Topic: Had Jack some self-destructive tendencies?

[myprivatejack]

When Ennis phones Lureen in order to know what has happenned to Jack,she says when talking about BBM:-
Well, he said it was his favorite place. I thought he meant to get drunk. He drank a lot. And yes,it's sure that he drunk,I don't know if until the extreme of being drunk; they say that people drink in order to "forget"...Did,then Jack drink to forget the reality of his life?.What's more: Did he drink enough as to destroy little by little his health and,therefore,his own life?.
I'd said more;somebody has told that he was so opened in his sexual tendencies that even he took some dangers; the dangers Ennis wanted to avoid  being more protective and also closer in himself than Jack.Maybe he arrived to a point in his life when he,simply,didn't mind if somebody could discover his tendencies or not...and the consequences this could have for him?.
Jack was a person who was always looking for love and never found it completely:neither at home,when his mother's love and affection wasn't enough to hide the pain that a sever father could cause in a young mind; nor at his own home,with a cold wife who showed him as one more of her prizes and company profits; even nor with an Ennis who was spending all his time-their time-running away from this "sweet life"and,more than often,from Jack himself.Maybe the reason of his taking risks wasn't that he was open enough as not to worry if people knew it or not; maybe the reason was being too tired of living that way and,therefore,a unconscious wish of ending.Had Jack,then,some self-destructive tendencies?.            

[rimasworld]

Yes, I think they both were unhappy because they never completely had each other. Ennis drank too and got in fights since he was never comfortable in his own skin. They both had terrible childhoods and scars from that. It's so sad, they could have both been happy if things had been different for them 

[buckskinbronc]

Well, let's see here, starting from before he met Ennis, Jack was a bull rider.  Now in the days before extreme sports, I don't think you could get much more potentially self destructive them climbing aboard a ton of bovine that's just had a bucking strap tightened around it's flanks and probably about to get hit with a cattle prod to get it to jump out of the chute.  Safe to say that it's one angry son-of-a-cow bent on revenge, if it can get it.

Jack's very bold and more than a little wreckless chasing after what he wants all the way along.  If their world was as hostile and Ennis believed, there are several situations in the movie that could have earned him more than a few punches. 

Neither of those puts him too far off the norm for "tough cowboy" or "horny kid", however IMHO.

So what about him "drinking alot"?  Well, at the end he was pushing 40 real hard.  His life sure hadn't turned out the way he'd dreamed.  The man he loved wasn't gonna change, and even mentioning any change to Ennis caused a fight.  His marriage wasn't even luke warm anymore.  He was stuck in a family where the patriarch hated his guts and didn't show him any respect.  Not sure what was going right in his life, but the major things weren't going to get right.  To me, our poor Jack was a man headed for a serious mid-life crisis.  Self destructive?  Maybe.   Enough for him to quit hiding and become a target of a tire iron?  Perhaps.  What's sad to me is that if he had lived, his options were so limited.

[tpe]

Interesting topic!

I think that Jack certainly took greater risks.  And to a person like Ennis, it might have certainly appeared as willful self-destructiveness.

But I don't know if this would be enough for me to think that Jack was hell-bent on destroying himself.  Even the drinking was certainly driven more on a desire to forget, rather than willful self-destruction, IMO.  

But it is fair to say that Jack seemed to subscribe to the famous ideal fo Thoreau:

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

[myprivatejack]

Yes, I think they both were unhappy because they never completely had each other. Ennis drank too and got in fights since he was never comfortable in his own skin. They both had terrible childhoods and scars from that. It's so sad, they could have both been happy if things had been different for them 

Of course,both of them were unhappy because their lives were empty without each other.This unsatisfactory situation took Ennis to get in fights,as you say,because,IMO,it was a way of punishing himself for both being "a queer" and for not being able to live "as a queer" with the man he loved.He wasn't comfortable in his own skin,you're right;but Jack was,at least confortable enough as not hiding his tendencies as it was advisable,according to the society that surrounded them.For me,this is the difference between them that maybe,carried Jack to a too early end.

[myprivatejack]

Well, let's see here, starting from before he met Ennis, Jack was a bull rider.  Now in the days before extreme sports, I don't think you could get much more potentially self destructive them climbing aboard a ton of bovine that's just had a bucking strap tightened around it's flanks and probably about to get hit with a cattle prod to get it to jump out of the chute.  Safe to say that it's one angry son-of-a-cow bent on revenge, if it can get it.

