Topic: Ennis and Alma's wedding

[chowhound]

As we fade into Ennis's marriage to Alma, the first words we hear come from the minister who is half way through a recitation of the Lord's prayer:

"...and forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us..."

In the short story AP passes very quickly over the wedding -"in December Ennis married Alma Beers and had her pregnant by mid-January" is all we're told - so the wedding scene in the film is entirely the creation Of Diana Ossana and Larry McMurty.

This being the case, does anybody feel it is significant that they choose to fade into the marriage service at the point that they did?

[jackster]

You bet!

Gosh CH – you ask such great questions!

Of course there's the obvious correlation here of Ennis's trespasses (sins) with Jack and his need to be forgiven for these as he embarks upon a “pure” relationship with his new wife. “You may be a sinner, but I ain’t yet had the opportunity” – well Jack took care of that problem, huh?

The deft use of this prayer as the final scene of the wedding ceremony also allows the Director a smooth yet powerful transition from the conclusion of the wedding to the early (happy) view of Ennis and Alma's married life.

Also significant, if not genius, (I feel) are the very words chosen for Ennis in this scene. When the cut from the kneeling, retching Ennis in the alley to the standing ceremonial Ennis is made he’s uttering the words “lead us not unto temptation, but deliver us from evil”. Who's evil and who's temptation here? I feel Ennis's (Heath's really) wonderful facial expressions here say it all. He's looking confused and worried, not unlike the facial expression we see on the young Ennis when his dad takes him to see the remains of Earl. He doesn't know what to think, the people around him are joyous and happy but he's feeling anything but.  His past time of joy and love with Jack up on Brokeback is now reflected in the foreboding of his future life of dreary domesticity with Alma.

Also, to cut back to the SS for a second, I love the way Annie can interject sexuality into the storyline so subtly that you hardly notice. "and had her pregnant by mid-January", Yup ol' Ennis may not have been good with words but he sure was good with sumthin' - no wonder Jack redlined it up to Wyoming. Whoee, Yeah! Nice work Ennis!

[chowhound]

You bet!

Gosh CH – you ask such great questions!

Of course there's the obvious correlation here of Ennis's trespasses (sins) with Jack and his need to be forgiven for these as he embarks upon a “pure” relationship with his new wife. “You may be a sinner, but I ain’t yet had the opportunity” – well Jack took care of that problem, huh?

The deft use of this prayer as the final scene of the wedding ceremony also allows the Director a smooth yet powerful transition from the conclusion of the wedding to the early (happy) view of Ennis and Alma's married life.

Also significant, if not genius, (I feel) are the very words chosen for Ennis in this scene. When the cut from the kneeling, retching Ennis in the alley to the standing ceremonial Ennis is made he’s uttering the words “lead us not unto temptation, but deliver us from evil”. Who's evil and who's temptation here? I feel Ennis's (Heath's really) wonderful facial expressions here say it all. He's looking confused and worried, not unlike the facial expression we see on the young Ennis when his dad takes him to see the remains of Earl. He doesn't know what to think, the people around him are joyous and happy but he's feeling anything but.  His past time of joy and love with Jack up on Brokeback is now reflected in the foreboding of his future life of dreary domesticity with Alma.

Also, to cut back to the SS for a second, I love the way Annie can interject sexuality into the storyline so subtly that you hardly notice. "and had her pregnant by mid-January", Yup ol' Ennis may not have been good with words but he sure was good with sumthin' - no wonder Jack redlined it up to Wyoming. Whoee, Yeah! Nice work Ennis!

I've been wondering, Jackster, if Ossana and McMurtry chose to fade into the wedding service with those words as a way of encapsulating the struggles going on within Ennis. From the point of view of the church, the law and society in general  what he shared with Jack up on Brokeback was sinful. But somewhere deep inside he knows it is not. However, this conflict he can only resolve by being with the person he loves once in a while in the middle of nowhere.

Indeed, some inchoate thoughts of all of this may well be going through his mind during the wedding service. As you note, it's with a decided lack of conviction that, on the Minister's prompting, he eventually kisses Alma.

I loved your final section on Ennis. However, I wondered whether AP's phrasing "got her pregnant" didn't carry some overtones of duty. Maybe, with that task successfully completed, Ennis can relax and turn  his thoughts elsewhere.

[jackster]

. . . I wondered whether AP's phrasing "got her pregnant" didn't carry some overtones of duty. Maybe, with that task successfully completed, Ennis can relax and turn  his thoughts elsewhere.

Yup. I have to say AP goes out of her way here to make the connection with Ennis's "job" with Alma and his familiarity with stock breeding. First in the last part of the same paragraph where she says "got her pregnant"

" . . all reassuring of fecundity and life's continuance to one who worked with livestock".

