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Author Topic: The Reunion  (Read 1034254 times)

Offline ImEnnisShesJack

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Re: The Reunion
« Reply #15 on: January 10, 2006, 06:14:37 PM »
I guess I have never had another human being invoke that depth of emotion out of me which is why I couldn't put my finger on the whole shaking thing. (Oh no-- am I Ennis?)

If Jack were to extend his hand at this point to shake Alma's when Ennis introduced them, it would be visibly trembling.    The electricity between Jack and Ennis would have been palpable.  The only thing the two of them are thinking about is when they can be alone together.  The physical sexual hunger pangs are incredible at this point.  They're already mentally prepared for their reunion sex and are just stumbling through the politesse necessary to get away from Alma.  The intense ache is so great you'll risk everything - like they did outside the apartment - for just one touch, one kiss, any little bit of [physical] contact. 

When you find the person who completes your soul, adds the color to your world, puts the reason into your existence, you'll know.  And you'll understand. 
"And when he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night."
~~Heath Ledger 1979-2008~~

Carol8159@yahoo.com

Offline bookgirl

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Re: The Reunion
« Reply #16 on: January 10, 2006, 08:16:55 PM »

When you find the person who completes your soul, adds the color to your world, puts the reason into your existence, you'll know.  And you'll understand. 

may we all be so lucky.  and smart enough to realize it.

kumari

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Re: The Reunion
« Reply #17 on: January 10, 2006, 08:59:49 PM »
Kumari, good evening!!
I saw the movie again for the third time this aft... and have this to say about the reunion scene, I find myself really watching what happens with Jack/Jake... and the look on his face when Ennis has grabbed him and kissed him so unbelievably.. and is holding him by the head, oh my God... the look of almost devastation on Jack's face is so eloquent, he realizes, as you said, that "redlining all the way there" has resulted in his dreams come true, Ennis feels about him as he feels about Ennis... it is the physical confirmation for him that you see in his face that is almost too much to bear...

I absolutely adore that look on Jack's face. He is so swept away by the feeling, and his expression is almost delerious with desire.

Offline terry

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Re: The Reunion
« Reply #18 on: January 11, 2006, 01:32:12 AM »
 Kumari, I agree with you up until the time Alma sees them from the doorway.  Then my own heart nearly broke because Alma isn't a bad person and doesn't deserve to get her feelings go through a ringer.  Then again, nobody in the film deserves the pain they've experienced.

Offline ImEnnisShesJack

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Re: The Reunion
« Reply #19 on: January 11, 2006, 06:52:13 AM »

When you find the person who completes your soul, adds the color to your world, puts the reason into your existence, you'll know.  And you'll understand. 

may we all be so lucky.  and smart enough to realize it.

And when it happens to you, I hope you are brave enough to take it on - regardless of the circumstances that surround it.

Love is a force of nature.
"And when he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night."
~~Heath Ledger 1979-2008~~

Carol8159@yahoo.com

Offline lauren

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Re: The Reunion
« Reply #20 on: January 11, 2006, 12:16:55 PM »


I love all the things that everyone has mentioned here. One of my favorite moments in that scene is how Jack and Ennis nuzzle one another when they're trying to break apart so Ennis can take him upstairs. Ennis presses his nose against Jack's in  affection and tenderness, as if to say that 'this is hard to do', and a promise they won't have to wait long for the motel. This feels just as passionate to me as the kissing.

I also love how in that initial hug (sonavabitch...), you can feel the heat -- they are squeezing each other as if they can't get enough. And when they pull apart, it's just barely. They still have their arms wrapped around each other. And yes, that look Jack gives Ennis' lips. He's a goner.

kumari

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Re: The Reunion
« Reply #21 on: January 11, 2006, 07:26:28 PM »
Kumari, I agree with you up until the time Alma sees them from the doorway.  Then my own heart nearly broke because Alma isn't a bad person and doesn't deserve to get her feelings go through a ringer.  Then again, nobody in the film deserves the pain they've experienced.

