At the end of the movie, when the camera looks out of Ennis's window towards a green grassy field (maybe a cornfield?) and there's really nothing much else to see... I was reminded of the window in Jack's bedroom, that god-forsaken house and place where he grew up, and how for years, that was the only view Jack had as a boy, the road passing by his house, the only road out of the hell he grew up in. Ennis raises the window and props it up, as he's telling Jack, "Whatever is left of your spirit in this house, let it fly free, back to our mountain..."
I don't think the story ever tells how old he was when he left home, but I feel he must have been pretty young. He must have left as soon as he was able to get out, I think, and probably only went home to see his mother more than his dad. Remember, his mother kept his room the way it had been when he was a boy. Remember the scene where Jack tells Ennis that his father was also a rodeo cowboy, but that he kept his secrets to himself and have never come to see Jack ride? The father comes across as not caring one way or the other, but sort of sizing Ennis up, and then dismissing him at the end, by telling him, "I'm telling you, he'll be buried in the family plot."
I don't know how long Jack has been dead at this point, but when I read the story the first time, I remember thinking, "ok, Jack's dead, he's gonna be buried in the family plot... when? Why haven't you already done it."
Has anyone here ever read or seen the movie, "Shipping News" also written by Annie Proulx. In the story, the sister receives the ashes of her brother who had raped her when she was a girl. She takes the ashes to the outhouse and dumps them in the outhouse, and then sits on the outhouse hole and pees on the ashes.
I wonder what Jack's dad has done with Jack's ashes?
Jack's mother seems fearful of the father. Notice how she looks fearfully out of the corner of her eye when the father is telling Jack the first time, that Jack will be buried in the family plot. Then, as if sensing Ennis's anguish, she puts her hand on his shoulder and tells him he can go up to see Jack's room. When Jack came down with the shirts, she nods with a knowing smile and gets a paper bag for him to put them in. Notice how carefully (almost respectfully) the shirts are put into the bag. The father on the other hand doesn't even look up, his scowling expression never changes. Then there's that last cutting remark, as if to make sure the barb pierced Ennis's heart. He's telling him in no uncertain terms, that he knows the truth about Brokeback Mountain. Jack's mother puts her hand to throat, as if hearing those words are choking her. How did such a lovely woman ever end up with that rattlesnake of a husband?
And when Ennis walks outside, you can feel the tension drain off. Notice how he looks up at Jack's window one last time before turning towards his truck. Even though Jack's mother tells him to come back anytime, Ennis will never set foot on that property again.
At the end of the movie, he's putting the numbers on his mailbox, putting down roots. Alma Jr tells him she's getting married and at first he says, he can't make it (sounds like when Jack asked him to go back to Brokeback in August and Ennis told him he couldn't because he had to work). Then he changes his mind, and says the boss will have to find somebody else. "My little girl's getting married." Perhaps now, too late for Jack, though, Ennis is finally ready to start making some changes in his life. He watches Alma Jr go, then finds the sweater. He folds it (smells it before putting it in the closet, for the scent of her).
After Alma Jr leaves, he's probably feeling mixed emotions about his "little girl" getting married, perhaps feeling like he's losing yet another person he loves - probably the only person left on earth who really loves him. Love doesn't seem to come easily to Ennis, and it hurts when he loses it. Remember the divorce scene? Look at the tears in Ennis's eyes...
When he opens the closet door and sees the shirts, and says, "Jack, I swear..." I think he finally realizes his mistake... Perhaps if he had relented and joined Jack in August on Brokeback Mountain, Jack wouldn't have been in Texas where he was killed, but instead on Brokeback, safe with Ennis. I think he's saying, "Jack, I swear... if I had known it was going to be like this..."
There will no more "fishing trips" to catch up on each other's lives, no one to share the news with. He'll never be able to say to Jack, "My little girl's getting married!" Or perhaps, later, "I'm gonna be a grand dad!"
There's nothing left for him at this point -- no grave to mourn at, and Jack literally torn in two (between his wife and his parents - neither of whom seem too broken up about it, except for perhaps, the mother). There's only this makeshift shrine of two shirts and an old postcard to remind him of the happiness on Brokeback, and to worship the love of his life...
...and that lonely view outside of his window... with the fields and years stretching endlessly ahead of him...
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In an interview with The Advovate magazine with Larry McMurty and Diana Ossana, they are asked about the shirts at the end of the movie:
Interviewer: I had to see the movie twice before I realized that later on, when Ennis had those shirts hanging in his trailer, he’d tucked Jack’s inside his. Did you two come up with that?
Ossana: No. That was Heath.
Which just goes to how totally Heath had allowed himself to be the character of Ennis. I wonder how Heath approached the writers and suggested it to them. I believe he totally fell into character and when it came time to film that scene, he instinctively knew that the shirts should be rearranged, now that they were his.
In a sense, before, Jack was holding Ennis inside himself, and now Ennis is holding Jack inside himself, protecting him.
I think it was Aristotle who said, "Friendship is a single soul inhabiting two bodies." Jack's soul is part of Ennis's now.
