Topic: The Thanksgiving Scenes

[lancecowboy]

Alma did'nt seem to happy or comfortable about having Ennis there in the first place, and then the girls asking him to relay his rodeo days? This may have triggered her . Don't think her concern for Ennis being alone all the time was genuine either. I agree she was feeling him out. Ennis replys to her question about him still fishing with Jack Twist, this was imo, her "lead in" to find out if the relationship with him and Jack was still on. It did'nt matter how often they met as I posted on another thread, but that Jack Nasty was was still in the picture. She then takes this opportunity to let Ennis know that she knew the real nature of their meetings with what she had seen. But still she does not come out and say "I saw you" though she was being spiteful. Ennis's "once burned" did nothing to endear himself to her either." Love hath no fury like a woman scorned". She was'nt going to take the blame,and be played for a fool any longer. She was livid at the audacity of Ennis.

This is an amazing thread. I've always felt the two scenes were pivotal in the movie's development. And you got Alma pegged, aintfoolin. IMO, Alma was portrayed to perfection with a much deeper character than was in the short story. She was definitely not comfortable that Ennis was sitting at the table. Then when Ennis made up stories about his rodeo days, she was triggered into asking him about his other lies. And one motivation may be that she want him out of her life for good. She most certainly knows him enough to predict his reactions. The little look and exchange in the grocery story when he dropped of the girls was rich. After she said what about my job...Ennis gave her that look which says, here we go, like before the July 4th scene.

Alma probably knew Ennis was going to explode and then leave, and never to come back, not even when the girls ask him or invite him. Ennis was definitely insensitive to say "once burned". Just like those other times with Jack, when the simplest common sense response would have saved him a lot of heartache...dumbass...

 

[lancecowboy]

It is interesting to note that Jack's Thanksgiving scene follows immediately after the disaster of the aborted post-divorce meeting with Ennis and his trip to Mexico.  It is indeed important to put the Thanksgiving scene in this context, in the sense that Jack had reached a breaking point not only with the elder Newsome, but also with his own self.  I think this marks the begining of his disillusionment, when he gradually comes to the realization that his dreams will not be fulfilled.  We see him losing patience with the state of things -- at home and with his relationship with Ennis.

It is interesting that Jack's appearance really changed at this point, with the mustache, and he lost that sense of youth and vitality, of adventure. It's almost like he was now resigned to living from day to day.

[lancecowboy]

I didn't think she was still in love with him but bitter. Infidelity is a rough thing to get over and to see her girls there idolizing their father had to kill her. I don't think she hated Ennis or anything- I think resented him is more likely.

All those scenes of her at the kitchen table, thinking, brooding, with the coffee untouched...

Her face when Ennis took off "fishin'" when she just told him about this job at the power plant...

She couldn't possibly still love him after all that...

And remember the "sex" scene that night or soon after, when she almost deliberately goading him into stop having sex with her...

Hating him may be too strong a word, but loving him? Then again, hate and love are often said to be closely related. She may still love him, but also hate him at the same time, for all the lies he told, all the lack of ambition in his life, all the obsession with Ennis....

[lancecowboy]

Yes that it how I see it too. That something "snapped" in Jack after that divorce debacle.
I did like the little smirk Lureen gave when Jack told off LD, as well as the nod to Bobby. I've always held the notion that while Jack's heart lie with Ennis that he and Lureen had a somewhat decent relationship even if it was more friends than anything. And that scene with that silent "You listen to your father" type of nod sort of shows that they do manage to support each other.

Monroe is just out of it- how does he not hear his pregnant wife screaming at her ex-husband in the kitchen? You can hear silverware dropping and he's off in la la land.  But you clearly see the girls do adore their daddy. I like how they sort of manipulated things- not sure if manipulated is the right word but when they started asking Ennis about riding broncs I think it was their was of showing Monroe that Ennis would always be their daddy.