Then later after the divorce her description of Ennis's attitude towards his work:

"Ennis went back to ranch work, hired on here and there, not getting much ahead but glad enough to be around stock again"

The phrasing here make me think she really wants us to see and feel how directly and closely Ennis relates with animal husbandry. To the point that he feels more comfortable around the nonjudgmental and instinctual animals than he does around his own species with it's cultural codes and verbal language. Starting back in '63 when he utters "You want a switch? I wouldn't mind herdin. I wouldn't mind sleepin' out there." It's clear (to me anyway) Ennis really cherishes the natural environment, I feel this is part of what fuels his need to "return to the sheep" after a night with Jack. And not just the FNIT, it seems "the sheep" act as a salve to his inner turmoil, it's not just a job (though that is important) it's also a sense of freedom when he's with the sheep. No one lookin' at him, like when he's in town. 'Course this later phrase is from the SP, but I think O+McM picked up on this connection and played to it. Personally, I feel Heath also picked up on this aspect of Ennis, the raw, subtly animalistic and unpretentious nature of Ennis, and he was able to convey this very effectively. It is one of that characteristics of his performance that I think makes it so incredibly sexually powerful and attractive. Yet it's so subtle you hardly even see it. It was genius.

[chowhound]

Yup. I have to say AP goes out of her way here to make the connection with Ennis's "job" with Alma and his familiarity with stock breeding. First in the last part of the same paragraph where she says "got her pregnant"

" . . all reassuring of fecundity and life's continuance to one who worked with livestock".

Then later after the divorce her description of Ennis's attitude towards his work:

"Ennis went back to ranch work, hired on here and there, not getting much ahead but glad enough to be around stock again"

The phrasing here make me think she really wants us to see and feel how directly and closely Ennis relates with animal husbandry. To the point that he feels more comfortable around the nonjudgmental and instinctual animals than he does around his own species with it's cultural codes and verbal language. Starting back in '63 when he utters "You want a switch? I wouldn't mind herdin. I wouldn't mind sleepin' out there." It's clear (to me anyway) Ennis really cherishes the natural environment, I feel this is part of what fuels his need to "return to the sheep" after a night with Jack. And not just the FNIT, it seems "the sheep" act as a salve to his inner turmoil, it's not just a job (though that is important) it's also a sense of freedom when he's with the sheep. No one lookin' at him, like when he's in town. 'Course this later phrase is from the SP, but I think O+McM picked up on this connection and played to it. Personally, I feel Heath also picked up on this aspect of Ennis, the raw, subtly animalistic and unpretentious nature of Ennis, and he was able to convey this very effectively. It is one of that characteristics of his performance that I think makes it so incredibly sexually powerful and attractive. Yet it's so subtle you hardly even see it. It was genius.

I've never really thought before about Ennis's relationship to the natural world - the world of animals especially, - but you're right jackster , it's something that does run through the whole movie. It also covers a range of relationships from the necessarily destructive - shooting a coyote, killing an elk, castrating calves - to the gentle and caring. On the caring side, do you know the deleted scene of Ennis as vet where he carefully looks after a "sick, tiny calf"? You no doubt do but, if not, you can find a shot of it on FindingBrokeback and the full script for the scene in S6 91-91A. There are other examples to of the "caring" Ennis like the injured sheep he appears to be helping when Aguirre sees him through his binoculars.  And, of course, there's always his horses. So I agree this is a world in which he appears more comfortable and even more able to express his feelings than in the human world with, as you neatly put it, "its cultural codes and verbal language".

[jackster]

Yeah CH, I feel Ennis's close relationship (or understanding) with livestock was really important to AP, to the point where she has Jack interject a reference to it in one of the most memorable sentences in the story: - "little cow and calf operation, your horses, it'd be some sweet life". Jack recognized how important the horses were to Ennis. I think this is a real "cowboy" thing, being with stock more than humans, and therefore understanding them better, being more comfortable around them. I suspect this is common amongst cowboys. Jack on the other hand had no use for them, bull ridin' was just a sport to help prove his manhood.

[yuddy]

Yeah CH, I feel Ennis's close relationship (or understanding) with livestock was really important to AP, to the point where she has Jack interject a reference to it in one of the most memorable sentences in the story: - "little cow and calf operation, your horses, it'd be some sweet life". Jack recognized how important the horses were to Ennis. I think this is a real "cowboy" thing, being with stock more than humans, and therefore understanding them better, being more comfortable around them. I suspect this is common amongst cowboys. Jack on the other hand had no use for them, bull ridin' was just a sport to help prove his manhood.

Couldn't agree more...In SS, Jack also said to Ennis in the motel : " Christ, it got a be all that time a yours ashorseback makes it so goddamn good". Jack really understands what makes Ennis feel proud and confident. On that note, Alma really doesn't get Ennis (she keeps trying to pull him away from the ranch work).

[jackster]

Yup, right-on yuddy.
Interesting in all their years together we never see a view of Ennis an' Alma like this: