Oh! I had a similar "what if..". Let's think of something else.. hm.. What if Ennis and Jack had been born in 1964 and their story had started in 1983 and had 'finished' around now?
~ j U d E
That's a good one. I'll assume that all other things stay as close to the original as possible and "now" was around the time the movie would be about to finish, ie now was the point at which Jack was getting increasingly frustrated and might have been playing away. I think that with the advent of more means of communication, their relationship would have been made tangibly stronger as they would have been communicating more: more phonecalls, letters maybe & then emails. The social climate would hopefully make it easier for Ennis to think about living with Jack so maybe Ennis would have made a positive move after that last meeting before waiting for thier next scheduled meeting, especially as they would be communicating by other means in the intervening time. I'd like to think the outcome would be a happy one, but even today, Jack could still be killed by homophobia or an accident, and Ennis as his secret lover, would essentially be left in the same position.
A skilful novelist could stil make a great story of it and it could be turned into a great movie by a great director. It might not have the social resonance BBM has had, as what we do have really reaches across the age spans back to those born around the 40s, whereas if the main characters were not born until the 60s, it might not appeal to quite the same demographic.
That got me thinking!