Topic: By the end of the film, has Ennis made any move toward self-acceptance?

[filazahies]

Dalemidex, not even Annie Proulx could have explained this as you have. :o
BRAVO!!

[n061857]

Dalemidix,  Thank you for the wonderful post.  When I thought about the acceptance he was demonstrating in this scene, I never thought to compare it to his reaction when Alma confronted him.  I was very impressed that he was able to admit to Jack's dad how badly he felt about Jack's death.  I also see that as a big move in the right direction.

[dalemidex]

Thanks, everybody.  I do sometimes take the optimistic road a little too freely, but I think there's evidence there.  Not just johnny-sunshine hopefulness.

[proulxfan]

There are several signs I see that point to Ennis' increasingly moving toward being more open and honest with himself by the end of of the film.  I do have to couch this with the qualifier that (a) the steps are small, and (b) he started out further back than we might realize. 

Here's why I say this:

(1)  With the exception of a few glimmers around the reunion scene time (like him smiling and sending up a prayer of thanks) Ennis virtually NEVER acknowledges what Jack means to him, never to Jack and most certainly not when he is alone or with others.  His love and longing and desire drive him to keep seeing Jack, to quit jobs when he can't get the time off, etc.  But never do we see him give any sign that he will let himself accept or understand or acknowledge his love for Jack.    So when by the final scene Ennis says with tear-filled eyes "Jack, I swear" he's finally doing something he was NEVER able to do before Jack's death...acknowledge that Jack was more than just a good friend.  That is a big milestone.  If we use the analogy of time, with the year 2006 being "full acceptance and openness", it's like Ennis moving from 10000BC to 1000 AD.  He's still 1000 years away from what some would call "acceptance", but this was a huge step.

(2)  Ennis' visit to the Twist home  is the first time Ennis realizes and accepts somebody else knows about him and Jack.  There are only two times Ennis is aware that the wall is broken between his Brokeback world with Jack and his real life.  The first is Alma at Thanksgiving, and we see how ugly that turns out.  Violent, angry denial and threats, followed by him going to get drunk and picking a fight that ends in a beating.

But the second is at the Twist house.  Even before the shirts, when he hears that the Twists know who he is, that Jack has for years said that Ennis and Jack were going to someday live together on that ranch, it's clear that they understand.  Two men don't just live together out in the west for the heck of it.  Then when Jack's mother so clearly knows and understands what's up with the shirts.  That's the final clincher that other people know.  How did Ennis react that second time?  Under different circumstances, he might have denied it.  Said he didn't know what Jack was talking about, or said something like "me and MY WIFE ALMA always thought about moving up here".  Anything to deny, deflect or cast doubt about it.  But he didn't.  Nor did he run like he did from Thanksgiving and boil over about it. 

The immense pain of grief changed Ennis in a way that 20 more years of the status quo would not have.  I would not say Ennis was close to full self-acceptance by the end of the movie. But he was a lot closer than he was when Jack was alive.

Two significant additions to the beautiful examples cited above:

When he is speaking with Lureen on the phone after Jack's death, she indicates she knows Jack wanted to have his ashes spread up on Brokeback Mountain-thus it has profound meaning for him-and she tells Ennis that she "knows"  who he (Ennis) is: the fishing buddy or hunting buddy-but she doesn't know where Brokeback Mountain is and thinks it may be from Jack's imagination, so ENNIS TELLS HER, thus allowing her to fill in the gaps as to what Brokeback Mountain represented to Jack, and who Ennis really is. Again, if preventing anyone from knowing were still paramount, he could have said he had heard Jack mention Brokeback or dissembled some other way, but instead he just lets it stand that he and Jack herded sheep on Brokeback that summer. In response to a question on another thread: Did Lureen Know?; she does now.

After asking Alma Jr. if Kurt loves her, and receiving an affirmative answer, he looks away from her, gazing to his right out the window, and it is obvious whom he is thinking about. Thus we have clear evidence that Ennis is consciously aware that Jack loved him and his facial expression shows he loved Jack. His reaction is triggered by his use of the word "love". It is now, excruciatingly, at the forefront of his consciousness. Perhaps this is why the screenwriters were so sparing in their use of the "L" word, and held it until the bitter end.

