TOTW 06/07: Should/could there be a sequel?

[Penthesilea]

I would actually like to see Ennis and Jack portrayed by actors who seem closer to Proulx's original vision--less glamorous and idealized, replete with buck teeth and broken nose.

Ya mean like them guys?





Those were the actors who played our boys in the play in the Netherlands this spring. The bald one played Jack, the dark one played Ennis.
The play had nothing to do with the movie, it was story only. In fact, large parts of the story were read out on stage. It was a very new, very different Brokeback experience. I needed to get used to it first, but enjoyed it a great deal.

Here's the thread with our reports of the play and the Brokie meeting:
http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php/topic,8306.250.html

It starts with reply #257 on the page I linked. All pages before were the build-up to the event.

[Penthesilea]

On the OP: No. I wouldn't want a sequel to BBM. Neither a prequel, a fill in or whatsoever.
I think it would lessen the impact of the short story and movie.

But to be honest: I think I would go and see it anyway. If only out of curiosity.

[moremojo]

Yes, Chrissi, these guys come a lot closer to Annie's vision, I think (though Jack would probably be a bit shorter and less thin...not to mention the curly hair). I think the Dutch stage version of Brokeback is a great thing--not that I've seen it, of course, but precisely by its very existence offering a different interpretation/experience of the story and its themes.

[Jeff Wrangler]

No. The story and the film both end just where they need to end.

[jstephens9]

I would definitely not want to see different actors. Heath and Jake are Ennis and Jack plain and simple. I would not want to see Ennis with some other guy. Ennis belongs to Jack, dead or alive. A prequel would be kind of weird since Ennis and Jack did not know each other before. Expanding upon the scenes in the movie may work somewhat. I would say my answer would be no sequel unless somehow Jack was actually still alive and Ennis somehow found him. That would be the only way.

[souxi]

I would definitely not want to see different actors. Heath and Jake are Ennis and Jack plain and simple. I would not want to see Ennis with some other guy. Ennis belongs to Jack, dead or alive. A prequel would be kind of weird since Ennis and Jack did not know each other before. Expanding upon the scenes in the movie may work somewhat. I would say my answer would be no sequel unless somehow Jack was actually still alive and Ennis somehow found him. That would be the only way.

See this was a major gripe that a LOT of people had when Louise wrote the original fan fic. Why is so inconcievable to think of Ennis with someone else? Jack is dead and Ennis has every right to try and move on and get on with his life, instead of living out the rest of his days stuck in that crappy trailer. To find out, who and what he is and what being gay is all about. This is what Louise tried so hard to do with original fan fic and a LOT of people either didn,t understand that, or were simply too pigheaded to see it. People lose people every day all over the world, and eventually some of those people find happiness with someone else. They don,t forget the person they lost, but they learn to live again. Surely Ennis has the right to do that... if someone gave him that oportunity. Now let me think.....errrrrrm, oh I know just the man, his name begins with E too. 

[Jeff Wrangler]

See this was a major gripe that a LOT of people had when Louise wrote the original fan fic. Why is so inconcievable to think of Ennis with someone else? Jack is dead and Ennis has every right to try and move on and get on with his life, instead of living out the rest of his days stuck in that crappy trailer. To find out, who and what he is and what being gay is all about. This is what Louise tried so hard to do with original fan fic and a LOT of people either didn,t understand that, or were simply too pigheaded to see it. People lose people every day all over the world, and eventually some of those people find happiness with someone else. They don,t forget the person they lost, but they learn to live again. Surely Ennis has the right to do that... if someone gave him that oportunity. Now let me think.....errrrrrm, oh I know just the man, his name begins with E too. 

This is all quite true, but for me personally it's beside the point. The point for me has always been that I feel that "moving-on Ennis" is not consistent with the character of Ennis as we know him, whether "Heath/Ennis" of the film, or the Ennis of Annie Proulx's story, who clearly has not found someone else many years after Jack's death.

Indeed, "some of those people" do "eventually" "find happiness with someone else," but others don't. That's just life.

Just my P.O.V. and not in any way intended to disparage Louise's story.

[moremojo]

I tend to concur with your point of view, Jeff, though my favorite fanfic to date involves Ennis "moving on" and finding love with another man, all in a way consistent (to my mind, anyway) with the Ennis that the film presented us. It is indisputable that the short story (so much bleaker than the film in so many ways) indicates that Ennis has found no other companion several years, possibly decades after Jack's demise--here, the conclusion is almost certain that Ennis will die alone.

[THE WINGS]

I am of two minds on this subject.  In one sense, it would be nice to see more of Ennis's life, and how he deals with all the loneliness, questions and regret as a result of not "taking the leap", and  accepting Jack's offer to set up ranch together, and thereby continuing to experience a true, long-lasting, even permanent connection with another human being.  On the other hand, the story's impact is so profound, the way Annie, and Larry and Diana left it, in the way it leaves a lot of unanswered questions for all of us to ponder.  I just don't know. (Although, I have been working on, not so much a sequel, but a "continuation" of Ennis's life, without Jack.)  To be appearing on the Fanfic Thread as soon as I am back online at home again. (Stay tuned!)

THE WINGS

[MaineWriter]

I think part of the problem is that I have become so inured to the idea of sequel = crappy. Since the original movie was wonderful, I would be very concerned about someone desecrating its memory with a lousy sequel. BUT then I think of "The Godfather" and "The Godfather 2" and I certainly think that GF2 was as good, if not better, than the original GF.

And the GF2 gives me an idea for a sequel that might be palatable: have the central character be Bobby Twist, in his early 20s. He is gay. In the process of his own self-exploration, he seeks to learn more about his (deceased) father. Those flashbacks could give us all the tent scenes and fishing trips we could ever want/need. Eventually Bobby travels to meet Ennis, which could help Ennis put to rest his lingering self-loathing and find resolution and peace in his life. That way we could have a happy Ennis (for those of us who need a happy Ennis) but not in the arms of another man (for the purists who don't want him there).

Like Siouxi, I would love to see Taking Chances on the big screen as a movie. That's an original story now, so its context to BBM is gone. It could be a movie that stands on its own, no need for sequel, prequel or whatever.

L