A friend of mine had the Brokeback Mtn. short story, so I borrowed it and read it recently. I must say, it was merely okay as far as short stories go. I didn't feel like there was anything THAT great about it, so I am wondering what all the hype was about the short story previous to the film.
The film follows the story pretty closely with these differentiations:
Lureen Newsome (Jack's wife) is pretty much non-existent in the short story. She has a much bigger role in the film.
Neither Jack or Ennis are attractive (as described in the short story).
Jack doesn't believe that he is gay in the short-story but I get the feeling that he does in the movie.
Ennis is less of a sympathetic character in the short story than the movie. I feel like the movie had a real predator/prey feel to it- starting with Jack checking Ennis out in one of the first scenes before they went up the mountain. In the short story, this wasn't really as prevelant. I was happy about this, I felt like it was a real flaw in the movie and took away from the love story.
Ennis and Jack take their camping trips every other place BUT Brokeback Mtn. In the movie they only ever GO to Brokeback Mtn. I think that this differentiation was a really big mistake. By going back to Brokeback Mtn. each time, I think it cheapened the love between the two men. It was almost as if they were just trying to "re-live" their time there rather than have a secret relationship. By sneaking around all over together, you could see that their relationship could last more than just on Brokeback Mtn, and that Jack's request to get a piece of land for the two of them to live on the rest of their lives was more of a rational idea.
The love between Alma and Ennis in the short story is not made as evident as it was in the movie. This could be due to the fact that Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams are an item in real life, or it could have been the direction that they were given.
The bit with Ennis' daughter getting married doesn't happen in the short story. Not that this was important. I mean the short story was like 50 pages long, they had to add in some extra stuff just to make a movie of it!
Overall, I am glad that I had the chance to read the short story and compare. I think that though the differences were subtle that as always, the short story had a more full and meaty plot line.
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