The first time I saw the film, I worried there was something seriously wrong with me, because I interpreted their affair as more of a matter of boredom, frustration, and opportunity. I pegged Jack as a sexual predator cruiser from his first appearance, when he fixes that smoldering glance on poor, unsuspecting Ennis, then sneaks in a quick shave. He knows he wants Ennis, and knows without a doubt that he will have him. His crafty little grab in the tent didn't surprise me, what amazed me was how Ennis seized him back and topped on very their first time together. Yet during that whole summer, Ennis continued (imho) to be emotionally disconnected from everything they were doing. And I still wasn’t sure, after the first viewing, that Ennis’s vomiting in the corner was from heartbreak or shame (or both).
On the second viewing (last Saturday), having had several weeks to process what I had seen, my thoughts are a bit different. I saw the slow blossom of friendship, joy and warmth in Ennis, his almost boyish playfulness and teasing. It almost seemed as though Jack was the friend, the soulmate he had always longed for, perhaps without knowing or understanding that lack, and their physical relationship was another expression of their warmth and affection for each other.
After Ennis returned home, married, fathered two children in quick succession, and began his series of low-level, hopeless jobs - that's when the story began to resonate for me, because I can very easily relate to that type of life ( what Mews 1945 referred to as the poverty of the emotional lives of the characters - very well put!) It wasn't until he heard again from Jack that he realized, I think, the dreariness and futility of his life. Then: The Kiss. Does Ennis realize at that moment what Jack means to him, whether it is love or affection or escape, even temporarily, from his life? Do Ennis’s feelings grow deeper, stronger, each time they manage to get away together?
Another very painful aspect was how deeply imprinted his father's lessons were on Ennis - remember, he lost his father at an early age, before he was old enough to have some rebelliousness, some natural questioning of what he heard. So he carries with him the message that men who love men are unnatural, will be found out, and hounded or even killed. He lives with that terror, cannot for that reason admit to himself that he is one of them, and, on hearing of Jack's death, projects that same fate upon him. [How did Jack really die? In the story, the clear implication is that he was murdered.]
One other element that I’ve been thinking quite a bit about lately, and even more since Saturday’s viewing: Mrs. Twist’s unconditional love for her son. Jack has suffered under his father’s contempt, but he has not been brutalized by it –was it his mother’s love for him that allowed him to accept himself, despite his father? Ennis did not have it in him to be happy; he had no experience with happiness. His deeply ingrained self-loathing kept him from loving Jack unconditionally. Neither could Jack love unconditionally, even though he had received unconditional love: he expressed his rage and despair in the infidelity that (I think; I think word about Jack got around) resulted in his death.
Mrs. Twist must have seen the shirts and realized those filthy, bloody garments had some deep meaning for her son, so she left them, hidden, in the shrine she had built for him. When Ennis comes back downstairs holding the shirts, balled up together, she merely looks at him and nods. He doesn’t need to ask permission to take them away, she knows that Ennis is the one who was meant to have them, the one who will treasure them as she did. Her love and grace are extended to him in that moment as well. I can’t help but believe that it was her grace that allowed Ennis to change, to realize the importance of love in his life, both his daughter’s love, and acceptance of the love he felt for Jack.
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My two (or more like, fifty) cents worth
Date: 2006-02-07 03:03 am (UTC)sexual predatorcruiser from his first appearance, when he fixes that smoldering glance on poor, unsuspecting Ennis, then sneaks in a quick shave. He knows he wants Ennis, and knows without a doubt that he will have him. His crafty little grab in the tent didn't surprise me, what amazed me was how Ennis seized him back and topped on very their first time together. Yet during that whole summer, Ennis continued (imho) to be emotionally disconnected from everything they were doing.And I still wasn’t sure, after the first viewing, that Ennis’s vomiting in the corner was from heartbreak or shame (or both).
On the second viewing (last Saturday), having had several weeks to process what I had seen, my thoughts are a bit different. I saw the slow blossom of friendship, joy and warmth in Ennis, his almost boyish playfulness and teasing. It almost seemed as though Jack was the friend, the soulmate he had always longed for, perhaps without knowing or understanding that lack, and their physical relationship was another expression of their warmth and affection for each other.
After Ennis returned home, married, fathered two children in quick succession, and began his series of low-level, hopeless jobs - that's when the story began to resonate for me, because I can very easily relate to that type of life ( what Mews 1945 referred to as the poverty of the emotional lives of the characters - very well put!) It wasn't until he heard again from Jack that he realized, I think, the dreariness and futility of his life. Then: The Kiss. Does Ennis realize at that moment what Jack means to him, whether it is love or affection or escape, even temporarily, from his life? Do Ennis’s feelings grow deeper, stronger, each time they manage to get away together?
Another very painful aspect was how deeply imprinted his father's lessons were on Ennis - remember, he lost his father at an early age, before he was old enough to have some rebelliousness, some natural questioning of what he heard. So he carries with him the message that men who love men are unnatural, will be found out, and hounded or even killed. He lives with that terror, cannot for that reason admit to himself that he is one of them, and, on hearing of Jack's death, projects that same fate upon him. [How did Jack really die? In the story, the clear implication is that he was murdered.]
One other element that I’ve been thinking quite a bit about lately, and even more since Saturday’s viewing: Mrs. Twist’s unconditional love for her son. Jack has suffered under his father’s contempt, but he has not been brutalized by it –was it his mother’s love for him that allowed him to accept himself, despite his father? Ennis did not have it in him to be happy; he had no experience with happiness. His deeply ingrained self-loathing kept him from loving Jack unconditionally. Neither could Jack love unconditionally, even though he had received unconditional love: he expressed his rage and despair in the infidelity that (I think; I think word about Jack got around) resulted in his death.
Mrs. Twist must have seen the shirts and realized those filthy, bloody garments had some deep meaning for her son, so she left them, hidden, in the shrine she had built for him. When Ennis comes back downstairs holding the shirts, balled up together, she merely looks at him and nods. He doesn’t need to ask permission to take them away, she knows that Ennis is the one who was meant to have them, the one who will treasure them as she did. Her love and grace are extended to him in that moment as well. I can’t help but believe that it was her grace that allowed Ennis to change, to realize the importance of love in his life, both his daughter’s love, and acceptance of the love he felt for Jack.