At three key points in the film, I find myself increasingly thinking "what if...." To me, these are three pivotal points where they story brushes close to a sudden different turn, but ultimately follows a different road. So I ask:
What if….
(1) What if Ennis and Jack had not parted as they did after bringing down the sheep?
Would Ennis have recognized at that point he should not marry Alma? Would Jack have asked him not to? Would they have a life together of some sort?
As much as I’d like to think things would have been better for our two lovers, I don’t know they would have been. At that point it would have been easier for one or the other to move so they could be closer to each other. But they would not have lived together or been at all public. Ennis would’t allow that. He might not even have let things go on. Up on the mountain it was remote and safe…not just from other people, but from “himself”. Whether or not you think that Ennis was/would today be “gay” or not, no doubt that his behavior was queer. He may not have wanted to believe that, but even if he never felt attracted to another man in his entire life, what he was doing with Jack branded him as queer. Could Ennis accept that, day to day, in real life? I don’t think so.
(2) What if Jack HAD come up for coffee the morning after the hotel, and it was realized (either by Alma’s confrontation or uncontrollable crying) that their secret was out to her?
Would Alma have left Ennis? Would Ennis have been a free man to pursue or be pursued by Jack?
I’d suspect Ennis and Alma would have split up at that point. Certainly not every woman with two little kid leaves her husband when an affair is discovered, straight or gay. But even then I think Alma would have recognized that this wasn’t Ennis just messing around, and, well, that her husband was “nasty”. Eight years later Alma did divorce Ennis, not from any particular new incident, but the continued grind of poverty, emotional distance, and of course the fishing trips. I don’t see anything that different about Alma 1975 versus Alma 1967 that explains why she divorced him then but would’t have had the gumption to do it if there was a confrontation in the kitchen the morning after the motel scene.
For Ennis and Jack, I think this would have been dynamite, and not in a JJ Walker kind of way. Ennis has a violent temper (literally) and even if he did not harm Alma or Jack in such a confrontation, it would be ugly. And I suspect Ennis would never allow himself to see Jack again because that would be admitting that Alma was right in accusing him of being queer. I don’t think the 1967 Ennis could get over that kind of confrontation, and if he ever did Jack would be years-gone by then.
(3) What if Ennis had not had the girls when Jack came up after the divorce and instead been free for Jack’s visit?
On first viewing I thought this was just unfortunate timing – Jack should have contacted Ennis first. But in fact it’s a clear sign that Jack thought Ennis would now be free to live his life with Jack, and instead the divorce didn’t change a thing.
The girls being there made it almost convenient for nothing to be confronted, nothing to change. Were Ennis alone, Jack would have tried to force Ennis’ hand. As it was, Ennis didn’t even want to be seen with Jack in the non-mountain world. Yet here would be Jack, right at his house just off the road, wanting to talk about plans for their new life together. No girls there to signal Jack to leave. So I think some confrontation might have ensued. Things might have come to a head then already. I don’t know that it would have had a happy ending.
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In all three of these what-if scenarios, I’m seeing a thread in my opinion of them. All those years there was a delicate balance for each:
--For Ennis it was a balance between hanging on to the vision of who he wanted to be (how he saw himself and others saw him) versus the reality of who he really was and what he really wanted (Jack).
--For Jack it was a balance between hanging on to the dream of what he wanted (a life with Ennis) versus the possibility of losing him completely.
I think this lasted as long as it did because if they upset the apple cart it might have all come apart. For Jack to ever get his life with Ennis, it would have cost Ennis his self-identity. I hate to use a word like “doomed”, but it’s hard to see it any other way. Kind of depressing. I just want to jump into that story and do something. But what???