Of course, being Ennis, he still can't talk to anyone about it...and he'd probably still insist he ain't queer...*sigh*

[Marge Innavera]

I think that there are two (possible) indicators of self realization (in the film)..

1) He agrees to go to Alma Jr.'s wedding, even drinks a toast to her... This is a hint to me that he's not going to shut out, or try to control, her love for him or his for her as he had done with Jack.  He goes with his heart here, not his head.  He won't let "work" stand in his way between himself and his cherished daughter.

2) In both story and film he has stinging tears in his eyes when he utters those words we love to talk about, "Jack, I swear..."  It's the tears that count.  He has always covered his emotions with stubbornness, violence, and alcohol.  The tears are a real emotional break through.  It's a horrible lesson to have learned, but I think the realization of has demi-life with Jack has finally hit home.

IMO, he's taken the biggest steps in those directions that would be realistic. In a lesser movie, he might have this huge revelation and start making all kinds of radical changes, but in real life, people just don't get over a lifetime of entrenched destructive emotional patterns quickly. Or, even worse, they seem to be making big changes but are just expressing the same problem in an opposite way (e.g., someone who's been very puritanical suddenly sleeping around, experimenting with drugs, etc.) 

If there's an intention there, and he's already taken the step of putting human love and connections first (by attending his daughter's wedding), that start is the most optimistic element we can see if they were going to end the movie at that point.

I've noticed in a number of discussions about this scene that so many people are assuming that Ennis is an old man. But film makes it pretty clear he's about 40.  Even 100 years ago, that wasn't old and certainly wouldn't have been in the early 1980s, even if you factor in Ennis' hard life having aged him prematurely. There are three things going here: (1) he's lost the person most important to him; (2) he's been shown, quite brutally, that the way he's been dealing with life has not worked at all and (3) he's at midlife, where people more often make big changes than in either youth or old age. Sometimes, it's when peoples' lives are stripped down to the bare bones in that way, that's precisely the point when they at least start looking in new directions.

But of course, all we see in that scene is the possibility. The rest is for speculation and fanfiction

[Marge Innavera]

If he can enjoy time with Jr. and Jenny, maybe with grandchildren, it would be enough for me.  But the shirts are still in the closet... 

Actually, they're not fully in that closet - they're hanging on the inside of the door. Out of public view; but one wouldn't have to even completely open the door to see them.

[TJ]

The end of the film is not the end of Annie Proulx's published in book form story.

Ennis begins his journey to self-acceptance when he decides to buy the Brokeback Mountain postcard in Higgins' gift shop in Signal and tacks it with a brassheaded tack in each corner on the wall of his trailer on the Stoutamire ranch. And, he drives a nail in the wall under the tacked up postcard and hangs the shirts which he has put on his own hanger on the nail.

Then the italicized paragraphs of Annie Proulx's copyrighted story which opens the book versions show that Ennis is getting on his life and his last dream of Jack Twist was not a nightmare. Ennis has just lost his job at the ranch which is up for sale and he is going to have to move out that day. The shirts move in the draft of the old trailer.

Ennis might not have been out of the closet to those who knew him at Signal at the end of the "real" story; but, I say that he was out of the closet to himself.

I was out to myself many months before I left the closet.

[LuvJackNasty]

There are several signs I see that point to Ennis' increasingly moving toward being more open and honest with himself by the end of of the film.  I do have to couch this with the qualifier that (a) the steps are small, and (b) he started out further back than we might realize. 

Here's why I say this:

(1)  With the exception of a few glimmers around the reunion scene time (like him smiling and sending up a prayer of thanks) Ennis virtually NEVER acknowledges what Jack means to him, never to Jack and most certainly not when he is alone or with others.  His love and longing and desire drive him to keep seeing Jack, to quit jobs when he can't get the time off, etc.  But never do we see him give any sign that he will let himself accept or understand or acknowledge his love for Jack.    So when by the final scene Ennis says with tear-filled eyes "Jack, I swear" he's finally doing something he was NEVER able to do before Jack's death...acknowledge that Jack was more than just a good friend.  That is a big milestone.  If we use the analogy of time, with the year 2006 being "full acceptance and openness", it's like Ennis moving from 10000BC to 1000 AD.  He's still 1000 years away from what some would call "acceptance", but this was a huge step.

