Film vs. Book -- Which was better?

[CellarDweller115]

From YouTube, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN by Annie Proulx BOOK REVIEW


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3kyqhRr0jQ

[CellarDweller115]

Hiya UBF members.

While searching around Google, I found a site that poses 8 questions.  The site seems to be geared toward the short story, but I see no reason that they can't be applied to the movie as well.

I'll post one question at a time, to keep the posts focused on it.

When I post the 8th question, I'll post the link to the website, and edit the prior posts to add the site link to give it the proper credit.

Not sure if these topics have been discussed before.   Perhaps these will be new topics.


Why do you think this story sticks so closely to Ennis, while keeping its distance from Jack? Does the story lose something from not giving us his perspective?

[CellarDweller115]

Just my opinion, but I think the story sticks to Ennis because it's his story.

Yes, the topic of rural homophobia would affect both Jack and Ennis, but it was suggested that Jack was not as affected by it, hinting that Jack had other relationships or encounters with other men.  Ennis, on the other hand was a M/M 'virgin', so to speak.   His mind held on to the image of the tough old birds who had been murdered, and it stayed with him all his life.

Even though I think most viewers of the movie, and readers of the story accept Jack's murder with a crowbar, it was meant to be ambiguous, but Ennis believed it was the crowbar, and it shows how ingrained the rural homophobia was for him.

Telling the the story with the focus on Jack wouldn't have had the impact that it did with the focus on Ennis.

[michaelflanagansf]

The story sticks with Ennis because it's necessary for the narrative perspective. If the story were Jack's story it would end at Jack's death. But the narrative arc continues to Ennis' discovery of Jack's death and then his realization that he has thrown away the love of his life. And in the story it shows how empty Ennis' life is after Jack is gone (the peeing in the sink scene). He is bereft, he has an empty life and is drifting.

[dejavu]

I agree with Michael.  This is putting it in very simplistic terms, but the story couldn't have ended with Jack's death.  The story was about Jack, but it was the story of how Ennis saw the world, including Jack.  So it needed to continue until Ennis comes to some sort of resolution.

[gattaca]

Ennis was always the film's main protagonists.  The film opens with Ennis getting outta the transfer truck and then closes with Ennis bound to his small, trailer while fields of golden wheat sway in the wind outside - visible from that small, scratched window. 

By focusing on Ennis, that approach was the best way for story to play. The homophobia expressed throughout, even by Ennis when he's _with_ Jack on multiple occasions, is crucial and powerful to their struggle, love and intimacy.  The story presents Ennis' internal turmoil vividly in flash-backs... something we never see from Jack.

Later, V.

[frokes]

Thanks to everyone for your interesting discussion!

The homophobia is definitely the core conflict in the film. There are some smaller conflicts in the film as well, but over all Brokeback Mountain is comparable to a cycle of life where we get to see many different moments.

[royandronnie]

I think also that in staying more or less in Ennis' head we see how little he understood Jack, or his own feelings, or really how little he wanted to. In a real way he never quite accepted Jack into his life: they met and parted, so until it was too late Jack remained part of that firmly externalized "thing." He could be taken up, discarded, blamed--but never in control or truly directing events. So Ennis was safe…or so he thought.

[Omar]

I remember upon my last rewatch a few months ago how frustrated I was with the story exactly for that reason. Not in the sense that there was something to be criticized, but I definitely noticed for the first time how Ennis-centric brokeback mountain is. I think most people relate to ennis more when watching since he really is the main protagonist, and I don't think the average viewer can pick up on that.

For the first time, not only was I able to relate my experiences with jack more, but I also shared his anger and frustration with ennis. I can project so many experiences of intense unreciprocated emotions and desires that left me miserable to the point where even typing this out is making me uncomfortable.

 I hated how much of an "object" Jack felt in the story as royanronnie put it, but I guess thats entirely the point. Ennis's pain in the end is augmented by the fact that he never fully let jack be more than this... thing that, despite loving, ennis only uses to fulfill the void every now and then, despite having had decades to really connect to him on a spiritual level. I feel like since ennis is the observer, we by extension genuinely don't know all that much about jack, at least not in the same way that we understand ennis's psyche

[gattaca]

We learned about Jack's being and life through mostly his eyes - sometimes literally. 