Jack is clearly frustrated here. (ya think?  ) Before he gets up to carve the turkey I always see him thinking "What the hell am I doing here? I shouldn't be here."

Jack and Lureen are an interesting couple. They clearly like each other a lot, but there is no passion in it. Sex was non existent and romance is nil. I don't even know if there is much of a friendship except the minimum required of two people living together. They are more friendly than friends, in the sense that they don't do much together, shared any real common interests, now that they don't rodeo any more. Their only common bond is Bobby. Without their son, I think Jack might have walked out and lived near Riverton to be closer to Ennis. Lureen was clearly upset when Ennis mentioned they herded sheep together on Brokeback one summer. She felt left out, almost betray, as Alma felt, by Jack's constantly talking about "his favorite place". Her telling Jack to get his buddy to come to Texas for a change was her way of trying to get back into his life. No wonder Jack suggested Texas to Ennis. Too bad he got rejected, yet again. Poor Jack, so much love to give, so little acceptance in his life.

[aintfoolin]

This is an amazing thread. I've always felt the two scenes were pivotal in the movie's development. And you got Alma pegged, aintfoolin. IMO, Alma was portrayed to perfection with a much deeper character than was in the short story. She was definitely not comfortable that Ennis was sitting at the table. Then when Ennis made up stories about his rodeo days, she was triggered into asking him about his other lies. And one motivation may be that she want him out of her life for good. She most certainly knows him enough to predict his reactions. The little look and exchange in the grocery story when he dropped of the girls was rich. After she said what about my job...Ennis gave her that look which says, here we go, like before the July 4th scene.

Alma probably knew Ennis was going to explode and then leave, and never to come back, not even when the girls ask him or invite him. Ennis was definitely insensitive to say "once burned". Just like those other times with Jack, when the simplest common sense response would have saved him a lot of heartache...dumbass...

 

 I should correct my earlier post to read " Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned". But that said, it is the irony of the the fact that here is Ennis sitting at her Thanksgiving table with  their offspring, representing her past life, while now carrying the offspring of her new life with Monroe. Imo this speaks to something "unresolved" in her life. Her anger may also be triggered by knowing that she will be forever tied to Ennis  thru the girls, though she's feeling very resentful towards him, probably for the rest of her life.

The "once burned" comment implied to Alma that Ennis was  playing the "victim" somehow , when obviously she felt that spot was reserved for her and the girls.

[lancecowboy]

I should correct my earlier post to read " Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned". But that said, it is the irony of the the fact that here is Ennis sitting at her Thanksgiving table with  their offspring, representing her past life, while now carrying the offspring of her new life with Monroe. Imo this speaks to something "unresolved" in her life. Her anger may also be triggered by knowing that she will be forever tied to Ennis  thru the girls, though she's feeling very resentful towards him, probably for the rest of her life.

The "once burned" comment implied to Alma that Ennis was  playing the "victim" somehow , when obviously she felt that spot was reserved for her and the girls.

I agree with you 100%, aintfooling, but the other Thanksgiving scene is equally pivotal in the movie, and the "woman scorned..." title would not be appropriate there. I like the Thanksgiving title because it is a carefully chosen holiday on the part of the movie's creators (not just the screenplay writers, producers, but perhaps also the directors, and actors). Thanksgiving is the appropriate title, IMO, because it echoes what Ennis said by the river side after the reunion...sending a prayer of thanks...little did he know of the future. Yet, in the further distant future, would Ennis be thankful for the twenty years of occasional meeting with Jack?

I think we somethings miss the half-full glass when we see the half empty glass to often, and to intensely. Despite the tragedy of their love unconnected, Jack and Ennis had fulfilling lives with their respective family, if they put as much energy into them as they did on each other. Jack had a good time raising Bobby ...until Mexico...Ennis had a good time with the girls, and even Alma, until she found out the truth. Ennis should have been more honest with Alma but that's like asking him to be more than he was, given his traumatic childhood. If Ennis had been more gracious at Monroe's house, and more considerate of Alma's feelings, he might have been happier, even with only the occasional meetings with Jack. He might even have been more ready to move to Texas. Alma would certainly support that idea, and allow him to skip some child support...BTW, I don't know how the system works, but once Alma got married, and the kids live with Monroe, shouldn't the payments be reduced, or something? Was Ennis using the payments as just another excuse? Jack would certainly know about that, and probably felt Ennis was just using one excuse after another. Just my two cents thrown in. I have no idea how child support payments would work in Wyoming back in the '70s.

