Topic: Goofs *spoiler alert*

[NoReins]

I noticed an "almost" goof.  When they have the fight before leaving BBM, after Ennis decks Jack...Heath almost wipes his nose on his LEFT sleeve, but caught himself and wiped it on his RIGHT sleeve, the sleeve that would be down inside Jack's sleeve, when he finds the shirts.     :D

Donna

You are right Donna. He looks down at his left sleeve as if he were getting ready to wipe his nose and then remembers and uses his right sleeve.  Great catch.

Superb! That would have made things awkward later

I can't believe how many little things folk have picked up on here - I never notice these things in movies..

[Patriot1]

I noticed an "almost" goof.  When they have the fight before leaving BBM, after Ennis decks Jack...Heath almost wipes his nose on his LEFT sleeve, but caught himself and wiped it on his RIGHT sleeve, the sleeve that would be down inside Jack's sleeve, when he finds the shirts.     :D

Donna

You are right Donna. He looks down at his left sleeve as if he were getting ready to wipe his nose and then remembers and uses his right sleeve.  Great catch.

Superb! That would have made things awkward later

I can't believe how many little things folk have picked up on here - I never notice these things in movies..

Actually it probably wouldn't have made any difference.  There was already blood on his right sleeve for the shirt scene and besides, there is nothing that says there had to be blood on either sleeve for the shirt scene in the closet.  All Ennis had to do was find the shirts with his inside of Jack's.  Blood or no blood, I still would have burst into tears.   :D

[NoReins]

Actually it probably wouldn't have made any difference.  There was already blood on his right sleeve for the shirt scene and besides, there is nothing that says there had to be blood on either sleeve for the shirt scene in the closet.  All Ennis had to do was find the shirts with his inside of Jack's.  Blood or no blood, I still would have burst into tears.   :D

That's a fair point. It doesn't matter whether the shirts were clean or dirty - all that matters is that Jack kept them, and the way he kept them, one inside the other.

 :'(

[TJ]

Actually it probably wouldn't have made any difference.  There was already blood on his right sleeve for the shirt scene and besides, there is nothing that says there had to be blood on either sleeve for the shirt scene in the closet.  All Ennis had to do was find the shirts with his inside of Jack's.  Blood or no blood, I still would have burst into tears.   :D

That's a fair point. It doesn't matter whether the shirts were clean or dirty - all that matters is that Jack kept them, and the way he kept them, one inside the other.

 :'(

From the book:

   The closet was a shallow cavity with a wooden rod braced across, a faded cretonne curtain on a string closing it off from the rest of the room. In the closet hung two pairs of jeans crease-ironed and folded neatly over wire hangers, on the floor a pair of worn packer boots he thought he remembered. At the north end of the closet a tiny jog in the wall made a slight hiding place and here, stiff with long suspension from a nail, hung a shirt. He lifted it off the nail. Jack's old shirt from Brokeback days. The dried blood on the sleeve was his own blood, a gushing nosebleed on the last afternoon on the mountain when Jack, in their contortionistic grappling and wrestling, had slammed Ennis's nose hard with his knee. He had staunched the blood which was everywhere, all over both of them, with his shirtsleeve, but the staunching hadn't held because Ennis had suddenly swung from the deck and laid the ministering angel out in the wild columbine, wings folded.
   The shirt seemed heavy until he saw there was another shirt inside it, the sleeves carefully worked down inside Jack's sleeves. It was his own plaid shirt, lost, he'd thought, long ago in some damn laundry, his dirty shirt, the pocket ripped, buttons missing, stolen by Jack and hidden here inside Jack's own shirt, the pair like two skins, one inside the other, two in one. He pressed his face into the fabric and breathed in slowly through his mouth and nose, hoping for the faintest smoke and mountain sage and salty sweet stink of Jack but there was no real scent, only the memory of it, the imagined power of Brokeback Mountain of which nothing was left but what he held in his hands.

Annie Proulx did not tell us on which sleeve of his old Brokeback Mountain worn shirt Ennis first saw blood when he looked in Jack's boyhood closet. But, the drama of how he found it is more important. I do think that if Ennis had not gotten blood from his nosebleed on his shirt, Jack would not have had possession of it. Ennis had changed shirts when they were packing up the camp things and he probably packed his few clothing possessions last. That is why Jack was able to take the shirts; either that, or Jack was the one who bundled up Ennis' belongings for him.

The text does not say that the shirts were on a hanger; they were hanging from a nail. I think that if they had been on a hanger, they might have not been hidden in the kind of closet that Annie Proulx described. It was not a regular constructed closet as one might see in the home of people; the "cretonne curtain" was made of heavy cotton upholstery fabric.

I do like the sniffing of the shirts by Ennis in hopes of recovering the scent which had the memory of activity on BbM and Jack's special odor/aroma. There is something special about the natural smells from a man with whom you were in love. That kind of "stink" isn't really offensive to one's nose.

[Patriot1]

Well, found another one.

Last day on Brokeback.  Ennis hits Jack. Jack falls to the ground on his right side.  Ennis walks away.  Camera looks down at Jack on the ground.  Problem is, Jack is now on his left side.

