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Most professional writers regard short stories as a singularly difficult genre. The brevity involved requires a unique gift for precision, a gift that many authors lack. First published in 1997 in the New Yorker, as printed here Annie Proulx's story runs to slightly less than twenty eight pages; nonetheless, the story spans some twenty years and encompasses numerous and very vividly created characters--and it presents an unflinching tale.
Proulx's prose is quite stark in directness and drive, and she presents her story with a remarkable clarity and grace. Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist are two uneducated, itinerant ranch hands who meet when they are hired to tend sheep on Brokeback Mountain in the summer of 1963. Alone on the mountain, they begin a sexual relationship which they regard as 'just sex'--but which very quickly develops into a love which, given their backgrounds and era, neither can accept as such. When the summer ends, they go on to lives in the greater world, marriages, children, and all the things that a man is expected to do; even so, their need for each for each other will not be so casually dismissed, and in their failure to recognize it for what it is, and in society's refusal to allow them leaway, they will self-destruct in the most bitter way imaginable.
The short story received considerable attention in 1997, and it soon fell into the hands of screenwriter Diana Ossana, who in turn passed it to partner and Pulizter Prize-winning author Larry McMurtry. Recognizing the power of the story, the two acquired the rights to adapt the story into a screenplay. Many who read the screenplay praised it--but in truth, it raised more eyebrows than practical interest. Few producers were remotely interested in a script about gay men, much less gay men in a western setting.
In time, however, the screenplay came to the attention of film producer Michael Costigan and the details began to fall into place. Directed by Ang Lee and starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN began filming in 2004. Budgeted a fourteen million dollars, it was considered a "small" film that might do well in urban markets, at least well enough to make back its cost, but nothing more.
The film opened in limited release in December of 2005--and critical reception was astonishing. With so many accolades, a savvy marketing campaign was developed to place the film before an ever-expanding market, a host of Academy Award nominations further fueled interest, and within slightly less than three months $118 million dollars world wide. It was a truly astounding, truly unexpected reception.
While the Hollywood media machine has inevitably focused on the actors, critics have praised the script as an almost miraculous adaptation of the original story, and it is here published for the first time. Like the story itself, it is remarkable for fusion of sparse dialogue and unexpected poetry, and it reads extremely well. McMurtry and Ossana truly deserve the many critical accolades laid at their feet.
The short story and the screenplay are accompanied by three essays by Proulx, McMurtry, and Ossana. All are interesting in their own way, with McMurtry commenting on the issues that surround adaptation of literary material to the screen and Ossana focusing on the processes that eventually brought the script to the screen; the most interesting essay, however is by Proulx, who discusses her inspirations for the story and the sources from which the numerous ideas and images it contains arose.
The short story "Brokeback Mountain" is available in several editions, including a stand-alone printing and in Proulx's memorable collection of short fiction, CLOSE RANGE. I would personally recommend the latter--but if you are specifically interested in the screenplay as well, this is your chance. Recommended.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer
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- LeaReviewed in Canada on March 25, 2022
Lovely addition to seeing the movie
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Brigitte Gaupp-berghausenReviewed in Germany on January 23, 2022
Brokeback Mountain: Story to Screenplay
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
