Brokeback Mountain Forum @ ennisjack.com
The Movie & Story => AP Short Story & Screenplay => Topic started by: guyinjax on May 23, 2006, 03:58 PM
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Here's mine:
They had stood that way for a long time in front of the fire, its burning tossing ruddy chunks of light, the shadow of their bodies a single column against the rock.
OMG!
... it's on page 43 of my version (the one with the movie photo on the cover)..
Please share yours ...
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They seized each other by the shoulders ,hugged mightily, squeezing the breath out of each other, saying, son of a bitch, son of a bitch, then. and easily as the right ket turns the lock tumblers, their mouths came together,and hard, Jack's big teeth bringing blood, his hat falling to the floor, stubble rasping, wet saliva welling, and the door opening and Alma looking out for a few seconds at Ennis's straining shoulders and shutting the door again and still they clinched, pressing chest and groin and thigh and leg together, treading on each other's toes until they pulled apart to breathe and Ennis, not big on endearments, said what he said to his horses and daughters, little darlin.
IMHO, THE best description of a kiss ever committed to paper.
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They seized each other by the shoulders ,hugged mightily, squeezing the breath out of each other, saying, son of a bitch, son of a bitch, then. and easily as the right ket turns the lock tumblers, their mouths came together,and hard, Jack's big teeth bringing blood, his hat falling to the floor, stubble rasping, wet saliva welling, and the door opening and Alma looking out for a few seconds at Ennis's straining shoulders and shutting the door again and still they clinched, pressing chest and groin and thigh and leg together, treading on each other's toes until they pulled apart to breathe and Ennis, not big on endearments, said what he said to his horses and daughters, little darlin.
IMHO, THE best description of a kiss ever committed to paper.
FABULOUS quotation! Thanks!
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Love the two that have been quoted so far. My favourite other bit, though, would be the following passage from the motel, where Ennis opens up to Jack and talks about his feelings. I think I like this mostly because "movie Ennis" doesn't say any of it, it's all just done with looks and touches instead.
Ennis pulled Jack's hand to his mouth, took a hit from the cigarette, exhaled. "Sure as hell seem in one piece to me. You know, I was sittin up here all that time tryin to figure out if I was - ? I know I ain't. I mean here we both got wives and kids, right? I like doin it with women, yeah. but Jesus H., ain't nothin like this. I never had no thoughts a doin it with another guy except I sure wrang it out a hunderd times thinkin about you. You do it with other guys? Jack?"
"Shit no" said Jack, who had been riding more than bulls, not rolling his own. "You know that. Old Brokeback got us good and it sure ain't over. We got a work out what the f*ck we're goin a do now."
"That summer" said Ennis. "When we split up after we got paid out I had gut cramps so bad I pulled over and tried to puke, thought I ate somethin bad at that place in Dubois. Took me about a year a figure out it was that I shouldn't a let you out a my sights. Too late then by a long, long while."
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Let be. Let be.
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"And he would wake sometimes in grief, sometimes with the old sense of joy and release, the pillow sometimes wet, sometimes the sheets"
:\'(
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"And he would wake sometimes in grief, sometimes with the old sense of joy and release, the pillow sometimes wet, sometimes the sheets"
:\'(
:\'( :\'( :\'( :\'( :\'( :\'( :\'( :\'( :-\\ :\'( :\'( :-[ :\'( :\'( :\'( :\'( :\'( :\'(
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Great quotes, everyone.
Let be. Let be.
Thanks, tpe. I do like this line a lot. Simple words and yet symbolizes the vulnerability of a such love.
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This one tugs at my heart strings ...
"That summer" said Ennis. "When we split up after we got paid out I had gut cramps so bad I pulled over and tried to puke, thought I ate somethin bad at that place in Dubois. Took me about a year a figure out it was that I shouldn't a let you out a my sights. Too late then by a long, long while."
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What Jack remembered and craved in a way he could neither help nor
understand was the time that distant summer on Brokeback when Ennis had come
up behind him and pulled him close, the silent embrace satisfying some
shared and sexless hunger.
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"That summer, " said Ennis. "When we split up after we got paid out I had gut cramps so bad I pulled over and tried to puke, thought I hate somethin bad at that place in Dubois. Took me about a year a figure out it was that I shouldn't a let you out of my sight. Too late then by a long, long while"
(too bad it wasn't in the movie :-\\)
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What could he say? "Alma, this is Jack Twist, Jack, my wife Alma." His chest
was heaving. He could smell Jack ~the intensely familiar odor of cigarettes,
musky sweat and a faint sweetness like grass, and with it the rushing cold of
the mountain. "Alma," he said, "Jack and me ain't seen each other in four
years." As if it were a reason. He was glad the light was dim on the landing
but did not turn away from her.
"Sure enough," said Alma in a low voice. She had seen what she had seen.
Behind her in the room lightning lit the window like a white sheet waving and
the baby cried.
"You got a kid?" said Jack. His shaking hand grazed Ennis's hand, electrical
current snapped between them.
"Two little girls," Ennis said. "Alma Jr. and Francine. Love them to pieces."
Alma's mouth twitched.
"I got a boy," said Jack. "Eight months old. Tell you what, I married a cute
little old Texas girl down in Childress -- Lureen." From the vibration of the
floorboard on which they both stood Ennis could feel how hard Jack was
shaking.
I'm sorry -I could not leave any word out, so I paste it all <^(
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Two words :
little darlin
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Two words :
little darlin
Very good one, thanks frances :\'( :-*
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"See you tomorrow" ( in Jack's memory of the dozy embrace) - heart-breaking.
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"See you tomorrow" ( in Jack's memory of the dozy embrace) - heart-breaking.
That tomorrow became forever.
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I also like these lines:
Even when the numbers were right Ennis knew the sheep were mixed. In a
disquieting way everything seemed mixed.
***********************************
The mountain boiled with demonic energy,
glazed with flickering broken cloud light; the wind combed the grass and
drew from the damaged krummholz and slit rock a bestial drone. As they
descended the slope Ennis felt he was in a slow motion, but headlong,
irreversible fall.
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I find "gun's goin off" quite interesting ;)
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Yes, LJN, beautiful sentences and I also find that section close to Milton's writing when he describes the fall and the expulsion from the garden in "Paradise Lost". When they leave the mountain it's the beginning of the consequences of what's happened betweeen them, and Ennis knows all about consequences.
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And he would wake sometimes in grief, sometimes with the old sense of joy and release, the pillow sometimes wet, sometimes the sheets
There was some open space between what he knew and what he tried to believe but nothing could be done about it, and if you can't fix it you've got to stand it.
:\'( :\'( :\'( :\'( :\'(
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Another favorite of mine. I find the imagery very moving.
Bumping down the washboard road Ennis passed the country cemetery fenced with sagging sheep wire, a tiny fenced square on the welling prairie, a few graves bright with plastic flowers, and didn’t want to know Jack was going in there, to be buried on the grieving plain.
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What Jack remembered and craved in a way he could neither help nor
understand was the time that distant summer on Brokeback when Ennis had come
up behind him and pulled him close, the silent embrace satisfying some
shared and sexless hunger.
I like this one... it is love... happy memories and love
And I am also a bit weak about Little darlin'
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After the FNT:
"Without saying anything about it, both knew how it would go for the rest of the summer, sheep be damned."
well...what can I say :^^) to Jack and Ennis <^(
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And another one- after the sheep were mixed:
In a disquieting way everything seemed mixed. sigh.. ^*()
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Felt he could paw the white out of the moon.
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Another one
What could he say? "Alma, this is Jack Twist, Jack, my wife Alma." His chest
was heaving. He could smell Jack, the intensely familiar odor of cigarettes,
musky sweat and a faint sweetness like grass, and with it the rushing cold of
the mountain
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Another one
What could he say? "Alma, this is Jack Twist, Jack, my wife Alma." His chest
was heaving. He could smell Jack, the intensely familiar odor of cigarettes,
musky sweat and a faint sweetness like grass, and with it the rushing cold of
the mountain
And... From the vibration of the floorboard on which they stood Ennis could feel how hard Jack was shaking.
This scene was very well acted and shot in the movie BTW.
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Another one
What could he say? "Alma, this is Jack Twist, Jack, my wife Alma." His chest
was heaving. He could smell Jack, the intensely familiar odor of cigarettes,
musky sweat and a faint sweetness like grass, and with it the rushing cold of
the mountain
And... From the vibration of the floorboard on which they stood Ennis could feel how hard Jack was shaking.
This scene was very well acted and shot in the movie BTW.
Indeed. A beautiful scene. A matchless realization.
(https://ennisjack.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bioscop.cz%2F_web%2F_filmy%2Fb_zkrocena_hora%2Ffotografie%2F014_zkrocena_hora.jpg&hash=f0562d9850173b7d01b00e4f59c24a73614b66d8)
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He is suffused with a sense of pleasure because Jack Twist was in his dream. ........... #) Sigh
That's all that Ennis got left of Jack - to dream ..
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And another one- after the sheep were mixed:
In a disquieting way everything seemed mixed. sigh.. ^*()
Beautiful quotation! Thanks...
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I've already quoted my favorite, but here's two more that always break my heart:
Later, that dozy embrace solidified in his memory as the single moment of artless, charmed happiness in their separate and difficult lives. Nothing marred it, even the knowledge that Ennis would not then embrace him face to face because he did not want to see nor feel that it was Jack he held. And maybe, he thought, they'd never got much farther than that. Let be, let be.
He pressed his face into the fabric and breathed in slowly through his mouth and nose, hoping for the faintest smoke and mountain sage and salty sweet stink of Jack but there was no real scent, only the memory of it, the imagined power of Brokeback Mountain of which nothing was left but what he held in his hands.
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reading through this thread brings tears to my eyes.
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It's quite a long passage...
The closet was a shallow cavity with a wooden rod braced across, a faded cretonne
curtain on a string closing it off from the rest of the room. In the closet hung two
pairs of jeans crease-ironed and folded neatly over wire hangers, on the floor a pair of
worn packer boots he thought he remembered. At the north end of the closet a tiny
jog in the wall made a slight hiding place and here, stiff with long suspension from a
nail, hung a shirt. He lifted it off the nail. Jack's old shirt from Brokeback days.
The dried blood on the sleeve was his own blood, a gushing nosebleed on the last
afternoon on the mountain when Jack, in their contortionistic grappling and
wrestling, had slammed Ennis's nose hard with his knee. He had staunched the blood
which was everywhere, all over both of them, with his shirtsleeve, but the staunching
hadn't held because Ennis had suddenly swung from the deck and laid the ministering
angel out in the wild columbine, wings folded.
