Scenes on Brokeback Mountain

[CANSTANDIT]

Dal, you're not going to believe this...just yesterday morning, I was sitting here trying to remember where that aged picture of the cowboy was....that is just too weird. Thanks for posting it.

[CANSTANDIT]

Thanks Dal for the insight to a Cowboys life ~suelyblu x

Oh here -- I knew I had then around here, somewhere.  These pics are more/less famous, of a Montana rancher Richard Wheatcroft.  A well-known photograper, R Avedon, snapped him, as part of a book Avedon was doing on Western people.  They became friends, and Avedon shot him several times , over years. 

The first one here is from 1982;  Wheatcroft is 24 (not 19).  In the next 6 or 8 years, he worked like the devil on the ranch, maried, had six (I think) kids, divorced. 

The seconf picture is from 2003, which would make him... 46?  Just slightly older than we last see E and J.  The dew has definitely gone off the rose, has it not?  That's more or less what Ennis looked like in 1983, you bet. 

small torso,  beanpole length, high-arched nose, weather-eyed: Can there be much doubt AP was inspired by this photo? there is even a resemblance to Heath...just amazing, now that I see them both together...Even the personality comes across in the photo; there is a kind of a natural aloofness in youth-and a sort of battered stone wall in middle-age. This is just endlessly fascinating to me.

[Sandy]

The screenwriters had a book of Avedon's photos on hand while filming the movie, so there is a definite connection.

[garyd]

The screenwriters had a book of Avedon's photos on hand while filming the movie, so there is a definite connection.

Didn't AP write an introduction for the re-publication of a collection of these photographs?

Wheatcroft is alive and well, btw.  Runs a beef cattle operation in Montana.

[Dal]

The screenwriters had a book of Avedon's photos on hand while filming the movie~

No kidding!  Then they took the trouble to get the costuming exactly correct, rather than just going for generic.  'Screenwriter' being, one presumes, Osanna, who was very active day-to-day in a sort of producer's role.  Her job title I do not know, but I believe they paid her for her time, and she was worth every cent.

~Wheatcroft is alive and well, btw.  Runs a beef cattle operation in Montana.

Say -- does any of his sons look like Richard did, in the first picture?   Maybe I should take Horace Greeley's advice...

[fofol]

^^^^^^^^^^^^

God, if only.....

   Jo, you might find this interesting: do you remember a posting by janjo a while back which featured a capture from SNIT with words under it?  It moved me greatly.  The words were poetry, and turned out to be a note she had written to herself on her wedding night.  Anyway I have finished a graphic for it which we will try to post in the Arts thread.  It is entitled "if only" - if only they hadn't lived in a hate-filled world, if only the'd had appreciative, protective fathers, if only etc.  We don't know when but I'll PM you, if you'd like.

[Marz]

just changed my vote to ennis smiling when jack is dancing around
that bit is so cute and funny and ennis's smile is beautiful

[garyd]

This is my favorite

[CANSTANDIT]

^^^^^^^^^^^^

God, if only.....

   Jo, you might find this interesting: do you remember a posting by janjo a while back which featured a capture from SNIT with words under it?  It moved me greatly.  The words were poetry, and turned out to be a note she had written to herself on her wedding night.  Anyway I have finished a graphic for it which we will try to post in the Arts thread.  It is entitled "if only" - if only they hadn't lived in a hate-filled world, if only the'd had appreciative, protective fathers, if only etc.  We don't know when but I'll PM you, if you'd like.

that's fine, Mike, thanks.

[garyd]

The screenwriters had a book of Avedon's photos on hand while filming the movie, so there is a definite connection.

Didn't AP write an introduction for the re-publication of a collection of these photographs?

Wheatcroft is alive and well, btw.  Runs a beef cattle operation in Montana.

Sorry, I am totally wrong about AP and the introduction.
It was McMurtry who wrote the intro.
AP did a review somewhere....the Guardian?
Really sorry for the misinformation.

[suelyblu]

Don'tknow if this hs been discussed before as I am new here!!  Do you think the guy that Jack picks up in Mexico is his choice because he resembles Ennis in the way that he is tall,lean,seems a man of few words and reserved and even in the middle of Mexico has found some one with fair hair( forgive me if the fair hair in Mex.is not unusual) ?


