Analysis of brokeback mountain

The paper ” The Adaptation of Brokeback Mountain” is a good example of an essay on visual arts and film studies. The adaptation of any story into a film is of a very difficult and challenging task and if the story is the masterpiece then it is a Herculean task for the entire team involved in the film making the process. There is much difference between writing a short story and writing screenplay for the movie. The opinions from the audience would be different and based on their intellectual level of course. The rational and intellectual people will prefer the original work rather than the cinema. Brokeback Mountain is such a type of movie which has its origin in Annie Proulx’s short story of the same name. The movie is an honest and effective adaptation of the short story of Annie Proulx done by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana. Proulx in the entire story insists the readers accept this story as a love story and it is not a story of human perversity. When Jack and Ennis do sex for the first time their emotions are more dominating than their physical union. It happened through their loneliness which made them bridge the physical gap. The sex that happened between them is the result of their loneliness, affection, deep love, and desire. The bond is not just on a physical level but it is more emotional. This sex activity creates a sense of guilt in both of their minds and especially Ennis’s mind is not ready to accept the fact that he is homosexual. He has no courage to fight for such a relationship which is not acceptable in society. So they both deny to accept the fact, “ I’m not no queer,” and Jack jumped in with ” Me neither. A one-shot thing. Nobody’s business but ours.” Ennis’s mind is constantly haunted by a phobia about homosexuality because he cannot forget the incident of his childhood when the villagers had killed a shepherd for having a homosexual relationship. The dilemma is there in both of their minds about their relationship. Between both of them, Jack can at least accept the fact about their relationship. But Ennis in the entire story tries to suppress his strong passion for Jack just for the sake of the social barriers.
I would also like to mention the final scene here which is very touching. In this scene, Alma Jr., Ennis’s 19 years old daughter arrives at her father’s trailer with the news that she is getting married. She asks Ennis for his blessings and invites him to the wedding. Alma leaves and Ennis found that her sweater is left behind; he folds and puts in the closet. Inside, there are two shirts hanging on a nail pounded into the door, along with a postcard of Brokeback Mountain tacked alongside. Jacks’ shirt is tucked inside of Enniss. Ennis carefully fastens the top button of Jacks’ shirt and with tears in his eyes mutters, ” Jack, I swear…” while slowly straightening the postcard. In the end, it made Ennis commit that he cannot forget Jack and the bond was not just a physical but it is on the highest level of emotions that Ennis cannot deny. The two shirts are the symbol of the previous scene when Jack and Ennis hugged each other after a long separation from each other.
There are some significant changes in the film. For example, the reunion scene of Jack and Ennis has been shown in the film differently. In the actual short story, the scene happens indoors on the landing outside Ennis and Alma’s home during a storm. But in the film, this scene is shown outside in their yard. The weather is also shown as pleasant and clear. According to me if this scene had been seen in the same manner as it is there in the short story it could have increased the effect of the scene. The storm which is there in the original story could have a greater effect in the movie. Secondly, Jack and Ennis are described as yokels who are very coarse but in the film, these two young gallants appear before us in a very polished manner.
Both the short story and the movie are the creative works. Both are fantastic. But I would rather choose the short story because it has the essence of originality. Here we can feel the writer’s ideas and imagination. The movie is, after all, an adapted version so it is not possible to send the same message through the movie as the original story can send. For example, in the movie, the last scene after the departure of his daughter Ennis gazes at the two shirts. He talks half crying and the shot feds. No doubt it is very powerful. The same scene described by Proulx is as below
“ And he (Ennis) would wake sometimes in grief, sometimes with the old sense of joy and release; the pillow sometimes wet, sometimes the sheets.
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.”
The entire description described in the original story is drenched with innumerable emotions such as love, loss, pain, grief. Such a strong appeal of emotions is never possible in the electronic version of this story. Here words are more effective.
As per the requirements of audiovisual media, some changes are inevitable in the movie which most of the time hampers the originality of the story. Second thing is that it is a mainstream cinema or we can call it a commercial movie and for gaining the commercial success the movie is necessary to make in such a way that it appeals to all types of masses.