Jake never said when he thought that moment was - for a long time after reading that, I wondered if he thought it was at their meeting in Riverton after the divorce.  

I still think that moment occurs when Jack drives 14 hours to see Ennis after the divorce and is turned away. It is at that moment when Jack knew the “sweet life” he had hoped for would never happen. It’s not that he gives up Ennis … but he modifies his hopes. Jack tries to get Ennis to move to Texas … at least they could be closer than 14 hours. But, as usual, Ennis is unwilling.

But now I think that that moment and all the other moments when he hopes so much for Ennis to be ready to/want to be with him the way he wants him to be and then has those hopes dashed in the blink of an eye are pieces of him falling away.  I think that last shot is when he's been dealt the final blow.  That is the moment Jack dies.  If he were fully able to quit Ennis, all hope would not be lost.  There'd at least be a shred of it left in that if it wasn't going to be Ennis (or Randall, for that matter), he'd get on with it and eventually be with someone who would be able to be with him fully and openly.  But it's because he can't fully quit him, now, that all hope is lost.

That is an interesting POV. The look on Jack’s face, IMO, is one of sadness because he knows what they could have had. He remembers the time when they were young and their whole lives were before them. Jack longs to be with the man he loves. As an older man, however, he is fully aware that this will never happen. Is this why Jack says, “… so what we got now is Brokeback Mountain! Everything’s built on that. It’s all we go boy, f—king all …”?? I don’t know.

I actually think the dozy embrace not only is necessary but is perhaps the most important scene in the whole movie.  Without the flashback, we would never see the sexless hunger they felt for each other which is really what true love is, and thus we would never fully understand all that Jack lost when he knew he couldn't be with Ennis.

I agree with you completely about this.

[twistedude]

"See you ion the morning," is what erither of my parents said to me, just before they closed the door after saying goodnight.  I cannot imagine a more cop\mforting, promising thing.

Obviously, the interpretation of the scene in the movie is not the same as that in the story. As for looking into Jack's face, Ennis is doing about as good a job of it as is possible from behind, where he is standing as a sort of pillar for Jack to lean against. There is nothing devisive about the scene, nothing.

Ang has leached all the devisiverness out of it, and put it in the final shot, where a bitter and worn-out Jack watches Ennis drive away, whatever, which was probably nothing, was decided between them in the words we don't hear after "I just can't stand it no more, Jack."

[Samrim]

I haven't done with this wonderful string, but it's bedtime and I'm tired, but.....

<<we would never see the sexless hunger they felt for each other which is really what true love is>>

I've never seen that comment written down before, and I thank G*d for it, edmbarby; I've always felt, in my long life THAT about the nature of love. It's the need to be WITH someone, two to become one, in an almost primeval fashion, even though not primarily sexually.

Love to all you Brokies

sam

[twistedude]

Although it may sometimes be sexdess, I would not rule sexual hunger out of any feelking of love, edenbarby, or whoever it was that justr ignored me...for some reason.

[coffeecat33]

There are so many thoughtful comments in this thread. I LOVE the dozy embrace. It's my absolute favorite scene in the film. (I don't think this is a "flaw" in A.P.'s story; she's too good a writer.) I love how Jack & Ennis can be so overwhelmingly passionate (1st tent scene) and then so tender (2nd tent scene). Jack never quits Ennis because he is hanging on to that one sweet, loving moment and keeps looking/hoping for it again. I don't think Jack ever quits Ennis, but he is raw with hurt after Ennis' rejection when Jack drives up to see him after the divorce. (How sad that Jack says, "I had to ask about 10 people where you were livin.") I think Jack then starts to protect himself with Ennis after that. He couldn't not go on the fishing/kissing trips with Ennis, but part of his soul gave up. The contrast between their youthful, beautiful and loving faces with the sight of Ennis driving away (all we can see is the horse's hind end) and Jack's disillusioned, sad and angry face is very telling.

[Katie77]

I have just read thru this entire thread, and it all brings back the sadness of this wonderful scene...so many meanings to it, and all of them seem right, so many feelings put into one scene, it is remarkable.

When I have watched the scene, I always think....Jack is always watching Ennis leaving him in some form or another.....after the first tent scene, as he rides up to the sheep, as he looks at him in the rear view mirror....he always seems to be going in the opposite direction to Jack, not only travelling, but in his thoughts as well.

The "dozey embrace" shows them facing the same way, and Jack remembering it this way, shows, that this is the way it should have always been.....

When they say that "a picture tells a thousand words", they must have been talking about this scene.

[serious crayons]

It's my absolute favorite scene in the film. (I don't think this is a "flaw" in A.P.'s story; she's too good a writer.)

Hi Coffeecat, how're things in my hometown? 

Just to clarify, I find the scene beautiful too, but in context very sad. And I DEFINITELY don't think the whole scene is a flaw -- just AP's line about Ennis not wanting to embrace Jack from the front. I think even gifted writers occasionally make less than perfect choices.

The "dozey embrace" shows them facing the same way, and Jack remembering it this way, shows, that this is the way it should have always been.....

I like this explanation better. I think the dozy embrace is supposed to show they were in love as opposed to just having sex, and having them embrace from the front would have confused the issue.

[ednbarby]

I like this explanation better. I think the dozy embrace is supposed to show they were in love as opposed to just having sex, and having them embrace from the front would have confused the issue.

I do, too, Katherine.  Thanks for that, Katie.

And Diane, you're right - Jack's hope certainly starts to die the day Ennis sends him on his way after the divorce, but he does still keep trying.  At least one time - "Well, maybe you oughta get outta there (and move to Texas to be closer to me)..."  And the "Sometimes I miss you so much I can hardly stand it" can be considered another attempt.  That phrase interests me so much: "...I can hardly stand it."  Jack's been trying to fix what he can hardly stand all along, and trying even harder in some ways after he knows to what extent and why Ennis is so broken.  Then of course the mirroring with Ennis' "I can't stand this no more, Jack."  Jack knows he can try to fix it all he wants, but if Ennis doesn't want to/can't, they'll never get any further than they are right then.  That, to me, is when he knows for certain that there is absolutely no hope.

Thanks Sam for your lovely compliment.  Yes, I think that is what true love is, too - a sexless hunger.  It was definitely worth the time and effort it took Annie to come up with that term.  Which is not to say, Julie, that true love is utterly sexless.  Just that the sexual passion the two of them feel for each other is based on true love - on fully understanding and accepting each other exactly as he is - not just on animal lust.

I've had passion for someone I didn't love, loved someone I had no passion for, and had passion for someone based on the love I felt for him at the very center of my being - as the song goes, he's the only one who really knew me at all.  And I'm here to tell ya that while the first two are each nice in their own way, ain't nothing like the third.