Having seen the movie for the 5th time yesterday, I paid especial attention to the matter at hand. I also noticed when baby Bobby is brought home after his birth, that the photo by the bedside is from the very night Lureen and Jack both won in their events at the Childress rodeo. Lureen was just as enamoured of the cowboy myth as Jack and Ennis. Jack just happened to be a winner in the right place at the right time (and damned cute too!). Perhaps hooking up with Jack was a bit of rebellion on her part against Big Daddy. Wonder too, if she got pregnant that first night in the back of the car. Like many married couples they drifted apart and ended up going through the motions, she having her business and Jack his moments with Ennis.
The fateful phone call. She was hiding something. Rehearsing a well-crafted story. Lots of people would have had to be told the news, some sooner than others. No surprise she didn't know how to get in touch with Ennis. What was striking with this viewing is that it is all business reciting the story of Jack's death. She's done it many times before. But her tears at learning the significance of BBM to Jack, "We herded sheep up on BBM one summer", the pieces are falling into place. Jack had an attachment to a particular place, wanted more than anything to have his remains scattered there. A holy place, one that was so only because of that summer. Ennis' reaction, his painful silence, his "we was friends" all that pulls back the curtain on the emotional life of her husband she knew nothing about. She and Jack were strangers and she realised that in the end. Whether she knew he was gay or not is an open question. I find it hard to believe that she didn't have some inkling, but then I talk in my sleep.
What I don't believe is that Randall had a hand in it. At the dance when Jack, irritated at Lureen's nagging him about not dancing with her, asks LaShawn; Randall is startled to hear Jack say "would you like to dance?". For a split second Randall thinks the invitation is for him, it's what he must be fantasing about at that moment looking into Jack's lovely blue eyes. They got it together, Randall was the "rancher's wife" Jack confesses having an affair with. Whoever did Jack in, if it was murder, was someone who knew or thought Jack was gay and wanted to bash the queer. Maybe LaShawn, less likely Lureen, maybe friends of her father's, who knows. It doesn't really matter because Jack is still dead. All the more painful for Ennis knowing that he wouldn't be if Ennis had had the courage to be with Jack and make a life together in Wyoming. That's the real tragedy. Titus.