(2)  Ennis' visit to the Twist home  is the first time Ennis realizes and accepts somebody else knows about him and Jack.  There are only two times Ennis is aware that the wall is broken between his Brokeback world with Jack and his real life.  The first is Alma at Thanksgiving, and we see how ugly that turns out.  Violent, angry denial and threats, followed by him going to get drunk and picking a fight that ends in a beating.

But the second is at the Twist house.  Even before the shirts, when he hears that the Twists know who he is, that Jack has for years said that Ennis and Jack were going to someday live together on that ranch, it's clear that they understand.  Two men don't just live together out in the west for the heck of it.  Then when Jack's mother so clearly knows and understands what's up with the shirts.  That's the final clincher that other people know.  How did Ennis react that second time?  Under different circumstances, he might have denied it.  Said he didn't know what Jack was talking about, or said something like "me and MY WIFE ALMA always thought about moving up here".  Anything to deny, deflect or cast doubt about it.  But he didn't.  Nor did he run like he did from Thanksgiving and boil over about it. 

The immense pain of grief changed Ennis in a way that 20 more years of the status quo would not have.  I would not say Ennis was close to full self-acceptance by the end of the movie. But he was a lot closer than he was when Jack was alive.

Two significant additions to the beautiful examples cited above:

When he is speaking with Lureen on the phone after Jack's death, she indicates she knows Jack wanted to have his ashes spread up on Brokeback Mountain-thus it has profound meaning for him-and she tells Ennis that she "knows"  who he (Ennis) is: the fishing buddy or hunting buddy-but she doesn't know where Brokeback Mountain is and thinks it may be from Jack's imagination, so ENNIS TELLS HER, thus allowing her to fill in the gaps as to what Brokeback Mountain represented to Jack, and who Ennis really is. Again, if preventing anyone from knowing were still paramount, he could have said he had heard Jack mention Brokeback or dissembled some other way, but instead he just lets it stand that he and Jack herded sheep on Brokeback that summer. In response to a question on another thread: Did Lureen Know?, she does now.

After asking Alma Jr. if Kurt loves her, and receiving an affirmative answer, he looks away from her, gazing to his right out the window, and it is obvious whom he is thinking about. Thus we have clear evidence that Ennis is consciously aware that Jack loved him and his facial expression shows he loved Jack. His reaction is triggered by his use of the word "love". It is now, excruciatingly, at the forefront of his consciousness. Perhaps this is why the screenwriters were so sparing in their use of the "L" word, and held it until the bitter end.

Of course, being Ennis, he still can't talk to anyone about it...and he'd probably still insist he ain't queer...*sigh*

I haven't been in this thread and just now read this. Beautiful insights Dalemidex and Proulxfan!

[rabjr1]

I am not sure if there has been a study of this but I believe that there are men/women out there who have had a love affair with another man/woman  BUT never considered themselves gay (queer).  They fell in love with ONE man/woman only, they may have married had children etc. but still they had this love for him/her, it may have continued on while they were married, like Ennis.  And when their love dies or leaves they suffer this loss yet never look for a replacement because there could never be a replacement. 

Ennis swears because he feels in some way responsible for Jack's death.  He thought he would save themselves from the fate he saw earlier in his life by NOT doing as Jack wanted only to find that he could not prevent that fate.  Jack may have been right in the long run, they coud have had a life together.  That is the irony that Ennis must live out the rest of his lonely life with.  Yet, he did have Jack's love and maybe that will sustain him. 

[Stephen]

you expressed my thoughts exactly, rabjr1; it's a heart breaking fact of life that many live on in quiet desperation that the love of their life is in the past, and there is only the feeling and memory of that love to sustain them through the lonely years.

