Brokeback Mountain won three Oscars: one for its original score, another for directing, and a third for best adapted screenplay. It deserved all of them. From a literary standpoint, however, it is most interesting to study the development of this story from its form as a piece of short fiction to a Hollywood feature film. Reformatting a thirty-page story into a two hour and fourteen minute movie is no small task. Annie Proulx published the original story in 1998. After it was optioned as a movie, Larry McMurty and Diana Ossana were given the task of creating a screenplay for "Brokeback Mountain." They did, of course, a magnificent job. Furthermore, their finished product was handed off to a wonderful cast starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger, and the accomplished director Ang Lee. From writing studios to filming location, all of these people came together to recreate a world that had previously only existed on the page and in the imaginations of Annie Proulx and her readers.
Annie Proulx opens Close Range: Wyoming Stories with a quote from a retired rancher: "Reality's never been of much use out here." In "Brokeback Mountain," the concluding story of Proulx's collection, Ennis
del Mar and Jack Twist, young and poor Wyoming cowboys, are forced to carve out a separate reality in which they can live as their true selves, as two men in love. The life that Jack and Ennis share could only exist in the far hills of the Wyoming countryside. Because, however, of the constraints of their outside lives-money troubles, family obligations, the imposing work schedule of a cattle ranch- the time that they spend together is limited and their desires to see each other become fierce. When they both marry, become fathers, and develop careers for themselves, the complications become manifold. Add to all of this the fact that Jack becomes quite successful working for his father-in-law's company and Ennis remains in the herding and branding field.
Jack Twist and Ennis del Mar live two disparate and equally torturous lives; at home they are loving husbands and fathers who harbor a deep and sordid secret, and when they are together they are fiercely passionate lovers who spend every moment knowing that their hours together are few and that the days left in their lives would be even fewer if anyone were to ever find them out. Of course, they are found out. Alma, Ennis's wife, sees the two of them romantically embrace and kiss behind an exterior staircase. It is not until years after she has divorced Jack and taken their two daughters away that Alma tells Ennis what she saw and everything that she suspected.
One of the main differences between the story and the film is the treatment of the women in and surrounding Ennis's and Jack's lives. In Annie Proulx's short story, the women are elements within the lives of the main characters. In the film, however, their characters are more developed and the ways in which they are affected by their husbands' homosexuality are highlighted. Alma, who is a little more heartbroken every time Ennis heads off to the mountains with Jack and concedes to anal sex when he is home to try to satisfy him, leads a quietly sad life. She loves her husband, but eventually has to leave him. Jack's wife, on the other hand, prefers to ignore her husband's less desirable proclivities. Instead, Lureen throws all of her energy into raising their son, working on the family business, and becoming blonder.
One of the most powerful moments in both versions of Proulx's tale is when, after an argument about when they will be able to see each other net (which is never soon enough), Jack says to Ennis, "I wish I knew how to quit you." It is understood that there will be no happy endings for these men. At the end of Brokeback Mountain, Proulx writes, "There was some open space between what he knew and what he tried to believe, but nothing could be done about it, and if you can't fix it you've got to stand it." This depressing sentiment is also the overarching truth in Lee's gorgeous film.
Directed by Ang Lee