"If your can't fix it, Jack...You gotta stand it."

[dot-matrix]

I just now finished watching again on HBO for the umpteenth time and something struck me that I never picked up on before.  If this has been shared or discussed please bear with me I did try to find a thread already started on this topic  I looked at IMDB as well but no mentions of this specific scene as pivotal beyond that special line.   

Ennis: Two guys livin together? No way.  We can get together once in a while way the hell out in the back of nowhere, but...

Jack: ....Once in a while....ever' four fuckin years!?!

Ennis: If your can't fix it, Jack...You gotta stand it.

Jack: (quiet) For how long?

Ennis: Long as we can ride it.  (pause)  Ain't no reins on this one.

both quiet, Jack reaches out a hand and gently strokes Ennis' cheek.


I watched this over and over again lately and I think I finally got it.  Everything about Ennis in that scene is about Ennis telling Jack he loves him even though he won't chuck it all to be with him.  He shares his thoughts and fears with Jack something he would never do with anyone else even Alma.  But the capper in my mind are the words "Long as we can ride it.  Ain't no reins on this one".  to me, Ennis is saying clear as he can: Jack you are important to me and I don't want to lose you, I love you but I've got responsibilities, work with me here.  For a proud taciturn man like Ennis that scene is incredible and those few words he chooses are profound.

[mvansand76]

I agree, I have always interpreted this scene like that. Without using the exact words he tells Jack that he loves him and that nothing in the world will keep him from loving him but that it's gonna be a difficult ride....ain't no reins on this one, (in the short story he adds, it scares the **** out of me if I remember correctly). He is so scared of what he is feeling, but he knows what he is feeling.

I just love this scene, I love how Ennis sighs when Jack strokes Ennis' cheek. It's so sad and he is so full of love, it's almost unbearable to watch....

[Jeff Wrangler]

I watched this over and over again lately and I think I finally got it.  Everything about Ennis in that scene is about Ennis telling Jack he loves him even though he won't chuck it all to be with him.  He shares his thoughts and fears with Jack something he would never do with anyone else even Alma.  But the capper in my mind are the words "Long as we can ride it.  Ain't no reins on this one".  to me, Ennis is saying clear as he can: Jack you are important to me and I don't want to lose you, I love you but I've got responsibilities, work with me here.  For a proud taciturn man like Ennis that scene is incredible and those few words he chooses are profound.

I agree, Dot--and I'm not ashamed to say publicly that it took a long, long time for that to sink into my thick Pennsylvania German head. When I finally--finally--really took in the look on Ennis's face when Jack reaches out and strokes his cheek, it hit me like a ton of bricks. That had a profound affect on how I now view the film.

[Brown Eyes]

Dot, that's how I've always seen this scene too.  In fact, I think certain things that Ennis says here helps take the sting out of the rejection of the cow and calf operation.  By saying "as long as we can ride it" Ennis seems to be saying he wants the relationship to last forever (or for as long as he has anything to say about it in terms of control, i.e. the reins).  It really is awfully romantic coming from Ennis, especially combined with his demeanor in this scene (his vulnerability) and also directly following the "prayer of thanks" remark and the wink (also both romantic).

This is the first time that I really noticed the "Jack" thrown into the middle of that famous motto.  I'm so used to thinking about it as simply "If you can't fix it, you gotta stand it" that seeing the "Jack" in the middle is a little jarring.  It makes it seem a lot more personal this way and less like an abstract life-philosophy, which is what it really seems to be for Ennis.  It's so interesting to me that the screenwriters decided to put this line (the last line of the story) in here at this moment in the film.  It has tob be important.

[Katie77]

Yes......aren't those words so damn strong.......

Referring to it the way Ennis did, was saying it in connection with Jack and his rodeo horse riding....." long as we can ride it"......knowing Jack, could picture, that the "ride" would not always be smooth, and that there were no "reins" to pull it up, no "reins" to control how long, how rough the journey was going to be......

Guess he was saying.....this could be the longest ride, he and  Jack was gonna have......(and he was right)

[Jeff Wrangler]

By saying "as long as we can ride it" Ennis seems to be saying he wants the relationship to last forever (or for as long as he has anything to say about it in terms of control, i.e. the reins).

Dunno. Could be. His demeanor and the way he says it makes me feel he's as afraid of himself and his feelings as he is of what happens to two guys who ranch up together. I think he's feeling that he doesn't have his emotions under control--"Ain't no reins on this one"--and that's at least part of what's scaring him.

This is the first time that I really noticed the "Jack" thrown into the middle of that famous motto.  I'm so used to thinking about it as simply "If you can't fix it, you gotta stand it" that seeing the "Jack" in the middle is a little jarring.  It makes it seem a lot more personal this way and less like an abstract life-philosophy, which is what it really seems to be for Ennis.  It's so interesting to me that the screenwriters decided to put this line (the last line of the story) in here at this moment in the film.  It has tob be important.

I agree, throwing the "Jack" in there does make it more personal. Combined iwth the look on Heath's face, and, again, his demeanor, it makes me think Ennis wants to fix "it" (their situation), but he doesn't believe fixing it is even possible.

[nakymaton]

I think he's feeling that he doesn't have his emotions under control--"Ain't no reins on this one"--and that's at least part of what's scaring him.

Yes. Definitely.

You know, that line, "if you can't fix it, you got a stand it," appears twice in the short story: once in the Motel Siesta scene (which is the source of a lot of the dialogue on the camping trip), and once as the final line in the story. A lot of its power as a "life philosophy" comes from being the last line in the story, when it's got all the weight of Jack's death heaped on top of it, and where it sounds to me like a really depressing statement about Ennis's future. But the earlier time, in the Motel, that line comes across in the same way in the movie and the story (except that, in the movie, the rest of the camping scene really does scream "I love you, Jack, even if I can't bring myself to say it" to me).

Did anyone else expect to hear the line without "Jack" in the middle of it? In the trailer, the "Jack" is cut out of that line. (It's just in a short splicing of critical lines from the movie, along with things like "You have no idea how bad it gets" and "I wish I knew how to quit you.") It jarred me the first time I heard it, and I think I probably didn't think of the significance of the change as a result.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Did anyone else expect to hear the line without "Jack" in the middle of it? In the trailer, the "Jack" is cut out of that line. (It's just in a short splicing of critical lines from the movie, along with things like "You have no idea how bad it gets" and "I wish I knew how to quit you.") It jarred me the first time I heard it, and I think I probably didn't think of the significance of the change as a result.

Since I never saw a theatrical trailer for the film, I didn't know this. Thanks! Imagine--a year on and there are still things I can learn about Brokeback Mountain! 

[fernly]

Since I never saw a theatrical trailer for the film, I didn't know this. Thanks! Imagine--a year on and there are still things I can learn about Brokeback Mountain! 

The trailer's what led me to the story and then to the film. Couldn't begin to say how many times I watched the trailer while waiting for the film's release. Never caught the change in that line, though.

Here's a link:
http://www.focusfeatures.com/viewer.php?f=brokeback_mountain&c=trailer&ext=wmv&w=480&&h=270

[Jeff Wrangler]

The trailer's what led me to the story and then to the film. Couldn't begin to say how many times I watched the trailer while waiting for the film's release. Never caught the change in that line, though.

Here's a link:
http://www.focusfeatures.com/viewer.php?f=brokeback_mountain&c=trailer&ext=wmv&w=480&&h=270

Yeehaw!  Thanks, Fern! I think I'd better wait to check it out at home, however. ...