Michelle Williams is dead-on in this scene when she says, ever so quietly, "'Lo." That is the only greeting to Jack that she can muster. No one in the room is breathing, for different reasons, of course.
I feel for Alma, as another tragedy in this story.
But what makes the tension even more palpable is that she is a part of the society that rejects their love. Alma is a good person, but she is homophobic and she is repulsed by what she has seen. She looks at Jack as if he is a circus freak.
I won't speculate as to how she would feel if she were not in that unenviable position, but her venomous "Jack Nasty" comment gives us a pretty good idea.

Offline ImEnnisShesJack

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Re: The Reunion
« Reply #22 on: January 11, 2006, 08:35:02 PM »
Michelle Williams is dead-on in this scene when she says, ever so quietly, "'Lo." That is the only greeting to Jack that she can muster. No one in the room is breathing, for different reasons, of course. I feel for Alma, as another tragedy in this story. But what makes the tension even more palpable is that she is a part of the society that rejects their love. Alma is a good person, but she is homophobic and she is repulsed by what she has seen. She looks at Jack as if he is a circus freak. I won't speculate as to how she would feel if she were not in that unenviable position, but her venomous "Jack Nasty" comment gives us a pretty good idea.

Given her reaction to his Bronco-bustin' story during dinner (with the reluctantly bemused smile), I think that Alma may have been looking for a reason NOT to like Ennis.  I really don't think in all of this that she ever HATED him.  She loved him.  She didn't like the Jack Twist part of his life - and really lacked the sophistication and education to be able to process and deal with that.  Since Ennis was already out of his element and comfort zone by eating dinner w/ his ex-wife and her new husband in their home, there was really no reason for Alma to go after him.  UNLESS she was looking for some way to wound him and/or justify her divorcing him.
"And when he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night."
~~Heath Ledger 1979-2008~~

Carol8159@yahoo.com

Offline sotoalf

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Re: The Reunion
« Reply #23 on: January 11, 2006, 08:52:33 PM »
Kumari, I agree with you up until the time Alma sees them from the doorway.  Then my own heart nearly broke because Alma isn't a bad person and doesn't deserve to get her feelings go through a ringer.  Then again, nobody in the film deserves the pain they've experienced.

Michelle Williams is dead-on in this scene when she says, ever so quietly, "'Lo." That is the only greeting to Jack that she can muster. No one in the room is breathing, for different reasons, of course.
I feel for Alma, as another tragedy in this story.
But what makes the tension even more palpable is that she is a part of the society that rejects their love. Alma is a good person, but she is homophobic and she is repulsed by what she has seen. She looks at Jack as if he is a circus freak.
I won't speculate as to how she would feel if she were not in that unenviable position, but her venomous "Jack Nasty" comment gives us a pretty good idea.

I agree with you re Michelle Williams' perfect response, but it's got nothing to do with "homophobia" - she just caught her husband kissing a man. Ask any straight woman on this board if she wouldn't respond with the same degree of horror, especially if they came from less tolerant households themselves. Add this to the more predictable but no less traumatic experience of being the spurned woman and you have ample reason for her to blast Ennis years later with her devastating "Jack Nasty" remark.

Offline lauren

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Re: The Reunion
« Reply #24 on: January 12, 2006, 07:10:37 AM »
Kumari, I agree with you up until the time Alma sees them from the doorway.  Then my own heart nearly broke because Alma isn't a bad person and doesn't deserve to get her feelings go through a ringer.  Then again, nobody in the film deserves the pain they've experienced.

Michelle Williams is dead-on in this scene when she says, ever so quietly, "'Lo." That is the only greeting to Jack that she can muster. No one in the room is breathing, for different reasons, of course.
I feel for Alma, as another tragedy in this story.
But what makes the tension even more palpable is that she is a part of the society that rejects their love. Alma is a good person, but she is homophobic and she is repulsed by what she has seen. She looks at Jack as if he is a circus freak.
I won't speculate as to how she would feel if she were not in that unenviable position, but her venomous "Jack Nasty" comment gives us a pretty good idea.