[rabjr1]

you expressed my thoughts exactly, rabjr1; it's a heart breaking fact of life that many live on in quiet desperation that the love of their life is in the past, and there is only the feeling and memory of that love to sustain them through the lonely years.

  been there, done that, got the tearstained t-shirt.

 I couldn't even maintain a friendship with the guy (he was straight and got married) and lost contact over the years.  I had a photo made of him from a 35 year old slide along with one of myself - keep inside the hardcover BBM book.  Maybe someday a relative will find it and wonder?

[xvbbJ]

I think he did. He did mature a lot in those years; might sound a bit macabre but Jack's death might have been the incentive needed for a change in his personality, the missing puzzle piece that helped him realize who he is, and accept himself ...

[Marge Innavera]

I think he did. He did mature a lot in those years; might sound a bit macabre but Jack's death might have been the incentive needed for a change in his personality, the missing puzzle piece that helped him realize who he is, and accept himself ...

When you think about it, that's a universal theme in literature and drama including movies: a terrible loss leading to some kind of enlightenment.  That's why I'm of the opinion that the ending the producers chose moved it from the realm of sad story to tragedy.

[Patriot1]

When you think about it, that's a universal theme in literature and drama including movies: a terrible loss leading to some kind of enlightenment.  That's why I'm of the opinion that the ending the producers chose moved it from the realm of sad story to tragedy.

Yes, I definitely agree with that Marge. 

[welshwitch]

My feeling is that by the end he knew what he felt for Jack and knew it was love - to that degree he had moved on from the old Ennis. But I don't think, even at the end, he saw himself as gay, or acknowledged it. He'd progressed emotionally but not psycholigically, IMO. The old Ennis would never have asked about love. but everything he does - the postcard, the shirts, the "Jack, I swear" is done alone and no-one in the outside world is allowed to see any of it.

[edgar]

I think he did. He did mature a lot in those years; might sound a bit macabre but Jack's death might have been the incentive needed for a change in his personality, the missing puzzle piece that helped him realize who he is, and accept himself ...

When you think about it, that's a universal theme in literature and drama including movies: a terrible loss leading to some kind of enlightenment.  That's why I'm of the opinion that the ending the producers chose moved it from the realm of sad story to tragedy.

Dingdingdingdingdingding... we have a winner.

Great insights, xvbb and Marge.

This view is maybe as old as Job and common in the Greek tragedies. One learns from suffering.

Not sure I have anything to add on Ennis's "move toward self-acceptance," but I might have something to say about his development.

As others pointed out, Ennis told Lureen that he and Jack "herded sheep one summer on Brokeback Mountain."

And he told Mr and Mrs Twist, "We was real good friends."

[OT: In my opinion, that last sentence really says a lot for Ennis. What Ennis needed most in his life was a "real good friend," and I think that was the most important part of his relationship with Jack. Not to deny the sexual element, but the friendship was ultimately more important.]

Anyway, one thing Jack had that Ennis certainly didn't was a way with words. He can tell off LD, he comes up with stuff like "Friend, this is a g*dd*mned b*tch of an unsatisfactory situation," he just talks a lot. And we all remember when Ennis told a little about his childhood, Jack said it was more than he said in two weeks, Ennis admitted it was more than he had said in a year.

So the long (for Ennis) conversation with Lureen and the difficult meeting with Mr and Mrs Twist are huge steps for Ennis, and in both, he shows that he's learned a bit from Jack how to talk to people and how to get what he wants. As some have said, he basically has to come out to Mrs Twist at least (Mr Twist is clueless) when he takes the shirts.

So he didn't just learn to talk from Jack. He also learned that love is of vital importance. Love is worth taking a risk for. Love is, perhaps, worth dying for.

So he gives a damn whether Kurt loves Jr.

And he makes a way to be at the wedding.

He's has learned (somewhat....still is learning) to value love.

[Toadily]

Wonderful posts, yes as noted Ennis deciding to go to the wedding is a big step.
I think he will always live alone though, even sort of punishing himself for pushing Jack away.

