It's an interesting topic to discuss and compare Annie Proulx's short story, and Ang Lee's film. And it's worthwhile from the point of view of understanding how films are inspired and how they are developed and finally presented. I enjoy that sort of discussion myself.
However, I would like to make another point here,
The film is the film and the short story is the short story!
Unlike, for example, a factual documentary on the life of JFK wihich may have left a viewer with unanswered questions, unclear points, or omissions, and for clarification and answers to those questiions, the viewer could turn to an authorized published factual biography of JFK, one can not view the film, BBM and then turn to Annie Proulx's short story to answer questions about the film.
There are four main characters if one wants to discuss both media versions. There is Film Jack and there is Story Jack, and there is Film Ennis and there is Story Ennis. These are 4 independent artistic and fictional characters and artistic creations.
It is obvious that Ang Lee, Diana Ossana, and Larry McMurtry have based their film work on the short story but they were not creating a documentary of the story! In essence what they have done, and what every film-maker does who isn't creating a documentary, is INTERPRET that work of art from the one media into another work of art in a different media.
Consequently, while it is an interesting discussion to compare the two works of art, it isn't fair to use the one as an explanation of the other, or worse to fault the one for being different from the other.
Many here in this thread have commented on and noted the differences in the two media's versions of Ennis's character, and in actuality the two Ennis's are NOT the same character, so it should be no surprise that they differ.
This is one of my personal soap-boxes, because it always amazes me when some people WON'T view and asess the film on its own merits. And if I stated the situation in reverese, the unfairness of it becomes quite obvious, namely to criticize Annie Proulx's short story for failing to present the more developed Lureen or Alma from the movie! (creation sequence disregarded of course for this example)
I think both works are wonderful and amazing and true works of art in their respective media. And they each stand on their own.
Myself, I am quite happy to have both couples in my life!
As Phillip currently has in his signature line, Annie Proulx has said that the story is not finished until the reader reads it and brings his/her own interpretations to those words she has chosen in crafting her story. So surely Ang Lee has as much right as any other reader to bring his own interpretations to life. Annie Proulx has said that she was overwhelmed with how accurately he had got the essence of her characters. So while she herself was obviously aware of these differences in the film from her story, she felt more than satisfied with Ang Lee's film presentation.
Jack in Maine