The Structure of the Movie and Film Editing

[ChrisW]

Marian - thanks so much or the list of scenes and your structuring  - since the Oxford screening I have been looking for something like that.
And if anyone compiles a summary of bookends - that would be wonderful. Then I could watch the DVD with these guides to hand. I have now seen the film twice in the cinema and twice on DVD. But I read the story and filmscript over and over again two years ago. I'd like to put it all together!

[Ministering angel]

Some of the linked scenes I listed are bookends, like the start of FNIT and the no more kids scene with Alma, and the rollover in FNIT and the last night we see J&E asleep. I listed all the bookends I could think of but I didn't differentiate them as such.

[ChrisW]

I think I might need some coloured marker pens as well as Kleenex  Thanks!

[Marc]

Here's a first crack at a list of bookends.

1.  Truck drives to the left carrying Ennis.
     Ennis drives to the right heading home from the Twist ranch.

2.  Ennis carrying his clothes in a paper bag
     Ennis carrying the shirts in a paper bag

3.  RR tracks on the left as Jack drives up.
     RR tracks on the right when Jack is killed.

4.  Ennis catches the watch thrown by Aguirre.
     Jack drops the keys thrown by L.D.

5.  Jack misses the coyote.
     Ennis kills the elk.

6.  FNIT:  Jack pulls Ennis’ right hand to Jack’s crotch.  They face right.
     LNIT:  Ennis’s left hand is on Jack’s waist.  They face left.

7.  Ennis in the alley
     Jack and the hustler in the alley.

8.  Jack’s postcard to Ennis.
     Ennis’s postcard returned.

9.  In the post-divorce scene, you see and hear crows.
     You hear crows when Ennis opens Jack’s window.

10.  December 2005:  BBM premieres
      January 2008:  Heath dies.

And I'm not sure these are bookends, perhaps just two simiilar things.  Alma Jr's bluebird earrings and Lureen's reference to "where bluebirds sing and there's a whiskey spring."

And a real one I did forget:

11.  Ennis's sister marries a roughneck.
      Alma Jr is marrying a roughneck.

[CANSTANDIT]

RR tracks on the left as Jack drives up.
     RR tracks on the right when Jack is killed.

7.  Ennis in the alley
     Jack and the hustler in the alley.

Never noticed above, Marc...nice.

[Ministering angel]

Marc, I'd class some of those as paired scenes rather than bookends. A bookend set should open and close a particular sequence of action or similar, like the opening of FNIT and the last bed scene of Ennis and Alma. Having sex with Jack effectively finishes Ennis's marriage before it's even begun.

[Marc]

That makes sense.

[CANSTANDIT]

About Ennis's sis marrying a roughneck-it's his last contact with a female he presumbly loves, until the girls are born (not counting whatever version of love he feels for Alma)-then, AJ 'leaves him', symbolically, to marry a roughneck. The female "abandonment", again-in his heart, anyway. I do think that is a bookend. I do think it's true, that he does have a need to be nurtured, still. Yet he resists the ministering in the columbine, because it's a man..he is so tragic.
 

[Ministering angel]

I know the term "roughneck" denotes an oil worker but it makes me think (especially after your observation, CSI) that these girls of his are abandoning him for "real" men, in Ennis's eyes.

[CANSTANDIT]

I know the term "roughneck" denotes an oil worker but it makes me think (especially after your observation, CSI) that these girls of his are abandoning him for "real" men, in Ennis's eyes.

Ouch.....

[Sandy]

How is a roughneck more of a man than someone who works on a ranch?

[Marc]

Another one I forgot:

12.  In the first scene at Aguirre's trailer, there's an old pickup with a flat tire.  It's gone when Jack comes back the next summer.
      In Lureen's story, Jack had a flat tire.

[Ministering angel]

Yes, Marc. Isn't that last one a total gem? It's like the reference in the story to Aguirre's hair being the colour of ash and parted down the middle. It's a visual reminder, on the day they meet, of what Jack's fate will be.

[Ministering angel]

How is a roughneck more of a man than someone who works on a ranch?

Sandy, the term "roughneck" has two meanings, one, an oil worker, and two, a rough, violent or thuggish person. Ennis's reaction to threats against his sexuality is to lash out - punch Jack, hurt Alma, get into a short, dirty fight at the B&B Eagle Bar, and in the film the 4th July scene is a clear reminder of this fact. There's an underlying message: real men fight. Ennis had to be taught to fight as a child, even though he has a body built for fighting.

Is an oil worker more of a man than a ranch-hand? Not at all. I was just saying what the use of the term felt like to me. It's a personal reaction, although I did ascribe the feelings to Ennis as well. Essentially, his sister and daughter marry men who are, to all intents and purposes, straight men.

[Sandy]

Fair enough. I see your chain of reasoning.