Jack's very bold and more than a little wreckless chasing after what he wants all the way along.  If their world was as hostile and Ennis believed, there are several situations in the movie that could have earned him more than a few punches. 

Neither of those puts him too far off the norm for "tough cowboy" or "horny kid", however IMHO.

So what about him "drinking alot"?  Well, at the end he was pushing 40 real hard.  His life sure hadn't turned out the way he'd dreamed.  The man he loved wasn't gonna change, and even mentioning any change to Ennis caused a fight.  His marriage wasn't even luke warm anymore.  He was stuck in a family where the patriarch hated his guts and didn't show him any respect.  Not sure what was going right in his life, but the major things weren't going to get right.  To me, our poor Jack was a man headed for a serious mid-life crisis.  Self destructive?  Maybe.   Enough for him to quit hiding and become a target of a tire iron?  Perhaps.  What's sad to me is that if he had lived, his options were so limited.

Well,I was not talking as much about the young Jack as about Jack in the last years of his life,as a resume of all what has happenned in it that maybe was a too heavy burden at the end.In the beginning,Jack was a bull rider as he could have been any other thing that has supposed a coming out from the dark and lacked of affection life he has had at his parent's.Moreover,Annie said once that both Ennis and Jack were attracted to the image of the old times cowboys,so they wished to copy it in their own lives.So,for me it's not the question...
However,I agree with you in the second part of your post; Jack was having a middle age crisis,I don't know if due to the age itself(maybe an andropause?  ) or to the impossibility of living as he wished,seeing that he wasn't not that young already as to get it soon.And it's here where the self destruction impulses can begin to appear; not only for the fact of drinking very much or not,but in a whole.IMHO,maybe he didn't already mind if people knew about his homosexuality because he didn't mind to keep on living that way or not.And it's also when I wonder: do you think that Jack let his guard off on purpose?.

[myprivatejack]

Interesting topic!

I think that Jack certainly took greater risks.  And to a person like Ennis, it might have certainly appeared as willful self-destructiveness.

But I don't know if this would be enough for me to think that Jack was hell-bent on destroying himself.  Even the drinking was certainly driven more on a desire to forget, rather than willful self-destruction, IMO.  

But it is fair to say that Jack seemed to subscribe to the famous ideal fo Thoreau:

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

Beautiful and fair quote,Thomas: thanks for it ¡ But I must say that IMO it's not necessary to be a person like Ennis to think or pretend Jack wasn't too on guard as before(I'm not like Ennis,but I believe it... ).Yes,I said in the first post that drinking too much was a wish of forgetting more than a wish to give himself an end.But even this,can be self destructive in the more or less long term...Jack was a pigeon born to fly in freedom and,after fighting for years,when he saw they had broken his wings,he didn't mind if he fell on the ground or from which height he could fall.That's what I think...

[tpe]

Beautiful and fair quote,Thomas: thanks for it ¡ But I must say that IMO it's not necessary to be a person like Ennis to think or pretend Jack wasn't too on guard as before(I'm not like Ennis,but I believe it... ).Yes,I said in the first post that drinking too much was a wish of forgetting more than a wish to give himself an end.But even this,can be self destructive in the more or less long term...Jack was a pigeon born to fly in freedom and,after fighting for years,when he saw they had broken his wings,he didn't mind if he fell on the ground or from which height he could fall.That's what I think...

Well, I guess that maybe in the end, he really didn't care anymore.  Pain blinds us in a way that is sometimes very similar to love.  Combined, it may be too much for one heart.

[myprivatejack]

