Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
Comparison between '03 to '05 screenplay: would we still be discussing this film
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: nakymaton on September 29, 2006, 05:35:21 pm ---(Movie-Ennis, on the other hand, says his brother and sister "did the best they could.")
But given how little movie-Ennis says about anything, it wouldn't surprise me if he didn't have the same traumatic childhood, but is less willing to talk about it.
--- End quote ---
Yes, I think "did the best they could" is also evidence of movie-Ennis's willingness to make do with beans.
--- Quote ---So I'm wondering if story-Ennis simply dealt the abuse in a different way -- by burying some of his emotions, for instance -- whereas movie-Ennis pulled away from people and withdrew completely?
--- End quote ---
Yes, that could be. I guess both Ennises had more or less the same childhoods; it's their adult personalities that differ. So yeah, I guess they were just inherently different people. Er, uh, characters.
--- Quote ---I wonder if movie-Ennis was simply a more sensitive child in general? That sounds weird, I guess. But you know how Heath described Ennis as being very sensitive to light, to sounds, to everything? Well, the tiny amount of reading I did in child-raising books (before I threw them on the floor and went to chase my own child...) told me that even kids who can't speak yet respond to people in totally different ways.
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I can attest to this as the mother of two sons who are close in age but very different in personalities, in ways that were obvious from the time they were about one week old.
My older son, in fact, is probably one of those ultra-sensitive-to-sights-and-sounds kids. And it's hard to imagine anybody whose personality is less like Ennis'. One of our therapists theorized that he responds to the constant barrage of sensory information by insisting on absolute control over his environment. In other words, he doesn't settle for beans, and if you don't fix it, he can't stand it.
dly64:
After reading this discussion I wonder who influenced the final "Ennis" we saw on the screen? Had the '03 version been filmed, Ennis would have been portrayed more like the book ... much more talkative. Jack would have been less gregarious. And since Heath described Ennis (as Mel pointed out) as one who was sensitive to light and sound (almost wincing at everything) ... did that influence a script change? Jake saw Jack as a bad rodeo cowboy and ranch hand, but who also tried his hardest to do the best he could. Did that influence the final version?
I had stated earlier, wrongly, that Ang wanted to cut out Jack and Ennis kissing at the reunion scene. What I realized is that Ang wanted to cut out Alma seeing Jack and Ennis kissing when they reunited because he thought it would be too shocking. Thank goodness DO and LM fought to keep that in since that is such a key scene!
Maybe this becomes one of those discussions ... "what came first? The chicken or the egg?"
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: dly64 on September 29, 2006, 07:34:47 pm ---And since Heath described Ennis (as Mel pointed out) as one who was sensitive to light and sound (almost wincing at everything) ... did that influence a script change?
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This is another comment that probably belongs on the story/film thread, but ... I'm always kind of surprised that Annie said something like, Heath understood Ennis better than she did. Because the Ennis we see Heath playing is such a different person. I would argue he's a more fleshed-out character, which may be what she's alluding to. (Though I know not everyone would agree with that.)
nakymaton:
--- Quote from: latjoreme on September 29, 2006, 07:50:37 pm ---This is another comment that probably belongs on the story/film thread, but ... I'm always kind of surprised that Annie said something like, Heath understood Ennis better than she did. Because the Ennis we see Heath playing is such a different person.
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Maybe Ennis was a real person in her head, and she felt he was hard to capture in words, and she felt like the character that Heath created was what she had been aiming for all that time, but which still eluded her, even after all the revisions.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: nakymaton on September 30, 2006, 12:17:08 am ---Maybe Ennis was a real person in her head, and she felt he was hard to capture in words, and she felt like the character that Heath created was what she had been aiming for all that time, but which still eluded her, even after all the revisions.
--- End quote ---
That makes perfect sense to me. I think of it as, Annie created this character, Heath (and/or Ang) read it and took it another step further, Annie saw that and said, yeah, that's what I meant. Which is not, I hope, a derrogatory comment about any of them. Ennis was sort of a product of collaborative effort. And what a product!
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