Did anyone else notice this

[opinionista]

Well, I think the movie nor the short story give enough information to reach to that conclusion, at least to me. Maybe Ennis did have some friends, but they were married and didn't have enough time to hang out with him when he divorced. Besides, Ennis was seldom around. When he wasn't working at some far away ranch, he was with Jack at the mountains where nobody could see him.

Also, considering that he didn't want anyone to found out about his secret life, is undestandable that he woud avoid making close friends. But that be out of fear, not necessarily homophobia. Cassie was the closest friend he made after his divorce, and she had a hard time understanding Ennis. She didn't know where she stood in his life and has to ask his daughter about it.

On the other hand, Ennis talks about Don Wroe letting him use his house. He has to be someone Ennis knows pretty well. I mean you don't let a house just like that, you let it to people you know and trust. So I guess this Don Wroe person was someone who as a friend of Ennis. Cassie also talks about some guy named Steve. When she runs into Ennis at the bar, she tells him she has left a message for him with Steve at the ranch. But he could be his boss or whatever.

[Lumière]

I agree - not only was Ennis without any male friends, he was without many friends in general.  The only possible 'friend' (aside from Jack of course) that Ennis could've had was this fellow Don Wroe whom Ennis mentions.  I think they had to be abit more than aquaintances for him to let Ennis use his cabin for a while.  I can hope ...

During that scene where Ennis meets Cassie, I was always struck by him sitting at the bar alone, chain-smoking and drinking bottle after bottle of beer.  I mean, he might have done that quite a few nights a week ...week after week... ...when he was not with Jack, Ennis just shut down completely.

Another scene that gets me, at the end, during Alma Jr's visit, I could feel the weight of the world on his shoulders.  It sucks to love someone so much for 20 years, to dream of them all the time, to be in love with them and to finally lose them and not be able to tell a single living soul about it!  That burden was crushing the life out of Ennis...everytime I see Ennis alone, I figure he is thinking about Jack, wishing they could be together - yet he was almost paralysed when it came to making that dream come true...

[opinionista]

Another scene that gets me, at the end, during Alma Jr's visit, I could feel the weight of the world on his shoulders.  It sucks to love someone so much for 20 years, to dream of them all the time, to be in love with them and to finally lose them and not be able to tell a single living soul about it!  That burden was crushing the life out of Ennis...everytime I see Ennis alone, I figure he is thinking about Jack, wishing they could be together - yet he was almost paralysed when it came to making that dream come true...

I also thought at this scene Ennis looks like feeling an urge to tell Alma Jr about Jack, about how he has lost him and the importance of loving someone and being loved, but restrains himself. Its a very sad scene.

[ednbarby]

I agree.  When he looks out the window there (as he does so often throughout the movie, as we've discussed) after saying "He loves you?" and Alma replying very thoughtfully and knowingly, "Yes, Daddy.  He loves me.", not only do we see the realization that of course that is what he felt for Jack, but the tiniest inkling of a smile, I think because he is relieved that she won't have to go through what her mother did.  What any of them did, really.  She will not only be loved, but she will be with the one she loves.  The bittersweetness of that smile - the realization of his love for Jack and all the crushing weight that comes with it coupled with the release of a bit of that weight in his relief that his daughter won't have the miserable life that they all had - is just heartwrenching.

[starboardlight]

But, he makes it even more clear when he tells Jack about not having had the opportunity to lose his virginity yet.

i never thought of that. but you're right. especially for a 19 year old male in America, that is just not what you admit to. you make up stories if you have to, but none admits to being a virgin.

[vkm91941]

But, he makes it even more clear when he tells Jack about not having had the opportunity to lose his virginity yet.

i never thought of that. but you're right. especially for a 19 year old male in America, that is just not what you admit to. you make up stories if you have to, but none admits to being a virgin.

Yes, that struck me too, even though Ennis was engaged to Alma he was still a virgin...and admitted it.  Yet when they were older they both felt the need to posture about their sexual prowess with each other.  funny that.

[serious crayons]

Yet when they were older they both felt the need to posture about their sexual prowess with each other.  funny that.

I'm not sure I follow this reference. Do you mean in that last scene, when they are talking about Ennis' relationship with Cassie and Jack's supposed affair with a rancher's wife? I read those conversations in a different way: Ennis' remarks about Cassie strike me as simply an honest answer to Jack's question about him marrying; he sounds not like he's posturing but like he's very indifferent and lackadaisical ("says she wants to be a nurse, or sumpn'" in a kind of shrugging, "but who cares" tone). I guess Jack's revelation sounds a bit more like posturing, but mainly it seems like a way to slyly confess his involvement with Randall without upsetting Ennis. In any case, neither seems likely to be particularly impressed by -- or even to care about -- the other's prowess with women.  In other conversations, both also seem blase about their sexual relationships with their wives.

Or am I not getting it? If you mean, literally, "posture about their sexual prowess with each other" as in, actually with each other -- again there seems no need to posture; they already know about that!

[henrypie]

Maybe it's only once they've been together that they've found the need/ability to lie to each other.  Ennis admits to being a virgin when he's innocent; after years of lying to protect the relationship, I don't know that he would have told the same truth.  Lying becomes a habit.

Does Ennis ever lie to Jack?

[ednbarby]

Does Ennis ever lie to Jack?

Yes.  When Jack says "What about you?" in the motel room and he says, "Me?  I dunno..."  BullSHIT.  He does know.  He has to know.  In the story, though, I'd say that no, Ennis never lies to Jack.

[serious crayons]

Well, I'd hesitate to call "Me? I dunno" an out-and-out lie. I wish he would have said something more profound, but it just seems like another example of his verbal reticence. Similarly, I wouldn't think of it as a lie when he tells Jack he's sendin up a prayer of thanks for him forgettin his harmonica. Ennis just can't talk about his feelings.

Jack lies a lot, but his motivation is usually to protect Ennis, so I don't really blame him for it.

In other words, I don't think of either of them as habitually lying to each other, or doing so in any sort of harmful or callous way.