Author Topic: Kinda silly, but what's with Ennis smelling everything?  (Read 10372 times)

Offline camom

  • Alma
  • ****
  • Posts: 221
I know that his smelling the shirts is obviously important.  I don't mean that.  But he smells Jr.'s sweater before he puts it in the closet, and earlier, when he's getting ready for their first "fishing trip," he smells one of his shirts before he puts it in his bag.  I just thought that was an interesting note about his character.  Some people smell everything; guess Ennis is one of them.

camom

Offline Krispera

  • Alma
  • ****
  • Posts: 306
  • Gender: Male
  • krisp luvs you
Re: Kinda silly, but what's with Ennis smelling everything?
« Reply #1 on: Feb 06, 2006, 11:35 PM »
Well I always smell things that I like, my dog, my friends, my familly, etc. For the '' fishing trip '' he only wanted to know if the shirt stinks or not  ;D. About Jr.'s sweater, I really don't know but.. she is his daughter so :)

Offline Toadily

  • Mod-ChickY Brigade
  • Jack + Ennis
  • *
  • Posts: 2777
  • Gender: Female
  • "Friend, we got ourselves a situation here"
Re: Kinda silly, but what's with Ennis smelling everything?
« Reply #2 on: Feb 06, 2006, 11:38 PM »
smell does more to bring up memory than any sense, so I think that is part of it.
"it's Love, Blockhead!"
-Pierre Marivaux  The Triumph of Love

"To love an idea is to love it a little more than one should."  -Jean Rostand

Offline cybernaut

  • Alma
  • ****
  • Posts: 205
  • Gender: Male
Re: Kinda silly, but what's with Ennis smelling everything?
« Reply #3 on: Feb 06, 2006, 11:47 PM »
I know that his smelling the shirts is obviously important.  I don't mean that.  But he smells Jr.'s sweater before he puts it in the closet, and earlier, when he's getting ready for their first "fishing trip," he smells one of his shirts before he puts it in his bag.  I just thought that was an interesting note about his character.  Some people smell everything; guess Ennis is one of them.

camom

Does Ennis have a fetish? *gasp*...
The short story has a paragraph about how Ennis can smell Jack's musky smell... reminds Ennis of the rushing colors of the mountains.
I didn't quite notice him smelling Jr's sweater, I thought he was simply folding them? Or was it that he might clean it, smelling it whether it was "dirtied"?

Don't you stop and smell the flowers? or the coffee.. maybe not the pits though.. hehehe... ;D
I'm saying a prayer of thanks... that you didn't bring your harmonica!

Offline scruffy

  • Scruff Nasty
  • Jack
  • *****
  • Posts: 726
  • Gender: Male
Re: Kinda silly, but what's with Ennis smelling everything?
« Reply #4 on: Feb 06, 2006, 11:53 PM »
That's right toadily.  Certain smells can take ya back to a time and a place.  The smell of ink on National Geographic magazines take me back to childhood days spent in my grandmother's attic.  The smell of the first days of summer take me back in time too.  The scent left on clothes can be just as powerful.  It evokes the memory of the person and a time stronger than anything else.  When Ennis smells the two shirts for one brief moment he's reliving a time when he and Jack were together.

Offline CherryCake

  • Jack
  • *****
  • Posts: 718
  • Gender: Male
  • You want a piece of me? YOU WANT A PIECE OF ME??!!
Re: Kinda silly, but what's with Ennis smelling everything?
« Reply #5 on: Feb 06, 2006, 11:58 PM »
It looked to me like he kissed the sweater...before he put it away.
"Want some coffee, don't you? Piece a cherry cake?"




Hit me up on Yahoo: PieceOfCherryCake

Offline dirtbiker

  • Mod Squad
  • Jack + Ennis
  • ***
  • Posts: 2768
  • Gender: Male
Re: Kinda silly, but what's with Ennis smelling everything?
« Reply #6 on: Feb 07, 2006, 12:15 AM »
I know that his smelling the shirts is obviously important.  I don't mean that.  But he smells Jr.'s sweater before he puts it in the closet, and earlier, when he's getting ready for their first "fishing trip," he smells one of his shirts before he puts it in his bag.  I just thought that was an interesting note about his character.  Some people smell everything; guess Ennis is one of them.

camom

Guys do that a lot - smelling clothes to see if they stink or whether something can be worn again before the next washing....  ;D

Offline cybernaut

  • Alma
  • ****
  • Posts: 205
  • Gender: Male
Re: Kinda silly, but what's with Ennis smelling everything?
« Reply #7 on: Feb 07, 2006, 03:10 AM »
dirtbiker: My mum does that strangely.