[donnaread]

  If he can enjoy time with Jr. and Jenny, maybe with grandchildren, it would be enough for me. 
camom

camom, I agree about the grandchildren.  I wrote in another thread somewhere "my hope for Ennis lies in grandchildren".  Being a 56 yr old divorced grandmother, I know that grandchildren can fill a lot of lonely hours. 

Donna

[donnaread]

I guess I would/could quibble over using the word "acceptance" here, at least as I understand the term. The shirts are still hidden in the closet- Ennis, with his "I swear..." may be on his way to acknowledging, deep in his heart, his love for Jack but the overall thrust of the storyline seems to be tragic, that Ennis realizes too late Jack's abiding love for him, and that Ennis will simply "stand it" in resignation and sadness.

Unfortunately that has been Ennis' problem all along...he was always too resigned to "standing it".  That was the biggest difference in Ennis and Jack's personalities IMO.  Ennis would always "stand it" instead of trying to "fix it", and Jack wouldn't settle for "standing it", he was always trying to "fix it".

Donna

[edgar]

Wonderful posts, yes as noted Ennis deciding to go to the wedding is a big step.
I think he will always live alone though, even sort of punishing himself for pushing Jack away.

This does not negate what you are saying, but in the short story Ennis is facing financial difficulties at the end of the time period the story covers and thinks he may have to "go live with his married daughter," which would be Jr. according to the film.

It's sad to think of Ennis's continuing financial difficulties, but I for one am very happy to think of him living with Jr and Kurt rather than all alone in that sad trailer.

[welshwitch]

I guess I see inevitability as the key to tragedy - a tragic hero to me is someone who knows where they are and what's happening to them, but can't do anything to prevent it, and I'm not sure how much self-knowledge Ennis has even at the end.On the other hand, he's tragic in the other sense, that he realises too late what he had and that he's lost it.

[jerasjr]

Don't know that I would use the word acceptance in this instance - think that Ennis comes to a realization of what he had in Jack, and then comes to an acceptance of that situation.  Do not know if he ever comes to an acceptance of himself except in the context of his realtionship with Jack.

[Stephen]

I guess I see inevitability as the key to tragedy - a tragic hero to me is someone who knows where they are and what's happening to them, but can't do anything to prevent it, and I'm not sure how much self-knowledge Ennis has even at the end.On the other hand, he's tragic in the other sense, that he realises too late what he had and that he's lost it.

Yes, I agree; you have said it succinctly; for Ennis, wisdom, his realization, has come too late; and if Jack had not died, Ennis may never have come to the realization of the profound love they shared, and that Ennis, in a way, squandered.

[stacp]

I guess I see inevitability as the key to tragedy - a tragic hero to me is someone who knows where they are and what's happening to them, but can't do anything to prevent it, and I'm not sure how much self-knowledge Ennis has even at the end.On the other hand, he's tragic in the other sense, that he realises too late what he had and that he's lost it.

Yes, I agree; you have said it succinctly; for Ennis, wisdom, his realization, has come too late; and if Jack had not died, Ennis may never have come to the realization of the profound love they shared, and that Ennis, in a way, squandered.

Great discussion!  I think Ennis begins to realize even before he knows Jack has died what Jack really means to him.  He gives up on Cassie.  To me, Ennis is finally accepting that any relationship with a woman is a lie; it's Jack he really loves.  He sends that Nov. postcard to Jack, a step Ennis doesn't usually take.  Maybe he is making a change, even before he learns of Jack's death.  Then, he goes up to LF to see Jack's folks about the ashes.  I think it's obvious Jack's parents know of Jack and Ennis' relationship.  So Ennis going up there is as close as he has ever come to admitting to anyone how much Jack meant to him.  Finally, Ennis asks Alma Jr. if Kurt loves her and then agrees to go to her wedding.  Ennis here, IMO, is acknowledging the importance of love and is willing to take a step to do the right thing by a person he loves (Jr.).  I think Ennis has had an epiphany; he loved Jack and should have been more willing to compromise to be with him.  Does Ennis fully acknowledge he is gay?  That I don't know.  But I do think Ennis has come a long way.  Just too late.   :'(

[NoReins]

I think there's little doubt that Ennis has accepted that he loved Jack and that Jack loved him by the end - the shirts are the absolute confirmation of that. When he takes them, he's confirming what Jack's mum (and probably his dad too) suspect - that he and Jack were far more than just "real good friends" to each other - and it's (probably, unless you count what he said on the phone to Lureen) the first time that he's admitted it. Of course, being Ennis, he doesn't admit it with words, but with actions. But the very fact that he has done that shows a side of him we don't really see before, like Jack's death has been some sort of catharsis for him.

