Author Topic: Why not read the original short story by Annie Proulx?  (Read 20273 times)

Offline Lynne

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Re: Why not read the original short story by Annie Proulx?
« Reply #10 on: March 11, 2006, 01:34:14 am »
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.) 

HAHAH "J"...I gave away MY one copy to my therapist on Monday.  Had to go out and buy another copy too.  I'm going to have to do the same thing.  Purchase a copy of Wyoming Stories and NOT take it out of the house!!   ;)

Nancy 

'It's funny how those cowboy stories never stay with you'....;-)  That's supposed to be a play on Lureen's 'It's funny how husbands never want to dance with their wives' line.... My brother has my personal copy of the short story, which he then loaned to his neighbor.  My officemate has my Wyoming Stories with the admonition it's due back at the library in 2 weeks :-)  Evangelical, indeed.
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Offline Aussie Chris

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Re: Why not read the original short story by Annie Proulx?
« Reply #11 on: March 11, 2006, 03:32:16 am »
Oh, I think that more of the story could have been included in the movie. In one version of the screenplay which I found online, there were more things in that version of McMurtry's and Ossana's screenplay than what was in the final script of the movie...

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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Offline iristarr

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Re: Why not read the original short story by Annie Proulx?
« Reply #12 on: March 11, 2006, 03:50:26 am »
Chris, I can see your point in that perhaps some of the details I liked needed to be left out of the movie, in the interest of reinforcing Ennis' TOTALLY blocked character.  But I'm not sure. . . I think some of those little indications of his feelings for Jack might have just given him a bit more dimension and complexity, and I wouldn't have gotten so impatient with him when he just couldn't spit it out to the man he loved.  But we'll never know, will we, and none of this nit-picking changes one whit the beauty and strength of this film.
Ennis and Jack, the dogs, horses and mules, a thousand ewes and their lambs flowed up the trail like dirty water through the timber and out above the tree line into the great flowering meadows and the endless coursing wind.

Offline Aussie Chris

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Re: Why not read the original short story by Annie Proulx?
« Reply #13 on: March 11, 2006, 05:10:50 am »
Chris, I can see your point in that perhaps some of the details I liked needed to be left out of the movie, in the interest of reinforcing Ennis' TOTALLY blocked character.  But I'm not sure. . . I think some of those little indications of his feelings for Jack might have just given him a bit more dimension and complexity, and I wouldn't have gotten so impatient with him when he just couldn't spit it out to the man he loved.  But we'll never know, will we, and none of this nit-picking changes one whit the beauty and strength of this film.

Totally!  So the fact that Ennis was represented in this way, and drove you to the point of frustration (just like Jack), that you think he's shallow and without emotional depth, isn't your problem with the missing declarations simply a case that the film is perhaps a little too successful?  I remember seeing the film "The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover" by Peter Greenaway and being repulsed by the depictions of rancid food being turned into exotic dishes (amongst other horrors).  I was so incensed by these that I went into an impassioned tirade that my friends had to patiently endure for at least 15 minutes.  And then it dawned on me... that my emotional response (revulsion) was exactly what the film was trying to do, and it had succeeded on a scale that I was not giving it credit for.

With Ennis, absolutely everything about him is suppressed.  He cannot love Jack because he cannot be loved by Jack, at least with any words to the effect.  We are forced to view Ennis' emotions through a key-hole of small actions and reactions.  It is all he is and it is his undoing.  Even his final redemption is so understated that you could easily miss it.  Although he manages to go and see Jack's parents and gets the shirts, are these actions in themselves his redemption?  I don't think so, not yet.  I don't think this happens until he asks Alma Jr if Kurt loves her, and when she says he does he has to look away as if about to cry.  This [love] is what he couldn't give to Alma, and also what he could never accept from Jack.  But then, at long last, he says "Jack, I swear..." as he finally admits to himself the truth and the mistakes he’d made - The End.  Just my interpretation of course.