[lamusica]

In a perfect world, ex-spouses would get along well together and veryone would live happily everafter, but that seldom happens.  There was just too much bitterness between Ennis and Alma, especially after Alma had seen what she saw ( the reunion kiss and the unused fishing gear).  There was just no way she could just "let bygones be bygones". IMO she was just hurt too deeply to ever get over it.  However, I don't think that kept her from loving Ennis.   He was still her first love and the father of her girls.

The dynamic between Ennis and Alma is so interesting to conjecture about.  There is so much water under the bridge where those two are concerned.

[tpe]

These are people who know where they are; they may not like it entirely or even at all but at least they know it.

Exactly.  I do think that none of them liked it entirely.  This is where all the tension in the Thanksgiving scene originate -- the fact that we know that there is a lot of stuff boiling underneath the seemingly placid images of family life and tradition.

[tpe]

It is interesting that Jack's appearance really changed at this point, with the mustache, and he lost that sense of youth and vitality, of adventure. It's almost like he was now resigned to living from day to day.

There is certainly something different about Jack by the time the Thanksgiving scenes are shown.  We see him as more calculating -- in a sense, more hypocritical about the realities and the pretenses.

[welshwitch]

So in a way this is sopme sort of coming-of-age period for both men - the romance of the first years is over and reality has to be confronted - Ennis is no longer part of Alma's life; while she is embarking on a new future he is literally and metaphorically out in the cold, literally and metaphorically (after the fight) a loser withlittel to lok forward to. and Jack can no longer dream; what's in Childress is what he has, with littel prospect of getting anything else. S maybe this is the time when they put away childish things?

Oh, and the quotation (from Conreve)is:
                           Heav'n hath no rage like love to hatred turn'd,
                           Nor hell a fury like a woman scorn'd.

And both are true.

[tpe]

So in a way this is sopme sort of coming-of-age period for both men - the romance of the first years is over and reality has to be confronted - Ennis is no longer part of Alma's life; while she is embarking on a new future he is literally and metaphorically out in the cold, literally and metaphorically (after the fight) a loser withlittel to lok forward to. and Jack can no longer dream; what's in Childress is what he has, with littel prospect of getting anything else. S maybe this is the time when they put away childish things?

Oh, and the quotation (from Conreve)is:
                           Heav'n hath no rage like love to hatred turn'd,
                           Nor hell a fury like a woman scorn'd.

And both are true.

Must the sense of dillusionment here be inevitable?  Perhaps a coming of age could have taken the form of positive liberation on Ennis's part.  Or am I just dreaming here?    Had Ennis taken the leap of faiith, might have things flowered, rather than withered?

[lancecowboy]

So in a way this is sopme sort of coming-of-age period for both men - the romance of the first years is over and reality has to be confronted - Ennis is no longer part of Alma's life; while she is embarking on a new future he is literally and metaphorically out in the cold, literally and metaphorically (after the fight) a loser withlittel to lok forward to. and Jack can no longer dream; what's in Childress is what he has, with littel prospect of getting anything else. S maybe this is the time when they put away childish things?

Oh, and the quotation (from Conreve)is:
                           Heav'n hath no rage like love to hatred turn'd,
                           Nor hell a fury like a woman scorn'd.

And both are true.

Thanks, WW for the quote. Is Conreve a person or a play? I'd love to read the rest of it.

