Topic: Wood Carving in Jack's Room

[Gregg]

Please forgive me if this has been posted already. I'm unable to locate it. When Ennis explores Jack's childhood bedroom, is the wood carving on the desk the object that Ennis was carving in the tent during the Thunderstorm?

Let me just say, this is the most incredible movie I've ever experienced.

[camom]

The general consensus seems to be, it might be the same one, might not, but that little part of the scene in Jack's room is meant to draw your mind back to the days they spent on Brokeback.  You can tell from Ennis' face that it takes him back. 

Myself, I go back and forth.  It's hard to tell if the rider is attached to the horse, in which case it couldn't be the same one.  Otherwise, I think it very possibly could be--the wood is the same color, it looks hand-carved, and it's clearly something that had meaning to Jack.

camom

[chameau]

The wood carving in Jack's room is a cowbooy sitting on a horse.

The one Ennis was carving had no cowboy and was more looking like a dog or a sheep.

[rabjr1]

saw the movie again and I definately believe that the horse in the first scene IS NOT the same as that in Jack's bedroom.  The unfinished carving in Ennis' hand in the first scene looks larger in his hand than the one in his hand in Jack's room.  Also the horse and rider would have been carved separately (I think) because it would require two separate pieces of wood and not one big piece of wood making it much easier to carve.

[ethan]

I agree what others said. It is not the same one.

The question then becomes why it was the *object* Ennis picked up in Jack's room which seems to be the one Ennis was carving in the tent?

Could it be possible that it was meant to be the same one but somehow got misplaced in the movie?

(I must be out of my mind)

[camom]

I agree what others said. It is not the same one.

The question then becomes why it was the *object* Ennis picked up in Jack's room which seems to be the one Ennis was carving in the tent?

Could it be possible that it was meant to be the same one but somehow got misplaced in the movie?

(I must be out of my mind)

I think the point was that even if it wasn't the same carving, it made Ennis think of the first one, back on Brokeback.  He picks it up and looks at it, causing us to think back to Brokeback.  If I recall correctly, he had tears in his eyes after he put the horse down and turned to the window (?).

camom

[ethan]

I think the point was that even if it wasn't the same carving, it made Ennis think of the first one, back on Brokeback.  He picks it up and looks at it, causing us to think back to Brokeback.  If I recall correctly, he had tears in his eyes after he put the horse down and turned to the window (?).

Yes. He did have the tears in his eyes. Even better - although they are not the same ones, it could have been another one Ennis made for Jack when they were at Brokeback Mountain.  :'( :'( :'(

Now this saddens me.

[chameau]

When Enis enters the room, tears are rolling on his left cheek

 :'(

Tissues.... were are the tissues?

Her they are, sneeeeze!  :'(

[CherryCake]

Agree.... he picks up the one in Jack's room that takes him back to Brokeback... it is not the same one Ennis was carving... btw... woodcarving was/is a big past time back then in those parts.... that horse is a very common figure to carve...

[jerasjr]

Like most of you, am ambivalent about this, maybe it is, maybe it isn't  What makes me think that it is, is the fact that when we first see the horse, it is a large mostly blocky start.  Enis in his whittling would have removed much of that excess and ended up with a horse the size of the one he held in the bedroom.  Thought the rider moved when he touched it.  The rider could have been added, after all they did have a long peirod of time on their hands.

[Lost_Girl]

Since I'm here, I read a lot of topics and I really like some analysis too and I was ( Am still.. lol) afraid to post something about it, because my English is not that good !

Let's go. I don't think this question has been posted already  (I looked at: http://www.ennisjack.com/index.php?topic=1504.0) if I'm wrong, I'm sorry.


At the beginning of the movie, we see Ennis in the tent, cutting something in the wood, which look likes a dog, horse or something like that. Well, an animal with 4 legs! lol



At the end, when Ennis comes to Jack's bedroom, on the desk, he takes a wooden item, a cowboy on his horse.



So, there is my question.

Did Ennis make this and after gave it to Jack? (That's soo sweet - cute *smile*) Or am I  just wishing for something that never happened? lol

I'm sorry for my english. I just hope, you can understant what I have said! lol 
 

[leanne]

Do you know what, that has crossed my mind every time I've watched the film! it is is a lovely idea, even if it isn't true!

Leanne x

[matsuki33]

Actually it could have being the same thing know that you mention it, it would make perfectly sensen why he went stragit to the toy but it could be one of his toys when he was a kid also so whe have only our imagination

[_____ghostrider]

f you look at the one Ennis is carving it does not have a rider.  The one on Jack's desk does.  So I'd have to argue that they're not the same.

[BBM Obsessed]

They're not the same, as much as I love the thought that they could be...

I suppose a separate carving of the cowboy could have been added later, but there's another discrepancy...  the carving Ennis is working on in the tent is larger than the one he finds in Jack's old room.

[_____ghostrider]

mm good point, didn't notice the size differences.

[Johnny Angel]

I've read on other boards about the horse, that some people think it's the same horse, and some say it's not. Some say the horse Ennis was whittling in the tent was bigger than the horse he finds on Jack's desk. But the explanation for that is that he was still carving the horse in the tent and hadn't finished whittling it down.



I think it's the same horse, and that Jack had hidden both the shirts and the horse in his boyhood room, which his mom had kept the way it was "when he was a boy."

