Author Topic: Cowboy vs. cowboy-image  (Read 2940 times)

Offline Brown Eyes

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Cowboy vs. cowboy-image
« on: October 21, 2006, 04:12:28 pm »
Heya,

This idea has been on my mind for a while, so I thought I'd go ahead and see how it flies as a thread topic (and forgive me if this issue has been dealt with elsewhere).

It's interesting to me to watch how the characters of Ennis and Jack evolve in the film in relation to the identity of being a cowboy.  And, their relationship to an identity as a cowboy seems to reflect each of their characters in broader terms.  Both Ennis and Jack start out as "real" cowboys... both in terms of look (clothes, hats, mannerisms, etc.) and work (really working as ranch hands, really participating in rodeos, etc.), but this changes for Jack.  Clearly, once he marries Lureen his identity in terms of work shifts.  Selling farm equipment seems to be one step beyond "true" cowboy work... too much time indoors, a little too suburban, etc.  And, this is early in the story too... even by the reunion Jack has already begun to slip away from his earlier identity.  Maybe this is why we never see him wearing his original black hat (with the twisted leather band) starting with the reunion scene.  His cowboy gear after this point seems more like a fashion statement than anything else.  His big black hat during the final argument scene seems like an exaggeration or even a caricature of his original hat.  Ennis, not surprisingly, is very different in his relation to being a cowboy since he never stops working as a ranch hand.  But, he stops wearing classic cowboy hats (or wears them less and less) towards the end... in favor of that less-than-flattering hat that looks something like a fishing hat.  But, his identity as a cowboy in terms of work remains solid.  So here, not surprisingly, we have a situation where Jack's character is more changeable than Ennis. 

But, I wonder what this issue in the film (I feel like this is less pronounced in the story since some of this is based largely on visual perception) is saying about western/ cowboy life and culture through the decades that the film covers. 

And, clearly Ennis and Jack aren't the only cowboys in the film... it's interesting to see the range of identities that seem to fit this term as depicted in the film.
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Offline Penthesilea

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Re: Cowboy vs. cowboy-image
« Reply #1 on: October 21, 2006, 05:56:35 pm »
Quote
Selling farm equipment seems to be one step beyond "true" cowboy work... too much time indoors, a little too suburban, etc.

Waaaaayyyy back I once read a very fine, insightful post about Jack metamorphosing from a real cowboy to a suburban cowboy. I think it was even not here on BM, but on IMDB and if memory serves right, it was from clacypants (not sure about it, though).
Gosh, how I wish I'd remember where to find it. Does anyone remember this, too? Maybe even know where to find it?

This topic fits into the genereal tendency of Jack being the more modifying one and Ennis staying mostly the same over the 20 years: clothes, work, attitude, and most important his feelings and his state of mind.
Ennis is quite lonely from beginning to the end, only the extent of it changing over the years with meeting Jack, parting Jack, having a family, the divorce and finally Jack's death.
Jack is so spirited, so full of high hopes at the beginning, but desperate in the end.

Great idea for a thread, Amanda.

Offline Brown Eyes

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Re: Cowboy vs. cowboy-image
« Reply #2 on: October 22, 2006, 10:09:00 pm »
Thanks Chrissi,

Sorry, I can't help much with finding the thread you mention.  I know what you mean... it's frustrating sometimes after all these discussions to forget where certain topics have come up.  I'm sure lots of ground will be re-hashed and re-hashed again over time.

Anyway, it's interesting that Jack becomes nostalgic for ranch life (already by the time of the reunion).  His basic dream centers on the "cow and calf operation", which seems to be the very essence of the definition of cowboy... men working with cows/cattle.  The idea would be less romantic in and of itself to Ennis just because that's the status quo for him.  Of course I mean just the work... living with Jack would certainly be romantic.  ;) :-*
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Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: Cowboy vs. cowboy-image
« Reply #3 on: October 24, 2006, 10:59:55 am »
Interesting topic, Amanda! I will have to think about this. A couple of ideas off the top of my head--like many of us, Jack holds on to the trappings of the cowboy lifestyle long after the reality is gone.  :( He is nostalgic for the little cow-and-calf operation for several reasons I think. One is that the dream of a homestead or small ranch, in some ways "the American Dream" faded for almost everybody and what replaced it was the large factory style ranch with full use of technology like the big farm equipment sold by Newsome (Newsome as opposed to Bettermost  :-\). Another reason is that it's what his father tried to do but failed. (I think his father failed more because he was a hard-headed independent jerk who wouldn't let Uncle Harold help out.) And yet another reason is because the animal husbandry instinct was in Jack's genes (okay, his jeans too).
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Offline delalluvia

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Re: Cowboy vs. cowboy-image
« Reply #4 on: October 25, 2006, 09:25:13 pm »
Jack's metamorphasis is also pronounced in the short story.  More so.  He actually gets cosmetic work done on his teeth.

I imagine that what the two's dress habits symbolize is either something simple and economical -

Jack has more money, he's always been the showman of the two, it's not unusual for someone who is a cowboy/roughneck what have you, from retaining the dress and style of one when one's economic station improves. 