The shirt seemed heavy until he saw there was another shirt inside it, the sleeves
carefully worked down inside Jack's sleeves. It was his own plaid shirt, lost, he'd
thought, long ago in some damn laundry, his dirty shirt, the pocket ripped, buttons
missing, stolen by Jack and hidden here inside Jack's own shirt, the pair like two
skins, one inside the other, two in one. He pressed his face into the fabric and
breathed in slowly through his mouth and nose, hoping for the faintest smoke and
mountain sage and salty sweet stink of Jack but there was no real scent,
only the memory of it, the imagined power of Brokeback Mountain of which
nothing was left but what he held in his hands.
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Ennis said, "I'm not no queer," and Jack jumped in with "Me neither. A one-shot thing. Nobody's business but ours."
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Ennis said, "I'm not no queer," and Jack jumped in with "Me neither. A one-shot thing. Nobody's business but ours."
Mmmm-Hmmmm. Well said! thank you
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He is suffused with a sense of pleasure because Jack Twist was in his dream. ........... #) Sigh
That's all that Ennis got left of Jack - to dream ..
I was just looking at the 1998 O'Henry Award book in a bookstore and read that line. Just reading that line made me buy the book.
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Ennis, weather-eyed, looked west for the heated cumulus that might come up on such a day but the boneless blue was so deep, said Jack, that he might drown looking up
The horses drank and Jack dismounted, scooped icy water up in his hand, crystalline drops falling from his fingers, his mouth and chin glistening with wet.
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..... craved in a way he could neither help nor understand....
Truly, this is the moment the story started to have a profound impact on me, like no other book ever has... in a way I could neither help nor understand.
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...though Jack had never asked him to swear anything...
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Two more lines that really got to me were:
"both high school dropout country boys with no porspects, brought up to hard work and privation, both rough-mannered, rough-spoken, inured to the stoic life."
and
"Pair of deuces going nowhere."
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I wouldn't say it's "a favorite line" but rather "a line that got me bad"... I was going through it today and when I read "didn't want to know Jack was going in there, to be buried on the grieving plain" it hit me hard and I just burst out in tears.
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I wouldn't say it's "a favorite line" but rather "a line that got me bad"... I was going through it today and when I read "didn't want to know Jack was going in there, to be buried on the grieving plain" it hit me hard and I just burst out in tears.
I agree with you here keren_b. I have cried upon reading that line.
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I don't have time to post mine, but I'll give yall a good idea what it is. The last two paragraphs of the book, is so sad. Talking about how Jack was starting to appear in Ennis's dreams, so sad, and that sometime Ennis would wet the bed, thats so sad, without Jack he was reduced to "that old guy, living alone at a trailer park"
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I don't have time to post mine, but I'll give yall a good idea what it is. The last two paragraphs of the book, is so sad. Talking about how Jack was starting to appear in Ennis's dreams, so sad, and that sometime Ennis would wet the bed, thats so sad, without Jack he was reduced to "that old guy, living alone at a trailer park"
Not to put too fine a point on things, but just to clarify: Ennis's sheets were sometimes wet because of his having an erotic dream about Jack, not because he was old and incontinent. He may be old and sad, but not that sad I hope.
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I don't have time to post mine, but I'll give yall a good idea what it is. The last two paragraphs of the book, is so sad. Talking about how Jack was starting to appear in Ennis's dreams, so sad, and that sometime Ennis would wet the bed, thats so sad, without Jack he was reduced to "that old guy, living alone at a trailer park"
Not to put too fine a point on things, but just to clarify: Ennis's sheets were sometimes wet because of his having an erotic dream about Jack, not because he was old and incontinent. He may be old and sad, but not that sad I hope.
I thought that too, but it didn't seem sad enough, so i just ignored it and acted like he pissed himself. ;D either or its too sad. :\'(
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Here is the whole quote in question...
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"Around that time Jack began to appear in his dreams, Jack as he had first seen him, curly-headed and smiling and bucktoothed, talking about getting up off his pockets and into the control zone, but the can of beans with the spoon handle jutting out and balanced on the log was there as well, in a cartoon shape and lurid colors that gave the dreams a flavor of comic obscenity. The spoon handle was the kind that could be used as a tire iron. And he would wake sometimes in grief, sometimes with the old sense of joy and release; the pillow sometimes wet, sometimes the sheets. " :\'(
-----------------------------
That's the last line....
"There was some open space between what he knew and what he tried to believe, but nothing could be done about it, and if you can't fix it you've got to stand it. "
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I wouldn't say it's "a favorite line" but rather "a line that got me bad"... I was going through it today and when I read "didn't want to know Jack was going in there, to be buried on the grieving plain" it hit me hard and I just burst out in tears.
I agree with you here keren_b. I have cried upon reading that line.
I cry EVERYTIME I read that line. :\'( I've never known any story that uses language like this to hit you where it hurts no matter how many times you read it, even though you know it's coming and try and brace yourself for it.
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I wouldn't say it's "a favorite line" but rather "a line that got me bad"... I was going through it today and when I read "didn't want to know Jack was going in there, to be buried on the grieving plain" it hit me hard and I just burst out in tears.
I agree with you here keren_b. I have cried upon reading that line.
I cry EVERYTIME I read that line. :\'( I've never known any story that uses language like this to hit you where it hurts no matter how many times you read it, even though you know it's coming and try and brace yourself for it.
There is a finality -- a brutality in that line that is hard to ignore. Just thinking about it right now makes me extremely emotional.
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I agree tpe- I "hear" it in my head when watching the movie and that sets me off even more. That and this: "blood choking down Jack's throat and nobody to turn him over." :\'(
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I agree tpe- I "hear" it in my head when watching the movie and that sets me off even more. That and this: "blood choking down Jack's throat and nobody to turn him over." :\'(
Yep!! That's a heart-rending moment to read :\'(
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I agree tpe- I "hear" it in my head when watching the movie and that sets me off even more. That and this: "blood choking down Jack's throat and nobody to turn him over." :\'(
I can't read it, it makes me cry. this sentence... it's too cruel, I can't stand it :\'( :\'(
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I agree tpe- I "hear" it in my head when watching the movie and that sets me off even more. That and this: "blood choking down Jack's throat and nobody to turn him over." :\'(
I can't read it, it makes me cry. this sentence... it's too cruel, I can't stand it :\'( :\'(
Yes, karen_b: it is becoming very hard for me to read these posts...
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I agree tpe- I "hear" it in my head when watching the movie and that sets me off even more. That and this: "blood choking down Jack's throat and nobody to turn him over." :\'(
I can't read it, it makes me cry. this sentence... it's too cruel, I can't stand it :\'( :\'(
Yes, karen_b: it is becoming very hard for me to read these posts...
I agree - at least with the book you can brace yourself....you know what's coming next. These lines just come at you in no particular order. But what is interesting to me is that reading lines that others have picked out as favourites has made me consider them afresh and see new things in every line..... :t)
Are there any bad lines in this book?.....NOOOOO!
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"Like vast clouds of steam from thermal springs in winter the years of things unsaid and now unsayable - admissions, declarations, shames, guilts, fears - rose around them. Ennis stood as if heart shot, face gray and deep lined, grimacing, eyes screwed shut, fists clenched, legs caving, hit the ground on his knees."
Just after Jack says he wishes he knew how to quit Ennis.
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"Like vast clouds of steam from thermal springs in winter the years of things unsaid and now unsayable - admissions, declarations, shames, guilts, fears - rose around them. Ennis stood as if heart shot, face gray and deep lined, grimacing, eyes screwed shut, fists clenched, legs caving, hit the ground on his knees."
Just after Jack says he wishes he knew how to quit Ennis.
A hounting scene
Sigh :\'(
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What Jack remembered and craved in a way he could neither help nor understand was the time that distant summer on Brokeback when Ennis had come up behind him and pulled him close, the silent embrace satisfying some shared and sexless hunger.
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Theres a couple of lines in the book that i thought were bad like "Sometimes i miss you so much i could whip babies" Thats just corny. And also the "gun's goin' off" > Thats great, but i laugh when i read it. ;D
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And he would wake sometimes in grief, sometimes with the old sense of joy and release; the pillow sometimes wet, sometimes the sheets.
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There was some open space between what he knew and what he tried to believe, but nothing could be done about it, and if you can't fix it you've got to stand it.
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"There were only the two of them on the mountain flying in the euphoric bitter air..."
"If he does not force his attention on it it might stoke the day, rewarm that old cold time on the mountain when they owned the world and nothing seemed wrong"
but my very favorite...
"One thing never changed the brilliant charge of their infrequent couplings was darkened by a sense of time flying. Never enough time, never enough"
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I thought of one more
"He pressed his face into the fabric and breathed in slowly through his mouth and nose, hoping for the faintest smoke and mountain sage and salthy sweet stink of Jack buth there was no real scent, only the memory if it, the imagined power of Brokeback Mountain of which nothing was left but what he held in his hands."
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I thought of one more
"He pressed his face into the fabric and breathed in slowly through his mouth and nose, hoping for the faintest smoke and mountain sage and salthy sweet stink of Jack buth there was no real scent, only the memory if it, the imagined power of Brokeback Mountain of which nothing was left but what he held in his hands."
I love that one, too...it's like poetry!
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He called Jacks number in Childress, something he had done only once before when Alma divorced him and Jack had misunderstood the reason for the call, had driven twelve hundred miles north for nothing........ :\'( :\'(
Annie Proulx wastes no words when she gives you a punch to the heart.The sentence lasts half a minute to read, it depressed me thinking about it for a lot longer than that I can tell you! That's the power of her writing.
I know I keep coming back here, but the truth is I have so many favourites that I just can't help myself. ^f^
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"The stale coffee is boiling up but he catches it before it goes over the side, pours it into a stained cup and blows on the black liquid, lets a panel of the dream slide forward. If he does not force his attention on it, it might stoke the day, rewarm that old, cold time on the mountain
when they owned the world and nothing seemed wrong"......
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rewarm that old, cold time on the mountain
when they owned the world and nothing seemed wrong"......
ooooh yesss....hpv... another favourite. I wanted to put that one on the left of my profile but it wouldn't fit, so I had to settle with just the last part. Oh my, I would like to put the whole book on the left of my profile!
