Did Brokeback Mountain follow the book ?

[RedXIII]

Because i notice in many films like Lord of the Rings and Pelican Brief that the movie didn't follow the book correctly.

What say you.

[kweerwolf]

1. It was very faithful to the original short story.

The only real difference is that the screnplay had to be expanded somewhat to fill two hours of film time. As a result, there are scenes in the film that aren't in the book such as Jack's Thanksgiving dinner with his wife and father-in-law. The characters of the wives were also expanded over what was written in the story. As I recall, Ennis' wife only appeared in a couple of scenes and Jack's wife was only in one scene in the story. By and large, the bulk of the movie is a fairly faithful adaptation of the story.

[TechBear_Seattle]

2. As Kweerwolf said, and one other thing

In the story, there is a scene in a motel room, when Jack and Ennis meet up for the first time after Brokeback and begin their romance. In the movie, that entire scene was cut and the dialog moved to their last meeting before Jack's death. In her essay, "Getting Movied" (found in Brokeback Mountain: Story to Screenplay), Annie Proulx wrote that she was annoyed at such a key scene being moved to the end, but agreed with Lee's decision after seeing the movie.

[the arkansas liberal]

3. Last two paragraphs

of the book helped me get over the pain of the movie. In these, Ennis begins to dream about Jack. After these dreams, he wakes up to a wet pillow (indicating he is crying about the tragedy of Jack's death or maybe about what 'might have been'); sometimes he wakes up to wet sheets, indicating a sexual dream that was pleasurable. Somehow it is comforting to me that Ennis still has a connection with Jack. Perhaps in his dreams they are innocent and forever 19 on Brokeback Mountain...

To your question -- yes, the screenplay lifts some dialog directly from the story. I was very satisfied with the way the movie and story are so close, even in the ambiguity of the tire iron vs. the blown tire.