Where was Ennis coming from? Going to?

[RouxB]

WOW!!! Thanks!

 

[Front-Ranger]

Hello and welcome, Mel. Wow you really hit the ground running with all that good info about Wyoming. From what I've seen, this state to the north of me is a lot like Annie Proulx's prose, sparse but dramatic. I love your fantasy about the post office. A few pages down there is a thread called "You KNow You're a Brokeholic When" that you might want to check out. Hope to see u here again soon when your 3-yr-old is napping.

That reminds me of a story. I was typing away at my computer once when my son, Kit, about 3 years old at the time, laid his hand on the keyboard and said, "Mommy, don't touch 'puter. 'Puter is Kit's special!"

[Ellemeno]

[Ellemeno hangs out large "Welcome Mel" banner]

Mel, that's great.  Any insightful, smart, humorous, BBM-lovin' friend of Meryl's is a friend of mine.  And I have a three year old too.  She knows my desktop background is a picture of Ennis and Jack (dozy embrace close-up).

[Front-Ranger]

Absolutely I'm a proud Coloradan. Welcome aboard!

[serious crayons]

Back to why Jack fell in love with Ennis (because I am just seeing this thread for the first time and wish I'd found it earlier but can't pass up the chance to throw in my opinion on this issue).

Anyway, I agree with everything everybody said above: his appreciation of Jack, his vulnerability, his wild side.  His being gorgeous sure doesn't hurt. Personally, I was in love with him by the time the train went past Aguirre's trailer.

But also, Ennis is good at all the things that Jack tries to be good at. He has the Marlboro image casually nailed (a pose that Jack often looks like he's self-consciously trying to assume). He can shoot things. He can catch objects tossed to him without warning -- and with his left hand! -- whereas Jack fumbled the keys LD Newsome threw. Etc.

As for Ennis' shyness and social awkwardness, those qualities probably just drew Jack in all the more. People who are strong in one characteristic often don't seek that quality in a partner. In other words, Jack took his own friendly extroversion for granted; he wouldn't necessarily care whether Ennis shared it. The fact that he doesn't just becomes a challenge; he found it exciting when Ennis DID open up to him. To paraphrase Cassie, guys don't fall in love with friendliness. (Not necessarily, anyway. I guess Ennis did.).

And still another point: It's not like Ennis was taciturn and cold to Jack, at least not after that first afternoon when they had beers together. He always listened intently when Jack talked, laughed at his jokes, banged the pot and said "very good" about his singing, and obviously was crazy about him. That's a pretty potent combination. And Ennis continued to respond that way to Jack, for the most part, for the next 20 years.

Ennis may have been uptight, but the only real problem his uptightness caused for Jack was, well, the big obvious one.

[DeeDee]

But also, Ennis is good at all the things that Jack tries to be good at. He has the Marlboro image casually nailed (a pose that Jack often looks like he's self-consciously trying to assume). He can shoot things. He can catch objects tossed to him without warning -- and with his left hand! -- whereas Jack fumbled the keys LD Newsome threw. Etc.


Wow.  Another great point.  Something else I didn't notice in a gazillion viewings.
Ennis catching the watch left handed and Jack dropping the keys goes back to an earlier post about how hard Jack tries to do things, but never succeeds.. This is probably why he married money.

[Front-Ranger]