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...yet he is suffused with a sense of pleasure because Jack Twist was in his dream
This line is too much, even the frist time i read it, it got me good.
His chest was heaving. He could smell Jack-the intensely familiar odor of cigarettes, musky sweat and a faint sweetness like grass, and with it the rushing cold of the mountain.
so hot
They went off in Jack's truck, bought a bottle of whisky and within twenty minutes were in the Motel Siesta jouncing a bed.
ditto
You do it with other guys? Jack?
"Shit no," said Jack, who had been riding more than bulls, not rolling his own.
This is one of my favorites
>:D
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Theres a couple of lines in the book that i thought were bad like "Sometimes i miss you so much i could whip babies" Thats just corny. And also the "gun's goin' off" > Thats great, but i laugh when i read it. ;D
I love the "guns's going off" line. <^( <^( <^(
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Another one-on the mountain..when they really started to feel/miss each other IMHO...
"During the day Ennis looked across a great gulf and sometimes saw Jack, a small dot moving across a high meadow as an insect moves across a tablecloth; Jack, in his dark camp, saw Ennis as night fire, a red spark on the huge black mass of mountain. "
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"What Jack remembered and craved in a way he could neither help nor understand was the time that distant summer on Brokeback when Ennis had comeup behind him and pulled him close, the silent embrace satisfying some shared and sexless hunger."
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"Little darlin'". Yes, I'm a soft touch, but it's the single, solitary time in the story when Ennis addresses an endearment to Jack. Oh, how I wish it had made it into the film. <sigh> Still, the sweet little nuzzle Ennis gives Jack at that point conveys a similar feeling visually.
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I will alway love "Little darlin'" :\'(
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I'm glad he only calls Jack lil' darlin' only once, because it makes such a big impact. I don't like how some 'nameless' fanfictions always have Ennis refering to Jack as darlin' it gets annoying, IMO. and it just comes out bad ;D
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I'm glad he only calls Jack lil' darlin' only once, because it makes such a big impact. I don't like how some 'nameless' fanfictions always have Ennis refering to Jack as darlin' it gets annoying, IMO. and it just comes out bad ;D
True . . . The less it is used, the more powerful it becomes when said.
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I'm glad he only calls Jack lil' darlin' only once, because it makes such a big impact. I don't like how some 'nameless' fanfictions always have Ennis refering to Jack as darlin' it gets annoying, IMO. and it just comes out bad ;D
True . . . The less it is used, the more powerful it becomes when said.
Agreed :)
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Another one-on the mountain..when they really started to feel/miss each other IMHO...
"During the day Ennis looked across a great gulf and sometimes saw Jack, a small dot moving across a high meadow as an insect moves across a tablecloth; Jack, in his dark camp, saw Ennis as night fire, a red spark on the huge black mass of mountain. "
So beautiful . . . and sad :\'( :\'( :\'(
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Something cute... :)
" Happy to switch but give you warnin I can't cook worth a shit. Pretty good with a can opener." ::)
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I love that line with the can opener. :)
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"See you in the mornin'" when there are to be no more mornings when they wake up together. Gets me every time.
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I ordered 'Close range Wyoming stories' today and will have to wait 6 to 7 weeks to know whether it still can be delivered here in Belgium (translated versions anyway not available anymore since March 06).
Apparently only version they could try to obtain is the English Hard back version to come from the US.
Also ordered the Dutch version of BBM, edited here as 'Twee Cowboys' => '2 Cowboys' (but last info they had is that only 45 copies left in March06).
I cross fingers and can't wait to read them ...
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Well, how about
"gun's goin off,"
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"During the day Ennis looked across a great gulf and sometimes saw Jack, a small dot moving across a high meadow as an insect moves across a tablecloth; Jack in his dark camp, saw Ennis as night fire, a red spark on the huge black mass of mountain."
This, in the beginning of the story, just exemplifies the distance that would always be between Ennis and Jack. :(
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Something cute... :)
Pretty good with a can opener." ::)
That line is so cute <^( <^( <^(
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This, in the beginning of the story, just exemplifies the distance that would always be between Ennis and Jack
I never thought of that, very interesting symbolism.
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I never looked at it that way either- lildoggie :(
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"I can't get by on a couple of high altitude f**ks" :clap:
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" There were only the two of them on the mountain flying in the euphoric, bitter air, looking down on the hawk's back and the crawling lights of vehicles on the plain below, suspended above ordinary affairs and distant from tame ranch dogs barking in the dark hours. They believed themselves invisible..."
Little they know.. :(
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You do it with other guys? Jack?
"Shit no," said Jack, who had been riding more than bulls, not rolling his own.
anybody please that can help me with this, my english is not so perfect...
i wonder since the first time i read it: does AP want us to understand that jack was telling lies, not true in his speaking, meaning he had been "riding" others, and wants to show us part of jack's character? the same question comes up in the end when she writes about jack "and was not himself the swearing kind.." - can't stop thinking about this.
thanks for helping!
tizi
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What was said here before and I agree with it:
By riding more than bulls, Jack was not a virgin and Ennis was not his first experience with a man. About your other question I have to figure it out.
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that would be nice, thank you :)
- keeps wondering in my head....
tizi
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I always took not rolling his own as him not masturbating but rather going with other men to fulfill his needs. I don't know if I interpet the riding more than bulls as Jack not being a virgin when he met Ennis but I do interpret that as him being with other men during those four years after BBM- thus the not rolling his own. I think it does show bit of Jack's character- I don't believe Jack to be a liar necessarily- meaning in a malicious way- there are certain things that Jack changes to appease Ennis- I'm not queer- Me neither, the ranch foreman's wife. All he wanted was Ennis and admitting he had been with other men or that he was queer could have meant losing Ennis. I'm not saying Jack is right to lie but I can understand where he is coming from- he is between a rock and a hard place. I think having to deny who he really was took it's toll on Jack in the end. I think it's shows Jack's conflict- to me Jack was more accepting of his sexuality than Ennis was and if having to deny he was queer was a way to keep Ennis then that's what he was going to do. Telling Ennis about other men would mean that this "thing" was not between the two of them and then Jack is in fact queer and then Ennis may have to start looking at himself that way too.
**Edited** Okay I did some thinking about the swearing- I'm assuming they never made promises to each other nor demanded things from each other so for Ennis to say "Jack I swear" it was extremely powerful- Here is a man who was so closed mouth and for him to swear to something means that he is feeling both the love and loss of Jack so very completely.
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if you can't fix it you've got to stand it.
(https://ennisjack.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi69.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi60%2Ffrenchcda%2F35.jpg&hash=693a223bb2ebcb0ba287bbf9a633009ac4f55f99)
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LuvJackNasty thank you for your post - to one of my burning questions..
i do understand better now what may be the sense of this part - jack knowing and accepting who he was, and ennis not being able to.
"jack i swear" is truly one of the most powerful - and sad - lines in the story..
thank you . :^^)
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"There was some open space between what he knew and what he tried to believe, but nothing could be done about it, and if you can't fix it you’ve got to stand it."
This is my favourite one, because, as for Ennis there are some open space between what I know and what I try to believe,I mean both for E&J story and "my" own story, so this line is the best for me
"if you can't fix it you’ve got to stand it."
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"What Jack remembered and craved in a way he could neither help nor understand was the time that distant summer on Brokeback when Ennis had comeup behind him and pulled him close, the silent embrace satisfying some shared and sexless hunger."
I like this line.
It is a lyrical one, and a superb one in the movie too.
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Ironically, I think my favorite quotes are the saddest ones. There are some quotes that are so achingly beautiful, they rip my heart to pieces. like the final line, right from "and he would wake sometimes in grief..." 'till the end, or the line about Ennis not wanting to know that Jack was going to be buried in the grieving plain. :\'( :\'( :\'( It's written like poetry, and totally heart-wrenching. Or the dozy embrace quote that I chose for my latest signature. but I think that this one, most of all, breaks my heart:
"He pressed his face into the fabric and breathed in slowly through his mouth and nose, hoping for the faintest smoke and mountain sage and salty sweet stink of Jack but there was no real scent, only the memory of it, the imagined power of Brokeback Mountain of which notheing was left but what he held in his hands."
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Same here Keren :\'(
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"He pressed his face into the fabric and breathed in slowly through his mouth and nose, hoping for the faintest smoke and mountain sage and salty sweet stink of Jack but there was no real scent, only the memory of it, the imagined power of Brokeback Mountain of which notheing was left but what he held in his hands."
:\'( :\'( :\'(
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Ironically, I think my favorite quotes are the saddest ones. There are some quotes that are so achingly beautiful, they rip my heart to pieces. like the final line, right from "and he would wake sometimes in grief..." 'till the end, or the line about Ennis not wanting to know that Jack was going to be buried in the grieving plain. :\'( :\'( :\'( It's written like poetry, and totally heart-wrenching. Or the dozy embrace quote that I chose for my latest signature. but I think that this one, most of all, breaks my heart:
"He pressed his face into the fabric and breathed in slowly through his mouth and nose, hoping for the faintest smoke and mountain sage and salty sweet stink of Jack but there was no real scent, only the memory of it, the imagined power of Brokeback Mountain of which notheing was left but what he held in his hands."
God...there are no words... :\'(
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after all this reading and watching and comparing text..
this is my quote - i feel this is the crux of it all..
"That summer when we split up after we got paid out I had gut cramps so bad I pulled over and tried to puke.. took me about a year a figure out it was that I shouldn't let you out a my sights. Too late then by a long.."
tizi
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Another one that I love, from the reunion:
"He could smell Jack - the intensely familiar odor of cigarettes, musky sweat and a faint sweetness like grass, and with it the rushing cold of the mountain".
I love it that the mountain became a part of them, so much that Ennis can smell it in Jack.
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I'm not going to put the whole line:
"Around that time Jack began to appear in his dreams, Jack as he had first seen him, curly headed and smiling and bucktoothed...." Just made me start to think that once Ennis brought him home, Jack was able to return to Brokeback where he was young, happy and in love- his death brought him back to the place he could never get back to in life. :\'(
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This line always makes me so sad LJN, that now Ennis can only see Jack in his dreams, and to know how much he misses him... :\'(
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"He pressed his face into the fabric and breathed in slowly through his mouth and nose, hoping for the faintest smoke and mountain sage and salty sweet stink of Jack but there was no real scent, only the memory of it, the imagined power of Brokeback Mountain of which nothing was left but what he held in his hands."