                                                                         suelyblu x

[suelyblu]

sorry, meant to put this on ''All other scenes......'' thread




                                                                suelyblu

[Dal]

(Moved from Symbolism and Imagery)

~ Why canned beans - or do you think that was just the movie version?

No -- Short story too.  You're right -- dried beans much easier on the mules  than canned, or contrarywise, the mules could have carried more junk.

Maybe because of the altitude?  It  takes a lot longer for beans to cook, way up.  Just a thought.  One thing, though: AP is crazy-meticulous about detail, and researches obsessively.  Maybe she didn't here, though.

[mouk]

Can't find the Book structure' thread? Been away too long...

Still, as I reheated yesterday's coffee for breakfast (Ennis's teachings came handy in hard times), I had some thoughts on how sadly and directly the short story prologue links with the happy memories of the mountains.

the stale coffee is boiling up/the flame is blue.........................they had high time supper by the fire, a can of beans each, fried potatoes and quart of whiskey

urinates in the sink..............................................................getting up every now and then to piss, firelight throwing a sparkle in the arched stream

the wind booms down the curved trailer (there were discussions about this being symbolic of a submarine)....the submarine Thresher lost two months ago

pulls on his shirt and jeans, worn boots, stamping the heels against the floor to get them full on...... boot soles and copper rivets hot

wind rocking the trailer, hissing in around......................the lavender sky emptied of color and the chilled air drained down


The contrast is striking. Every element is a pale reflection of that night in the chill air but with the warmth of Jack's company, the fire, the lavender sky. The colors were warm. Now they are cold lifeless:  pale brown (stale coffee, worn boots), pale blue (gas burner flame, jeans that must be very faded and the 2 shirts probably faded too after 20 years), grey (the weather, the aluminium of the trailer, the gravel, references to the highway, even his pubic hair)

The parallel between the trailer seen as a submarine earlier in this thread and the Thresher is all the more striking that there is other marine vocabulary:  they shipped the horses, give them to the sharks. This makes me think that this is indeed, the last day in Ennis's life.

It could be bad on the highway....

[Buffymon]

Can't find the Book structure' thread? Been away too long...

Still, as I reheated yesterday's coffee for breakfast (Ennis's teachings came handy in hard times), I had some thoughts on how sadly and directly the short story prologue links with the happy memories of the mountains.

the stale coffee is boiling up/the flame is blue.........................they had high time supper by the fire, a can of beans each, fried potatoes and quart of whiskey

urinates in the sink..............................................................getting up every now and then to piss, firelight throwing a sparkle in the arched stream

the wind booms down the curved trailer (there were discussions about this being symbolic of a submarine)....the submarine Thresher lost two months ago

pulls on his shirt and jeans, worn boots, stamping the heels against the floor to get them full on...... boot soles and copper rivets hot

wind rocking the trailer, hissing in around......................the lavender sky emptied of color and the chilled air drained down


The contrast is striking. Every element is a pale reflection of that night in the chill air but with the warmth of Jack's company, the fire, the lavender sky. The colors were warm. Now they are cold lifeless:  pale brown (stale coffee, worn boots), pale blue (gas burner flame, jeans that must be very faded and the 2 shirts probably faded too after 20 years), grey (the weather, the aluminium of the trailer, the gravel, references to the highway, even his pubic hair)

The parallel between the trailer seen as a submarine earlier in this thread and the Thresher is all the more striking that there is other marine vocabulary:  they shipped the horses, give them to the sharks. This makes me think that this is indeed, the last day in Ennis's life.

It could be bad on the highway....

Beautiful post, thank you. I think the juxtaposition of the sad everyday life and the lob they share is a theme throughout the story. Both men lead pretty everyday lives doing things they don't like very much, but at the same time they are two parts of a beautiful, larger than life lovestory. I love that even two ordinary men like Ennis and Jack are allowed to be part of something like that.

Interesting about the trailer being a submarine - hadn't heard that before. "Shipping" and "Sharks". Good finds!


"It could be bad on the highway"...what a perfect metaphor for life. And yes, indeed, it can be bad on the highway.