I read here an splendid post by buckskinsbronc that,I don't know why,has been deleted... In it you give two examples of people who could be bordering the self destruction or,at least,taking some risks in their lives.I agree in that these two attitudes can be very similar sometimes,but in this case I think it's not comparison; this old cowboy was a fighter for something he believed in,this kind of persons who makes the world move.Of course,he knew perfectly well that he was running some danger,and that could include his own death; but it's far from being a self destruction attitude,at least in a willing and aware position.
As regards to Tony and Maria,from "West Side Story"-wonderful movie,by the way; it's the one I have watched more times,along with BBM -,they took some risks by having a relationship in their so aggressive and conflictive environment; but,yes,it was only when Tony thought he had lost his love that he had a clearly self destructive position.Why?Because,simply,he had no reason to keep on living.
In the same way,I think Jack was taking some risks during all his life because he believes that what he did was right; like the old cowboy,he was somehow the kind of person who makes the world move also.Because only these ones who fight for changing an unfair situation gets to make the world,their life and the other's better(or at least,more comprehensive and tolerant).If everybody had been like Ennis,would we be talking about gay rights improvement? I honestly believe we wouldn't.
But in the last years of his life,Jack felt like Tony somehow; he was loosing his love,not in a complete way,but he was seeing that his sweet life ideal was vanishing.He had a love every time more and more runaway,more and more closed in his fears and denials...He was loosing one of the two only persons who had given him love,but in Ennis case,not the kind of love and in the way he needed.Maybe,then,he didn't took his life in an active way,but there're a lot of ways to get something in a more passive one,don't you believe?.

[tpe]

OT: let me check with the other moderators about this...

[buckskinbronc]

But in the last years of his life,Jack felt like Tony somehow; he was loosing his love,not in a complete way,but he was seeing that his sweet life ideal was vanishing.He had a love every time more and more runaway,more and more closed in his fears and denials...He was loosing one of the two only persons who had given him love,but in Ennis case,not the kind of love and in the way he needed.Maybe,then,he didn't took his life in an active way,but there're a lot of ways to get something in a more passive one,don't you believe?.

Sorry, I felt that I'd strayed way too far 

I think that the movie left enough open space so that many conclusions can be reached.  I'm not sure which one, if any, is "right".  My gut says that the years wore on him; so many disappointments, so little time together.  He'd wanted something for half his life that he never got any closer to having than that first year.  Time with Ennis.  The Sweet Life.  Not having to endure frequent partings and months of separation.  To me, that last meeting was devistating.  I've thought it possible, despite Jack's basically upbeat character, that the last meeting could have lead to a profound depression that could have resulted in any number of self destructive behaviors. However, the movie doesn't give us concrete evidence for that, and a lot of me doesn't want to believe it.  But there is no evidence he wasn't self destructive in those months after they last met either.

[tpe]

 

buckskinbronc, don't be too worried if you feel that you strayed a bit.  I think the important thing is that you express what is inside of you well.  You can qualify by saying that what you are about to say might a  a biot OT, but you can have some freedom if you want to stress a point or illustrate an idea more vividly.

That is why we have such discussions.  

If you do stray a bit too far, the moderators will not take it against you personally.  

[myprivatejack]

Sorry, I felt that I'd strayed way too far  

I think that the movie left enough open space so that many conclusions can be reached.  I'm not sure which one, if any, is "right".  My gut says that the years wore on him; so many disappointments, so little time together.  He'd wanted something for half his life that he never got any closer to having than that first year.  Time with Ennis.  The Sweet Life.  Not having to endure frequent partings and months of separation.  To me, that last meeting was devistating.  I've thought it possible, despite Jack's basically upbeat character, that the last meeting could have lead to a profound depression that could have resulted in any number of self destructive behaviors. However, the movie doesn't give us concrete evidence for that, and a lot of me doesn't want to believe it.  But there is no evidence he wasn't self destructive in those months after they last met either.

  too: you haven't been strayed at all.You have only exposed your ideas by putting some examples to stress them in a better way.And I must say,on the part of me,that I have liked your post very much,and you have could see I have said it that way before.I think,then,that mods aren't going to take it into account...
Speaking about the thread subject,you're right in that the movie left enough open space as to have as many conclusions as viewers can be.However,I think that the point that bittered Jack's character the most wasn't Ennis rejection to live a sweet life together; this was,of course,the ice on the cake-if I'm saying it well...-but I do believe that was more the failed search of love.Better said,of being and feeling loved. And when this search has no satisfactory results,people tend to not take care of oneself the same,even if in a unaware way; it's easy to begin having some unhealthy,dangerous or,at least,not so good costums,as a way,maybe,of punishing oneself or even of searching for the end of this.And it's true that the last confrontation was something devastated for Jack; even if I have always thought that it was also an open door-or half opened door-to obtain something more in the future...Jack was basically an outgoing person who have to learn how to be bitter and sad due to the circumstances that surrounded him.