What is great about Jack's love is that it never turned to hatred. He almost started to turn in the last meeting scene, after the Mexico exchange, when Ennis threatened him with murder. But in spite of all that, after he said, "I wish I knew how to quit you" and Ennis broke down, with "I am nothing, I am nowhere" Jack's love for Ennis overwhelms his own sense of discontent, of dissatisfaction, and he went to embrace Ennis again. This is what I love about Jack, his faithful unending love for Ennis, no matter what. The man is a saint.

[tpe]

Thanks, WW for the quote. Is Conreve a person or a play? I'd love to read the rest of it.

OT: I think WW is referring to Congreve, the poet and playwright.

What is great about Jack's love is that it never turned to hatred. He almost started to turn in the last meeting scene, after the Mexico exchange, when Ennis threatened him with murder. But in spite of all that, after he said, "I wish I knew how to quit you" and Ennis broke down, with "I am nothing, I am nowhere" Jack's love for Ennis overwhelms his own sense of discontent, of dissatisfaction, and he went to embrace Ennis again. This is what I love about Jack, his faithful unending love for Ennis, no matter what. The man is a saint.

To hatred, no.  But I got a sense that there was increasing anger and frustration.  We see it first in the Thanksgiving scene with the Newsomes.    But even if all this points to perhaps greater anger and frustration with Ennis, I do agree that it was never hatred.   Jack couldn't help it, when it came to Ennis.  Not Lureen.  Not with the Newsomes.

[welshwitch]

LC, it comes from a play by Congreve, called "The Mourning Bride" (1697). It's never performed now, as far as I know. It's his only tragedy ( described as inflated and self-consciously poetic" by one commentator"). The only one of his plays done these days is "The Way of the World", which is one of the best-known C18th comedies of manners and is still easily available in print.

[lancecowboy]

OT: I think WW is referring to Congreve, the poet and playwright.

To hatred, no.  But I got a sense that there was increasing anger and frustration.  We see it first in the Thanksgiving scene with the Newsomes.    But even if all this points to perhaps greater anger and frustration with Ennis, I do agree that it was never hatred.   Jack couldn't help it, when it came to Ennis.  Not Lureen.  Not with the Newsomes.

Thanks tpe, and WW. I found the mourning bride, and it is "self-consciously poetic", but I like its poetry, so I downloaded a copy from someplace.

Back to topic, I agree, tpe, that Jack does not have hatred in his heart and so he never hated event the loathsome old man Newsome. He was very angry at the thanksgiving scene, but he never hated the man. Would his anger change into hate if the old man persisted in his arrogance? Perhaps. Would his anger change into hate if Ennis did not break down and change his stubborn dumbass way? Perhaps. We will never know. I'd like to think that Jack will never harbour hatred for very long in his heart because his nature is loving, as he caressed the little lambs, and carry the little sheep across the steams, as he ministered the bleeding Ennis after the bear, and as he held onto Ennis in SNIT, and in the last meeting scene when Ennis brokedown.

It just occurred to me that the frustration in Jack during the Thanksgiving scene was also the irony of not having Ennis with him, to give thanks, as they did after the reunion watching Ennis sending a prayer of thanks to heaven. I wonder, if for twenty years, every Thanksgiving reminds Jack of that real meaningful thanksgiving dinner of beans or whatever...Their shared meals of simple beans and elk is far more sumptuous than any dinner feast of turkey yam and ham because their love turns the simplest moment in life into a joy to remember for eternity. Without each other, every moment is lonely and agony without end. No wonder Jack said, not enough time, (together) never enough time.

[babytammy7]

I'd like to think that Jack will never harbour hatred for very long in his heart because his nature is loving, as he caressed the little lambs, and carry the little sheep across the steams, as he ministered the bleeding Ennis after the bear, and as he held onto Ennis in SNIT, and in the last meeting scene when Ennis brokedown.

