Another vote for love: I heard it, too. That has to be the most sottissimo voce line I've ever heard, but it's there. Ennis has his mouth half-covered with the shirts, but if you look very closely, you can see him say, "I love you." The words are more whispered than spoken, and they're not in the subtitles. It almost makes me wonder if Ang Lee did this deliberately - hid little "treasures" like this in the movie to drive us all insane trying to find them.
When I saw this thread, I was skeptical at first, as we all know that this film tends to be whatever the viewer, or in this case listener, needs it to be. I had to check it out for myself, so I did, listening
very carefully and my initial response was, it's not there, it's just an exhalation of breath after breathing in deeply searching for a trace of Jack's scent. And he sort of puffs the air out. But I tried it again, with the sound turned up as high as the tube McIntosh will go, now I could hear
something in that exhalation. It took 3 more passes before I was convinced, but now I am!! And the words aren't even really whispered they are just barely breathed, but they are matched by lip movements. What an amazing detail, a revelation!! And it is followed almost immediately by Roberta Maxwell's nod of the head when she sees Ennis bringing the shirts down the with him. Has there
ever been another film that rested so heavily on such delicate nuances?? And I'm sure I don't have to tell you all what my reaction was.
Poll