Such a hard job to find only one line that resume the huge beauty of Proulx's writing! By the way, if I have to choose, I think I'd choose this quotation. Could anyone not be moved to tears reading that?
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" His chest was heaving. He could smell Jack ~the intensely familiar odor of cigarettes,
musky sweat and a faint sweetness like grass, and with it the rushing cold of
the mountain. "Alma," he said, "Jack and me ain't seen each other in four
years."
Sigh...
Artifact-That is what he remembered, the mountain and love.
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Ya hpv...
Above all, is that "imagined power of Brokeback Mountain" which make me cry... In only two words Proulx focus all the meaning of a life (of two lifes): the power of what was born up there on the Brokeback and, on the other hand, the impraticability of a dream: the illusion that summer could repeat. Marvellous.
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Ya hpv...
Above all, is that "imagined power of Brokeback Mountain" which make me cry... In only two words Proulx focus all the meaning of a life (of two lifes): the power of what was born up there on the Brokeback and, on the other hand, the impraticability of a dream: the illusion that summer could repeat. Marvellous.
I couldn't agree more - this part always moves me to tears.
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The shirts..
his dirty shirt, the pocket ripped, buttons missing, stolen by Jack and hidden here inside Jack's own shirt,
the pair like two skins, one inside the other, two in one. :\'(
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My favorite quote is would be stated by Ennis: "if you can't fix it you've got to stand it." This quote is really meaningful and very true to REAL life.
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"yet he is suffused with a sense of pleasure because Jack Twist was in his dream."
jackster
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One of my favorites was when Ennis told Lureen We herded sheep on Brokeback one summer. To me, it seemed like Ennis was in his own way telling Lureen that was where he fell in love with Jack without saying it. It was the closest Ennis ever came to expressing his feelings for Jack openly.
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They were respectful of each other's opinions, each glad to have a companion where none had been expected. Ennis, riding against the wind back to the sheep in the treacherous, drunken light, thought he'd never had such a good time, felt he could paw the white out of the moon.
"Jesus Christ, quit hammerin and get over here. Bedroll's big enough,"
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after all this reading and watching and comparing text..
this is my quote - i feel this is the crux of it all..
"That summer when we split up after we got paid out I had gut cramps so bad I pulled over and tried to puke.. took me about a year a figure out it was that I shouldn't let you out a my sights. Too late then by a long.."
tizi
This is one of my very favorite lines because it was the scene with Ennis's agony in the shed that made me realize the first time I saw the film that Ennis was really in love with Jack. What they had had on Brokeback was not just sex and companionship, but something much more profound. When we share in Ennis's utter heartbreak, we know for sure that the force of nature was love, nothing less.
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Sorry! That last paragraph above was mine. I don't always do the quote thing correctly. Mea culpa! lamusica
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" There were only the two of them on the mountain flying in the euphoric, bitter air, looking down on the hawk's back and the crawling lights of vehicles on the plain below, suspended above ordinary affairs and distant from tame ranch dogs barking in the dark hours. They believed themselves invisible..."
Little they know.. :(
I have to confess I don't have one absolute favorite; all of the quotes in this thread grab me at different times, but I love the part about just the two of them, looking down on the hawk's back and the lights of the crawling vehicles. Makes me think of Paradise.
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"And he would wake sometimes in grief, sometimes with the old sense of joy and release; the pillow sometimes wet, sometimes the sheets."
:\'(
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Reading the quotes here is giving me a severe PBS. :\'(
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Reading the quotes here is giving me a severe PBS. :\'(
But now at least I can smile through the tears-I don't see an emoticon for that-and I hope you can too.
Hugs,
david <^(
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Thank you David. it's such powerful writing. I change the lines I use for my signature from time to time because I just can't make up my mind which one moves me the most.
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"That summer, " said Ennis. "When we split up after we got paid out I had gut cramps so bad I pulled over and tried to puke, thought I hate somethin bad at that place in Dubois. Took me about a year a figure out it was that I shouldn't a let you out of my sight. Too late then by a long, long while"
(too bad it wasn't in the movie :-\\)
Agreed.
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I agree with you here keren_b. I have cried upon reading that line.
I cry EVERYTIME I read that line. :\'( I've never known any story that uses language like this to hit you where it hurts no matter how many times you read it, even though you know it's coming and try and brace yourself for it.
That whole scene just does me in. It is so incredibly powerful.
When he looks out the window of Jack's bedroom and thinks that this is the only road that Jack ever saw as a child. And then, seeing the cemetery on the 'grieving plain' as he is leaving the Twist's home--and knowing that Jack's ashes would be buried there.
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He called Jacks number in Childress, something he had done only once before when Alma divorced him and Jack had misunderstood the reason for the call, had driven twelve hundred miles north for nothing........ :\'( :\'(
Annie Proulx wastes no words when she gives you a punch to the heart.The sentence lasts half a minute to read, it depressed me thinking about it for a lot longer than that I can tell you! That's the power of her writing.
I know I keep coming back here, but the truth is I have so many favourites that I just can't help myself. ^f^
Can you believe I missed this, on first reading (last year)??
I took for granted that Jack received a postcard, telling him of Ennis' pending divorce--and that Jack drove up to 'celebrate' and tentatively make plans for their future 'together'.
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Another one-on the mountain..when they really started to feel/miss each other IMHO...
"During the day Ennis looked across a great gulf and sometimes saw Jack, a small dot moving across a high meadow as an insect moves across a tablecloth; Jack, in his dark camp, saw Ennis as night fire, a red spark on the huge black mass of mountain. "
Yess--ITA. That leaves such a picture in my mind. And when I watch the movie, for the umpteenth time, I get goosebumps when they are looking across the miles towards each other.
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Not the favorite, but a favorite:
"He [Ennis] was cutting fence now. Trespassing in the shoot-'em zone."
Ten words that forcefully place this story within its socio/cultural context while simultaneously expressing the gravity of the wounds Ennis was about to (re)-open.
Nobody writes like Annie. <^(
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Great passage. So much said with so little but that is part of the beauty of this story. <^(
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And he would wake sometimes in grief, sometimes with the old sense of joy and release, the pillow sometimes wet, sometimes the sheets
There was some open space between what he knew and what he tried to believe but nothing could be done about it, and if you can't fix it you've got to stand it.
:\'( :\'( :\'( :\'( :\'(
That whole part is my fav. part of the whole ss, when I 1st read it I got a lump in my throat. Its a shame that Ennis could never tell Jack how he felt and how he pushed the thought of building a life together with another man :( :\'( :(
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"Listen. I'm thinkin' tell you what, if you and me had a little ranch together, little cow and calf operation, your horses, it'd be some sweet life. Like I said, I'm gettin out a rodeo. "
Owh..Jack's dream
"How much is once in a while?" said Jack. "Once in a while every four fu**in years?"
"No," said Ennis, forbearing to ask whose fault that was. "I goddamn hate it that you're goin a drive away in the mornin and I'm goin back to work. But if you can't fix it you got a stand it," he said. "Shit. I been lookin at people on the street. This happen a other people? What the hell do they do?"
The way they saying this, is so painful, even to read...
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"Listen. I'm thinkin' tell you what, if you and me had a little ranch together, little cow and calf operation, your horses, it'd be some sweet life. Like I said, I'm gettin out a rodeo. "
Owh..Jack's dream
"How much is once in a while?" said Jack. "Once in a while every four fu**in years?"
"No," said Ennis, forbearing to ask whose fault that was. "I goddamn hate it that you're goin a drive away in the mornin and I'm goin back to work. But if you can't fix it you got a stand it," he said. "Shit. I been lookin at people on the street. This happen a other people? What the hell do they do?"
The way they saying this, is so painful, even to read...
I absolutly love that quote!!
These lines are almost identical to the movie but here you really understand that Ennis does have so much feeling for Jack (bold part)
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Yes... one of the things I really wish he'd said in the movie.
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Yes... one of the things I really wish he'd said in the movie.
Yeah, it makes some imbalance, because Jack said this kind of line to Ennis: "some time I miss you so much..etc"
But there is non of Ennis feelings until the very end of the movie , except maybe in the confrontation scene ..
I miss this line and the line when Ennis realized that he shouldn't have let Jack go after they returned from the mountain:
" "That summer," said Ennis. "When we split up...I had gut cramps so bad I pulled over and tried to puke ...took me about a year a figure out it was that I shouldn't a let you out a my sights."
it's like Ennis just kept everything inside,he will say nothing to Jack to let him know how much he loved him... :-\\
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i know :( But at the same time Jack keeps trying 'till pretty much the end to be with him *sighs*
I believe if he didn't keep it all insdie or just said a lil bit more about his feelings for Jack, I don't think Jack would've died :\'(
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They seized each other by the shoulders ,hugged mightily, squeezing the breath out of each other, saying, son of a bitch, son of a bitch, then. and easily as the right ket turns the lock tumblers, their mouths came together,and hard, Jack's big teeth bringing blood, his hat falling to the floor, stubble rasping, wet saliva welling, and the door opening and Alma looking out for a few seconds at Ennis's straining shoulders and shutting the door again and still they clinched, pressing chest and groin and thigh and leg together, treading on each other's toes until they pulled apart to breathe and Ennis, not big on endearments, said what he said to his horses and daughters, little darlin.
IMHO, THE best description of a kiss ever committed to paper.
wow...amazing..its so spontanous and intense...thanks for sharing this
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Gee, it's been quite a while since I read it, and I'm a little rusty. But something that stands out saliently in my mind is from the last passage where, and I paraphrase, it says something along the lines of, "About that time Jack started appearing to him in dreams...sometimes he woke up to a wet pillowcase, sometimes, wet sheets".
Something about that line drove me crazy with feeling. God, how I bawled and bawled.
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Aaarrggghhh! I'm going mad for want of recalling! I seriously need to re-read this ASAP. Shall do so tonight.
In any case, though, Proulx's story was beautiful, almost as exquisite as the movie, almost...yep, for me, one of those rare instances where the film is tantamount to the book.
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Can anybody tell me on which site r the quotes available online or atleast a part of the book or some desprition for me to read???
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Gee, it's been quite a while since I read it, and I'm a little rusty. But something that stands out saliently in my mind is from the last passage where, and I paraphrase, it says something along the lines of, "About that time Jack started appearing to him in dreams...sometimes he woke up to a wet pillowcase, sometimes, wet sheets".
Something about that line drove me crazy with feeling. God, how I bawled and bawled.
