On buckets, eagles, impatience, and...

[Ellemeno]

Hi Gang, I just remembered that my favorite shirt of Ennis's has feathers on it (I think).  It's the one he wears when he and Alma Jr. and Cassie go to the bar and he and Alma Jr. talk in the truck afterward.  He also wears it when he and Jack are snuggled asleep in the last, short tent scene, on their last night together.

[Front-Ranger]

Another reference: When Jack meets Alma, he is described as "trembling like a run-out horse."

I second the wish for a pot and a coffeepot in a dozy embrace over the campfire! Wouldn't that make a good graphic! I'm going antiquing this weekend looking for enamelware camping utensils, but I think I'll pass on the spoon that can be used as a tire iron.

[Brown Eyes]

I just noticed a new coffeepot and bucket detail.  In the scene by the river when Jack suggests that Ennis move to Texas... Ennis is washing both a coffeepot and a bucket.  This is right before the bucket floats down stream.

I know this is a slightly compulsive thing to notice.  But hey... I thought I might as well report it.
 

[Front-Ranger]

Thanks, you have an eagle eye,  atz (it's amanda, right?) I found the perfect coffeepot in an antiques store, but, alas, no lid, so I have to keep searching. Around the coffee pot looking for the handle...

[Brown Eyes]

Heya Front-Ranger,
Yup, it's Amanda.   I thought it would be fun to bring an old thread up to the front page again anyway.

 

[Lynne]

Cool to have this thread resurrected b/c I was going to look for it later.  I have a random comment about the horizontal-Jake/vertical-Ennis which I noticed last night -

One conversation where this positioning is reversed is the 'sweet life' scene.  Initially, Jake is sitting, perhaps anxious about his proposal, or at least a man with something on his mind, while Ennis is reclining, looking as relaxed and as happy as we ever see him. 

Does anyone have any deeper insight into this?  I can't think of another scene where they're positioned in this way.

Thanks,
Lynne

[Brown Eyes]

Hey Lynne,
That's a good point.  I've never really thought about that scene in terms of the horizontal/vertical question.  I guess the biggest and most obvious contrast to that is the day after the 1st tent scene on the mountain top when Jack lounges around on the grass waiting for Ennis to come and talk to him.  I can think of more cases where Jack is the horizontal one... the harmonica scene with the "tent don't look right" comment is another example.  I'm not sure what to make of it or why the position is reversed in the "prayer of thanks" scene.  Maybe it's just a representation of the ying and yang idea.  Like their hat colors.

[Brown Eyes]

More on the horizontal/ vertical topic... Well, this is somewhat related.  During the Brokeback summer when they're moving camp (that transition sequence where there's a lot of score and images of herding sheep, riding horses, landscape, etc.) there's a great shot where Jack is shown on his horse in profile from quite a distance... He's positioned parallel to the screen and Ennis rides into the scene with the pack mules behind him.  He approaches Jack at what seems like almost a perfect right angle and as he gets closer that sense of a right angle becomes really pronounced. I guess all of this has to do with the yin and yang idea.  It certainly makes for some striking shots.

[Front-Ranger]

Interesting, I will have to look at that scene again soon. Thanks for pointing this out, Amanda!

[starboardlight]

I've been thinking about Ennis and his buckets lately. The first time I noticed a bucket was on that fateful first night when Jack ordered him to stop hammering and get in the tent. Ever obedient, Ennis stumbled towards the tent, kicking over a bucket, or a pot, or whatever but it made a loud clanging sound like it was empty. Then I noticed several more encounters with buckets and I thought, what's with the buckets? Are they there for comic relief?

This is what I finally decided is the meaning of the buckets. First of all, the bucket that Ennis kicks over first is empty. The vessel of his life is about to be filled up. The next time we see him kicking, it's not a bucket, but a couple of bikers. No buckets around. But wait! He had just told the bikers to get control over their slopbucket mouths. Okay, so at this point there's a load of slop in the bucket that is Ennis' life. He has come down from the mountain, and he has no hopes of ever seeing Jack again and he's resigned himself to a life that is an endless road waiting to be slopped with asphalt (didn't see a bucket in that scene, but I'm sure there was one involved).

Cut to after the reunion. Jack and Ennis are separated again, and Ennis is hurting. He has an argument with Alma. Alma wants to go to work at the grocery store, the source of her sustenance and site of her future husband, and Ennis wants to keep her at home to serve dinner. She leaves and he follows but turns back and loudly, violently, kicks over a bucket of ashes. Now, Ennis' life is represented by a bucket of ashes. His passion for Alma is all burned out and his passion for Jack smolders inwardly (he wears a down vest that has a red lining).

The last time I saw the bucket, my heart sank. Jack and Ennis were camping beside a stream and for the last time Jack suggested that Ennis leave Riverton and come and live near him in Texas. Ennis responds angrily and while he is berating Jack, a bucket starts to float down the stream. Silently I cried out, Ennis, your life and all your chances for happiness are floating away! But Ennis just kept grousing about how Jack was a big thinker (dreamer). Jack F**king Twist.

So, that's my ode to the bucket, and if any of you have a BBM symbol that means a lot to you, I would love to hear about it.

I wonder if there's a different reading of the bucket floating down the river. If the water flow is their love as has been often suggested, there was a chance for Ennis, the bucket, to catch that flow and just ride the water to happiness, as Jack repeated offer. But he doesn't, he runs after the bucket and stops it, himself. There was a chance for happiness, if only he'd just let go of control. After all, his happy moments were when he was out of control, weren't they? Tents, reunion kiss, Jack?