I do agree that the most telling bit, though, is when he asks Junior if Kurt loves her. When she answers, his gaze out the window of the trailer is a very clear "yes, he loves you just like I loved Jack and Jack loved me". The struggle to regain his composure here suggests to me that Ennis is thinking "in the end, that's all that matters, and you should seize it with both hands because you never know when it might be too late" - certainly acceptance of what he feels (I use the present tense because his love for Jack would never die) and therefore at least some way towards acceptance of who he is.

[christie wood]

I think there's little doubt that Ennis has accepted that he loved Jack and that Jack loved him by the end - the shirts are the absolute confirmation of that. When he takes them, he's confirming what Jack's mum (and probably his dad too) suspect - that he and Jack were far more than just "real good friends" to each other - and it's (probably, unless you count what he said on the phone to Lureen) the first time that he's admitted it. Of course, being Ennis, he doesn't admit it with words, but with actions. But the very fact that he has done that shows a side of him we don't really see before, like Jack's death has been some sort of catharsis for him.

I do agree that the most telling bit, though, is when he asks Junior if Kurt loves her. When she answers, his gaze out the window of the trailer is a very clear "yes, he loves you just like I loved Jack and Jack loved me". The struggle to regain his composure here suggests to me that Ennis is thinking "in the end, that's all that matters, and you should seize it with both hands because you never know when it might be too late" - certainly acceptance of what he feels (I use the present tense because his love for Jack would never die) and therefore at least some way towards acceptance of who he is.

Noreins, that was lovely.  So well put.  My heart always goes out to ennis when he looks out of the window after asking Jnr if Kurt loves her.  It's the first time you hear him say the word love.  And even though Jnr is touched to tears that her daddy has asked such a poignant question, it's not Jnr he's thinking of as he gazes out, he's thinking about his Jack, and what he had, and how they did truly love each other.  It's just so sad that it took an awful thing to happen for Ennis to realise it.  :'(

[frances]

I think there's little doubt that Ennis has accepted that he loved Jack and that Jack loved him by the end - the shirts are the absolute confirmation of that. When he takes them, he's confirming what Jack's mum (and probably his dad too) suspect - that he and Jack were far more than just "real good friends" to each other - and it's (probably, unless you count what he said on the phone to Lureen) the first time that he's admitted it. Of course, being Ennis, he doesn't admit it with words, but with actions. But the very fact that he has done that shows a side of him we don't really see before, like Jack's death has been some sort of catharsis for him.

I do agree that the most telling bit, though, is when he asks Junior if Kurt loves her. When she answers, his gaze out the window of the trailer is a very clear "yes, he loves you just like I loved Jack and Jack loved me". The struggle to regain his composure here suggests to me that Ennis is thinking "in the end, that's all that matters, and you should seize it with both hands because you never know when it might be too late" - certainly acceptance of what he feels (I use the present tense because his love for Jack would never die) and therefore at least some way towards acceptance of who he is.

Same two scenes.


Chat with Alma Jr in the trailer
When she replies "yea Daddy, he loves me..." Ennis turns his head and seems to be a million miles away lost in thought. It seems clear to me that he's finally articulated to himself (by asking the question, 'does he love you') the most important thing that should have guided him throughout his relationship with Jack. 
 
Lightning Flat, shirt scene
Quoting  Mendelsohn's essay on BBM from the NY Review of Books- "Made aware too late of how greatly he was loved, of the extent of his loss, Ennis stands in the tiny windowless space, caressing the shirts and weeping wordlessly." Jack has taught him so much about this aspect of love and about regret simultaneously.