I had posted both of these notes earlier in this thread. We never discussed them, so I am reviving these to hear others’ POV.
first note:
I was watching the film last night and thought of something else …. (if all of you have noticed this before, than I am sorry for the repetition). I have talked about, and so have many others, the “bookends” of the film. I found another last night. Two things I noticed. When Jack and Ennis first meet:
1. Both Ennis and Jack are wearing those all important shirts.
2. Ennis is holding a paper bag with his other shirt in it (not sure what else is in the bag, but definitely a second shirt).
These shirts have become a symbol of their entire relationship …. from the very beginning (when they first meet) until the end (after Jack dies). Again, as reflected in marital vows … “…. ‘till death us do part.” After Ennis finds the bloody shirts, Jack’s mother places them in a paper bag. This time there are two shirts …. one is his and one is Jack’s. Ennis is no longer just “Ennis”. He has become one with the man he loves. Ennis will indelibly be intertwined with Jack … “the two shall become one” … and this is what happened to them.
second note:
As I was reflecting back on the “dozy embrace”, I started to think about Ennis’ POV. We, the audience, know that this is Jack’s recollection. Whether or not the film negates or supports the suggestion that Ennis holds Jack from behind because he “doesn’t want to see or feel that it Jack he holds” is irrelevant. The only hint I get is from Annie Proulx’s “Getting Movied” essay is when she says (in regards to Ennis) … “…the moment mixed with childhood loss and his refusal to admit he was holding a man.”
What does BBM represent? IMO, it represents a place without constraints, societal conditions and expectations. The mountains, in general, represent freedom … the points reaching up to the sky. It is the grandeur of BBM that transports Jack and Ennis to another place and time … the feeling of invincibility and invisibility. It is just the two of them and nothing else matters.
Back to this very tender and intimate moment. This is one of the few times where Ennis is comforting Jack, not the other way around. (We see a reflection of this during the lake scene in TS3). Does Ennis see Jack’s vulnerability at that moment? Does Ennis know what it means (to Jack) to feel loved, soothed and held? In addition to Ennis’ parents, Jack is the most important person in his life. Is it that, at that moment, Ennis becomes his own parents … the comforting mother who sings a lullaby and the homophobic father who could not bare the thought of holding a man?
Just food for thought.