Hi - I'd like to make a few comments to your interesting and thoughtful post. Thank you for writing it.
Your description of your impressions, seeing the film for the first time of course has me wondering very much if I'd have seen the same if I wasn't so completely spoiled having been in the fandom for months before the film premiered where I live. Knowing too much certainly takes away from the immediacy of first impressions. I don't think I'd have seen Jack as a "predator" like some reviewers have indicated, simply because I think Jake G. projects too much vulnerability and sensitivity in the role for that description to fit at all, - including in the early scenes however much he does put himself on display against the car.
Because of spoilers and me having read the short story, Jack and Ennis had me in their corner from the get-go. Nevertheless it still took several viewings of the film for me to see the slow subtle build-up that is actually there in their early scenes on the mountain. Ennis slowly loosening up, the two of them forming a largely wordless connection, the kindling affection hidden behind bean meal gripes and related activities to get hold of other food.... I am impressed with Ang Lee and the actors both that they managed - and dared - make it that subtle. It must have been a gamble.
I've been thinking quite a lot about Jack's mother too. Not only because I'm floored by Roberta Maxwell's stunning performance, managing to convey so much more than the descriptions given in the script. I did from the very first see her extending a hand of comfort and acceptance to Ennis in sending him up to Jack's room. She must have known what he'd find there and in my opinion she understood what it'd mean to him. After all, she had listened to jack's storied over the years of moving up there with Ennis - and she seems to be able to see the emotions that lie beneath the surface of words.
I think your use of the word "grace" is very fitting and appropriate. She does extend grace to Ennis there. I love the way you put that whole paragraph.
"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?"
Like you I have wondered how Jack ever managed to become the person he was; - caring, hopeful, self-accepting; - when growing up in that dreary place with that utterly despicable father. (My impression of father Twist is certainly coloured not only by the film but by a childhood memory of Jack's - a horrific scene of child abuse - that is in the short story but not (thank goodness!) in the film.) The answer has to be the mother. She seems to have an innate sensitivity and humanity, - she must have made Jack's life livable, she must have drawn on her love for her son just as he drew on it and returned it. She must have made him feel worthwhile and accepted.
But I still am wondering why she'd apparently not told her son anything about her religious beliefs. That seemed to indicate she never shared her innermost thoughts with him, nor the source from which she herself drew strength - and that confuses me. It seems to indicate an emotional distance that clashed with the two of them being close enough during Jack's childhood to preserve their human dignity in that otherwise so stunted household. Perhaps the father prevented or outright forbid it, though - wanting the boy to be "brought up right" as he saw it.
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Re: My two (or more like, fifty) cents worth
Date: 2006-02-07 10:26 am (UTC)Your description of your impressions, seeing the film for the first time of course has me wondering very much if I'd have seen the same if I wasn't so completely spoiled having been in the fandom for months before the film premiered where I live. Knowing too much certainly takes away from the immediacy of first impressions. I don't think I'd have seen Jack as a "predator" like some reviewers have indicated, simply because I think Jake G. projects too much vulnerability and sensitivity in the role for that description to fit at all, - including in the early scenes however much he does put himself on display against the car.
Because of spoilers and me having read the short story, Jack and Ennis had me in their corner from the get-go. Nevertheless it still took several viewings of the film for me to see the slow subtle build-up that is actually there in their early scenes on the mountain. Ennis slowly loosening up, the two of them forming a largely wordless connection, the kindling affection hidden behind bean meal gripes and related activities to get hold of other food.... I am impressed with Ang Lee and the actors both that they managed - and dared - make it that subtle. It must have been a gamble.
I've been thinking quite a lot about Jack's mother too. Not only because I'm floored by Roberta Maxwell's stunning performance, managing to convey so much more than the descriptions given in the script. I did from the very first see her extending a hand of comfort and acceptance to Ennis in sending him up to Jack's room. She must have known what he'd find there and in my opinion she understood what it'd mean to him. After all, she had listened to jack's storied over the years of moving up there with Ennis - and she seems to be able to see the emotions that lie beneath the surface of words.
I think your use of the word "grace" is very fitting and appropriate. She does extend grace to Ennis there. I love the way you put that whole paragraph.
"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?"
Like you I have wondered how Jack ever managed to become the person he was; - caring, hopeful, self-accepting; - when growing up in that dreary place with that utterly despicable father. (My impression of father Twist is certainly coloured not only by the film but by a childhood memory of Jack's - a horrific scene of child abuse - that is in the short story but not (thank goodness!) in the film.) The answer has to be the mother. She seems to have an innate sensitivity and humanity, - she must have made Jack's life livable, she must have drawn on her love for her son just as he drew on it and returned it. She must have made him feel worthwhile and accepted.
But I still am wondering why she'd apparently not told her son anything about her religious beliefs. That seemed to indicate she never shared her innermost thoughts with him, nor the source from which she herself drew strength - and that confuses me. It seems to indicate an emotional distance that clashed with the two of them being close enough during Jack's childhood to preserve their human dignity in that otherwise so stunted household. Perhaps the father prevented or outright forbid it, though - wanting the boy to be "brought up right" as he saw it.