That part gets me too. It's so sad on so many levels but I think what gets me the most is the way Jack appears- young, just the way he looked when they first met.
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Yeah, Laura that part gets me every time and makes me cry bad....It sends shivers down my spine....The wet sheets and the wet pillow... :\'( :\'( And like Michelle said, what shatters me is the fact that Ennis dreams about that 19 years old Jack, the one he fell in love with 20 years ago in that cold mountain....That little detail is not only revealing and but also tremendously powerful: they never left that mountain....they lived on memories of that summer.
And he would wake sometimes in grief, sometimes with the old sense of joy and release, the pillow sometimes wet, sometimes the sheets
There was some open space between what he knew and what he tried to believe but nothing could be done about it, and if you can't fix it you've got to stand it.
Also I'm just in love with the first part of the story....when Ennis is gonna have a very good day just because he dreamt about Jack Twist...God.....it gives me goosebumps....it's so so moving...Ennis based his joy on his dreams about Jack...A dream= a bright sweet day. Damn, how special is that? :\'( :\'( :\'(
And well, there is a line in that first bit of the story that always makes me cry. I said to Thomas once that it resume what BBM is all about....that old cold time on the mountain branded Ennis and Jack forever....and though their bodies lived in Riverton and Texas, their souls never left Brokeback...That was, like Annie said and Jack thought about the Dozy Embrace, the single moment of artless, charmed happiness in their separate and difficult lives, when they owned the world.
He is suffused with a sense of pleasure because Jack Twist was in his dream...(He) lets a panel of the dream slide forward. If he does not force his attention on it, it might stoke the day, rewarm that old, cold time on the mountain when they owned the world and nothing seemed wrong. :\'( :\'( :\'( Oh my...I just ADORE that last line....
Also the whole description of the DE is way beyond the most beautiful thing ever:
They had stood that way for a long time in front of the fire, its burning tossing ruddy chunks of light, the shadow of their bodies a single column against the rock. The minutes ticked by from the round watch in Ennis’s pocket, from the sticks in the fire settling into coals. Stars bit through the wavy heat layers above the fire. Ennis’s breath came slow and quiet, he hummed, rocked a little in the sparklight, and Jack leaned against the steady heartbeat, the vibrations of the humming like faint electricity and, standing, he fell into sleep that was not sleep but something else drowsy and tranced until Ennis, dredging up a rusty but still usable phrase from the childhood time before his mother died, said, “Time to hit the hay, cowboy. I got a go. Come on, you’re sleepin on your feet like a horse,” and gave Jack a shake, a push, and went off in the darkness. Jack heard his spurs tremble as he mounted, the words “See you tomorrow,” and the horse’s shuddering snort, grind of hoof on stone.
Later, that dozy embrace solidified in his memory as the single moment of artless, charmed happiness in their separate and difficult lives. Nothing marred it, even the knowledge that Ennis would not then embrace him face to face because he did not want to see or feel that it was Jack he held. And maybe, he thought, they’d never got much farther than that. Let be, let be. <^( <^( :\'( :\'(
I saw a vid where you can see this scene in slow motion at the same time you are reading this bit of the SS and hearing sad music...You don't know what it is like see the DE scene while reading it....I even feel like crying now just thinking about it.
And what about the reunion scene? <^( <^( <^( Precious, moving and stunning writing here:
They seized each other by the shoulders, hugged mightily, squeezing the breath out of each other, saying son of a bitch, son of a bitch; then, and as easily as the right key turns the lock tumblers, their mouths came together, and hard, Jack’s big teeth bringing blood, his hat falling to the floor, stubble rasping, wet saliva welling, and the door opening and Alma looking out for a few seconds at Ennis’s straining shoulders and shutting the door again and still they clinched, pressing chest and groin and thigh and leg together, treading on each other’s toes until they pulled apart to breathe and Ennis, not big on endearments, said what he said to his horses and daughters, “Little darlin.” <^( <^( <^( **sigh**
What could he say? "Alma, this is Jack Twist, Jack, my wife Alma." His chest was heaving. He could smell Jack, the intensely familiar odor of cigarettes, musky sweat and a faint sweetness like grass, and with it the rushing cold of the mountain. "Alma," he said, "Jack and me ain't seen each other in four years." As if it were a reason. He was glad the light was dim on the landing but did not turn away from her. Sure enough," said Alma in a low voice. She had seen what she had seen. Behind her in the room lightning lit the window like a white sheet waving and the baby cried. "You got a kid?" said Jack. His shaking hand grazed Ennis's hand, electrical current snapped between them. "Two little girls," Ennis said. "Alma Jr. and Francine. Love them to pieces." Alma's mouth twitched. "I got a boy," said Jack. "Eight months old. Tell you what, I married a cute little old Texas girl down in Childress -- Lureen." From the vibration of the floorboard on which they both stood Ennis could feel how hard Jack was shaking. That's totally stunning...They were shaking so bad, wanting each other something fierce, dying to each other, to kiss, to love. <^( <^(
The part when Ennis found the shirts is just so hearbreaking and beautiful:
He pressed his face into the fabric and breathed in slowly through his mouth and nose, hoping for the faintest smoke and mountain sage and salty sweet stink of Jack but there was no real scent, only the memory of it, the imagined power of Brokeback Mountain of which nothing was left but what he held in his hands.
SSonia give me you mail address and I'll send to you the SS. ^f^
Sorry so much, I almost quoted the whole story, but I LOVE it with all my heart. Annie is a genius!!
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He is suffused with a sense of pleasure because Jack Twist was in his dream...(He) lets a panel of the dream slide forward. If he does not force his attention on it, it might stoke the day, rewarm that old, cold time on the mountain when they owned the world and nothing seemed wrong. :\'( :\'( :\'( Oh my...I just ADORE that last line....
Don't ever be sorry about quoting so much; it deserves to be quoted again and again.
That line- that old cold time... always sets off the tears for me. It was the most perfect time in their lives, the most time they had together, the closest they'd ever have to that sweet life. :\'(
Of course the DE and Reunion Kiss are just beautifully described by Annie. But the DE is so sad too because of Jack's realization that all of these years had passed and not much had changed. :\'(
The part when Ennis found the shirts is just so hearbreaking and beautiful:
He pressed his face into the fabric and breathed in slowly through his mouth and nose, hoping for the faintest smoke and mountain sage and salty sweet stink of Jack but there was no real scent, only the memory of it, the imagined power of Brokeback Mountain of which nothing was left but what he held in his hands.
That whole thing sets me off too, esp. the last part of the sentence with that being all he had but thank God he had those shirts and a way to hold and touch Jack. :\'( :\'(
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"Little darlin'" is so achingly tender it melts my heart like a hot knife through butter.
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So many of my favourite lines have already been mentioned by all of you guys. :) But here are some others I like.
-Ennis wrote back, You bet...
-"I figured you was sore from that punch". Ennis' euphemism for "sorry". His remorse really comes through, touchingly, in that terse line.
-"Listen. I'm thinkin, tell you what, if you and me had a little ranch together, little cow and calf operation, your horses, it'd be some sweet life..." Aw, the wistfulness of it all. I would have loved that for them, but alas...
-Years on years they worked their way through the high meadows and mountain drainages, horse-packing into the Big Horns, Medicine Bows, south end of the Gallatins, Absarokas, Granites, Owl Creeks, the Bridger-Teton Range, the Freezeouts and the Shirleys, Ferrises and the Rattlesnakes, Salt River Range, into the Wind Rivers over and again, the Sierra Madres, Gros Ventres, the Washakies, Laramies, but never returning to Brokeback.
-...so what we got now is Brokeback Mountain. Everthing built on that...
-"You got no fu**in idea how bad it gets. I'm not you. I can't make it on a couple a high-altitude fucks once or twice a year. You're too much for me, Ennis, you son of a whoreson bitch. I wish I knew how to quit you." (Incidentally, I particularly dig "son of a whoreson bitch" heehee ;D)
-Like vast clouds of steam from thermal springs in winter the years of things unsaid and now unsayable -- admissions, declarations, shames, guilts, fears -- rose around them. Ennis stood as if heart-shot, face grey and deep-lined, grimacing, eyes screwed shut, fists clenched, legs caving, hit the ground on his knees. Pure, unvarnished Ennis anguish we have here.
....Dang, I've been busted slacking off at work. ;) ;D Will have to resume this later, as there are so many more lines... Perhaps I should just copy and paste the whole short story? ;D
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I really should be working right now, but delving into Proulx's world of Wyoming lovers is infinitely more pleasing.
I love this whole passage, but especially the highlighted text. Proulx's prose is beyond sublime.
What Jack remembered and craved in a way he could neither help nor understand was the time that distant summer on Brokeback when Ennis had come up behind him and pulled him close, the silent embrace satisfying some shared and sexless hunger.
They had stood that way for a long time in front of the fire, its burning tossing ruddy chunks of light, the shadow of their bodies a single column against the rock. The minutes ticked by from the round watch in Ennis's pocket, from the sticks in the fire settling into coals. Stars bit through the wavy heat layers above the fire. Ennis's breath came slow and quiet, he hummed, rocked a little in the sparklight and Jack leaned against the steady heartbeat, the vibrations of the humming like faint electricity and, standing, he fell into sleep that was not sleep but something else drowsy and tranced until Ennis, dredging up a rusty but still useable phrase from the childhood time before his mother died, said, "Time to hit the hay, cowboy. I got a go. Come on, you're sleepin on your feet like a horse," and gave Jack a shake, a push, and went off in the darkness. Jack heard his spurs tremble as he mounted, the words "see you tomorrow," and the horse's shuddering snort, grind of hoof on stone.
Later, that dozy embrace solidified in his memory as the single moment of artless, charmed happiness in their separate and difficult lives. Nothing marred it, even the knowledge that Ennis would not then embrace him face to face because he did not want to see nor feel that it was Jack he held. And maybe, he thought, they'd never got much farther than that. Let be, let be.
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Yikes, almost left out an absolute gem, and my own signature at that!
"... I thought Brokeback Mountain was around where he grew up. But knowing Jack, it might be some pretend place where the bluebirds sing and there's a whiskey spring."