Ennis spies the horse and cowboy immediately and picks it up




and you can see the expression on his face change to a look of pain as he touches the cowboy figurine. Notice the cowboy's hat. It's light colored like Ennis's hat was, not black like Jack's.



Either Ennis carved the horse and cowboy as a present for Jack for him to remember him by, or the shirts aren't the only thing Jack "stole" from Ennis. Maybe Jack also took the horse, and later added a carved cowboy to the horse, with a light colored hat to remind him of Ennis...

When Ennis comes downstairs with the shirts, they're rolled up and he holds them with both hands as if he's trying to protect them from Jack's father, or maybe to keep them from unrolling... The old "stud duck" may get Jack's ashes, but he ain't gonna get those shirts (or the carved horse and cowboy, for that matter.) I think the horse and little cowboy are rolled up inside the shirt.




I think Jack's mother deliberately sent Ennis upstairs for him to find the shirts. Notice how she gives him a half smile when he comes back downstairs with the rolled up bundle and then watch how her hand covers Ennis hand, trying to keep the shirts rolled together so that they don't unroll (or so that whatever's inside doesn't fall out.)



Someone has asked, "So where's the carved horse and cowboy at the end of the movie?" I don't know. Maybe they aren't there. Maybe the shirts are what we're really meant to see. Or maybe they are there - somewhere on a shelf or a table, or on the closet shelf. I guess some of us will be doing a lot of frame by frame analysis of the movie when the DVD comes out...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[pierralex]

To me the wood horse in Jack's room is just a toy (one of the rare he had I guess) he used to play with when he was a kid. When Ennis see it, he's touched because this wood-made rodeo guy is just like Jake when they first met. I don't think Ennis took it with the shirts.

[tpe]

An older discussion of this topic can be found under the 'Stray Nail Polish and Other Details' thread.  I was thinking whether I should merge these two threads together...

[tpe]

For the record, I believe it was 'agreed upon' in the other thread that the toy horse in Jack's room was put there to make us recall that earlier and happier time up on Brokeback Mountain. 

[CherryCake]

For the record, I believe it was 'agreed upon' in the other thread that the toy horse in Jack's room was put there to make us recall that earlier and happier time up on Brokeback Mountain. 

I agree with you, tpe... it's to bring us back.. to prepare us for what Ennis finds in the closet

[Troy]

To me, Ennis reacts to the carving that way simply because the carving IS Jack to him (metaphorically). That first summer on Brokeback Jack was so excited about rodeoing, doing that little dance, falling over something, they broke out laughing, it was the first thing that Ennis found  endearing about Jack. Then he sees the carving, and it brings back to his memory all of Jack's enthusiasm for life, what was so loveable and childlike about him. Maybe he pictures Jack having the carving as a young kid. Thats what I pictured anyways.

[tpe]

For the record, I believe it was 'agreed upon' in the other thread that the toy horse in Jack's room was put there to make us recall that earlier and happier time up on Brokeback Mountain. 

I agree with you, tpe... it's to bring us back.. to prepare us for what Ennis finds in the closet

Thanks CherryCake.  And thanks everyone for the wonderful, thoughtful posts.

This detail deserves it's own thread, so I shall keep it separate for now.  It is one of the most haunting details in the film, and to see Ennis's face glisten with tears after toying with it is unspeakably sad.

[Patriot1]

For the record, I believe it was 'agreed upon' in the other thread that the toy horse in Jack's room was put there to make us recall that earlier and happier time up on Brokeback Mountain. 

I agree with you, tpe... it's to bring us back.. to prepare us for what Ennis finds in the closet

Thanks CherryCake.  And thanks everyone for the wonderful, thoughtful posts.

This detail deserves it's own thread, so I shall keep it separate for now.  It is one of the most haunting details in the film, and to see Ennis's face glisten with tears after toying with it is unspeakably sad.

As much as I would love to believe Ennis took the horse and rider that he carved and Jack took home I can't.  I am sure Ennis would have put that horse somewhere prominant in his trailer but we never see it again.  That is the only thing that prevents me from believing he took it.

[Stephen]

Yes, all this was dicussed before!  But some added details do make one wonder what is meant by the horse and rider on Jack's desk. I guess it works both ways, as do many other elements in the film: if the horse and rider were carved by Jack (or someone else) it does make an impression on Ennis and us, the viewers, and we are taken back to the first summer on Brokeback Mountain; but if it's the finished piece Ennis had begun in his tent and then later gave it to Jack, it hold even more poignancy: I asked in an earlier post if anyone thought Ennis had it wrapped up in the shirts as he walked into the Twist kitchen......just because we don't see in his trailer and the end of the film, doesn't mean he doesn't have it. Just another example of the infinite ways  BBM spins its magic through our imaginations.

[davidgray624]

Those carvings are definitely different. A) The one he is carving in the tent is a lot bigger. Granted it could have been carved down some more, but B) unless he carved a rider and then GLUED him on to the horse (which glueing (sp?)doesn't really seem like something like a real wood carver would do) then the carvings are different. But it would be really really sweet if it was the same carving.. but alas...

[Italian_Dude]

I never realized that! haha!!

Oh well.. I think they are different but I'll just pretend that they are the same one anyway hahaha