Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum

Ang Lee and the POM synergy

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Front-Ranger:
Have you noticed that there are several places where Ossana/McMurty riff off of Annie Proulx's prose or move it to another place in the story? This occurs in the use of geographic directions, to name one. In the story, the topic of directions comes up in the early sexual relationship between Ennis and Alma. AP writes of Ennis that his, "...fingers moving...all the way to the North Pole or the equator, depending on which way you thought you were sailing..." But in the movie, the directions theme pops up instead with Jack and Lureen, where Jack says, "Fast or slow, I just like the direction you're going." However, in both the movie and the book, it's clear that Jack and Ennis are going in the wrong direction, Alma and Lureen too, for that matter. There are quite a few other examples of the Proulx/Ossana/McMurtry (POM) synergy. It's not a matter of whether the story is better than the movie or vise versa, it's a matter of appreciating all the elements these great minds brought to the work.

Penthesilea:

--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on August 28, 2006, 10:15:45 am ---This occurs in the use of geographic directions, to name one. In the story, the topic of directions comes up in the early sexual relationship between Ennis and Alma. AP writes of Ennis that his, "...fingers moving...all the way to the North Pole or the equator, depending on which way you thought you were sailing..." But in the movie, the directions theme pops up instead with Jack and Lureen, where Jack says, "Fast or slow, I just like the direction you're going."
--- End quote ---

Lee, that's great. A good observation. I never connected these two scenes in the way of descibing directions.


--- Quote ---There are quite a few other examples of the Proulx/Ossana/McMurtry (POM) synergy.
--- End quote ---

I'd like to hear more examples. A more obvious one that comes to my mind is this one:

From story:
"...nothing he'd done before, but no instruction manual needed" (BTW, I love this phrase)

From movie:
Ennis: "Speak for yourself. You may be a sinner, but I ain't yet had the oppurtunity."

Both let us know Ennis was a virgin at this point.


On a similar note, I would put Ang Lee's direction into account, too. There are some scenes which I find particulary well transferred from story to movie. For example when they head up the mountain at the beginning:

From story:
"Ennis and Jack, the dogs, horses and mules, a thousand ewes and their lambs flowed up the trail like dirty water through the timber ..."

This is really what it looked like. I saw the movie first and when this scene was shown, at first I thought indeed it was water running down the mountain, instead of a flow of sheep heading up the mountain.
I was surprised to read the description in the story later. I attach a picture of this scene.



--- Quote --- It's not a matter of whether the story is better than the movie or vise versa, it's a matter of appreciating all the elements these great minds brought to the work.

--- End quote ---
Yep, full agreement here. And, as I said befoe, I think Ang Lee belongs with them.

jpwagoneer1964:
iIt would have been cool if they had incorperated Ennis having dreams about Jack at the end. Perhaps a montoge of thie times together befor "Jack I swear..."

Front-Ranger:
Perhaps they did! I'll have to review the screenplay.

And yes you're right about the Proulx-Lee (P-L) synergy too, pent. Here's an example: There's a big trash bucket outside the door of Ennis's trailer in the last scene, and there's a big fan on his bed. Those are both visual code for Jack. Especially having the fan on the bed harks back to Proulx's line about Ennis waking up after dreaming about Jack and "sometimes the pillow was wet, sometimes the sheets."

Mikaela:
I think this may be a little bit on the side of what you're discussing here, but I've noted the careful use of descriptive passages from the short story that have been inserted in the screenplay as mood setters/ instructions to actors/director. And not only in the appropriate and directly corresponding scenes between short story and film (like for instance the mention of Ennis's failure to embrace Jack face-to-face in relation to the dozy embrace), but also mixed so that one scene in the short story provides background material for an entirely other scene in the screenplay/film. For instance, the wind hitting the trailer like a load of dirt coming off a dump truck pesters lonely Ennis in the prologue in the short story, but has moved to shake Aguirre's trailer during Jack's attempt to get work on Brokeback in 1964 in the screenplay. I really like the way O/M has taken care to use those distinct and mood-setting parts of the short story as much as possible in this way.

I'm sorry they didn't find the opportunity to include more of the descriptive passages of the first days of Jack and Ennis's last fishing trip, because of the many lovely nature images there that simultaneously are used to characterize jack and Ennis and their relationship. (Jack drowning in the boneless blue sky looking up, the ochre-branched willows, the tea-colored river....etc ) But that scene in the short story does provide a bear that makes the horses startle, so I suppose that's the very bear got transplanted to the early Brokeback days in the film.  :)

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