[dresden]

This site lists mistakes made in movies. It lists 12 for BBM. The ONLY one I noticed watching the film (before reading this article) was the one with the broken peanuts in the store. That one was terribly obvious. OK don't shoot me I'm just the messenger!

http://www.moviemistakes.com/film5429

[stacp]

Thanks for the link.  The couple of mistakes that bug me are when lines are obviously dubbed later, and the actor's lips aren't moving or are out of sync with the dialogue in the movie.  Three examples:

1.  In FNIT, if you look closely, Ennis' lips don't move when he says "What are you doing?"

2.  The last scene of Ennis and Jack together, when Ennis says his "boys like you"line, his lips are out of sync with the dialogue;

3.  Also, during this last scene, Ennis' lips don't move when he says "I can't stand this anymore, Jack."

Now, I know these are small points, but I'm surprised someone didn't catch them and correct them before the movie's release.

[welshwitch]

And in th erodeo scene, "Jack's" free arm changes from shot to shot.

But I only notice these things in slo-mo - didn't see most of them, other than the nuts and the mic wire, in the cinema. I guess I've never watched a film so often or with so much attention - wonder if there are as many goofs in other movies?

[Jim_in_Philly]

I have a habit of watching good movies over and over til I've internalized pretty much ALL of it.  Well, now that I'm getting past the initial emotional grasp of this movie, I noticed something tonight.

In the scene when Ennis is packing up to go up to Brokeback with Jack (the morning after the motel scene)...take a close look at Junior in Alma's arms as Ennis leans in and kisses her (Alma) good-bye. As soon as he walks past the girls, Junior's stomach is exposed and there's a black chord against her skin.

I'm thinking it's a microphone chord that was missed in editing.  Anyone else see it too? 

[CherryCake]

yes, and you will find that in the mistakes and blunders thread...

[Stephen]

Fascinating!  I've seen the film countless times and never noticed that cord!  Just goes to show how the eyes and brain are not always alert to every detail; and the visual emphasis of a scene tends to carry the eyes in a planned, particular way so even the director and other onlookers tend not to see mistakes, which, once noticed, appeare as glaring oversights!

[*Froggy*]

Check this thread: I will merge them in a moment

http://www.ennisjack.com/index.php?topic=4665.0

[rane99]

I love seeing all these 'goofs' . thanks for pointing them out... 

[jpwagoneer1964]

Don't know if this was mentioned but when jack and Ennis leave Signal for the summer there are two pickups parked on either side of the street a dark green 1950's International and a lite blue 1962-63 ford with horse trailer on the oppisite side. They are both there in the same spot when Jack drives up the next summer.

[greenfrog]

Don't know if this was mentioned but when jack and Ennis leave Signal for the summer there are two pickups parked on either side of the street a dark green 1950's International and a lite blue 1962-63 ford with horse trailer on the oppisite side. They are both there in the same spot when Jack drives up the next summer.

Maybe their drivers are just very lazy 

Thanks for pointing that out.

[Patriot1]

Don't know if this was mentioned but when jack and Ennis leave Signal for the summer there are two pickups parked on either side of the street a dark green 1950's International and a lite blue 1962-63 ford with horse trailer on the oppisite side. They are both there in the same spot when Jack drives up the next summer.

Why you are absolutely correct. The only thing is they are parked a little further up the street. Only explanation I can come up with is that maybe the owners work in one of those buildings.  Good eye!

[Patriot1]

Don't know if this was mentioned but when jack and Ennis leave Signal for the summer there are two pickups parked on either side of the street a dark green 1950's International and a lite blue 1962-63 ford with horse trailer on the oppisite side. They are both there in the same spot when Jack drives up the next summer.

Why you are absolutely correct. The only thing is they are parked a little further up the street. Only explanation I can come up with is that maybe the owners work in one of those buildings.  Good eye!

Welcome jpwagoneer1964.

[welshwitch]

One of the things that bothers me is that in the sequence where they set up camp, they've built a triangular framework to support the bag of food they hoist up to keep it away from bears. This is clearly shopwn as being near the camp-fire. But I can't see it in the later campsite sequences, and when they more camp it doersn;t reappear - do bears stay on the lower slopes and not come up the mountain? Like coyotes seem to be found only above a certain level?

I've also never figured out why they are shown sawing branches off trees in the same sequence - later they find plenty of wood just by picking up branches that have been blown down. Like the two buckets of water that never appear again - that whole sequence is clearly there to establish their preparations for the camp and the way they have to live/work - but none of it seems to figure again.

[jpwagoneer1964]

 

Why you are absolutely correct. The only thing is they are parked a little further up the street. Only explanation I can come up with is that maybe the owners work in one of those buildings.  Good eye!

Welcome jpwagoneer1964.

Thanks for the welcome. i think it was just shot the  same day

[chameau]

It was shot the same day for sure since they used the same sets but the fact some people working around and parking always in the same spots makes sense, specially in a one horse town like Signal but, I agree it's a goof.

[BBM Fan]

Was this mentioned?   When Ennis and Alma are playing in the snow after sledding down the mountain, Ennis's hat is covering & then not covering his ears between shots.