Topic: BBM Recital

[jackster]

New scene in the local tavern.
Ennis is occupied studying the selection on the jukebox (avoiding the womenfolk) while Tammy Wynette sings in the background. Cassie and Alma Jr. sit awkwardly at a table waiting for the sexy man that connects them together to come over an' help break the ice. Cassie speaks first:

CASSIE: Whataya' think, your daddy ever gonna' see fit to settle down again?

Junior lets on more than maybe she intends, but shows she knows her daddy well.

JUNIOR: I don't know. Maybe he's not the marrying kind.

[myprivatejack]

-Cassie (looking a little surprised):-You don't think so? Or you don't think I'm the one for him?

-Junior (looking a little bored):-You're good enough.

-Cassie : -You don't say much, but you get your point across.

-Junior :-Sorry, I didn't mean to be rude.

-Ennis(appearing in the best moment) : -All right.

[jackster]

Cassie, possibly in an effort to demonstrate her power over him, doesn't let Ennis' butt even touch the chair, grabs his arm an' instructs:

CASSIE: You're stayin' on your feet cowboy.

Ennis, resigned to his current fate, apologizes to Jr.

ENNIS: S'cuze me darlin'.

Junior, also resigned, watches the pair move away. They walk over to the dance floor where Cassie leads the uncommitted, and apparently uninterested, Ennis around the floor and can't keep her hands off him. He nonchalantly smokes a cig.

[myprivatejack]

Next scene:Ennis and Jr. are on his truck,in her way home again.Junior seems worried,as if she wanted to say anything to her father.

-Ennis:-So I'll pick up you and Jenny up next weekend, after church.

-Junior : -Fine.

-Ennis (noticing something is not as fine as she says):-You all right?

-Junior : -Yes.

-Ennis : -Are you sure?

-Junior :-Daddy, I was thinkin', what with the new baby and all...Ma and Monroe have been awful strict on me. More on me than Jenny even. I was thinkin', maybe I could...Maybe I could come stay with you. I'd be an awful good help, I know I would.

[jackster]

ENNIS: No . . ah, you know I ain't set up for that. With the round up comin' - I won't ever be home . . .

JR. It's alright Daddy.

ENNIS: Well you, I'm not sayin' that I wouldn't . . .

JR. It's alright I understand

ENNIS: Well, I'll see ya' on Sunday then.

JR. Bye.

ENNIS: Bye sweetheart.

Ennis watches his grown up little girl go back into the house, a look of saddness comes to his face as he slowly drives away.

[myprivatejack]

Next scene:Jack and Ennis are in the camp side by night,sitting near the river.Jack lights a cigarette and seems to try breaking the silence between them to arrive to a question he seems to care for also.

Jack:-Going to snow tonight for sure.

-Ennis : -Yup.

-Jack :-All this time and you ain't found nobody else to marry?

[mimi]

Ennis: i  been puttin the blocks to a good lookin li'l gal over in riverton...waitress, wants ta go to nursin school or sumthin, but i dunno...and yourself?

Jack: Lureen's good at makin' hard deals in the machinery business, but so far as our marriage goes, we
could do it over the phone....I kinda got a thing goin' with a little gal over in Childress. Ranch hand's wife. (giggles slightly) 'M scared a' gettin shot by Lureen or the husband, ever' time I slip off to see her.

(both grunt slightly in amusement)

Ennis: yeah, well, you'd probably deserve it *winks at Jack*

(PAUSE)

Jack:...truth is...sometimes i miss you so much i can hardly stand it...

(BOTH SHARE A KNWING GLANCE)

[jackster]

Next shot (with no dialogue) shows Ennis & Jack in their tent, peacefully asleep.

Jack with his back to Ennis, Ennis with his arm gently draped over Jack.

(The last time they make love and sleep together) 

[myprivatejack]

Next scene (the final storm is approaching... ):Jack and Ennis are taking their packages to their trunks.Both look like worried and sad for their separation one more time(and last time...).Jack leans on the trunk's door and looks at Ennis with a face full with sorrow.

-Jack : -I guess I'll head up on to Lightning Flats. See the folks for a day or two.

-Ennis(looking worried and anxious to say something he knows what results is going to have):-There's somethin' I been meanin' to tell you, bud. Well, it's likely November before I can come out here again. After we ship stock and before winter feedin' starts again.

[Gwyllion]

Jack stands with his hands on his hips. 

"November? What in hell happened to August?"

He slams the truck door shut.

He grips his gloves in his right hand while Ennis nervously gnaws away at his thumbnail.

"Christ, Ennis, you had a f'ing week to say some little word about this."