[tpe]

Speaking about the thread subject,you're right in that the movie left enough open space as to have as many conclusions as viewers can be.However,I think that the point that bittered Jack's character the most wasn't Ennis rejection to live a sweet life together; this was,of course,the ice on the cake-if I'm saying it well...-but I do believe that was more the failed search of love.Better said,of being and feeling loved. And when this sear has no satisfactory results,people tend to not take care of oneself the same,even if in a unaware way; it's easy to begin having some unhealthy,dangerous or,at least,not so good costums,as a way,maybe,of punishing oneself or even of searching for the end of this.And it's true that the last confrontation was something devastated for Jack; even if I have always thought that it was also an open door-or half opened door-to obtain something more in the future...Jack was basically an outgoing person who have to learn how to be bitter and sad due to the circumstances that surrounded him.

This is an interesting distinction that I had not considered before: between failure to attain the sweet life versus failure in the greater search for love.  I have to think about this the more.  I had always considered both to be the 2 sides of one coin.  But you make me reconsider...

[myprivatejack]

This is an interesting distinction that I had not considered before: between failure to attain the sweet life versus failure in the greater search for love.  I have to think about this the more.  I had always considered both to be the 2 sides of one coin.  But you make me reconsider...

But they're the 2 sides of one coin ¡ As a matter of fact,everything can be resumed in a short phrase; lack of love.Or,if you prefer,lack of feeling loved in the way Jack needed.What I meant in my former post it wasn't that both circumstances were antagonics,but that both of them complemented each other very well.I meant that Ennis eternal rejection was what I have said "the ice on the cake"; if it's not well translated,I mean what lacks in something negative to make it worse...
Having this sweet life with him was Jack's life motor,doubtless.But,at the same time and in the last years of his life,I guess that he arrived to an age when people usually makes a resume of what this has been,be this consciously or not-let's call it "middle age crisis",or "40 years old crisis" or whatever-.And he realised that all his life has been a fruitless search of love the way he needed,the way he felt it,the way he gave it to...Nobody had really loved him in this way,excepting his mother,but even this one shaded for the intolerant influence of OMT.Nobody,even Ennis,no matter how much he really loved Jack.It's a hard burden when one is almost 40,that's what I meant.

[vedrana]

When Ennis phones Lureen in order to know what has happenned to Jack,she says when talking about BBM:-
Well, he said it was his favorite place. I thought he meant to get drunk. He drank a lot. And yes,it's sure that he drunk,I don't know if until the extreme of being drunk; they say that people drink in order to "forget"...Did,then Jack drink to forget the reality of his life?.What's more: Did he drink enough as to destroy little by little his health and,therefore,his own life?.
I'd said more;somebody has told that he was so opened in his sexual tendencies that even he took some dangers; the dangers Ennis wanted to avoid  being more protective and also closer in himself than Jack.Maybe he arrived to a point in his life when he,simply,didn't mind if somebody could discover his tendencies or not...and the consequences this could have for him?.
Jack was a person who was always looking for love and never found it completely:neither at home,when his mother's love and affection wasn't enough to hide the pain that a sever father could cause in a young mind; nor at his own home,with a cold wife who showed him as one more of her prizes and company profits; even nor with an Ennis who was spending all his time-their time-running away from this "sweet life"and,more than often,from Jack himself.Maybe the reason of his taking risks wasn't that he was open enough as not to worry if people knew it or not; maybe the reason was being too tired of living that way and,therefore,a unconscious wish of ending.Had Jack,then,some self-destructive tendencies?.            

I don't see it self-destructive.  I see it as an addiction that started in his early age on BBM or even earlier. The "booze" was the wrong comfort for the things he had been desperately missing in his life. Why people drink at all? The same answer goes for Jack.

I could imagine that he didn't care so much for living as that living was without it's most important part- Ennis, and as some strange theories say that WE chose the time of our death... maybe his lack of will, lack of happiness had produced the lack of the interest for living. Can we connect that with the heavy drinking?... Don't know...

