Brokeback Mountain: Story to Screenplay
by Annie Proulx, Diana Ossana, Larry McMurtry
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Book Summary Information
Author: Annie Proulx, Diana Ossana, Larry McMurtryEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-12-01
ISBN: 0743294165
Number of pages: 176
Publisher: Scribner
Book Reviews of Brokeback Mountain: Story to Screenplay
Book Review: The Frontiers Are My Prison
Summary: 4 Stars
Brokeback Mountain: Story To Screenplay by Annie Proulx, Larry McMurty, and Diana Ossana (2005) offers readers the opportunity to appreciate the two textual sources from which the exceptional 2005 Ang Lee was derived. McMurty, of course, is the author of The Last Picture Show (1966) and the brilliant screenplay of the 1971 film of the same title.
Proulx's short story has enjoyed an esteemed and prestigious career. First published in the New Yorker in 1997, it went on to win the National Magazine Award and an O. Henry Prize; Proulx herself has won the Pulitzer Prize. However, 'Brokeback Mountain' is a short, fairly pedestrian tale told in the clipped, self-consciously restrained Hemingway style. In the included essay, 'Getting Movied,' Proulx states that "it was a hard story to write," and "the story went through more than sixty revisions"; unfortunately, Proulx's difficulties and concerted efforts show everywhere on the page. Elsewhere, Ossano praises its "rawness and power" and describes being wracked by "deep, gut-wrenching sobs" upon finishing it; McMurty refers to it as "a masterpiece."
These admissions by the author, and the extreme praise by her adapters, can only inspire readers to question the literary sophistication of all three. It's difficult to believe that anyone conversant with Euripides, Shakespeare, Hilda Doolittle, Louis-Ferdinand Celine, Jean Genet, Erskine Caldwell's Tobacco Road (1932) and God's Little Acre (1933) or even Andrew Holleran's The Dancer From The Dance (1978) could be as moved as McMurty and Ossana appear to have been over what is essentially an unimaginative and humdrum tale that almost any competent craftsmen could produce to order.
The problem is not the theme or subject matter, but the manner in which Proulx executes her story: sentences like "A slow corrosion worked between Ennis and Alma, no real trouble, just widening water" underscore the tale's failed style, which attempts to sound down-home but simply sounds contrived and artificial. Proulx acknowledges that writing 'Brokeback Mountain' was an unusually powerful personal and creative experience, but the text is defined by an artificial gloss of 'tastefully' repressed emotion which isn't persuasive or touching in the least.
'Brokeback Mountain' was published, with unfortunate prescience, just before the Matthew Shepard tragedy occurred in Wyoming, where the story takes place. But readers should remember that homophobia and corresponding acts of violence certainly aren't limited to rural or suburban America, as urban 'hate crime' statistics reveal year after year. Nor are same-sex unions necessarily more conspicuous outside of large cities. 'Brokeback Mountain' is set in the more innocent period of the 1960s and 1970s; it certainly seems feasible that Jack and Ennis might have bought a ranch together in a different part of the state--or in another state altogether--and simply passed as brothers or cousins.
Another potential trouble is that Proulx seems to conceptualize people in terms of externalized 'types': before meeting Ang Lee, she frames him in her mid as "A Taiwanese-born director, probably a thoroughgoing urbanite, who had recently recreated The Hulk" and doubts that they would have anything to say to one another. Before attempting another story of same-sex love or homophobia, Proulx might consider reading Kinsey's Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948), C. A. Tripp's The Homosexual Matrix (1975), and even Gore Vidal's heretical Myra Breckinridge (1968) to get a more balanced and accurate view of the vicissitudes of human sexuality. Perhaps not surprisingly, Lee's film reflects the depth, keen understanding, and subtly concerning its subject that Proulx's story does not.
Reading McMurty and Ossana's screenplay is almost as powerful an experience as viewing Lee's poignant film, and their work provides this volume with its real value.
Summary of Brokeback Mountain: Story to Screenplay
Annie Proulx has written some of the most original and brilliant short stories in contemporary literature, and for many readers and reviewers, Brokeback Mountain is her masterpiece.Brokeback Mountain was originally published in The New Yorker. It won the National Magazine Award. It also won an O. Henry Prize. Included in this volume is Annie Proulx's haunting story about the difficult, dangerous love affair between a ranch hand and a rodeo cowboy. Also included is the celebrated screenplay for the major motion picture "Brokeback Mountain," written by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana. All three writers have contributed essays on the process of adapting this critically acclaimed story for film.
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