Brokeback Mountain: Film

Was Brokeback Mountain ever a novel? No? Then why was it filmed like it was?

Brokeback Mountain was of course the adaptation of the short story by Annie Proulx, which was in itself a stretch of the short story form. The story was quite long and spanned over twenty years with delicate and complex subplots throughout. The movie adaptation took this and ran, making the slightly more subtle drama between Ennis and his daughter Alma Jr into a very obvious subplot, for example. Or take the scene of the Thanksgiving dinner that has Jack and his family with all the drama that ensues between him and his wife's father. I don't even recall that in the story.

The film was a direct adaptation of the short story; everything that was in the story was in the film. But the additions to the film almost made it feel like the director was trying to add content to extend the running time of the film. Not that the scenes weren't done well. They were, and beautifully, which brings me to the photography and cinematography.

The film was bloody gorgeous. The best shot was of Ennis, fists at the ready, with a full fireworks display illuminating him. Wonderful shot! The mountains featured reminded me of last summer, when I spent around eight weeks in the Beartooth Mountains of Montana and the desert at there feet. In fact, I would wager that the images of Brokeback Mountain, with its twin peaks, are shots of the famous Pilot and Index Peaks in Beartooth Pass. The scenes featuring the mountains made me want to go back even more so. The director made sure to capture the bone-piercing cold of the alpine tundra in that part of Montana and Wyoming.

All in all, I would say that the film, while having beautiful shots of the most beautiful place on Earth, is not my cup of tea, or whiskey as the case may be. Though I feel the film was a great work of drama and a great work of romance, I don't really feel like I would want to ever voluntarily watch the film again. I enjoyed it, but I was not exactly excited to see how it would end.