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-"You got no fu**in idea how bad it gets. I'm not you. I can't make it on a couple a high-altitude fucks once or twice a year. You're too much for me, Ennis, you son of a whoreson bitch. I wish I knew how to quit you." (Incidentally, I particularly dig "son of a whoreson bitch" heehee ;D)
-Like vast clouds of steam from thermal springs in winter the years of things unsaid and now unsayable -- admissions, declarations, shames, guilts, fears -- rose around them. Ennis stood as if heart-shot, face grey and deep-lined, grimacing, eyes screwed shut, fists clenched, legs caving, hit the ground on his knees. Pure, unvarnished Ennis anguish we have here.
....Dang, I've been busted slacking off at work. ;) ;D Will have to resume this later, as there are so many more lines... Perhaps I should just copy and paste the whole short story? ;D
Great post :) I was giggling at your comment about son of a whoreson bitch- that's become a staple in my vocabulary ;D
And I just love the way she describes their inner turmoil.
And the whole Dozy Embrace passage is my favorite- part of it is in my sig line- that is my favorite. if one can have a favorite with so much to chose from.
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The part when Ennis found the shirts is just so hearbreaking and beautiful:
He pressed his face into the fabric and breathed in slowly through his mouth and nose, hoping for the faintest smoke and mountain sage and salty sweet stink of Jack but there was no real scent, only the memory of it, the imagined power of Brokeback Mountain of which nothing was left but what he held in his hands.
This part devastates me every time, it's so powerful and heartbreaking. :\'(
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The huge sadness of the northern plains rolled down on him.
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...there was another shirt inside it, the sleeves carefully worked down inside Jack's sleeves.
..stolen by Jack and hidden here inside Jack's own shirt, the pair like two skins, one inside the other, two in one. He pressed his face into the fabric and breathed in slowly through his mouth and nose, hoping for the faintest smoke and mountain sage and salty sweet stink of Jack but there was no real scent, only the memory of it, the imagined power of Brokeback Mountain of which nothing was left but what he held in his hands.
I know this has been quoted myriad times over, but that's because it deserves to be.
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"Ennis, what are you lookin for rootin through them postcards?" said Linda Higgins, throwing a sopping brown coffee filter into the garbage can.
"Scene a Brokeback Mountain."
"Over in Fremont County?"
"No, north a here."
"I didn't order none a them. Let me get the order list. They got it I can get you a hunderd. I got a order some more cards anyway."
"One's enough," said Ennis.
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I know it was posted already....so what... :)
"Little darlin'". .........
'Ennis woke in red dawn with his pants around his knees, a top-grade headache, and Jack butted against him; without saying anything about it both knew how it would go for the rest of the summer, sheep be damned.'
His chest was heaving. He could smell Jack, the intensely familiar odor of cigarettes, musky sweat and a faint sweetness like grass, and with it the rushing cold of the mountain.
".... rewarm that old cold time on the mountain when they owned the world and nothing seemed wrong"
"One thing never changed the brilliant charge of their infrequent couplings was darkened by a sense of time flying. Never enough time, never enough"
"During the day Ennis looked across a great gulf and sometimes saw Jack, a small dot moving across a high meadow as an insect moves across a tablecloth; Jack, in his dark camp, saw Ennis as night fire, a red spark on the huge black mass of mountain. "
"There were only the two of them on the mountain flying in the euphoric bitter air, looking down on the hawk's back and the crawling lights of vehicles on the plain below, suspended above ordinary affairs and distant from tame ranch dogs barking in the dark hours. They believed themselves invisible..."
''...yet he is suffused with a sense of pleasure because Jack Twist was in his dream. '
....rewarm that old, cold time on the mountain when they owned the world and nothing seemed wrong.
. They were respectful of each other's opinions, each glad to have a companion where none had been expected. Ennis, riding against the wind back to the sheep in the treacherous, drunken light, thought he'd never had such a good time, felt he could paw the white out of the moon
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'Ennis knew the sheep were mixed. In a disquieting way everything seemed mixed.'
'The mountain boiled with demonic energy, glazed with flickering broken-cloud light, the wind combed the grass and drew from the damaged krummholz and slit rock a bestial drone. As they descended the slope Ennis felt he was in a slow-motion, but headlong, irreversible fall.'
'...they shook hands, hit each other on the shoulder, then there was forty feet of distance between them and nothing to do but drive away in opposite directions. Within a mile Ennis felt like someone was pulling his guts out hand over hand a yard at a time..'
(the reunion)
A hot jolt scalded Ennis and he was out on the landing pulling the door closed behind him. Jack took the stairs two and two. They seized each other by the shoulders, hugged mightily, squeezing the breath out of each other, saying, son of a bitch, son of a bitch, then, and easily as the right key turns the lock tumblers, their mouths came together, and hard, Jack's big teeth bringing blood, his hat falling to the floor, stubble rasping, wet saliva welling, ...and still they clinched, pressing chest and groin and thigh and leg together, treading on each other's toes until they pulled apart to breathe and Ennis, not big on endearments, said what he said to his horses and daughters, little darlin.'
"Christ, it got a be all that time a yours ahorseback makes it so goddamn good. We got to talk about this. Swear to god I didn't know we was goin a get into this again -- yeah, I did. Why I'm here. I fu**in knew it. Redlined all the way, couldn't get here fast enough."
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Oh, so colourful and precious!! Love it, baby. Thank you!! :^^)
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Oh, so colourful and precious!! Love it, baby. Thank you!! :^^)
awww....same here...loved it..so beautifully written and emoted
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rewarm that old, cold time on the mountain when they owned the world and nothing seemed wrong.
(:)
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Here r my few favourites
He pressed his face into the fabric and breathed in slowly through his mouth and nose, hoping for the faintest smoke and mountain sage and salty sweet stink of Jack, but there was no real scent, only the memory of it, the imagined power of Brokeback Mountain of which nothing was left but what he held in his hands..
When I first read these lines I was left so emotionally charged and I realized what Brokeback Mountain meant to Ennis when he hugged the shirt and how badly he wanted to feel Jack when he hugged the shirt...what remained in those shirts is the warmth of Jack and Brokeback Mountain and the immortal love they shared which will never change across time or situation
And he would wake sometimes in grief, sometimes with the old sense of joy and release, the pillow sometimes wet, sometimes the sheets
There was some open space between what he knew and what he tried to believe but nothing could be done about it, and if you can't fix it you've got to stand it.
These lines so beautifully tell us how Ennis lived his life after Jack passed away...he felt him in his dreams and all along..Jack will always remain a part of him
They seized each other by the shoulders ,hugged mightily, squeezing the breath out of each other, saying, son of a bitch, son of a bitch, then. and easily as the right ket turns the lock tumblers, their mouths came together,and hard, Jack's big teeth bringing blood, his hat falling to the floor, stubble rasping, wet saliva welling, and the door opening and Alma looking out for a few seconds at Ennis's straining shoulders and shutting the door again and still they clinched, pressing chest and groin and thigh and leg together, treading on each other's toes until they pulled apart to breathe and Ennis, not big on endearments, said what he said to his horses and daughters, little darlin.
Wow..this is such a passionate expression of their 4 years later reunion..The description is amazing. All the repressed feelings gused through them and there was an explosion of love and desire.
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rewarm that old, cold time on the mountain when they owned the world and nothing seemed wrong.
(:)
My favorite line ever!!! I'm so in love with it!!! <^( <^( <^( <^( <^( <^(
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This wouldn't come as a surprise to you, but my signature line was the sentence I first remembered, since I've read the SS, soon after watching the movie for the second time. I think that this sentence is the bottom line of their relationship! - So passionate love, but never had enough time to share that natural passion with each other!
Hope other Brokies love it too! ^f^
:f)
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I love that line too. :) There are so many beautiful lines/passages in this story that it's hard to choose just one.
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Recently I have developed a strong attachment to the line, "Jack, I swear"..
I love it because we all know how introverted Ennis is and he does not say much by words..I think those 3 words said too much..I think the rest all he wanted to say sreamed in his heart but dint come out as words..But I think Jack would have understood exactly what Ennis wanted to say in those 3 words
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Recently I have developed a strong attachment to the line, "Jack, I swear"..
I love it because we all know how introverted Ennis is and he does not say much by words..I think those 3 words said too much..I think the rest all he wanted to say sreamed in his heart but dint come out as words..But I think Jack would have understood exactly what Ennis wanted to say in those 3 words
I find a hard time to think about those words, because Ennis's pain is so deep and so obvious, that he passes it to me. I feel it too! :\'(
But I always felt of these words as if he said : "Jack, I love you!" The words he never had said before! He always call their relationship "this thing", like some strange animal, not a relationship. He always kept his emotional distance...
But finally he knows, it is LOVE.. and it breaks my heart! $)
Nowdays, after Heath passed away, BBM is 100 times more painful than if he was alive. RIP Heath! :\'(
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I find a hard time to think about those words, because Ennis's pain is so deep and so obvious, that he passes it to me. I feel it too! :\'(
But I always felt of these words as if he said : "Jack, I love you!" The words he never had said before! He always call their relationship "this thing", like some strange animal, not a relationship. He always kept his emotional distance...
But finally he knows, it is LOVE.. and it breaks my heart! $)
Nowdays, after Heath passed away, BBM is 100 times more painful than if he was alive. RIP Heath! :\'(
I can understand…I feel the same.... :ghug:
I think in the final scene he did mean I love u as u said and at the same time he was overwhelmed to see that he was loved so much by Jack.. he did find true love but unfortunately could not be with his love for a long time in his life…Ennis was like, "I feel the same and I just want to hold u”…He could not hold him anymore and he took Jacks love in his heart and left that room…
I watched this film in end of January after heath died..This movie is not released where I live and so I have not watched it...I had previously watched only 1 film of heath naming ‘monsters ball”..I was shocked when he died and I goto know him as an actor and moreover as a person after he died..It was horrible for me..I dint know what to say or think..I watched so many films of heath after he passed away and every film I watch I felt that he is too good ya..amazing,.,brillient...I miss Heath and will always miss him…Now that heath is no more, its harder watching BBM..And as I watched it after he passed away it has been too hard for me :\'( :\'( :\'( :\'( :\'( :\'(
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I can understand…I feel the same.... :ghug:
I think in the final scene he did mean I love u as u said and at the same time he was overwhelmed to see that he was loved so much by Jack.. he did find true love but unfortunately could not be with his love for a long time in his life…Ennis was like, "I feel the same and I just want to hold u”…He could not hold him anymore and he took Jacks love in his heart and left that room…
I watched this film in end of January after heath died..This movie is not released where I live and so I have not watched it...I had previously watched only 1 film of heath naming ‘monsters ball”..I was shocked when he died and I goto know him as an actor and moreover as a person after he died..It was horrible for me..I dint know what to say or think..I watched so many films of heath after he passed away and every film I watch I felt that he is too good ya..amazing,.,brillient...I miss Heath and will always miss him…Now that heath is no more, its harder watching BBM..And as I watched it after he passed away it has been too hard for me :\'( :\'( :\'( :\'( :\'( :\'(
:ghug: :ghug: :ghug:
I've never watched either of them (Heath or Jake) in any other movie, and I am very much afraid to do that now, as I believe that Ennis and Jack will pop up in front of me, and that would be too painful for me. :\'(
:f)
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I think I literally melt at the line mentioned by Jack "It could be like this, just like this" <^(
ohhh I feel and wish that if Ennis did listento him and would have moved in with him...that was Jack's dream and when Ennis finally told no Jack was so hurt and upset but he understood why Ennis said no...he understood his childhood fears and his insecuirties and Jack caressed his face and comforted him...Its is such a beautiful declaraction of love <^( <^(
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I think I literally melt at the line mentioned by Jack "It could be like this, just like this" <^(
ohhh I feel and wish that if Ennis did listento him and would have moved in with him...that was Jack's dream and when Ennis finally told no Jack was so hurt and upset but he understood why Ennis said no...he understood his childhood fears and his insecuirties and Jack caressed his face and comforted him...Its is such a beautiful declaraction of love <^( <^(
Cleo,
yes it's beautiful scene, as all of their scenes together... <^( <^(
Sometimes I think - if they really lived together, we would never have this best love story ever. It'll be a simple story with sweet ending and nothing more.
