You may be right about Lureen because it seems to be obvious that homosexulity is not that problematic for Jack. But Ennis has a good excuse for being that obssessed by the SECRET: his own father is certainly a murderer, and not any kind of murderer if u see what I mean...
What do you think about the consequences of Jack's death? Do u think that it was a murder?
Merry
Merry, I'll try to be organized and talk about Jack, Ennis and Ennis' dad separately.
Jack. The more I see the movie and read the story the more I feel the big difference between Jack's feeling about himself and his homo/bisexuality, versus Ennis'. Not as problematic for Jack, as you say. (That enquiring look on Jack's face when Ennis starts his paranoid "Do you ever feel people are looking at you, and they
know ...? But ol' Jack's confident. He doesn't feel this way at all.)
Ennis. Obsessed by the secret -- well said. YES. Guess what, I have felt the same pressure, exactly.
So the bigger issue for me is coping with that huge wall of denial, the BAN by society on "this thing." I grew up overseas in a place as backward and homophobic as rural Wyo in 1963. I relate to this BAN and the secret exactly.
I'm slowly working out why the movie is important for me. Still getting words to say it. One reason it's important is because it shows folks courageously refusing to let homphobic society dictate about these super-important issues. So Jack and Ennis are rebels, as Lee Harris says (and he concludes, of course, the world doesn't tolerate rebels, and so they lose the war).
Tho they didn't know it, J & E are part of our society becoming much more humane. Wow. This is the big time.
For me the movie (making it, and its content) is an affirmation of really important things. That I feel very strongly about, to the point of tears when I see it on screen. I would never have believed such a movie could be made in my lifetime when I was 17 in 1963 (yeah, nearly dead ringer for our heroes).
You might not think mere
affirmation by the story line could get anyone worked up. It does. Sounds so stilted when I write it. Still trying for words. But the idea is there. Affirmation is Ennis living through his paranoia, admitting his love, living through the foul loss of Jack ... It's Jack admitting his love, living always far from Ennis, living it and taking the consequences ...
So the next thing the movie makes me feel is thankful to be far from those bad old days,
in a freer society. I'll say this just once Jack f***in Twist, Thank god for these more humane times in these United States, for a very literal freedom. I speak for many. I've never said these things before. This is serious stuff. That's why the movie is important.
Jack's father. If not a murderer then one who would willingly be a full accomplice,
like most folks thereabouts! No difference from the lynching of blacks only 70 years ago (?).
I don't know if it was murder. The movie and story leave the question open. And I'm OK with that. The story says Ennis believed it was murder.
More important is that society
was prepared to allow it to go unpunished if it was murder.
No consequences.
That's incredible. In my lifetime. Annie Proulx, who wrote the story, mentions the student Matthew Shepard who was killed for being gay in Wyoming almost yesterday--1998!! One of my office coworkers was killed in Houston for the same reason. 15 years ago only. At least these murderers were punished.
I'll try to stop.
