Author Topic: On buckets, eagles, impatience, and...  (Read 85395 times)

Offline Aloysius J. Gleek

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Re: Ode to the bucket
« Reply #20 on: April 12, 2006, 05:43:10 pm »
Lee, you are WAY too kind, but thank you!

No writer, me--takes more that a pretty turn of phrase to be one, I'm thinking: gobs of discipline (like our friends Leslie and Jeff), for example, of which I have none. I'm behind at work and I've been a bit under the weather, so my attendance on the board lately has been spotty--but I'll happily be an (erratic) contributer to your brilliant thread, if I may--

I wouldn't have called Jack comfortable and carefree, lolling on that hillside, but brave. He wasn't going to wait for Ennis to return 'fer supper' to get the verdict, oh no--he finished the laundry, did his chores, then got on his horse and rode on over to get it over with, to force the issue.

It's one of those odd, perfect things about the contradictions and complementarities of the characters that make them, and the relationship, ring so true, so real: strong, silent Ennis is frightened, and flibberty-gibbet Jack is utterly fearless and brave.

I love watching them as they walk through town to have their first drink together--Jack is on a short leash, but he leads the way. Even after Jack has taken over the duties of tending the main camp, and Ennis has become the herder, it is still Jack in the lead and Ennis who follows up behind with the supplies when they move the flock.

Emotionally starved Ennis is used to privation, and will suffer silently and stoically; brave, resourceful, outgoing Jack will wither and die without Ennis.

 :(
John
"Tu doives entendre je t'aime."
(and you know who I am...)


Cowboy Curtis (Laurence Fishburne)
and Pee-wee in the 1990 episode
"Camping Out"

Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: On buckets and horizontality (Jack's)
« Reply #21 on: April 12, 2006, 06:14:35 pm »
Why, thank you kindly ma'am or sir, latjoreme. So, I've expanded the subject to include horizontality, and I'm also going to add impatience...and behind them stretching endlessly away are all my other favorite supporting actors (I think of Jake as a lead not a support): the coat hangers, spoons, tire irons, washboards, shepherd's crooks, turkey basters, electric knives, cans of beans, fans, etc. etc.

Guess I'll have to keep looking for my McMurtry to play Ossana to. . .
"chewing gum and duct tape"

Offline Lynne

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Re: Ode to the bucket
« Reply #22 on: April 12, 2006, 10:00:15 pm »
(Tell you what, friends, I love this thread!  Is there a way to quote more than one post at a time?)

Testing this out now...

Choose Quote to Reply with a single quote...then for inserting additional quotes, scroll down to the Topic Summary below where the edit box is and select the Insert Quote option for each additional quote you want to include.  Note that the quotes must be prefaced with the '[quote author = fernly....' and followed by the '[/quote]' so make sure your cursor is in positioned in the edit box where you want the next quote to go, or you'll be doing some cut and paste to get it right.

We've said it a million times already, but it bears repeating here: Absolutely nothing in this movie is accidental! Resume the search (and we will ponder the question of horizontalness).
"Laß sein. Laß sein."

Offline Front-Ranger

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The elusive and clipped wings
« Reply #23 on: April 15, 2006, 03:24:09 pm »
Where are all the birds and eagles on Brokeback Mountain? I didn't catch a single glimpse of an eagle, although I heard one in the scene just before they move the camp. The cry of an eagle can be heard echoing thru a canyon. Some people have said that there's an eagle feather in Jack's hatband but I didn't see it. After the mountain scenes, there are a few birds in the rest of the movie: a crow or raven flies over a white pick-up truck as an ominous portent in the post-divorce scene; there is a neon eagle above the tavern door in front of which Ennis gets beaten up; and the most prominent scenes of the Thanksgiving turkeys. The only other creatures with wings referred to are angels, but they are also elusive. Ennis calls his daughters angels and wishes he had wings like them; and Lureen resembles an angel in her last scene with her talons, plumage-printed blouse, and fringed hairdo. In the story, Jack is described as a "ministering angel" when he is punched by Ennis and lies in the wild columbine (a flower that looks like and is named for doves) with "wings folded." In the soundtrack are two songs: Angel on Fire, in the Childress Fundraising Dance scene, and, of course, Wings. But in the movie, images of the saving grace of angels and the freedom of birds in flight are few and far between. The lack of a symbol is in itself a symbol.
« Last Edit: April 18, 2006, 06:06:55 pm by Front-Ranger »
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Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: On buckets and horizontality (Jack's)
« Reply #24 on: April 16, 2006, 03:19:24 pm »
I watched BBM again last night while my men were watching the hockey playoffs and found two more references to eagles/birds. In one of the very first scenes when Ennis is walking toward the trailer, there is a medium view with two stratus clouds in the sky (they look almost like jet trails) converging over the trailer. The cry of an eagle? bird? is heard in the background. The second reference is not in the film; it's in the book (probably unfilmable). After the reunion scene, at the motel, Ennis is lying "spread-eagled" in the bed. Hmmm, this reference brings me to another interesting juxtaposition of metaphors which I will elaborate upon in my next post. Hope The New Yorker doesn't slap this file with a "Block That Metaphor!" sign. Yea I do...
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Offline Flashframe777

