Film vs. Book -- Which was better?

[CellarDweller115]

Comparison of Annie Proulx's 'Broke Back Mountain' with Ang Lee's Film Counterpart

This essay will aim to compare the film version of 'Brokeback Mountain' with Annie Proulx's short story. It will explain, discuss as well as evaluate the ways in which Ang Lee represented key themes and ideas through-out the film. Many themes and ideas were dealt with in the film, some of which will be looked at such as, relationships, love, desire and the gothic.

Ang Lee was able to express Jack and Ennis's masculinity through their physical features, the jobs that they undertook, as well as through their clothing, throughout the movie. The two men were seen to be working on the land, doing strenuous physical labour and played out the masculine roles in society. In both the movie and the short story Jack and Ennis' relationship with nature was masculine in the way that they spent a great deal of time in the open countryside at work. Their relationship with the land strengthened through the depiction of their love making on Brokeback Mountain which showed their deep connection and confidence with their surroundings. Even though the men were portrayed as masculine figures throughout both the film and the story, there was also a very prominent shift in the gender roles, as Jack and Ennis both alternated between the traditional roles of male & female. 'Central to Proulx's thinking is not only the subjectivity of people shaped by geographical constraints, limits and opportunities, but also that the social worlds produced reveal personal narratives of engagement which often question determined social roles.' It could be argued that the short story was wholly about the love of two men for each other and how this impacted on the lives they were expected to lead. However the movie focused more on their home life and domestic roles, such as Ennis failing to provide and care for his children. The short story only briefly mentioned Ennis' family life. In the movie, there was great insight into the men's married life whereas in the book there is not much emphasis on this. This would have helped the viewer to delve more deeply into their personal lives and therefore have a better understanding of them.

https://us.ukessays.com/essays/film-studies/reviewing-the-film-version-of-brokeback-mountain-film-studies-essay.php

[CellarDweller115]

The Love Story of Annie Proulx’s ‘Brokeback Mountain’


by Charles E. May


In the last few years I was teaching the short story, the liveliest and most contentious class discussion I had with my students was about Annie Proulx’s ‘Brokeback Mountain’, because my students wanted to avoid discussing the story itself and talk instead about the social issue of homosexuality.

I know this was partially due to the trend Denis Donoghue lamented a few years ago – that his students did not want to talk about literature, but rather large-scale public themes.

They are happy to denounce imperialism and colonialism rather than read Heart of Darkness, Kim, and A Passage to India in which imperialism and colonialism are held up to complex judgment. They are voluble in giving you their opinions on race and its injustices, but nearly tongue-tied when it is a question of submitting themselves to the languages of The Sound and the Fury, Things Fall Apart, and A Bend in the River.

However, in the case of ‘Brokeback Mountain’, the controversy in my classroom cut deeper than that. I raised the ire of my students when I argued that the story was not about the social issue of homosexuality or gay life, but that it was a love story that just happened to involve two men. My students felt more comfortable with the story if they could slap a label on the characters and place the story within a recognisable social context.

https://www.thresholdsarchive.org.uk/the-love-story-of-annie-proulxs-brokeback-mountain/

[gattaca]

interesting story from 2014... but the summary still HOLDS -> "Annie Proulx’s story is not about social issues, for falling in love is, by its very nature, the most antisocial and irrational thing one can do, and when people fall in love they do not fall in love with a social category or a type, but rather with an individual. The significance of Annie Proulx’s story is that when people love each other, gender is irrelevant."  V.

[Jeff Wrangler]

https://us.ukessays.com/essays/film-studies/reviewing-the-film-version-of-brokeback-mountain-film-studies-essay.php

If I understand correctly what I'm reading, I think the author is quite wrong when he (I'm going to use "he") says that the story and the film had a definitive ending, and the audience knew exactly what happened to Jack.

How much "ink" have we spilled since 2006 arguing over whether Lureen's account is the reality or Ennis's belief it was the tire iron--at least in the story. Of course, for going on 20 years now I've been guilty of confounding the story and the film. 

I also wish I knew more about that comment about the shift in gender roles with Ennis and Jack "alternating" the "traditional roles of male & female" because on the face of it I disagree. I've always felt that Ennis was always the "pitcher" and Jack the "catcher," just as we see in the first night in the tent.

[CellarDweller115]

Revisiting an interview from 2005, giving that the anniversary just recently passed.


Annie Proulx tells the story behind "Brokeback Mountain"


Annie Proulx figured no magazine would touch her short story "Brokeback Mountain," the tale of two Wyoming cowboys whose romance is so intense, it sometimes leaves them black and blue. But The New Yorker published it in 1997, and it went on to win an O. Henry prize and a National Magazine Award. Now the movie version is a leading Oscar contender, with starring performances from Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal as Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist.

In a telephone conversation with the Associated Press from her home in Wyoming, Proulx, a 70-year-old Pulitzer Prize-winner, declined to discuss the origins of her two roughneck lovers, citing an upcoming book written with screenwriters Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana. Instead, she spoke about homophobia, her fascination with rural life, and the process of making Twist and Del Mar live and breathe.


https://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/entertainment-news/2005/12/17/annie-proulx-tells-story-behind-brokeback

[gattaca]

^^ Another great article covering an AP interview.  Thanks for the link!

"AP: How did you feel about seeing it on the big screen?

Proulx: It was really quite a shock because I had had nothing to do with the film. So for 18 months, I had no idea what was happening. I had no idea if it was going to be good or frightful or scary, if it was going to be terribly lost or sentimentalized or what. When I saw it in September, I was astonished. The thing that happened while I was writing the story eight years ago is that from thinking so much about the characters and putting so much time into them, they became embedded in my consciousness. They became as real to me as real, walk-around, breathe-oxygen people. It took a long time to get these characters out of my head so I could get on with work. Then when I saw the film, they came rushing back. It was extraordinary--just wham--they were with me again. "

V.