We first meet Jack at the truck, looking at Ennis while he's shaving in the mirror (a).  The interest, the longing. 

In many scenes, we see Jack's world through his eyes and sometimes literally we are shown his eyes to help focus his pain or desire.

Remember the scene were Ennis returns to camp after the horse was spooked by the bear?  The look of tenderness and caring always plays so sincere - the longing and concern is evident.    Or the look the Jack gives Ennis (c) as the part at the truck after that first summer on Brokeback. or the look when Jack's talking to the Rodeo clown at the bar.   On and the so powerful "Dozy Embrace" which has been the opening page for UBF ever since...   (d).  There are just so many.  V.
 
a) YT -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHk76Ccadxs
b) YT -> 3:35 in -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHk76Ccadxs
c) YT -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaZzcRtmXXY&list=PLZbXA4lyCtqpbGlOHA8VTSnj-LLM5Tzcw&index=5
d) YT -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaJvt1PoPHQ

[Jeff Wrangler]

Somebody left a copy of Story to Screenplay in our book room (behind the mail room in my building). I brought it up to my place to check against my own copy to see if it might have been a different printing in a different format. It wasn't.

I'm going to hold on to it, and the next time I donate books to our LGBTQ+ used book store, I'll include it.

[CellarDweller115]

OH, nice idea, Jeff.

[CellarDweller115]

Short Story Review: Brokeback Mountain

Howdy Bookworms and Bibliophiles,

This evening short story review comes after a long day of mourning for a dear friend of mine that I’ve recently lost. I’d made plans to read this short story before now, but as fate would have it, I didn’t get to it until now.

I always liked the movie Brokeback Mountain, and in my quest to broaden my horizons in reads, I gave this short story a chance. It had great reviews and a story I was familiar with. Some of the themes present I can really relate to as well.

I’m gay, and though times have certainly changed, certain relationships of mine have died due to that fact, some of them with family members, some with friends I thought would support me to the end.

But before I blab too much about my life, let’s get right into things, yes?

https://jonathanpongratz.com/2020/01/26/short-story-review-brokeback-mountain/

[CellarDweller115]

Brokeback Mountain Introduction


Remember that movie Brokeback Mountain from a while back? It stirred up a whole lot of controversy, nabbed itself an Academy Award nomination or two, and had mediocre stand-up comments quoting it's famous "I wish I knew how to quit you line."

Yeah, we bet you remember that. But what you might not know is that because Hollywood is now legally forbidden from producing original ideas, the movie Brokeback Mountain was actually based on a short story called "Brokeback Mountain" written by Annie Proulx. Long before Heath Ledger put his own twist on high altitude shepherding, Proulx came along and gave us a love story that serves up doses of elegance and pain in equal measures.

Why pain? Well, because in the olden days of the 1960s and 70s where the story is set, a romantic relationship between two men was rather frowned upon. And by "rather frowned upon" we mean that men who entered into such relationships risked not only their reputations, but also their lives—as Ennis and Jack do in "Brokeback Mountain."


https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/brokeback-mountain

[CellarDweller115]

Literature to Film: Brokeback Mountain

Amanda Honigfort - Jul 15, 2022


Ang Lee presents an incredibly faithful portrait of Annie Proulx’s novella, Brokeback Mountain, in his film adaption of the same name. The story centers around two cowboys, Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar, who unexpectedly find themselves drawn together with a passion neither can fully understand. Both the film and the novella follow their brief meetings throughout their lives, beginning at the start of their story — a summer spent herding sheep on Brokeback Mountain. It is a cowboy story, but a very different one than your typical cowboy story. In this story, the heroes do not win.

In order to adapt a work that was too short to allow a literal one-page-per-minute translation, Ang Lee took Annie Proulx’s work and filled in the gaps a bit. Instead of just jumping from one secret meeting to the next, Lee gives us a look into what the men’s lives are like at home. This adds meaning and depth to the film and rounds out Proulx’s characters beyond their development in the book. We see the conflict with their wives, their devotion to their children, their struggles with work, with family, and with balancing their time away. We see their conflict over their secret, unstoppable affair, and we see them stand up for and defend their respective families in typically macho ways.

https://medium.com/@AHonigfort/literature-to-film-brokeback-mountain-2668d8c34897