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Re: On buckets and horizontality (Jack's)
« Reply #25 on: April 16, 2006, 04:00:12 pm »
All this talk about water and buckets is making me thirsty.

Good insights.
"yet he is suffused with a sense of pleasure because Jack Twist was in his dream"


Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: On buckets and horizontality (Jack's)
« Reply #26 on: April 16, 2006, 04:32:56 pm »
That's the way this movie is, Flash. The more you drink it in, the thirstier you are for more.
"chewing gum and duct tape"

Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: On buckets and horizontality (Jack's)
« Reply #27 on: April 16, 2006, 05:46:54 pm »
Okay, I would like to finish my thought as I promised to in an earlier post. It seems fairly clear that Jack is associated with fish and birds, especially eagles, while Ennis is associated with four-legged animals such as horses and cattle. Keeping this in mind, it's interesting that Annie Proulx called upon the two characters to become like the avatars of their beloved during crucial actions in the story. For instance, in the first tent scene, Ennis "hauled Jack up on all fours." Later, after the tempestuous reunion, Ennis lay "spread-eagled" in the motel bed.  Although she didn't use the line, Love is a Force of Nature, Proulx found ways to weave the forces of nature, including animals, into the story to elevate it to the stature of an archtype or myth.
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Offline Ellemeno

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Re: On buckets and horizontality (Jack's)
« Reply #28 on: April 16, 2006, 05:57:56 pm »
More bird:

The screenplay says that what Jack's horse with the low startle point does is called "crow hopping."

Offline Brown Eyes

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Buckets AND Coffeepots
« Reply #29 on: April 16, 2006, 06:04:46 pm »
OK, I can only handle the bucket topic at the moment.  I'll have to come back to the horizontal vs. vertical situation later.

Thanks for the great topic Front-Ranger and the summary in the first post. It occurs to me that somewhere else someone noted that there are often not only buckets but coffeepots or pitchers (some vessel with a spout).   The idea was that Ennis was associated with coffeepots and Jack was associated with buckets (although I can think of lots of ways that could be reversed).   I guess, the idea was the Ennis is the vessel that pours while Jack receives.  These two symbols become really clear in the Flashback.

I *just* finished watching the movie and had buckets and coffeepots on my mind. So, here's a list of the buckets I remember. I'm repeating some things from the posts above (but I thought I'd be systematic).  I noted these things because the camera seems to linger on these props during these moments and/or the item is mentioned in dialogue.  I'm sure I'm missing some, but...

-Jack with the two full buckets of clear water that he sloshes next to Ennis building the campfire
-Ennis washing the coffeepot out in the stream when he looks up and gazes at Jack way up high on the mountain with the sheep
-When Jack comes in for supper one night and complains about how bad the pup tent smells, etc. he makes a big point of opening the coffeepot lid
 and looking inside and then he pours himself a drink
-the buckets during the "that's the most I spoke in a year" conversation.  The buckets are in the background and it seems that Jack may knock some over when he falls to the ground.
-Ennis kicks a bucket or pot (can't tell which) when he stumbles into the tent for the 1st tent scene
-when he opens the tent flap the morning after the 1st tent scene the clearest object that can be seen near the fire circle outside is a bucket.
-the "slop-bucket mouths" comment during the fireworks scene
-the bucket of ashes that Ennis kicks while the girls are on the swing set
-the bucket that Ennis has to chase downstream while he's washing dishes and has the argument with Jack about moving to Texas
-Ennis's comment that the most traveling he's done is "around a coffeepot looking for the handle"
***THEN- in the Flashback*** As the camera pans up from the fire towards Jack's face, it reveals a bucket and a coffeepot sitting neatly side by side.
-one final possible bucket (though it could be a stretch) is the large metal garbage can outside of Ennis's trailer at the end.

Yes, I think a lot can be made of these metaphors and the way the symbols change throughout the film.

 :D
the world was asleep to our latent fuss - bowie