It just occurred to me that the frustration in Jack during the Thanksgiving scene was also the irony of not having Ennis with him, to give thanks, as they did after the reunion watching Ennis sending a prayer of thanks to heaven. I wonder, if for twenty years, every Thanksgiving reminds Jack of that real meaningful thanksgiving dinner of beans or whatever...Their shared meals of simple beans and elk is far more sumptuous than any dinner feast of turkey yam and ham because their love turns the simplest moment in life into a joy to remember for eternity. Without each other, every moment is lonely and agony without end. No wonder Jack said, not enough time, (together) never enough time.

  Oh Lance, so beautiful post!!! You've made me cry again!!!  :\'( Jack's nature is loving....., so true; and about their shared meals......you're so right cowboy, together the world is so beautiful, just perfect, but...there's never enough time...*sigh*..... :\'(  :\'(

[lancecowboy]

Oh Lance, so beautiful post!!! You've made me cry again!!!  :\'( Jack's nature is loving....., so true; and about their shared meals......you're so right cowboy, together the world is so beautiful, just perfect, but...there's never enough time...*sigh*..... :\'(  :\'(

I am sorry, babytammy7, even as I typed my last post I had a feeling that it might be PBS inducing, but I had to write what I felt, what felt true to me. And having never thought much about Jack's feelings before, it just occurred to me, responding to tpe's observation on Jack's anger and frustration, that every Thanksgiving holiday would remind him of Ennis giving thanks that night. After all, that was when he proposed.

Facing the true feelings had helped me these months to deal with them, and although I resonate with Jack's frustration and loneliness over twenty years of Thanksgiving dinners, I have also learned over the years Ennis' acceptance and stoic grace, so beautifully acted by Heath in those final scenes. And as Eduardo said, life is a series of memories that we treasure. Future memories are not for us to plan and expect, but are what happens to us, when we least expected, whatever we feel. So instead of feeling sad while waiting for the unexpected, I have decided to feel good with whatever I can give thanks today, and welcome the unexpected with open arms and open heart. It is okay to shed tears and feel sad, but it is also okay to smile and feel good. Neither takes away from the other, and each enhances the other by providing contrast and context.

I hope that my posts bring to you as many smile as tears. I will try to give a bit of warning the next time PBS inducing passages are coming....[PBS warning]...okay?

Have a nice weekend. Vancouver has beautiful sunshine today. I am going out for a walk in the cold sunny day...and give thanks to the beautiful people here on EnnisJack.com.

 

[babytammy7]

I hope that my posts bring to you as many smile as tears. I will try to give a bit of warning the next time PBS inducing passages are coming....[PBS warning]...okay?

Have a nice weekend. Vancouver has beautiful sunshine today. I am going out for a walk in the cold sunny day...and give thanks to the beautiful people here on EnnisJack.com.
 

  AMEN to that cowboy!!!  Thank you so much for your beautiful words!!! And the "PBS warning" is a good idea!!!    Though I love read your posts, you know that, and I will read them always, no matter that they can be so sad for me.

I love Canada (I want to live there in a future). Have a very nice weekend friend!!! 

[lancecowboy]

  AMEN to that cowboy!!!  Thank you so much for your beautiful words!!! And the "PBS warning" is a good idea!!!    Though I love read your posts, you know that, and I will read them always, no matter that they can be so sad for me.

I love Canada (I want to live there in a future). Have a very nice weekend friend!!! 

  Amiga, I will so enjoy having you for a neighbor, and meeting you in a brokie meet.

In the mean time, please don't feel sad, not even when you read my posts with [PBS warnings], because they are not meant to be sad, just to show how I feel how I respond from the scenes in the movie, and from the resonance in my past.

Have a good weekend, amiga.

 

[tpe]

Back to topic, I agree, tpe, that Jack does not have hatred in his heart and so he never hated event the loathsome old man Newsome. He was very angry at the thanksgiving scene, but he never hated the man. Would his anger change into hate if the old man persisted in his arrogance? Perhaps. Would his anger change into hate if Ennis did not break down and change his stubborn dumbass way? Perhaps. We will never know. I'd like to think that Jack will never harbour hatred for very long in his heart because his nature is loving, as he caressed the little lambs, and carry the little sheep across the steams, as he ministered the bleeding Ennis after the bear, and as he held onto Ennis in SNIT, and in the last meeting scene when Ennis brokedown.

