Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
Why not read the original short story by Annie Proulx?
TJ:
While I might have liked the movie better if it had been from an original screenplay by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, I actually like the Annie Proulx's original short story better.
Larry McMurtry admitted in a Time magazine interview that he created extra women on purpose for the story because he likes women.
The screenplay writers also created other characters which were not in the book, too.
Br. Patrick:
The Motel scene in the short story is just fantastic. I have the book "Brokeback Mountain - Story to Screenplay" with the original short story (which I had to use a dictionary to get through (well worth the effort)) AND it also includes the Screenplay along with three additional short essays from Annie Proulx, Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana. (Great book!)
In Annie's essay she writes how she wrote a letter pleading for the Motel scene. Some aspects of it turn up at the last meeting in the film, but there are really great other things too. I especially like Jack wanting more time THEN with Ennis saying, "Come on Ennis, you just shot my airplane out of the sky - give me somethin a go on. This ain't no little thing that's happenin here."
In the movie they DO get more time but it would have been great if they used Annie's dialog for Jack. In the film Jack is SO happy but Ennis looks SO CONFLICTED! This is true of course but as it been said in another thread, Annie's Ennis says, "Took me about a year a figure out it was that I shouldn't a let you out of my sights. Too late then by a long, long while."
It's things like this that should make Annie Proulx's short story MANDATORY reading for everybody who loves the film!
juneaux:
After seeing the film for the first time I purchased the short story and read it about 4 times before giving it to a friend. Got another copy and read it a couple of times and gave *it* to another friend. I now have a copy of "Wyoming Stories" in my bedside table. (It is more difficult to give away when the book is NOT on my person.)
Lynne:
I loved the short story, but I must admit that the movie made the story come alive for me. I've re-read the story several times interspersed with movie viewings and I appreciate it more each time. I think the prologue about the dream is fantastic, considering how it's worked its way into many of our own dreams. I'm slowly working my way through the other Wyoming short stories in that volume.
iristarr:
Hi Lynne and Juneau. In response to your posts about reading the story -- an evening or two ago I was re-reading it, and I noticed for the first time how (IMO) Ennis got a little shortchanged in the character-building department. He's sometimes made me a tad impatient with his near-total emotional blockage and some viewers have voiced the opinion that they doubted the depth of his love for Jack.
But here's what I think they left out: unless my ears failed me, Ennis never says "li'l darlin' during the kiss scene, as he does in the book. In the motel scene he says, "I never had no thoughts a doin it with another guy except I sure wrang it out a hunderd times thinkin about you." And in the next paragraph: "That summer, when we split up after we got paid out I had gut cramps so bad I pulled over and tried to puke, thought I ate somethin bad at that place in Dubois. Took me about a year to figure out it was that I shouldn't a let you out a my sights. Too late then by a long, long while."
Not that I personally ever doubted Ennis' love, but I do believe these sentiments he expresses in the book round out and deepen my feelings about it and I think they might have a similar effect on other viwers, especially those not so addicted to the story that they stay up late at night discovering such little details six weeks after first seeing it. Anyone else notice this stuff? Iris
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version