In this way it hurts, it burns our hearts, it devastates our souls, but gives us the feeling we (I think I can speak for all of us) have never experience before.
There us no love scene as SNIT, and no kiss as the reunion one!!! Not in entire world! <^(
:^^)
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Cleo,
yes it's beautiful scene, as all of their scenes together... <^( <^(
Sometimes I think - if they really lived together, we would never have this best love story ever. It'll be a simple story with sweet ending and nothing more.
In this way it hurts, it burns our hearts, it devastates our souls, but gives us the feeling we (I think I can speak for all of us) have never experience before.
There us no love scene as SNIT, and no kiss as the reunion one!!! Not in entire world! <^(
:^^)
Thankyou so much Loreen ^f^ :)
Its very true dear that if they had to be together then it would have been a usual love story and the impact that we felt would not have been the same...Most of the times the pain is unbeareable and that is why we helplessly want them to be together..Its too hurtful not to see that..Although I make myself strong and feel that the few moments that they did live togetehr were so beautiful that they give solace to our wounded hearts...
Ennis and Jack have made us experience pure love and that is something that we will always be grateful to them....I think we learn alot from this film...We must always treasure our loved ones when they r in front of us...
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Gosh it's been so very long since I posted here ... so much water under my bridge (Dad's death, death of my beloved cat, Spot) ... good things, too ...
But I'm thinking through "our" movie ... and I think that the scene in the film that strikes me so very hard is when Ennis is in the Twist home, and at the second he first sees Jack's shirt hiding in a nook in the closet. What pain must have stung Ennis' heart in that moment - what vivid memories would have played through the mind and heart of any human in such a moment. And how beautifully and perfectly played the scene was by Heath Ledger.
No, it's not a line from the story ... but I can't help thinking of each scene from the story/film ... and this one plays our with so much vivid life - that it's hard not to mention it.
Happy New Year anyone who reads my post!!!
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Gosh it's been so very long since I posted here ... so much water under my bridge (Dad's death, death of my beloved cat, Spot) ... good things, too ...
But I'm thinking through "our" movie ... and I think that the scene in the film that strikes me so very hard is when Ennis is in the Twist home, and at the second he first sees Jack's shirt hiding in a nook in the closet. What pain must have stung Ennis' heart in that moment - what vivid memories would have played through the mind and heart of any human in such a moment. And how beautifully and perfectly played the scene was by Heath Ledger.
No, it's not a line from the story ... but I can't help thinking of each scene from the story/film ... and this one plays our with so much vivid life - that it's hard not to mention it.
Happy New Year anyone who reads my post!!!
I am sorry to hear about your Dad and Cat..I have lost my loving dogs in my life and I know the pain..I pray that u will get better...
I get emotionally wounded when I see the scene u have mentioned....I think that every moment they spend together and also the moments they spend apart thinking of each other and wishing that one was with the other...I think that scene does not have a line but speaks volumes of their painful emotions...
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... and I think that the scene in the film that strikes me so very hard is when Ennis . . . first sees Jack's shirt hiding in a nook in the closet. What pain must have stung Ennis' heart in that moment - . . . how beautifully and perfectly played the scene was by Heath Ledger.
guyinjax & smartestsonia - Transcendental. That moment, moments we've all felt, when suddenly a light goes on, you suddenly and unexpectedly see something that's been right in front of you that you've never been able to see before. Your life changes, a transcendental moment when you become something else. This moment sends chills up my back everytime. Ennis "sees" what has been and understands what he meant to Jack.
Oh Heath, how you radiated this evanescent instant.
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sorry mods, OT
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Here's my personal favorites:
... rewarm that old, cold time on the mountain when they owned the world and nothing seemed wrong.
Dawn came glassy orange, stained from below by a gelatinous band of pale green. The sooty bulk of the mountain paled slowly until it was the same color as the smoke from Ennis's breakfast fire.
During the day Ennis looked across a great gulf and sometimes saw Jack, a small dot moving across a high meadow as an insect moves across a tablecloth; Jack, in his dark camp, saw Ennis as night fire, a red spark on the huge black mass of mountain.
They were respectful of each other's opinions, each glad to have a companion where none had been expected. Ennis, riding against the wind back to the sheep in the treacherous, drunken light, thought he'd never had such a good time, felt he could paw the white out of the moon.
... It was big enough, warm enough, and in a little while they deepened their intimacy considerably.
... Ennis woke in red dawn with his pants around his knees, a top-grade headache, and Jack butted against him; without saying anything about it both knew how it would go for the rest of the summer, sheep be damned.
As it did go.
There were only the two of them on the mountain flying in the euphoric, bitter air, looking down on the hawk's back and the crawling lights of vehicles on the plain below, suspended above ordinary affairs and distant from tame ranch dogs barking in the dark hours. They believed themselves invisible ...
In a disquieting way everything seemed mixed.
As they descended the slope Ennis felt he was in a slow-motion, but headlong, irreversible fall.
... they shook hands, hit each other on the shoulder, then there was forty feet of distance between them and nothing to do but drive away in opposite directions.
Jack was not a restaurant type, he said, thinking of the dirty spoons sticking out of the cans of cold beans balanced on the log.
... still they clinched, pressing chest and groin and thigh and leg together, treading on each other's toes until they pulled apart to breathe and Ennis, not big on endearments, said what he said to his horses and daughters, little darlin.
... He could smell Jack -- the intensely familiar odor of cigarettes, musky sweat and a faint sweetness like grass, and with it the rushing cold of the mountain. ... His shaking hand grazed Ennis's hand, electrical current snapped between them. ... From the vibration of the floorboard on which they both stood Ennis could feel how hard Jack was shaking.
... Ennis put his arm around Jack, pulled him close ... Without getting up he threw deadwood on the fire, the sparks flying up with their truths and lies, a few hot points of fire landing on their hands and faces, not for the first time, and they rolled down into the dirt. One thing never changed: the brilliant charge of their infrequent couplings was darkened by the sense of time flying, never enough time, never enough.
... Ennis stood as if heart-shot, face grey and deep-lined, grimacing, eyes screwed shut, fists clenched, legs caving, hit the ground on his knees.
"Jesus," said Jack. "Ennis?" But before he was out of the truck, trying to guess if it was heart attack or the overflow of an incendiary rage, Ennis was back on his feet and somehow, as a coat hanger is straightened to open a locked car and then bent again to its original shape, they torqued things almost to where they had been, for what they'd said was no news. Nothing ended, nothing begun, nothing resolved.
What Jack remembered and craved in a way he could neither help nor understand was the time that distant summer on Brokeback when Ennis had come up behind him and pulled him close, the silent embrace satisfying some shared and sexless hunger.
They had stood that way for a long time in front of the fire, its burning tossing ruddy chunks of light, the shadow of their bodies a single column against the rock. The minutes ticked by from the round watch in Ennis's pocket, from the sticks in the fire settling into coals. Stars bit through the wavy heat layers above the fire. Ennis's breath came slow and quiet, he hummed, rocked a little in the sparklight and Jack leaned against the steady heartbeat, the vibrations of the humming like faint electricity and, standing, he fell into sleep that was not sleep but something else drowsy and tranced until Ennis, dredging up a rusty but still useable phrase from the childhood time before his mother died, said, "Time to hit the hay, cowboy. I got a go. Come on, you're sleepin on your feet like a horse," and gave Jack a shake, a push, and went off in the darkness. Jack heard his spurs tremble as he mounted, the words "see you tomorrow," and the horse's shuddering snort, grind of hoof on stone.
Later, that dozy embrace solidified in his memory as the single moment of artless, charmed happiness in their separate and difficult lives. Nothing marred it, even the knowledge that Ennis would not then embrace him face to face because he did not want to see nor feel that it was Jack he held. And maybe, he thought, they'd never got much farther than that. Let be, let be.
He pressed his face into the fabric and breathed in slowly through his mouth and nose, hoping for the faintest smoke and mountain sage and salty sweet stink of Jack but there was no real scent, only the memory of it, the imagined power of Brokeback Mountain of which nothing was left but what he held in his hands.
He stepped back and looked at the ensemble through a few stinging tears.
"Jack, I swear -- " he said, though Jack had never asked him to swear anything and was himself not the swearing kind.
... and if you can't fix it you've got to stand it.
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Wonderful choices zanzibar! most of these are my favorites quotes too.
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guyinjax & smartestsonia - Transcendental. That moment, moments we've all felt, when suddenly a light goes on, you suddenly and unexpectedly see something that's been right in front of you that you've never been able to see before. Your life changes, a transcendental moment when you become something else. This moment sends chills up my back everytime. Ennis "sees" what has been and understands what he meant to Jack.
Oh Heath, how you radiated this evanescent instant.