For me, I don't suppose Ennis wash his clothes daily....  :-[
Maybe once every two or three days
I'm saying a prayer of thanks... that you didn't bring your harmonica!

Offline garymcd

  • Alma Jr.
  • **
  • Posts: 29
  • Gender: Male
Re: Kinda silly, but what's with Ennis smelling everything?
« Reply #8 on: Feb 07, 2006, 03:28 AM »
It looked to me like he kissed the sweater...before he put it away.

i thought a kiss as well, perhaps a good bye.  she's to be married

and then he has "the shirts" and "jack, i swear-"
"this is a goddamned bitch of an unsatisfactory situation"

Offline rabjr1

  • Ennis
  • ******
  • Posts: 1886
  • Gender: Male
Re: Kinda silly, but what's with Ennis smelling everything?
« Reply #9 on: Feb 07, 2006, 06:32 AM »
my cat will only sleep on the clean pile of laundry on the floor not the dirty pile so I don't have to smell my clothes when I put them on - just have to brush off the cat hair.
RAB aka Raoul The Really Rotten

Offline cybernaut

  • Alma
  • ****
  • Posts: 205
  • Gender: Male
Re: Kinda silly, but what's with Ennis smelling everything?
« Reply #10 on: Feb 07, 2006, 06:57 AM »
rabjr1: My cat does that too sometimes... But I guess when the weather's cold, she would lay on top of the clean towels... :)
I'm saying a prayer of thanks... that you didn't bring your harmonica!

Offline camom

  • Alma
  • ****
  • Posts: 221
Re: Kinda silly, but what's with Ennis smelling everything?
« Reply #11 on: Feb 07, 2006, 11:17 AM »
Guess I'll have to look to see if he's kissing or smelling the sweater.  And yes, I do smell things!  I agree that certain odors can bring back special memories.  But I know that odor doesn't seem to be as important to some people.  I just thought it was interesting that they gave Ennis that particular characteristic, or that Heath Ledger developed it. 

camom

Offline Kindred

  • Lureen
  • ***
  • Posts: 160
  • Gender: Male
Re: Kinda silly, but what's with Ennis smelling everything?
« Reply #12 on: Feb 07, 2006, 12:02 PM »
There is a difference in the way the movie and short story handled the shirt scene.

In the movie, Ennis smells the shirts, and to me this was a touching visual, knowing how strong a memory trigger the sense of smell can be. 

However, in the short story, Ennis smells the shirts but there is no real scent left:

"He pressed his face into the fabric and breathed in slowly through his mouth and nose, hoping for the faintest smoke and mountain sage and salty sweet stink of Jack but there was no real scent, only the memory of it, the imagined power of Brokeback Mountain of which nothing was left but what he held in his hands."

The short story version seems so much sadder, such a sense of loss and emptiness.  Ennis being denied one last smell of Jack seems to simply add to the tragedy of the story.

Offline kcristob

  • Lureen
  • ***
  • Posts: 135
  • Gender: Female
Re: Kinda silly, but what's with Ennis smelling everything?
« Reply #13 on: Feb 07, 2006, 12:10 PM »


However, in the short story, Ennis smells the shirts but there is no real scent left:

The short story version seems so much sadder, such a sense of loss and emptiness.  Ennis being denied one last smell of Jack seems to simply add to the tragedy of the story.


Right.  It does add to the tragedy of the story (brilliantly - that Annie doesn't give an INCH).  It's reassuring in the movie that he smells Jack once more.

Each body has a distinct smell - they say we could pick our own clothing out blindfolded by the scent.

Offline manila_rocks

  • Lureen
  • ***
  • Posts: 133
Re: Kinda silly, but what's with Ennis smelling everything?
« Reply #14 on: Feb 07, 2006, 12:42 PM »
I think it says something about his primitive ego state.

Offline jakeofrome

  • Randall Malone
  • Lureen
  • ***
  • Posts: 122
Re: Kinda silly, but what's with Ennis smelling everything?
« Reply #15 on: Feb 07, 2006, 07:52 PM »
Guys do that a lot - smelling clothes to see if they stink or whether something can be worn again before the next washing....  ;D

And that is very, very misleading and can bring you some unpleasant surprises ;-)
"I loved it. Shocking. Surprising. The guy who financed my movie did that too. He's a very mild mannered chap from Minnesota and we'd just screened the latest cut of my film and he asked if I wanted to see it. I was thinking, 'OK, this really square, straight guy,' and he showed me this movie. It's amazing.

