Topic: Some bookends I believe haven't been discussed yet......

[HiAltShag]

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[tpe]

Hello, HiAltShag.

SOrry, but I cannot identify the boosends in question.  The first you refer to is when Ennis is coming back with the supply mules, right before he gets thrown off his horse in the bear incident, and then we see Jack coming back to camp and sees that Ennis has not yet come back.  There were no sheep involved in this sequence, no?  Did I misunderstand you?

[tpe]

Hi tpe.

This is the second time I have replied to a few of your posts and they haven't taken. I wonder what is going on here.

I am not sure they are bookends,even that is debatable. Anyway......The first bookend isn't the one where Ennis horse is startled by a bear.The first occurs pretty closely after the " this is the most youv'e spoken in two weeks " scene where Jack stumbles backwards upon the pots and pans.

The second one is shortly after the scene where Jack is naked and washing Ennis shirt in the river.

If there is anything to be said about these two scenes, it is that they are both scenes that provide the opportunity wherein their intimacy is deepened. 

The first one leads to the scene where Jack is sick to death worrying about Ennis, his tender ministration of Ennis's wound, and Ennis's subsequent shooting of the elk for Jack's sake. 

The second is self-evident.

I do think they serve as cornerstones on which the foundation of their subsequent love for each other is built.

[tpe]

HiAltShag. I approximately see now what you mean.  I can't exactly identify the scene for the first bookend right now, as there were a number of scenes after Jack mimicks the rodeo. I can identify the second bookend precisely.

So you are wondering if there is a connection between the two scenes?  If there is one, I have not noted it before, to be sure.

Do you think there is a link  between the two (other than topography)?

[tpe]

Hello HiAltShag.

Regarding the dead sheep scene and related scenes, you can check out:

http://ennisjack.com/index.php?topic=1225.msg7968#msg7968

As for the number 17, it has been discussed in quite a number of threads.  The most telling is that there are 17 letters in "Brokeback Mountain".  Also, it has also been noted that the clock in Jack's room is frozen at 8:45: 8 + 4 + 5 = 17.

These details don't tie in with the question at hand.  Nonetheless, I do understand that the proposed bookends is meant to exercise our mind into seeing possible connections that are hinted at...

[tpe]

I will continue to think about possible connections.  You never know...

[tpe]

HiAltShag, I am not surprised that you arrived at similar conclusions.

What impresses me is your connecting all this with the scene of the Pentecostal hymn, and the resulting surrender of Ennis to "sin".   

I continue to wonder if the scenes enclosed by the 2 bookends in question have a broader thematic thread running through them.  Certainly, the scenes we have discussed so far may touch on these broader themes we have yet to fully recognize.  One may consider this a game or recognition and association, but one can also argue that the enclosed scenes do have something to say as a related entity.