The "You gotta feel sorry for Jack" thread

[Sheriff Roland]

Jamais Ennis sans Jack - gotta even things out by introducing

The "You gotta feel sorry  for Jack" thread


You gotta feel sorry  for Jack for never having things go his way - not with shooting coyotes, not with getting soup (no more beans, not with Ennis - well not the way he wanted anyways, not with bull riding ($2,000 a year), not with his relationship with his dad "Christ, he licked the stuffin out a me, knocked me down on the bathroom floor, whipped me with his belt... No way to get it right with him after that.", ... well you get the idea.)


 

[moremojo]

You gotta feel sorry for Jack when he is rebuffed by Jimbo the rodeo clown. Jack is so vulnerable and naive here, wearing his tender heart on his sleeve as always, and I really feel for him when Jimbo gives him the cold shoulder. I also always worry for his safety when Jimbo goes over to his pool-playing buddies, as if to say to them, "I gotta tell you about this weird guy over at the bar..."--this tense moment foreshadows Jack's possible murder later in the story.

[Lynne]

You've gotta feel sorry for Jack when his in-laws visit after Bobby is born.  He smiles at Lureen and there's love in his eyes for his child, but he feels excluded from their little circle and is belittled by father-in-law.  Breaks my heart, that.

[Toast]

You gotta feel sorry for Jack as he and Ennis say "goodbye" after they come down from Brokeback.
He tries to get Ennis to commit to return next year, kind of invites him to come up to his daddy's ranch, but fears the best he can hope for is life in the army.

so sad.

[TJ]

You've gotta feel sorry for Jack when his in-laws visit after Bobby is born.  He smiles at Lureen and there's love in his eyes for his child, but he feels excluded from their little circle and is belittled by father-in-law.  Breaks my heart, that.

What makes it even worse is that Lureen's parents take control when they go into Jack's master bedroom in his house. In the movie, in the hallway is the picture of a horse with two contest ribbons inside the frame.

All of that stuff that happens in Texas with Lureen's parents is not in the original short story.

I feel sorry for the screenplay/movie Jack having to work for a man who hated his guts in the first place. Annie Proulx's Jack never works for the farm and equipment company until after Lureen's (no-name) father dies.

[Ellemeno]

I gotta feel sorry for Jack when he's first dancing with Lureen and they turn and his face is so sad.

[ednbarby]

You gotta feel sorry for Jack when L.D. says to him "You want your boy to grow up to be a man, dontcha?"  But not for long there, thankfully, once he lets him have it.   

[Rayn]

You gotta feel sorry for Jack when Randall starts talking about goin' out to his friend's croppie house on the lake to do a little fishin', drink a little whisky... "Ya know?"...  Jack knows what Randall means, but the look on his face, in his eyes... is all about Ennis, he's thinkin of Ennis even if he does take Randall up on his offer later on out of loneliness.   That look is so sad to me.

Rayn

[vkm91941]

You've got to feel sorry for Jack, loving Ennis all those years and never having him, settling for second best 3 or 4 times a year....so sad so tragic

[Brown Eyes]

Ooooo, so much about Jack's situation breaks my heart.  I feel like watching his hopes get dashed over and over again... and his heart broken (or at least disappointed) is like watching a puppy getting kicked.  The worst has to be his disappointment during the post-divorce fiasco.  Watching the contrast between his pure happiness driving up to Wyoming compared to his heartbreak leaving just kills me.  How could Ennis do that to Jack?  But, Ennis breaks my heart too, but for different reasons.