So was the depiction of Ennis excessively constrained?  Absolutely, guilty as charged!  But is this a bad thing or a failing when compared to the book/screenplay?  Maybe.  But the fact that I'm "angry" with Ennis is also the reason why I'm so affected and motivated to "learn from his mistakes".  I wanted it to turn out differently too, but I just don't know if I would feel the same way if the film-Ennis was more like the book.  Even Annie Proolx said in an audio interview that the film-Ennis (through Heath's performance) was more clearly "Ennis" than even she had imagined.
« Last Edit: March 11, 2006, 11:21:30 am by Chris »
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Offline iristarr

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Re: Why not read the original short story by Annie Proulx?
« Reply #14 on: March 11, 2006, 04:10:01 pm »
I gotcha Chris!  My God, you're right on every count -- it is just such little subtleties in this film that work their way into you until you react in whatever way you do --sincerely, from your heart.  No masquerading here, it all gets dug up and thrown on the table for us to weep over, dig through, and ultimately (one would hope) reconstruct into a positive, growing interior life. Double WOW!!!  I'll have seen the film 10 times tomorrow and the depth of it only continues to grow on me. Much gratitude for your comments, Iris.
Ennis and Jack, the dogs, horses and mules, a thousand ewes and their lambs flowed up the trail like dirty water through the timber and out above the tree line into the great flowering meadows and the endless coursing wind.

Offline backtobrokeback

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Re: Why not read the original short story by Annie Proulx?
« Reply #15 on: March 11, 2006, 08:50:53 pm »
I'm going to get the DVD for a lot of people in my life, and I think I'll get them the book too.  They belong together.  The book is Ennis - tight, terse, full of hidden depths and tremendous sorrow.  The movie is Jack - with arms open, a big grin, and a "Tell you what, here's what happened on Brokeback". 
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Offline iristarr

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Re: Why not read the original short story by Annie Proulx?
« Reply #16 on: March 12, 2006, 12:35:25 am »
That's a good idea.  I've got a few close people who haven't seen the picture at all, for whatever reason, and a bunch more who have seen it maybe once, and I'm sure would like to have the DVD. Not sure any of them would read the book though, but if the movie hooks them, perhaps they'll be curious enough to do their own research.  Iris
Ennis and Jack, the dogs, horses and mules, a thousand ewes and their lambs flowed up the trail like dirty water through the timber and out above the tree line into the great flowering meadows and the endless coursing wind.

Offline Br. Patrick

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Re: Why not read the original short story by Annie Proulx?
« Reply #17 on: March 12, 2006, 06:30:30 am »
I have a question to all of you with ALL of Annie Proulx's Wyoming Stories.   Since I loved "Brokeback Mountain" I would consider ordering it if others recommend it.  Is it just me or am I the only one who needed a dictionary to get through Annie's prose?  I always thought that my vocabulary was above average but Annie uses such expressive words and sentences.  I quess that I just don't want to feel 'stupid' because I used a dictionary to get the most out of this story that has literally changed my life.

peace
Lean on me, let our hearts beat in time,
Feel strength from the hands that have held you so long.
Who cares where we go on this rugged old road
In a world that may say that we're wrong.

...Cause I know - A love that will never grow old.

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Offline Suffused

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Re: Why not read the original short story by Annie Proulx?
« Reply #18 on: March 12, 2006, 11:02:40 am »
Is it just me or am I the only one who needed a dictionary to get through Annie's prose?

I, on my thirtieth reading of BBM, decided to sit in front of my terminal and google all the words and phrases i was unfamiliar with.  It was great !!  Resistol, Blue Heeler, species of plants, animals etc.  It made the story much more compelling.
« Last Edit: March 12, 2006, 10:42:55 pm by Phillip »
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Offline iristarr

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Re: Why not read the original short story by Annie Proulx?
« Reply #19 on: March 12, 2006, 02:45:15 pm »
I'd say, do whatever you need to do to wring the meaning from the story, without apology.  Proulx uses plenty of unfamiliar, local, colloquial terms in her work, most of which I can usually guess at by the context, and some I'm just curious about.  (Had to do a bit of research on "stem the rose," for instance.)  I do find that every time I dig around with my dictionary or whatever, the new understandings I get keep enriching my experience of this whole BBM thing.  It has been a remarkable unfolding.  Iris
Ennis and Jack, the dogs, horses and mules, a thousand ewes and their lambs flowed up the trail like dirty water through the timber and out above the tree line into the great flowering meadows and the endless coursing wind.