Hi, Mews. That was a thoughtful, candid comment. This remark drew me, and makes me want to try for a further distinction....
Jack seems much more open, but when Ennis went to Jack's childhood home and met that poor, emotionally starved woman living that gray, hopeless life, I wondered how he had managed to be able to express his feelings at all. It seems to me that many of us are taught from an early age to hide our feelings and not show emotions, and that is magnified beyond belief by the world in which those two men were born and had to live.
I think training children in societies to hide their emotions is probably widely-practiced. In some cases it is a matter of manners; one doesn't subject others outside one's intimate acquaintance with the full bore of one's emotions, especially negative ones. Also, one doesn't show one's feelings until one knows the person seeing them can be trusted. Training children to veil their emotions from others is a way of protecting them. It is a harsh world in most places, and in most eras. People who grow up "thin-skinned," who "wear their hearts on their sleeves," can hurt or destroyed far more easily than those who are taught to protect themselves.
What the characters in Brokeback seem to be taught not only to guard or veil their emotions, but to deny them, even to despise them. That is something else. I think that's what is so wrenching and bleak in the lives of so many of the tenderer film characters. They have not only learned to veil their feelings from the world, they have veiled them from themselves, even to the point of nearly quenching them. Which characters easily show their feelings in the film? The characters whose feelings are negative. Joe Aguirre, Jack's father, and Jack's father-in-law aren't the least bit inhibited to show they are angry, pissed or petulant. The more vulnerable characters show their negative emotions, but only when pressed. Showing their tenderer feelings is more challenging still, so used are they to protecting themselves for fear of hurt or rejection. But, with those they trust, they will dare to do it. It happens between the two lovers, when Ennis comes to Jack's tent the second night. It happens between Jack and his daughter, between Jack's mother and Ennis. The beauty of those moments blazes from the screen. It fills me with hope, too.
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Date: 2006-02-06 06:15 pm (UTC)Jack seems much more open, but when Ennis went to Jack's childhood home and met that poor, emotionally starved woman living that gray, hopeless life, I wondered how he had managed to be able to express his feelings at all. It seems to me that many of us are taught from an early age to hide our feelings and not show emotions, and that is magnified beyond belief by the world in which those two men were born and had to live.
I think training children in societies to hide their emotions is probably widely-practiced. In some cases it is a matter of manners; one doesn't subject others outside one's intimate acquaintance with the full bore of one's emotions, especially negative ones. Also, one doesn't show one's feelings until one knows the person seeing them can be trusted. Training children to veil their emotions from others is a way of protecting them. It is a harsh world in most places, and in most eras. People who grow up "thin-skinned," who "wear their hearts on their sleeves," can hurt or destroyed far more easily than those who are taught to protect themselves.
What the characters in Brokeback seem to be taught not only to guard or veil their emotions, but to deny them, even to despise them. That is something else. I think that's what is so wrenching and bleak in the lives of so many of the tenderer film characters. They have not only learned to veil their feelings from the world, they have veiled them from themselves, even to the point of nearly quenching them. Which characters easily show their feelings in the film? The characters whose feelings are negative. Joe Aguirre, Jack's father, and Jack's father-in-law aren't the least bit inhibited to show they are angry, pissed or petulant. The more vulnerable characters show their negative emotions, but only when pressed. Showing their tenderer feelings is more challenging still, so used are they to protecting themselves for fear of hurt or rejection. But, with those they trust, they will dare to do it. It happens between the two lovers, when Ennis comes to Jack's tent the second night. It happens between Jack and his daughter, between Jack's mother and Ennis. The beauty of those moments blazes from the screen. It fills me with hope, too.