 

[jackster]

Jack begins to walk away towards the lake:

JACK: Why is it we're always in the friggin' cold? We oughta' go . . south where it's warm. Ya' know we oughta' go to Mexico.

ENNIS: Mexico? Hell, Jack you know me 'bout the only travelling I ever done is 'round the coffee pot lookin' for the handle.  .  .  .  (Jack continues to look away - can't bring himself to turn around, the camera pans back and forth between the two) Come on Jack lighten' up on me. We can hunt in November, kill us a nice elk. I can try if I can an' get Don Wroe's cabin again. We had a good time that year didn't we?

(Jack slowly shakes his head, still with his back to Ennis, emotions boiling up)

JACK: There's never enough time.  Never enough.

[hpv]

Jack  (looks at  Ennis angrily)  :...you know, friend, this is a goddamn bitch of a unsatisfactory situation.  You used to come away easy. Now it's like seein' the Pope.

[myprivatejack]

-Ennis(advancing a little towards his friend,with a look of being angrier little by little):-Jack, I got to work. Huh? In them earlier days, I'd just quit the job. You...you forget what it's like bein' broke all the time. You ever hear of child support? I'll tell you this, I can't quit this one...and I can't get the time off. It was hard enough gettin' this time. The trade-off was August. Well, you got a better idea ?

-Jack(turning back Ennis):-I did, once.

[mimi]

Ennis: (off screen) you did once?

jack nods defiantly, sadness and longing in his eyes

Ennis:

[jackster]

Ennis begins approaching Jack.

ENNIS: You been ta' Mexico Jack Twist? huh? cause I hear whut they got in Mexico for boys like you.

JACK: Hell yes I been ta' Mexico is that a fu*kin' problem?

The men, now opposite each other, have a face to face stare down, looking directly at, and into each other.

ENNIS: I'm gonna' tell you this one time, Jack Fu*kin' Twist. An' I ain't foolin', what I don't know, all them THINGS that I don't know, might get you killed if I come to know them. . . . . . I ain't jokin'.

After staring into his eyes for a long moment, Ennis turns, spits, and walks away.

[myprivatejack]

Jack turns his head,following Ennis with his glance,that now is burning with anger.

-Jack:-Yeah, well try this one, and I'll say it just once!

-Ennis(defiantly) : -Go ahead!

-Jack(at the point of exploiding) : -I'll tell you what. We could have had a good life together! f@#$ng real good life! Had us a place of our own. But you didn't want it, Ennis!

[jackster]

Jack continues his expostulation:

JACK: So what we got now is BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN! Everythings built on that, that's all we got boy, fukin' all, so I hope you know that if you don't never know the rest.

Ennis turns, walks away, says something only the horses can hear.

JACK: You count the damn few times that we have been together in nearly twenty years, and you measure the short fukin' leash you keep me on, an' then you ask me 'bout Mexico, an' you tell me you kill me for needin' somethin' that I don't hardly never get!

You have no idea how bad it gets. I'm not you, I can't make it on a couple' a' high altitude fucks once or twice a year. You are too much for me Ennis - (Jack throws up his arms, turns and walks away) You son of a horsin' bitch. (looks across the lake at the mountain) I wish I knew how to quit you.

[myprivatejack]

Ennis then turns his head to Jack to give him an answer to all this explosion of rage and sorrow.We can see he's finally crying,devastated...

-Ennis : -Then why don't you? Why don't you just let me be, huh? (in a slighty softer voice): It's because of you, Jack, that I'm like this! I'm nothing... I'm nowhere...

[jackster]

Jack, now looking at Ennis, realizing how hurt and devastated Ennis is, walks over to him to comfort him. Ennis, in typical fashion, reacts quickly and angrily shoving Jack away:

ENNIS: Get the f*** OFF ME!!

Jack will not be deterred and goes back, grabbing Ennis, hugging him mightily as Ennis collapses, sobbing in his arms. Jack, repeating a phrase from SNIT twenty years ago when Ennis came to him in the tent:

JACK:   It's alright, it's alright. . . . .  Damn you Ennis.

ENNIS: I just can't stand this anymore Jack.

Jack has a flashback to years ago, as described by Annie Proulx:

What Jack remembered and craved in a way he could neither help nor
understand was the time that distant summer on Brokeback when Ennis had come
up behind him and pulled him close, the silent embrace satisfying some
shared and sexless hunger.