(https://ennisjack.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi139.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fq313%2Fjackster545%2Fvlcsnap-1992032.jpg&hash=5cd2848a7793f493cd9c2a40c1f582000669ab23)
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sorry mods, OT
Your post gave me chills....Those shirts were a symbol of them being together on the mountains and a mirror to Jack's deep love..There was blood on that shirt which was during a fight but even that fight was of very great significance and they shared that moment of closeness and that meant that world to Jack...It was like strong wave over Ennis heart and all Ennis wanted to do at that time was to hold Jack and tell him how much he loves him but it was too too late ...Jack was gone...
:\'( :\'( :\'( :\'(
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Zanzibar I love all your choices. The truth is that I love the ss so much I could not pick out any line as being a favourite. I have read and re-read it so many times and each time... :\'( :\'( :\'(
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Short Story: a phrase, really, '....the imagined power of Brokeback of which nothing was left but what he held in his hands.'
To me this is the story in a nutshell: Ennis's illusion that what was between Jack and him was somehow not of himself, not of his basic man-loving nature, is shattered at the same moment that he recognizes the beauty-and horror-of the truth: That he and Jack loved each other-and it's too late. What he held in his hands is real, it cannot be denied. Those shirts are the objective evidence of that love. It requires that in-your-face reality to get thru to Ennis; his walls are too strong, he's too good at his denial.
Film: 'If I got lucky that harmonica woulda broke in two.' There is something simultaneously cute and threatening about this line. I've never quite been able to put my finger on it, but it always evokes dual impressions in me. I do feel there is something metaphorical about the harmonica breaking in two. On one level, I feel it's an echo of what happened to poor Earl's private parts; on another, I feel it's Ennis subconsciously trying to separate from Jack, or from his growing feelings for Jack.
Heath's delivery displays true comic talent.
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Short Story: a phrase, really, '....the imagined power of Brokeback of which nothing was left but what he held in his hands.'
To me this is the story in a nutshell: Ennis's illusion that what was between Jack and him was somehow not of himself, not of his basic man-loving nature, is shattered at the same moment that he recognizes the beauty-and horror-of the truth: That he and Jack loved each other-and it's too late. What he held in his hands is real, it cannot be denied. Those shirts are the objective evidence of that love. It requires that in-your-face reality to get thru to Ennis; his walls are too strong, he's too good at his denial.
Film: 'If I got lucky that harmonica woulda broke in two.' There is something simultaneously cute and threatening about this line. I've never quite been able to put my finger on it, but it always evokes dual impressions in me. I do feel there is something metaphorical about the harmonica breaking in two. On one level, I feel it's an echo of what happened to poor Earl's private parts; on another, I feel it's Ennis subconsciously trying to separate from Jack, or from his growing feelings for Jack.
Heath's delivery displays true comic talent.
Great point,nonamelake ¡ :clap: You're right,the first phrase could perfectly be a resume of the story; or better said,about what feels and fears Ennis,who is doubtless its central character or,at least,around who this is told and almost from his own point of view.It means that the power of the mountain that joined them,was nothing face to reality;society's reality,that denied them and their love,and the bitter reality of what remained,something tangible as an only souvenir of that love and that power...
As regards to the second phrase,well,I had never thought about it that way...But I guess that it could be a way for Ennis to express out loud his fears for his growing attraction to Jack.The harmonica is a very personal Jack's object during all the first part of the movie,so breaking it in two could represent that Ennis wished on one hand run away from him and from these unpleasant feelings,that they were a part.Could we discuss it in "Double meanings..."?.
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Hi, there! :t) Sorry I've not been back in a bit..lots going on at work... :h: Sorry I missed your reply, myprivatejack.
I'd love to talk more about 'double meanings'...I'll have to find the thread!
Regards.
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Hi, there! :t) Sorry I've not been back in a bit..lots going on at work... :h: Sorry I missed your reply, myprivatejack.
I'd love to talk more about 'double meanings'...I'll have to find the thread!
Regards.
Oh¡ I think I'll be able to forgive you... ;D The link to the "Double meanings" is http://www.ennisjack.com/index.php?topic=4413.0 (http://www.ennisjack.com/index.php?topic=4413.0) .Even if I suppose you have already found it by now ¡.
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Oh boy, too many to fit here I can tell you!
And yet, the one line, in all its simplicity, that gets me every time is when Ennis whispers, no breathes, to jack (just after the reunion kiss) "Ennis, not big on condolences, said what he said to the horses and his daughters, li'l darlin'"
<^(
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The best ones are already taken here.. ^-^
This one somehow hit me:
"As they descended the slope Ennis felt he was in a slow-motion, but headlong, irreversible fall."
Ennis was totally confused by his mixed feelings. As the screenplay puts it: "..more emotion stirring in him than he can handle".
Great!
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Another one that really caught my eye(/soul).
Jack's postcard to Ennis:
"...and buy your a beer. Drop me a line if you can, say if your there."
To me this crystallizes how Jack must have felt during the four year separation. He's reaching Ennis in a very polite but sort of minimalistic way. Although he manages to say everything that is needed to say. More frank communication would have been impossible on an open postcard.
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What could he say? "Alma, this is Jack Twist, Jack, my wife Alma." His chest
was heaving. He could smell Jack ~the intensely familiar odor of cigarettes,
musky sweat and a faint sweetness like grass, and with it the rushing cold of
the mountain. "Alma," he said, "Jack and me ain't seen each other in four
years." As if it were a reason. He was glad the light was dim on the landing
but did not turn away from her.
"Sure enough," said Alma in a low voice. She had seen what she had seen.
Behind her in the room lightning lit the window like a white sheet waving and
the baby cried.
"You got a kid?" said Jack. His shaking hand grazed Ennis's hand, electrical
current snapped between them.
"Two little girls," Ennis said. "Alma Jr. and Francine. Love them to pieces."
Alma's mouth twitched.
"I got a boy," said Jack. "Eight months old. Tell you what, I married a cute
little old Texas girl down in Childress -- Lureen." From the vibration of the
floorboard on which they both stood Ennis could feel how hard Jack was
shaking.
I'm sorry -I could not leave any word out, so I paste it all <^(
SO BEAUTIFUL :_(
the electrical current line just gets me every time...i can almost feel the tension and longing and electric sparks between them whenever i read it :clap:
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"He might have to stay with his married daughter until he picks up
another job, yet he is suffused with a sense of pleasure because Jack Twist was in his dream.
The stale coffee is boiling up but he catches it before it goes over the side, pours it into a stained cup
and blows on the black liquid, lets a panel of the dream slide forward. If he does not force his attention
on it, it might stoke the day, rewarm that old, cold time on the mountain when they owned the world and
nothing seemed wrong. The wind strikes the trailer like a load of dirt coming off a dump truck, eases,
dies, leaves a temporary silence."
"Around that time Jack began to appear in his dreams, Jack as he had first seen him, curly-headed and
smiling and bucktoothed, talking about getting up off his pockets and into the control zone, but the can
of beans with the spoon handle jutting out and balanced on the log was there as well, in a cartoon shape
and lurid colors that gave the dreams a flavor of comic obscenity. The spoon handle was the kind that
could be used as a tire iron. And he would wake sometimes in grief, sometimes with the old sense of joy
and release; the pillow sometimes wet, sometimes the sheets. There was some open space between what
he knew and what he tried to believe, but nothing could be done about it, and if you can't fix it you've
got to stand it."
This strikes me straight to the heart. Every time hurts when I read this...
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Ranchand... :^^) :^^)
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I love the bit where ennis whispers "Little darlin'" to Jack because I think that was the moment when Jack realised how much ennis loved him. its just such a shame they didnt use it in the movie, i think it wouldve worked beautifully <^(
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The SS is full of poetry, is hard to pick a sentence or line. Two of my favorites:
"Ennis, riding against the wind back to the sheep in the treacherous, drunken light, thought he'd Never Had Such a good time, felt
Could I paw the white out of the moon"
"What Jack remembered and craved in a way he could neither help nor
understand was the time that distant summer on Brokeback when Ennis had
come up behind him and pulled him close, the silent embrace satisfying
some shared and sexless hunger"
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The SS is full of poetry, is hard to pick a sentence or line. Two of my favorites:
"What Jack remembered and craved in a way he could neither help nor
understand was the time that distant summer on Brokeback when Ennis had
come up behind him and pulled him close, the silent embrace satisfying
some shared and sexless hunger"
I agree there are so many beautiful passages in the SS, so it's hard to choose, but this one has always stood out to me...
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"Without getting up he threw deadwood on the fire, the sparks flying up with their truths and lies, a few hot points of fire landing on their hands and faces, not for the first time, and they rolled down into the dirt. One thing never changed: the brilliant charge of their infrequent couplings was darkened by the sense of time flying, never enough time, never enough."
Their truths and lies...
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Great quote, yuddy. One of the finest. Thanks and welcome.
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Sorry, I can't pick just one line!
"The hudge sadness of the northern plains rolled down on him."
"He lets a panel of the dream slide forward. If he does not force his attention on it, it might stoke the day, rewarm that old, cold time on the mountain when they owned the world and nothing seemed wrong."
"And he would wake sometimes in grief, sometimes with the old sense of joy and release, the pillow sometimes wet, sometimes the sheets."
"He pressed his face into the fabric and breathed in slowly through his mouth and nose, hoping for the faintest smoke and mountain sage and salty sweet stink of Jack, but there was no real scent, only the memory of it, the imagined power of Brokeback Mountain of which nothing was left but what he held in his hands."
Not to mention the dozy embrace... Damn, just writing those lines is heart-breaking.
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Sorry, I can't pick just one line!
"The hudge sadness of the northern plains rolled down on him."
"He lets a panel of the dream slide forward. If he does not force his attention on it, it might stoke the day, rewarm that old, cold time on the mountain when they owned the world and nothing seemed wrong."
"And he would wake sometimes in grief, sometimes with the old sense of joy and release, the pillow sometimes wet, sometimes the sheets."
"He pressed his face into the fabric and breathed in slowly through his mouth and nose, hoping for the faintest smoke and mountain sage and salty sweet stink of Jack, but there was no real scent, only the memory of it, the imagined power of Brokeback Mountain of which nothing was left but what he held in his hands."
Not to mention the dozy embrace... Damn, just writing those lines is heart-breaking.
I love all these quotes. The one about Ennis finding the shirts and trying to catch Jack's scent on them is beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time. It squeezes my heart every time I read it.
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Every full moon since 2006, I have looked up at the moon and recited Ennis's words from Annie's story:
"Thought he'd never had such a good time; felt he could paw the white out of the moon." :_(