Author Topic: Scene 1: Jack getting out of pickup  (Read 16486 times)

Offline nakymaton

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Re: Scene 1: Jack getting out of pickup
« Reply #40 on: January 13, 2007, 04:12:19 pm »
For a moment, Jack does look like he's about to walk up to Ennis and stick out his hand. But Ennis looks down and away, letting his hat shade his face, and Jack changes his mind, and looks down and away himself.

Let's see if I can get links from www.stripedwall.com to work...

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Watch out. That poster has a low startle point.

injest

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Re: Scene 1: Jack getting out of pickup
« Reply #41 on: January 13, 2007, 04:15:21 pm »
I think Jack hopped outta that truck all chipper and ready then turned and saw Ennis all hunched up and  body language saying STAY AWAY and he hesitated..

hey even the boldest among us get cold feet sometimes!

Ennis wasn't overly inviting... ;)

I am learning more and more that there is a lot in body language I haven't noticed (even in real life) you men say more with your bodies than you do with your words....that seems to be a masculine trait...(not trying to kick up dust...but we women tend to be talkers..men seem like doers...)

I was talking to a gay man the other day and he said he could be walking down the street, look at another guy and be having sex within moments....never saying a word to one another...couldn't do that with a woman I don't think...

injest

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Re: Scene 1: Jack getting out of pickup
« Reply #42 on: January 13, 2007, 04:17:07 pm »
dang Mel is just too quick with that reply button!! must be on that souped up high speed internet I been hearing about...

Offline Phillip Dampier

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Re: Scene 1: Jack getting out of pickup
« Reply #43 on: January 13, 2007, 04:21:46 pm »
Just letting my thoughts bounce here, as I'm reading this thread...

This is good stuff.  I appreciate the great added perspective.  One great thing about being able to discuss this is we all come from different backgrounds and experiences, and critically important, age groups as well.

That first scene where they meet, I feel Jack is definitely putting on the strut. Part of Jack's escape from his own poverty its to see himself some what larger than life. That stance he takes leaning against the old black GMC is as much a statement of I got the right stuff, as it is a checking out Ennis. And I agree, that image of Ennis in the mirror of Jack's truck as he shaves, it is put there to show Jack's interest in Ennis as more than just a work partner for the summer. My vibe of this scene is Jack is going 'woo eee', this guy ain't hard on the eyes at all. What might be throwing us a curve in this dance between Jack and Ennis is how Ennis is giving off these signals of don't get close to me, don't touch me, I can't deal with that.[/quote]

I agree about Jack.  You notice throughout the movie Jack talks a better game than he performs.  No horse has thrown him, until one does.  He misses the wolf, he isn't the best rodeo cowboy out there, his co-workers dismiss him as an embarrassment, he is turned down by a rodeo clown he was hitting on, and even Jack's father tells us Jack talked a lot and did less.  Ennis barely spoke at all, but in the end did more by *finally* growing his character in the final moments of the film.  Jack was definitely the bolder of the two.

One interesting point, albeit more salacious, at least from the perspective of a gay guy, is that Jack's more dominant strutting and bolder risk-taking didn't translate into the tent scene, where Jack was "the bottom."  Among the more macho-self conscious types, I have repeatedly heard comments about how the guy on top isn't gay, only the bottom would be (this is especially common among the Latino community).  A lot of macho guys won't even admit to being a "bottom."  We really don't have any added perspective about their sexual encounters to follow, to learn if they switched positions, but it wouldn't surprise me if Ennis would have never allowed himself to be on the bottom either.
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Offline serious crayons

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Re: Scene 1: Jack getting out of pickup
« Reply #44 on: January 13, 2007, 05:02:48 pm »
I was talking to a gay man the other day and he said he could be walking down the street, look at another guy and be having sex within moments....never saying a word to one another...couldn't do that with a woman I don't think...

That's an understatement! The only way you could do that with a woman is if she stepped forward, looked you in the eyes, and said, "SeƱor?"

There's something I don't often see mentioned when it comes to talking about Ennis. It's just how much the fear of being noticed seems to bother him. In my mind, he can feel the attraction he might have for other men. However, his fear of this is to the point he wont let his thinking mind touch the subject. At least, he doesn't until after that first night in the tent with Jack.

Good way to put it, Garry.

Offline adrian

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Re: Scene 1: Jack getting out of pickup
« Reply #45 on: January 13, 2007, 05:26:30 pm »
For a moment, Jack does look like he's about to walk up to Ennis and stick out his hand. But Ennis looks down and away, letting his hat shade his face, and Jack changes his mind, and looks down and away himself.


Ah I see.  I guess Ennis did send a "leave me alone" message to Jack.   So no words were needed just body language.
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Offline Ellemeno

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Re: Scene 1: Jack getting out of pickup
« Reply #46 on: January 14, 2007, 02:46:01 am »
Ennis makes that sour little prune face, leaning against the wall of the trailer.  I wouldn't go bouncing up to him wagging my tail either.

Offline ffrn

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Re: Scene 1: Jack getting out of pickup
« Reply #47 on: January 14, 2007, 03:10:26 am »
This poverty, on both of these character's parts, is perhaps the most powerful force shaping their identities. For Ennis, it feels to me like he believes any change from what he knows would threaten his very survival. For Jack, it's something to escape however he can. Like, his marrying Lureen.

I totally agree Garry.  To me anyway, the poverty both had grown up with explained much of their actions throughout their lives. 

Offline nagsheadsea412

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Re: Scene 1: Jack getting out of pickup
« Reply #48 on: February 09, 2009, 05:54:05 pm »
It is a question mark though..here are two men in the silence of the day waiting for their employer and no one talks, introduces themselves...I know it's cowboy country and 1963...but so what/ was Ennis so shy and repressed that he would look down and shuffle...If I were Jack, I'd wonder what the hell this guy is all about and I'm going to be shut away with him all summer?

Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: Scene 1: Jack getting out of pickup
« Reply #49 on: February 10, 2009, 12:22:02 am »
A similar scene was depicted in the classic novel The Virginian, which is actually not set in Virginia, it takes place in Wyoming. Two people meet at a party and make a serious effort to ignore each other, thus conveying the depth of their feeling for each other. So, I call this the "Wyoming handshake," when two people studiously ignore each other.

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