They had stood that way for a long time in front of the fire, its
burning tossing ruddy chunks of light, the shadow of their bodies a single
column against the rock. The minutes ticked by from the round watch in
Ennis's pocket, from the sticks in the fire settling into coals. Stars bit
through the wavy heat layers above the fire. Ennis's breath came slow and
quiet, he hummed, rocked a little in the sparklight, and Jack leaned against
the steady heartbeat, the vibrations of the humming like faint electricity
and, standing, he fell into sleep that was not sleep but something else
drowsy and tranced until Ennis, dredging up a rusty but still usable phrase
from the childhood time before his mother died, said, "Time to hit the hay,
cowboy. I got a go. Come on, you're sleepin' on your feet like a horse,"
and gave Jack a shake, a push, and went off in the darkness. Jack heard his
spurs tremble as he mounted, the words "See you tomorrow," and the horse's
shuddering snort, grind of hoof on stone.

Later, that dozy embrace solidified in his memory as the single
moment of artless, charmed happiness in their separate and difficult lives.
Nothing marred it, even the knowledge that Ennis would not then embrace him
face to face because he did not want to see or feel that it was Jack he
held. And maybe, he thought, they'd never got much farther than that. Let
be, let be.

[Gwyllion]

oh, jackster, that made me cry....   well done!

The time shifts to the present and we see the tailgate of Ennis's truck and the horses on board.  Ennis accelerates, the dust rising into the air from under his wheels.  The truck turns left on the dirty dusty road and fades from view.

Jack stares at the departing truck for a long while, his face frozen in a frown. 

And we get our last look at Jack while he is alive 

[mimi]

Ennis is eating a piece of apple pie in a diner when Cassie enters with another masn. upon seeing ennis she approaches him and sits dow opposite him.

Cassie: hey there Ennis del Mar. Where you been?

Ennis: here an' there...

[myprivatejack]

-Cassie:-I left word for you with Steve at the ranch. And you must've got those notes I left at your place.

-Ennis : -Looks like I got the message, in any case.(looking at Carl,Cassie's partenaire)

-Cassie : -Carl? Yeah, Carl's nice. He even talks.

-Ennis : -Good for you.

[hpv]

Cassie ( with tears in her eyes): Yeah...  Good for me.
 I don't get you, Ennis Del Mar...

[jackster]

ENNIS: I'm sorry.

A tear falls from Cassie's eye as she looks at Ennis. Ennis looks at her like a man lost.

ENNIS: I wus probably no fun anyways wus I.

[myprivatejack]

-Cassie (openly crying already):-Ennis, girls don't fall in love with fun!
She runs to Carl and,taking him by his arm,lets the place crying out loud.

[mimi]

<NEW SCENE>

Ennis is walking out of the Riverton post offide with his mail when he notices the postcard he sent to Jack about meeting in August. The word "DECEASED" is stamped arcoss it in big red letters...

[jackster]

New Scene:
We see a white Trimline telephone, hear its ringing, Lureen picks it up:

LUREEN: Hello.

on the other end of the line we hear:

ENNIS: Hello, this is Ennis DelMar, . . ah . . .

LUREEN: Who? Who is this?

ENNIS: Ennis DelMar, an old buddy of Jacks.

LUREEN: Jack used to mention you. You're the fishin' buddy or the huntin' buddy, I know that. Woulda' let you know whut happened but I wasn't sure about your name or address. Jack kept his friends addresses in his head.

[myprivatejack]

-Ennis (with a face that shows he can't believe anything he's hearing): -That's why I'm callin', to see what happened.

-Lureen (she begins to explain the story,as if she was giving the daily news at TV) : -Oh, yeah. Jack was pumpin' up a flat on the truck out on the back road, when the tire blew up. The rim of the tire slammed into his face, broke his nose and jaw and knocked him unconscious on his back. By the time somebody come along, he'd drowned on his own blood. He was only 39 years old.

 

[mimi]

Ennis whimpers in pain very softly, knowing that it wasn't really the tire rim that killed Jack...

Lureen: Jack used to mention you. You’re the fishing buddy or the hunting buddy, I know that. Would have let you know what happened, but I wasn’t sure about your name and address. Jack kept most a his friends’ addresses in his head.

Ennis "wanted to curse her for letting Jack die on the dirt road"

Ennis: He buried down there? (fighting off tears)

Lureen: They put a stone up. He was cremated like he wanted. Half his ashes was interred here, the rest i sent up to his folks. He used to say he wanted his ashes scattered on Brokeback Mountain, but I didn't know where that was. (Malice in her voice rising now) Knowing Jack, it might'a been some pretend place, where blue-cirds sing and there's a whiskey spring.

[hpv]

ENNIS: With a grey face, can barely speak...
No ma’am, we . . . . we wus herdin’ sheep on Brokeback one summer, back in ’63.

Lureen suddenly realizes the connection with this man and her husband.