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."
Lee, that's great. A good observation. I never connected these two scenes in the way of descibing directions.
There are quite a few other examples of the Proulx/Ossana/McMurtry (POM) synergy.
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.
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.
Yep, full agreement here. And, as I said befoe, I think Ang Lee belongs with them.
