Hi, Baby Tammy - as usual, I was working from the film, not the SS, and, yes, in the SS, LD was dead. We don't like to admit it, but the whole of BBM evolved towards the final version, and there, even the actors changed things. At one point, Jake said he was playing Jack as a straight guy, but he retreated under pressure.
I do think it is very significant how the actors, by interpreting their roles, became more than mere players following a script, but joined into the co-creation of the final version. We can jump around all we want, from SS to screenplay, to working screenplay, to editing, but there IS a final version.
And there again, where there are missing scenes, that, too, points to something Ang Lee did NOT want in that final version and so therefore tells us something. That they were filmed is of interest. That they were left out, tells us so very much more.
All of what I said was speculation, but, given the open territory they deliberately left us, it does come to mind that when Jack talked Randall into leaving his wife and going to Lightning Flat, effectively, they "outted" themselves. Which does leave the possibility LD freaked (and he did have the resources to rustle up some thugs), that Randall found out Jack was ALSO boinging his wife, and either of these could have led to murder. It was deliberate for the creators of the film to give no final answer, so there never will be one. But at the very least, there was more the suggestion of SOME kind of murder and cover-up, rather than the very lame tale of a bizarre, freakish accident. And poor Ennis was left, like us, to interpret it his own way.
Baby Tammy, we've got to stop meeting like this. People are beginning to talk. How can we elope and flee to Lithuania, if they piece together the clues? We gotta be more discreet.