Just another thought here: I think it was in the LOGO special where Michele Williams (or McMurtry or Ossanna) says that Alma doesn't understand what she's seen (paraphrasing) and that it creates a lot of questions in her mind. She doesn't understand because "queer" isn't something that's entered her world at all. It has a devastating effect on her because she has seen something so out of the realm of her understanding, but yet it's still her husband in passionate embrace, more passionate than he has been with her. In time (or maybe at that time) she realizes in her heart that what she has seen fits with Ennis' behavior around her (moving away to the side of bed at night, etc., his dispassion towards her)  She never talks to Ennis about it (and we know Ennis can't talk about it), and so after years pass, she's drawn her own conclusions based on ignorance (probably what she's heard around) and bitterness. That "Jack nasty" to me reflects what the community (in general) would have thought, and that is so hard to have Ennis hear it like that, to have their tremendous love reduced to that. 

imennisshesjack

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Re: The Reunion
« Reply #25 on: January 12, 2006, 08:01:36 AM »
"have this to say about the reunion scene, I find myself really watching what happens with Jack/Jake... and the look on his face when Ennis has grabbed him and kissed him so unbelievably.. and is holding him by the head, oh my God"

Wow. Yeah. And as ImJackShe'sEnnis pointed out to me, watch Jake's eyes in that little clip on the Pathe (French) site. Afer they kiss, Jack can't keep his eyes off Ennis's mouth. Just like he could eat him alive.

*sigh*
 :-[

Offline sotoalf

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Re: The Reunion
« Reply #26 on: January 12, 2006, 09:15:04 AM »
it's a lovely acting moment from Gyllenhaal – one of the few times in his and Ennis' sad relationship in which the reality matched his dreaming. The devastation in his eyes ("I can't believe he loves me," they seem to say) when Ennis pulls away after the kiss is so heartbreaking.

Offline sotoalf

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Re: The Reunion
« Reply #27 on: January 12, 2006, 09:44:41 AM »
Oh – if someone has photos or links to streamed video of Ennis and Jack post-kiss, just before they head upstairs, I'll be most grateful.

Offline scot5636

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Re: The Reunion
« Reply #28 on: January 12, 2006, 11:08:54 AM »
Since Ennis was already out of his element and comfort zone by eating dinner w/ his ex-wife and her new husband in their home, there was really no reason for Alma to go after him.  UNLESS she was looking for some way to wound him and/or justify her divorcing him.

I think Ennis provoked Alma's response in that scene.  She asks him why he hasn't remarried, and he responds something like "oh, you know, once burned . . ." implying that the divorce was Alma's fault.  You can argue that, by asking the first question, Alma was already heading that way.  But when Ennis tries to blame her, she wants to set the record straight (so to speak).

In that scene, when Alma throws out the "Jack nasty" comment, and Ennis grabs her arm -- does Ennis say "you don't know nothin' about it, or "you don't know nothin' about him" ??  I'd like to think that he would jump to Jack's defense, but his character is much more likely to be more concerned about the revelation, and therefor try to pretend that it was something other than what it was.

Offline lauren

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Re: The Reunion
« Reply #29 on: January 12, 2006, 12:37:46 PM »
Since Ennis was already out of his element and comfort zone by eating dinner w/ his ex-wife and her new husband in their home, there was really no reason for Alma to go after him.  UNLESS she was looking for some way to wound him and/or justify her divorcing him.

I think Ennis provoked Alma's response in that scene.  She asks him why he hasn't remarried, and he responds something like "oh, you know, once burned . . ." implying that the divorce was Alma's fault.  You can argue that, by asking the first question, Alma was already heading that way.  But when Ennis tries to blame her, she wants to set the record straight (so to speak).

In that scene, when Alma throws out the "Jack nasty" comment, and Ennis grabs her arm -- does Ennis say "you don't know nothin' about it, or "you don't know nothin' about him" ??  I'd like to think that he would jump to Jack's defense, but his character is much more likely to be more concerned about the revelation, and therefor try to pretend that it was something other than what it was.

He says, 'you don't know nothin' about er,' meaning she doesn't know anything about the relationship with Jack and what it means to him.