Ok, back to another question from Katherine:
In fact, while we're at it, and because your reading of the story is so sensitive and astute, let me ask you: How do you feel about Story Jack and Ennis compared to their movie counterparts?
You mean aside from the movie counterparts being so hot together that it's amazing that there isn't a big hole melted in the rock in the mountains of Alberta?
Ok, seriously for a minute. I know we've kind of discussed this in a lot of different ways, so I want to try to answer the question in a different way, by talking about how the point-of-view of the story vs the movie might affect how we see the characters in each.
(But before I start: this is a particularly bad question to ask me, because I wrote story-based fan fiction from Jack's POV before I saw the movie, and I think the process of writing fan fiction makes me, at least, completely incapable of thinking objectively about the characters. In order to write a character, I have to believe that I understand the character -- in fact, when I was still trying to write, I avoided almost all discussion of the movie, so I wouldn't mess up the versions of the characters that were in my head. But I haven't been able to finish any sort of fiction (BBM-based, other-fandom-based, or original) since I saw the movie - it just left me so gobsmacked that I couldn't write, period - so maybe I'm getting a bit of objectivity back by now. But just a warning, in case I insist on an interpretation that can't be backed up by anything in either the story or the movie.)
Anyway, about point-of-view in the story vs the movie. I see the story as being essentially from Ennis's POV, even though there are several places (especially the dozy embrace flashback) where we either get information that Ennis couldn't have known (at least, at the time) or which are from someone else's POV. And it's that structure of the story (and even of the sentences and paragraphs), where emotionally charged information is revealed only in throwaway lines at the end of other descriptions, that makes me think that the POV is really important. I think that Ennis either can't or won't focus on those emotionally revealing moments, either because (as Diana Ossana said) (story-)Ennis can't access his emotions, or because (IMO) Ennis feels his emotions almost too strongly, and is scared or ashamed or otherwise conflicted about them. Ennis pushes those moments out of his awareness, and therefore we don't get to see them, either, until Jack is already dead.
The movie, on the other hand, seems to be shown from the perspective of a sort of a voyeur. Sometimes we watch Jack and Ennis from another person's viewpoint, like when we see the Happy Tussle through Aguirre's binoculars or when we see part of the reunion kiss from Alma's doorway. Sometimes we get a glimpse of what Jack or Ennis sees when they look at each other -- those views of Ennis in Jack's rearview mirror, for instance, or the times when they look across the wide spaces of the mountain at each other. And sometimes, we're completely on the outside, looking at everything -- and we even get shut out when the tent flap closes. But even though we're often on the outside looking at both of them, the view we see hasn't been edited to remove the emotional stuff, unlike the story as told from Ennis's viewpoint. So we see Ennis's emotional conflicts given (extraordinarily subtle, yay) expression on Heath's face, and we see Jack's tender looks during moments like TS2 and the hotel scene. I think that makes a difference in how the audience views the characters.
So, about the story vs movie characters -- well, I've said before, I think, that I don't see story-Ennis and movie-Ennis as being all that different. I think that story-Ennis is just as internally conflicted about being in love with Jack as movie-Ennis is, despite story-Ennis's admissions about "wringing it out a hunderd times." Story-Ennis talks more than movie-Ennis does, particularly in the motel scene, perhaps because Annie Proulx had no idea how expressive "hunnh?" could be. Or maybe because story-Ennis comes to terms with the sex, but not with the love.
One thing about movie-Ennis -- he seems so, well, vulnerable, especially in those first few scenes. I mean, he looks like a rugged iconic cowboy, but he also looks like somebody who is withdrawn because he can be hurt, rather than somebody who is withdrawn because he doesn't like people. (And the way Ennis reveals bits of his past in the bar... I just feel so bad for him right from the beginning. Story-Ennis doesn't really let me feel sorry for him until the very end.)
Story-Jack is a bit of a mystery, because we're mostly seeing him through Ennis's eyes, and Ennis isn't telling us what's important most of the time. So we get information in bits and pieces. We know Jack has a "quick laugh" (and that the laugh is one of the things that Ennis finds "fair enough" about Jack). We know Jack is fond of runt puppies (which I find a completely adorable characteristic, I've got to say -- I mean, awwwwwww, PUPPIES
). We know Jack bitches a lot... about Aguirre's orders, about "commutin four hours a day," about Ennis's "hammerin."
We know Jack is infatuated with the rodeo and sees it (and the money associated with it) as a way to escape from Lightning Flat.
And then we know that Jack lies. He jumps in a bit too fast in response to Ennis's "I'm not no queer." He responds to Ennis's question about doing it with other guys with "shit no," when Jack had been "riding more than bulls, not rolling his own." (And, yes, I know that our old friend TJ would give me a lecture about cigarettes and rodeoing if he heard me say that, but I don't believe for a minute that Annie Proulx was oblivious to the innuendo in that line.) And then in the story, we don't see Jack again until the last camping trip, where Jack lies about having an affair with his neighbor's wife rather than with the neighbor, and where it comes out that Jack has "been to Mexico" -- once? Often? During the whole twenty years, or just after Ennis's divorce? We don't know for sure, but when I read the story, I got the impression that Jack slept with other men during the entire relationship. (But that was just my reading of the story -- what's actually in the story is consistent with the movie's interpretation, too.)
We only hear Jack's desire to live with Ennis mentioned once directly (in the motel), and then indirectly in the lake confrontation, and then from Jack's father. But the little revelations build up to the same impression that the movie creates in real time: that this was something that Jack really was serious about. And there's the twelve-hundred-mile drive for nothing that struck me so hard -- that's another hint about the intensity of Jack's hopes and dreams. And then there's the dozy embrace, where we learn that what Jack really wanted was to be held and loved in some "shared, sexless hunger." And then, of course, there are the shirts, which are just about the best symbol of "love" I have ever run across in a book or movie. So is story-Jack this guy who talks a bit too fast, lies, and sleeps around, or is he this romantic dreamer who, first of all, is hiding the depth of his attachment from an emotionally skittish Ennis, and second of all, is viewed through the eyes of a guy who is scared or ashamed to acknowledge his own feelings, let alone acknowledge how Jack feels about him? The story doesn't give us the answer.
Movie-Jack is portrayed as the romantic character. We don't see the used-car salesman side of Jack -- even when he's trying to pick up Jimbo or is being picked up by Lureen. Or even when he's selling tractors. We see Jack lying -- to Ennis about the ranch neighbor, to Lureen about liking the direction she's going, and maybe to Ennis about not being queer. But in the movie, I think it's pretty easy to forgive the lies, for the reasons that Diane gave a few posts back. And we really, really see Jack-the-dreamer, when Jack proposes the cow-and-calf operation, when Jack drives north after the divorce, on Jack's face as Ennis rides away after the dozy embrace. And we see Jack's gentle side, even at the very beginning in the bar.
So anyway. I think we get hints of the more romantic movie-Jack in the story. But I think that story-Jack has another side that's played down, at least, in the movie. Or maybe that the romantic side is played up, because it isn't hidden by story-Ennis's emotional censorship.