[tpe]

But they're the 2 sides of one coin ¡ As a matter of fact,everything can be resumed in a short phrase; lack of love.Or,if you prefer,lack of feeling loved in the way Jack needed.What I meant in my former post it wasn't that both circumstances were antagonics,but that both of them complemented each other very well.I meant that Ennis eternal rejection was what I have said "the ice on the cake"; if it's not well translated,I mean what lacks in something negative to make it worse...
Having this sweet life with him was Jack's life motor,doubtless.But,at the same time and in the last years of his life,I guess that he arrived to an age when people usually makes a resume of what this has been,be this consciously or not-let's call it "middle age crisis",or "40 years old crisis" or whatever-.And he realised that all his life has been a fruitless search of love the way he needed,the way he felt it,the way he gave it to...Nobody had really loved him in this way,excepting his mother,but even this one shaded for the intolerant influence of OMT.Nobody,even Ennis,no matter how much he really loved Jack.It's a hard burden when one is almost 40,that's what I meant.

Do you think that lack of love (or his perception of it) made Jack more reckless?  Would he have been more cautious had Ennis reciprocated in all things?  I wonder...  Perhaps not?  Perhaps he would have been this way no matter what.

[myprivatejack]

Do you think that lack of love (or his perception of it) made Jack more reckless?  Would he have been more cautious had Ennis reciprocated in all things?  I wonder...  Perhaps not?  Perhaps he would have been this way no matter what.

Well,this is more or less what I meant when starting this thread; Jack was an outgoing,boyish and a little reckless person in his younger years.But not having something to fight for-or not having it in the way he wished-could perfectly make him become a more carefree at the same time than in a more bittered person.Maybe-only "maybe",it's a very personal perception...-having Ennis by his side living this sweet life,would have made of him a more conservative man,in the sense of taking more care of what he had got.Surely it's a too simplistic explanation,but it's how people tend to react-and nobody can say that all of us aren't simplistic too... -.

[tpe]

Well,this is more or less what I meant when starting this thread; Jack was an outgoing,boyish and a little reckless person in his younger years.But not having something to fight for-or not having it in the way he wished-could perfectly make him become a more carefree at the same time than in a more bittered person.Maybe-only "maybe",it's a very personal perception...-having Ennis by his side living this sweet life,would have made of him a more conservative man,in the sense of taking more care of what he had got.Surely it's a too simplistic explanation,but it's how people tend to react-and nobody can say that all of us aren't simplistic too... -.

What an interesting point nonetheless!  yes, I feel that the sweet life with Ennis would have tamed (domesticated?) Jack -- made him more conservative and staid, as you say here.  And certainly HAPPY!

[myprivatejack]

What an interesting point nonetheless!  yes, I feel that the sweet life with Ennis would have tamed (domesticated?) Jack -- made him more conservative and staid, as you say here.  And certainly HAPPY!

Happy is sure ¡  At least,he would have something to life and fight for,that it's much more than he could say in his last years...

[tpe]

Happy is sure ¡  At least,he would have something to life and fight for,that it's much more than he could say in his last years...

In a way, perhaps he didn't mind to die, seeing that what he longed for was perhaps not within reach. 

[myprivatejack]

In a way, perhaps he didn't mind to die, seeing that what he longed for was perhaps not within reach. 

One can be a potential suicide in an active way or in a passive way (nothing to do with sexual preferences,in this case... ).And sometimes one is so without realising,but living in a state of desperation and frustration that makes him a perfect candidate.

[rimasworld]

I've been thinking on Jack quite a bit lately. I love Ennis dearly but sometimes I think Jack really would have been better off if he had quit Ennis after the divorce when he realized that Ennis was never going to be with him completely in day to day life, sharing what couples do. I know Ennis had good reasons for keeping this from Jack, and some were very real, not just his fear talking. Society was cruel and still is to this day. Would Jack had become so bitter without Ennis in his life just the few times he could have him? Or would he have moved on, and not been so defeated? Maybe staying with Lureen and having some secret meetings on the side like many men did then? Would that have made him just as bitter in the long run?  Or could he ever have found another man to fill the void that his first love left open?  Could Ennis have ever become a beautiful memory to Jack like some past lovers have become to some of us? Just makes me wonder... 

[myprivatejack]

I've been thinking on Jack quite a bit lately. I love Ennis dearly but sometimes I think Jack really would have been better off if he had quit Ennis after the divorce when he realized that Ennis was never going to be with him completely in day to day life, sharing what couples do. I know Ennis had good reasons for keeping this from Jack, and some were very real, not just his fear talking. Society was cruel and still is to this day. Would Jack had become so bitter without Ennis in his life just the few times he could have him? Or would he have moved on, and not been so defeated? Maybe staying with Lureen and having some secret meetings on the side like many men did then? Would that have made him just as bitter in the long run?  Or could he ever have found another man to fill the void that his first love left open?  Could Ennis have ever become a beautiful memory to Jack like some past lovers have become to some of us? Just makes me wonder... 