I know this is Ennis' thread, but I have to put in a word for Jack here. He started out being the experienced one on Brokeback Mountain. We see him as an expert shepherd and the first time we get a different idea is when Ennis said that his dad thought rodeo riders were f**kups, and Jack started to clown around and got a big smile out of Ennis. Jack was quick to criticize himself, he had internalized his dad. He said he couldn't cook worth a damn, but  we see him peeling potatoes pretty expertly, even while something very distracting was going on  So he didn't kill the coyote. I believe he just didn't have a killer instinct. And he was just fine with a can opener. The only reason he had a problem with it is because he was trying to open the can while lying down with the can balanced on his stomach! (Hey, I'll volunteer to play that can!!) Later on, he was a bettermost combine salesman. Altho he never wanted children, he cared about Bobby and was the parent who remembered that Bobby needed a tutor (at the age of two no less). I could go on and on. Cut to the end, in the story, Jack says bitterly "Nothing come to my hand in the right way." But it's ironic that he is saying this to Ennis, the day laborer who can't keep a steady job, failed at his marriage, and lives in rental houses and trailers. Jack, on the other hand, feels like a failure even though he is affluent, has an intact marriage and a child, and is a prominent member of Childress society, as evidenced by his attendance at the fundraiser. His father condemned him too and said, "Jack thought he was too special." Jack was successful to leave the dried up old ranch at Lightning Flat, and to do very well for a dropout that rodeo clowns and the draft rejected. He could leave Lightning Flat but he could never escape the condemnation of society or the judgemental father who lived on in his head.

[twistedude]

Ennis is "from around Sage," as it says in the first non-italicized paragraph in the short story...you guys forgetting how to read? Probably still had relatives or friends there...no home.

ANYWAY, someone already said that...so shut up. Julie.

Jack sees right away that Ennis is good to look at, and imediately begins "peeling" him. (There's a famouns line in a play about someone "peeling their onion,"--carefully taking off layers of themselves for everyoine to see). He likes everythbing he uncovers. He's good to work with, and they work well together, and opens up really pretty readily to Jack's "peeling."  Ennis shows a surprising willingness to do things Jack doesn't want to do, or can't do well (shoot, herd and sleep in a pup tent that smells like cat piss). They are interested in eachother from the first days...Jack looks down at Ennis's fire; Ennis looks up at Jack with the sheep...

But there's no getting around the fact that in the movie, and only in the movie, Jack, with no undue haste, is after Ennis, from the moment he lays eyes on him.  I don't know if there's love at first sight, but there sure is "I want that one" at first sight...

And, as someone has already pointed out, Ennis knows nothing of sex, and little of love--both probably know little of love (maybe Jack, from  his mom...)

Photo is of Jake and Heath in costume, but not acting--dress is from first summer, but whisley bottle is the more copious one from the last night (for some reason).

[Front-Ranger]

All about Ennis--can we ever get enough? NO!

[Penthesilea]

Thanks for the bump, Lee. I haven't seen this thread before. The last post had been made three days before I joined BM. This is a great thread with good insights.

Don't know if anybody is still interested in discussing it, but it's worth a try.
I had a thought reagarding the OP which hasn't been mentioned yet: There is a difference about Ennis's past between the book and the movie.

This sentence from Ennis is from the movie (in the bar, first day): "[...]Bank took the ranch. Brother and sister, they raised me, mostly."

It's the mostly that is different to the story. The story says: Ennis, reared by his older brother and sister after their parents drove off...

These two things, the 'mostly' and Ennis' description of first his sister marrying and moving away, then his brother (no more room for me) give me the impression that (movie)Ennis had been handed around among his siblings and other relatives, like some old dog. At least for parts of the time between his parent's death and him meeting Jack.

So, he could have come from anywhere when he arrived in Signal. Maybe he had been back to Sage and stayed with an aunt/uncle/whatever for a few weeks after KE's wedding. But my guess nevertheless would be he came from Worland, where he had worked with his brother.

Since I never saw that the truck's door had "Sage" on it, I checked the DVD (no screencaps of the truck door at stripedwall). And guess what? It doesn't say "Sage". You can only see the first three letters of the word, and they are S A C. You can see parts of the forth letter, and the left side of the forth letter is round, like an O or another C, not like an E.

Any photoshop magican here, who could make a screencap of the truck door? Toast? The best view of the door is at 00:01:17

Aside:
Another difference between the two quoted sentences is raised, said by Ennis - and reared, the description in the story. Are there any important differences in the tenor/contents of these two words?