It just occurred to me that the frustration in Jack during the Thanksgiving scene was also the irony of not having Ennis with him, to give thanks, as they did after the reunion watching Ennis sending a prayer of thanks to heaven. I wonder, if for twenty years, every Thanksgiving reminds Jack of that real meaningful thanksgiving dinner of beans or whatever...Their shared meals of simple beans and elk is far more sumptuous than any dinner feast of turkey yam and ham because their love turns the simplest moment in life into a joy to remember for eternity. Without each other, every moment is lonely and agony without end. No wonder Jack said, not enough time, (together) never enough time.

I agree, I felt that Ennis was a hidden character in the Texas Thanskgiving scene, and Jack was certainly the "elephant in the room" in the Thanksgiving scene in Riverton.  In the former case, immediately following the Mexico scene, you really get the feeling that it was all a facade -- all externals while things were seeting underneath.

I felt that Jack could only be truly angry with Ennis, ironically, since it is my feeling that he was only angry when he really cared. 

[lamusica]

I do think Jack disliked Newsome.  When Newsome visited Lureen and brought the formula and threw the keys to Jack to go bring it in, Jack just kind of grinned -- a put-upon grin, IMO-- and did it.  As time went by, all we can assume is that there were many more incidents in which Newsome disrespected Jack.  No one can ignore this type of treatment forever.  The Thanksgiving scene was just the breaking point for Jack.  Finally, he had had enough and reacted strongly.  You don't talk to someone and call him an ignorant sonofabitch if you love him!  It took a lot for jack to get that riled -- God knows, he propably held his temper for years.

You made a good point about Jack missing Ennis on Thanksgiving.  That's enough to have put him in a bad mood right there.  Again, he was holding in his aloneness in the midst of a room full of people.  But he was used to that; had been doing it for years.

[lancecowboy]

I do think Jack disliked Newsome.  When Newsome visited Lureen and brought the formula and threw the keys to Jack to go bring it in, Jack just kind of grinned -- a put-upon grin, IMO-- and did it.  As time went by, all we can assume is that there were many more incidents in which Newsome disrespected Jack.  No one can ignore this type of treatment forever.  The Thanksgiving scene was just the breaking point for Jack.  Finally, he had had enough and reacted strongly.  You don't talk to someone and call him an ignorant sonofabitch if you love him!  It took a lot for jack to get that riled -- God knows, he propably held his temper for years.

You made a good point about Jack missing Ennis on Thanksgiving.  That's enough to have put him in a bad mood right there.  Again, he was holding in his aloneness in the midst of a room full of people.  But he was used to that; had been doing it for years.

I think the key in the Thanksgiving scene for Jack was not so much the old man disrepected him,  but that the old man disrepected him in front of his son, and in such a way as to suggest that Jack was less of a man for not allowing Bobby to watch football during dinner, a Thanksgiving dinner that his mama spent hours preparing. It was a matter of discipline, and teaching Bobby values, important values. As Aristotle said, it is not about getting angry, or not getting angry. It is about getting angry at the right people, at the right moment, for the right reason, in just the right way. Jack did it perfectly. He stood up against the old man using the kind of language that the old man understood, and stopped just in time, to not cause another scene. I wanted to go up to him and said, way to go cowboy! Jack is not bothered by loneliness so much as by not having Ennis with him. Once he felt the completeness with Ennis, it is unimaginable to be incomplete, to be separated. He will always be lonely without Ennis...never enough...