Interesting point,rimasworld... You are mentioning some very important possibilities,that are so difficult to answer as human relationships and reactions are...I think that,bearing in mind the great impact that BBM times had in both of them,that their love and possible living together had this effect of "with or without you".They say that times is the best healer,so doubtless sooner or later they had found someone else to fill this void-specially Jack,because surely Ennis would have conform himself with what he had to do,with living a "normal" life,even if half slept...-.But they had lived such a great union both in soul,body and heart that for me,it would have been more probable this paradox of "I can't live with you nor without you".It makes me wonder too,however...

[tpe]

I've been thinking on Jack quite a bit lately. I love Ennis dearly but sometimes I think Jack really would have been better off if he had quit Ennis after the divorce when he realized that Ennis was never going to be with him completely in day to day life, sharing what couples do. I know Ennis had good reasons for keeping this from Jack, and some were very real, not just his fear talking. Society was cruel and still is to this day. Would Jack had become so bitter without Ennis in his life just the few times he could have him? Or would he have moved on, and not been so defeated? Maybe staying with Lureen and having some secret meetings on the side like many men did then? Would that have made him just as bitter in the long run?  Or could he ever have found another man to fill the void that his first love left open?  Could Ennis have ever become a beautiful memory to Jack like some past lovers have become to some of us? Just makes me wonder... 

The problem of Jack is that he could neither live with or without Ennis.  The inherent tension because of this is at the root of what some of us see as his self-destructive tendencies. 

Makes me wonder too...  But I also wonder if Ennis could have remained just a memory to Jack.  Could he have lived on with just a memory...

[myprivatejack]

The problem of Jack is that he could neither live with or without Ennis.  The inherent tension because of this is at the root of what some of us see as his self-destructive tendencies. 

Makes me wonder too...  But I also wonder if Ennis could have remained just a memory to Jack.  Could he have lived on with just a memory...

Yes,it's what I say in my former post:I think that,bearing in mind the great impact that BBM times had in both of them,that their love and possible living together had this effect of "with or without you". The old good times in BBM had had a great impact in them,and in Jack's case,it's sure that it had full a great lack of love in his life(I can't live without you).But events had developed in such a contrary way,with all these denials Ennis full their relationship,that surely Jack had ended by seeing their possible living together as a beautiful dream that never would get accomplished (I can't live with you).In any case,painful situation for someone who loved so much and so deeply...

[tpe]

Sometimesd, a beautiful impossible dream is enough to give us hope -- or else lead us to a finality of despair!  One could either live or die because of a dream unfulfilled/unfulfillable.

[myprivatejack]

Sometimesd, a beautiful impossible dream is enough to give us hope -- or else lead us to a finality of despair!  One could either live or die because of a dream unfulfilled/unfulfillable.

Yes,and surely Jack lived because of this beautiful impossible dream.And also surely he died a little because of it.Anyhow,the "with or without you" subject is always here.

[brokebacksoul]

Interesting topic!

I think that Jack certainly took greater risks.  And to a person like Ennis, it might have certainly appeared as willful self-destructiveness.

But I don't know if this would be enough for me to think that Jack was hell-bent on destroying himself.  Even the drinking was certainly driven more on a desire to forget, rather than willful self-destruction, IMO.  

But it is fair to say that Jack seemed to subscribe to the famous ideal fo Thoreau:

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

Stumbling again over one of tpe's posts
It's just ... that I've been haunted by these Thoreau words since I watched "Dead Poets Society" years ago (and one of my favourite films since I did once)... In fact I saw DPS on TV again for the XX;-) time the day before my "first BBM night" so I guess I've been in a special mood anyway But I never had these words in mind related to Jack .. It's perfect, so thank you, tpe, for sharing this thought...

[myprivatejack]

Yes,these words can be perfectly applied to Jack's case; all his life was a fight to live fully,according to his wishes.But he wasn't ever able to accomplish them,and he died to see that he had never lived completely,and it was too late...I think that maybe this is the main tragedy of this story; dying young enough without having lived as he really wanted,and dying because of these circumstances that,ironically,had avoided him to live as he had wished...