Anatomy of a Scene

A Serious Man is about a man named Larry Gopnik a Jewish man living in 1967. Larry is a physics

professor on his way to tenure. Out of no where his life starts to crumble before his eyes. His wife Judith,

demands a get (jewish divorce) so she can marry another man within the community who had been

widowed. As if that isn’t enough Larry takes in his homeless and troubled brother, all while being faced

with troubles at work. One of Larry’s students failing his class demanded a passing grade. After refusing

to raise the students grade, the student bribes him with money left in an envelope. Refusing the bribe and

trying to return the money to the student, this student denies all allegations. Later this students father finds

Larry and threatens to sue him for either defamation of his son if he doesn’t raise his grade, or for

accepting the money. Larrys tenure becomes looked into as letters were written to the committee urging

them to not grant tenure to Larry. Judith’s other man dies in a car accident, leading to Judith eventually

apologizing to him for all the recent trouble in his life. This movie was very scattered and at times hard

to follow. Not only was the scripting poor, but in my opinion has no comedic value to it. 

Brokeback Mountain takes place in the Wyoming mountains on a ranch. Two men Ennis Del Mar and

Jack Twist get hired as ranch hands to watch over the sheep. Over time the two men develop an intimate

and close relationship. Being in a time and place where homosexuality was not accepted, this dynamic

was very difficult for Ennis to accept. Despite their connection the two men go on to live separate lives

where they married women and had children. Throughout time the men would get together for “fishing

trips”, which was code for them to spend intimate time with one another. A scene that really stood out to

me that added a dramatic flare to the movie was the horrific incident when Ennis tells Jack about a man

from his hometown who was beaten to death for living and ranching with another man. As a small child

Ennis’s father made it a point to show him this disgusting act, almost as if to put fear into him to keep

him from being gay. During this scene we get a glimpse of 9 year old Ennis witnessing this act of horror,

adding even more to the dramatic flare of the scene. Transitioning viewpoints between the present and

9 year old Ennis’s past creates a sense of trauma. Ultimately this scene seems to be a major factor in the

suppression of Ennis's homosexuality, leading to misery throughout his adulthood. When Ennis gets the

strength to reach out to Jack, he finds out that Jack died from a terrible tragedy.