[tpe]

I do think Jack disliked Newsome.  When Newsome visited Lureen and brought the formula and threw the keys to Jack to go bring it in, Jack just kind of grinned -- a put-upon grin, IMO-- and did it.  As time went by, all we can assume is that there were many more incidents in which Newsome disrespected Jack.  No one can ignore this type of treatment forever.  The Thanksgiving scene was just the breaking point for Jack.  Finally, he had had enough and reacted strongly.  You don't talk to someone and call him an ignorant sonofabitch if you love him!  It took a lot for jack to get that riled -- God knows, he propably held his temper for years.

You made a good point about Jack missing Ennis on Thanksgiving.  That's enough to have put him in a bad mood right there.  Again, he was holding in his aloneness in the midst of a room full of people.  But he was used to that; had been doing it for years.

I think it was Ennis that made all the humiliation bearable.  Didn't Jack push for the reunion after the scene you refer to -- where he was humiliated by his father-in-law?  Likewise, the breaking point that was reached in the Thanksgiving scene was precipitated by the botched meeting after the divorce. 

I like your last sentences.  In the end of the Texas Thanksgiving scene, you do get the feeling that Jack was alone, in the midst of the family.

[tpe]

I think the key in the Thanksgiving scene for Jack was not so much the old man disrepected him,  but that the old man disrepected him in front of his son, and in such a way as to suggest that Jack was less of a man for not allowing Bobby to watch football during dinner, a Thanksgiving dinner that his mama spent hours preparing. It was a matter of discipline, and teaching Bobby values, important values. As Aristotle said, it is not about getting angry, or not getting angry. It is about getting angry at the right people, at the right moment, for the right reason, in just the right way. Jack did it perfectly. He stood up against the old man using the kind of language that the old man understood, and stopped just in time, to not cause another scene. I wanted to go up to him and said, way to go cowboy! Jack is not bothered by loneliness so much as by not having Ennis with him. Once he felt the completeness with Ennis, it is unimaginable to be incomplete, to be separated. He will always be lonely without Ennis...never enough...

Very good point.  I think Jack was willing to let the elder Newsome have his way, up until it touched on his authority over his own son.

[freetraveller]

Also, let's not forget the Thxgiving scenes in Texas comes directly after the Mexico scene.
When I saw Jack disappear in the dark alley with the hustler at the end of that scene, I thought his life would not be the same again, some part of the youthful, hopeful Jack had died after Ennis rejected him in the post-divorce scene.
So I thought it was very poignant that in the following Thxgiving scene Jack would appear changed somehow, more bitter, disillusioned, on one hand, but also more assertive, at least of his place in his household.
Perhaps reasserting his parenting rights over his son was not only aimed at his father-in-law; maybe his father-in-law's attempt to assert his authority at the dinner table was just the last drop for Jack's frustration & bitterness to come to the boil, not just frustration at being upstaged by Lureen's father ever since he married Lureen, but a more general frustration in his relationship with Ennis and being given false hopes when Ennis wrote him that card after his divorce.

[tpe]

Also, let's not forget the Thxgiving scenes in Texas comes directly after the Mexico scene.
When I saw Jack disappear in the dark alley with the hustler at the end of that scene, I thought his life would not be the same again, some part of the youthful, hopeful Jack had died after Ennis rejected him in the post-divorce scene.
So I thought it was very poignant that in the following Thxgiving scene Jack would appear changed somehow, more bitter, disillusioned, on one hand, but also more assertive, at least of his place in his household.
Perhaps reasserting his parenting rights over his son was not only aimed at his father-in-law; maybe his father-in-law's attempt to assert his authority at the dinner table was just the last drop for Jack's frustration & bitterness to come to the boil, not just frustration at being upstaged by Lureen's father ever since he married Lureen, but a more general frustration in his relationship with Ennis and being given false hopes when Ennis wrote him that card after his divorce.

Yes, I think Jack's feeling that he lacked control over his relationship with Ennis pushed him to take on a more assertive stance.  I do think this found an outlet in the Thanksgiving scene, as you said.  It was a way of expressing all the frustration inside of him, especially over the matter of ther unfulfilled dream of a sweet life with Ennis.