Author Topic: Comparison between short story and movie  (Read 1311 times)

Offline jjeff

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Comparison between short story and movie
« on: May 20, 2021, 01:09 PM »
It's too bad there is no activity on this forum. It's been years. Anyway here goes:

I've read the short story a few times. I'm not really a fan of Annie Proulx. I know she is a prize-winning author, but I think she is cynical and negative. The short story is terse and spare. You really have to read between the lines. There isn't a lot there. Proulx could have written an entire book instead of just a few pages. The entire plot line about the wives is missing in the book. There is barely mention of them. The screenplay adds the Thanksgiving episode with the interaction between Jack and his father in law. Actually everything about the wives and the families was not in the story. I like the movie a lot more than the story.

I think this is the saddest movie I've ever seen. It's very sad the way the guys let society and circumstances force them to give up what they love. It's probably the wonderful acting of Heath and Jake. Some of the scenes are truly heart wrenching. In fact, I went for years without watching it because it was so sad. I watching again recently and enjoyed the movie a lot. Maybe I've grown up some.

Offline AddieTatum16

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Re: Comparison between short story and movie
« Reply #1 on: May 28, 2021, 09:39 PM »
I agree with you that the film is a lot better. Though I wish they could have at least kept Ennis' term of endearment for Jack ("Little Darlin' ") in the screenplay!

Offline pierralex

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Re: Comparison between short story and movie
« Reply #2 on: Jun 07, 2021, 07:13 PM »
I am not a fan of the writing style of Mrs Proulx as well. But in the short story the lives of the characters match the harsh style of storytelling I think. If I recall correctly she wanted to write a short story about homophobia in rural USA. The movie additions are very nice but focus the whole story more about the love story and lives of Ennis and Jack, I find. It isn't a bad thing, I too prefer the movie.
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Offline jjeff

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Re: Comparison between short story and movie
« Reply #3 on: Aug 12, 2021, 05:54 AM »
One of Annie Proulx's stories is about a guy who accidently discovers a door to another dimension (she never tries to explain what it is exactly). He found that he could maneuver his enemies into it and they would disappear. He was pretty petty. He used it to get out of debts and stuff. I think that was the whole "moral" of the story, the guy's pettiness. It's hard to take Proulx's writing serious because she doesn't. None of it is very interesting except for Brokeback Mountain. It's true that the movie takes the story in a different direction. The original story doesn't really take it anywhere. Although it seems they travelled around the entire state of Wyoming, they never went back to Brokeback. Maybe it was an unspoken realization that they could never have that again, so why spoil the memory. One thing is very plain, Ennis and Jack never had any control over their lives. Things just happened. This is an underlying theme in all of Proulx's writing. There was even a sense of inevitability when Jack died. It was like it had to happen. Proulx writes with a sense of detachment, just reporting things without any value judgement. I don't know if that is good or bad.