How many oilmen were once roughnecks, wearing run-down cowboy boots and cheap hats, until they hit it big and started buying exotic-leather boots and expensive felt hats? 

They are still cowboys/ranchers/roughnecks, they still dress the same - just better.

Or -

It's symbolic of the fall of the real Western cowboy.  He's either a museum quality cowboy - Jack with his 'costume-y' rich cowboy clothing or he's an iconic figure whose distinctive sharp pointed boots and hat curves have been smoothed by time and blending and homogenizing of his role until he's almost indistinguishable from a simple hired hand - Ennis?
« Last Edit: October 25, 2006, 09:27:22 pm by delalluvia »

Offline HerrKaiser

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Re: Cowboy vs. cowboy-image
« Reply #5 on: October 27, 2006, 08:40:59 pm »
Nice topic to discuss! And one that actually causes us to think about a subject that extends beyond Jack and Ennis.

To me, the 'cowboy image' that Ennis retained was more about his never getting the opportunity to break away and expand from his specific few square miles in Wyoming than any particular job. He did try road building, considered electrical line work, and probably had a series of odd jobs at Alma's suggestions over their time together. Yet, he was always in the same spot. He was the old oak tree; never moving, changing with immediate local conditions, but always the same. Such was the classic cowboy who never got to the big city.

Jack by default got a breakaway. Had he not got his 8 seconds of glory, his connection to Lureen and the subsequent life together would not have happened, in all liklihood. Lureen was attracted to his prowess.

Even though Jack 'made it out' he was a country boy. Texans, from big oil to country bumpkins, wear the gear, but Jack never really rooted in Texas or suburban life. his heart was in a 'cow and calf' operation which would have been 'a good life'.

The classic cowboy imagery of independance, lonlienes, expressionlessness, was artfully themed in the film by all those scenes where ennis and jack are simply riding together, wading in rivers, setting up camp with only music playing. they go through the motions, speechless, and almost statuesque with time on their side year after year.

Offline brokebackjack

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Re: Cowboy vs. cowboy-image
« Reply #6 on: November 13, 2006, 06:38:29 am »
However they weren't cowboys. That was said by Annie Proulx herself less then 3  weeks ago on Oct 21st, 2006: 

" If I wanted them to be cowboys i wouldn't have had them herding sheep"
"I couldn't stand it no more so i fixed it"

Offline Brown Eyes

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Re: Cowboy vs. cowboy-image
« Reply #7 on: November 14, 2006, 10:46:47 am »
They may not have worked with cattle up on Brokeback but, at least Ennis certainly did work with cows.  We see him feeding cattle later in the movie, he talks about his responsibilities with the calving when he's arguing with Alma in the grocery store and he seems to be talking about cattle operations when he talks about the "round up" all the time.

It's interesting that Jack's *fantasy* by even the early stage of the reunion is to run a "cow and calf" operation.  His fantasy is (obviously) first and foremost to live with Ennis, but a component of that fantasy is to become a literal, "true" cowboy in working with cows and calfs.  Also, juxtaposing this as Jack's ultimate fantasy with that exact argument between Ennis and Alma in the grocery store it interesting. In the grocery store, Ennis's real-life work with calfs is just work, is stressful, etc.  But, around the campfire a cow and calf operation with Jack is only the stuff of unattainable dreams.
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Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: Cowboy vs. cowboy-image
« Reply #8 on: November 14, 2006, 11:17:49 am »
That reference to a little cow&calf operation always tears at my heart too, Amanda. During that period in the West, having a cow and calf operation was very well respected. Basically, the young heifers were impregnated, mostly artificially, and then both the mother and child were sold off, the mother as a dairy cow and the calf to a "finishing" operation where it was fattened and then slaughtered for beef. Men who worked the c&c operations spent a lot of time "husbanding" the pregnant mothers, inseminating them, "calving" them, and nurturing the mother and child until they were old enough to be sold. Certainly a reminder of fecundity and life's continuance, and the perfect job for Ennis and Jack!!

Brokebackjack--You were very close about what Annie said, but wasn't it, "If I had wanted them to be cowboys, I wouldn't have put them to work herding sheep." I loved the way she said that, cause I could clearly imagine her as a female version of Aguirre, but a more wise and prescient Aguirre, more a combination of an Earth Mother and a sorceress!!
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Offline brokebackjack

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Re: Cowboy vs. cowboy-image
« Reply #9 on: November 14, 2006, 05:13:39 pm »
The entire state is obsessed with cowboys and cowboy image. I love Jack and Ennis, and so were they. Jack,according to the author was 'marginally skilled'. He certainly was marginally skilled on film, he couldnt do anything right.  In the film, even Ennis had a poor opinion of Jack's cowboyin skills.
Ennis was 'self-hating'; one of the things he did to himself was stay so low on the ranch totem pole that he never became more then a ranch worker, no top hand status for EDM.
But he was more of a cowboy then Jack. jack was a tractor salesman
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