Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
Why not read the original short story by Annie Proulx?
juneaux:
To be honest, Br. Pat, I haven't finished many of the *other* stories in the collection~ I tend to keep rereading the one that stole my heart. I will let you know when I do complete them and my thoughts about the entire book.
I live in the South so didn't need to look up some of the terms about which Wayne was unsure. However, I, too was clueless in regards to stemming roses. :D
It is wonderful that the people on this board are so willing to share their thoughts about this story. When I try to discuss it with my friends they call me obsessed. (To be fair, this topic has dominated my thoughts and conversations for the past four months...)
Phillip Dampier:
--- Quote from: Chris on March 11, 2006, 03:32:16 am ---Hmmm, ok... All of this may be true. But I think the main point I was trying to make was that, as with all scripts, revisions are made as the pieces come together and the writer/producer/director sees what's working and what isn't. So some things are changed or left out entirely and others are inserted based on the creative skill of the people involved. When I read the short story I also revelled in the more explicit nature of the Jack/Ennis relationship, but I am happy that ALL of this was left out because this was a film predominantly about love and regret, and less about the sex that occurs. Clearly you find the first tent scene unrealistic and the book gives you a way of explaining this sequence better. You have a perfectly valid point, and maybe this could have been done better. But does this admonition ruin the film for you, or does it just give you a reason to enjoy the book as well? I like the idea of the latter.
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The more graphic stuff being left out also cuts down the negative campaigning against the film, which turned out to be more muted than one would have thought. There were no boycotts, just the usual nonsense that it was Hollywood trying to change America into a liberal bastion. With more graphic sex scenes, I'm sure we would have heard more whining. I didn't think the actual "sex" itself was as important as the conveyed emotions. This was not at all a "turn on" film for me. It was an emotional movie all the way through.
Fla_Tim:
Over the weekend I read the short story for the first time, and it did me some good in dealing with some of the feelings I was left with after leaving the theater.
As some of you have said, Ennis's feelings for Jack come shining through in the short story, where in the film since he internalized so much, it is not as evident.
Probably the best thing it did was clear out some of the horror I felt watching the images of Jack's death. I came away from the film thinking Jack had been murdered, and possibly by his father-in-law. Annie Proulx's ending is somewhat cryptic, but the tire iron seems to be Ennis's nightmare of what he thought happened stirred up by what his father made him see as a child (the body of the murdered gay man). The author actualy starts the section talking about Jack's death something like "He heard about the accident...", and she is clear in the story when she talks about the father in law having predeceased Jack.
donnaread:
--- Quote from: iristarr on March 09, 2006, 04:03:20 am ---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
[/quote Yes, Yes, Lynne, there are a lot of "little things" in the story that didn't make it into the movie. Some I'm glad they didn't, like Jacks: "Guns going off". I think its better he said nothing...that ground pounding was extremely sensual, and to me extremely "real" Jack sounds like he's enjoying it, but its also painful. He DOES sound like he's giving grunts of pain as well as pleasure. Ennis says a lot more in the story than the book...Also, Jack doesn't tell Ennis (in the movie) about Aguirre seeing them, and you know Jack knows before Aguirre tells him that next summer. When Aguirre comes to tell Jack his uncle Harold is in the hospital, he looks up through his binoculars to see Ennis on the mountain, and when he does, Jack gets a look of realization on his face that tells you that he knows Aguirre had been watching him and Ennis with those same binoculars. Also, in the movie Ennis didn't tell Jack he broke down in the alley after they parted. There are a bunch of "little things" like that. I am SO glad they did the flashback of Ennis holding Jack by the fire...its one of the three times Ennis shows affection for Jack. The other two times are the 2nd tent scene, and when they reunite after four years. But the reunion is more about passion and longing than tenderness. Jack is much more affectionate and tender with Ennis than the other way around. I LOVE the motel scene when Jack is holding Ennis against his chest, its just so sweet.
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Fla_Tim:
And I just loved the spare taut prose of Annie Proulx. I had been reading a trashy gossipy novel, Saturday I read Brokeback Mountain and when I finished and started up reading the novel I felt like I was breaking out from the novel (Male Model), everything was described to the nth degree which gave me fits. I only got through it because these were the only two things I brought on an out of town trip.
Any reccomendations from Annie Proulx's other works?
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