"They're really good those boys and they did a great job. It's very brave of them."

Offline jakeofrome

  • Randall Malone
  • Lureen
  • ***
  • Posts: 122
Re: Kinda silly, but what's with Ennis smelling everything?
« Reply #16 on: Feb 07, 2006, 07:54 PM »
As for the shirts, the short story is definelty more brutal than the movie:

"He pressed his face into the fabric and breathed in slowly through his mouth and nose, hoping for the
faintest smoke and mountain sage and salty sweet stink of Jack but there was no real scent, only the memory of it, the imagined power of Brokeback Mountain of which nothing was left but what he held in his hands."
"I loved it. Shocking. Surprising. The guy who financed my movie did that too. He's a very mild mannered chap from Minnesota and we'd just screened the latest cut of my film and he asked if I wanted to see it. I was thinking, 'OK, this really square, straight guy,' and he showed me this movie. It's amazing.

"They're really good those boys and they did a great job. It's very brave of them."

Offline Cowboy Cody

  • Jack + Ennis
  • *
  • Posts: 7886
  • Gender: Male
  • Here I IS!
Re: Kinda silly, but what's with Ennis smelling everything?
« Reply #17 on: Feb 07, 2006, 08:02 PM »
As for the shirts, the short story is definelty more brutal than the movie:

"He pressed his face into the fabric and breathed in slowly through his mouth and nose, hoping for the
faintest smoke and mountain sage and salty sweet stink of Jack but there was no real scent, only the memory of it, the imagined power of Brokeback Mountain of which nothing was left but what he held in his hands."

Jake - the story is more brutal in some respects. When I got to that part, I thought, F***. Not even a smell left of Jack.

Toadlily you are right that smells can transport us to our past. My grandmother used to wear a certain fragrance, and I can tell immediately when someone around me has that on, takes me back to a very happy childhood spending weekends at her house, then I usually well up and cry!
You were goin' up there to go fishin'....NO SHIT! GIMME SEX!

Offline kcristob

  • Lureen
  • ***
  • Posts: 135
  • Gender: Female
Re: Kinda silly, but what's with Ennis smelling everything?
« Reply #18 on: Feb 08, 2006, 12:53 PM »
Quote

Toadlily you are right that smells can transport us to our past. My grandmother used to wear a certain fragrance, and I can tell immediately when someone around me has that on, takes me back to a very happy childhood spending weekends at her house, then I usually well up and cry!
Quote

You remind me:  I have the bottle of perfume that my mother wore for years (it's really not a good perfume - cheap and strong).  She died in 1984 and yet one whiff of that fragrance and she's with me.  Indeed the nose really does know.

Offline n061857

  • beau dego
  • Alma
  • ****
  • Posts: 339
  • Gender: Female
Re: Kinda silly, but what's with Ennis smelling everything?
« Reply #19 on: Mar 25, 2006, 08:39 PM »
He definitely smells Alma, Jr.'s sweater probably for the same reason he smells Jack's shirt.........he loves her, wants to hold on to her.  Although he tries to smell the shirts in the movie, how do we know there is a scent left?  There is none in the story.

Some people are very olfactory.  He apparently is.  I hate to admit that my husband smells his clothes as he is putting them in the hamper.  Why?  I don't get it, even dirty socks! Yuk! I had noticed this about Ennis in the movie and in him found it endearing.

matsuki33

  • Guest
Re: Kinda silly, but what's with Ennis smelling everything?
« Reply #20 on: Mar 25, 2006, 08:50 PM »
it could be that smelling the things could bring him memories remember that he smelled the shirts on jack closed looking for that old sense of joy looking for Jack's sense to feel he was there.

Offline filazahies

  • Jack
  • *****
  • Posts: 945
  • Gender: Female
Re: Kinda silly, but what's with Ennis smelling everything?
« Reply #21 on: Mar 25, 2006, 09:01 PM »
My sister always smells everything. Once I asked her why she did that and she said she felt more confident when she knew how things smelled ??? ???

I've done that when I want to remember someone and have something belonging to that person near me. Just by smelling I can recall the person clearly and feel his/her presence