Film vs. Book -- Which was better?

[suelyblu]

Film  v Book ?? Well these are probably not answers and reasons you are looking for . I love the book. Why ? I take the book all over the world with me. I pack it in the bottom of my suite case where no one can see it or make a joke of it! It has so far been to Turkey (3 times) Florence Italy (Twice)Spain (1) Greece (Twice)and various places in England. And when I go to  Calgary and the Rockies in September, Iwill take it there...be like taking it home.

[Ellen (tellyouwhat)]

sueleyblue, the book was my introduction to BBM and I have read it over and over.  You are right.  The prose is amazing and it never loses its power to captivate me.

[BayCityJohn]

Adaptation Week: Brokeback Mountain – the choices we make and those we don’t

July 23, 2009 by annebrooke

I must admit I was delighted when Vulpes announced they were having a book/film adaptation week and that Brokeback Mountain was one of the subjects on offer. It’s a story I’ve loved for years, along with the whole of Annie Proulx’s original collection (Close Range: Wyoming stories), and I’d been singing its praises for a long time before Ang Lee even picked up his film script to begin – or whatever it is directors do first.

Let me put my cards on the table from the off and say that while I do love the film (it may actually be the best adaptation of a book since The English Patient), I think that the story in its original form is even better. There are things you can say in text that you can’t fully and deeply convey in a visual medium. I’m not sure, for instance, how on earth Mr Lee could ever have hoped to express the opening paragraph of Proulx’s story in film, a paragraph all but shimmering with memory, loneliness and loss:

Ennis Del Mar wakes before five, wind rocking the trailer, hissing in around the aluminium door and window frames. The shirts hanging on a nail shudder slightly in the draft. He gets up, scratching the grey wedge of belly and pubic hair, shuffles to the gas burner, pours leftover coffee in a chipped enamel pan; the flame swathes it in blue. He turns on the tap and urinates in the sink, pulls on his shirt and jeans, his worn boots, stamping the heels against the floor to get them full on. The wind booms down the curved length of trailer and under its roaring passage he can hear the scratching of fine gravel and sand. It could be bad on the highway with the horse trailer. He has to be packed and away from the place that morning. Again the ranch is on the market and they’ve shipped out the last of the horses, paid everyone off the day before, the owner saying, “Give em to the real estate shark, I’m out a here,” dropping the keys in Ennis’s hand. He might have to stay with his married daughter until he picks up another job, yet he is suffused with a sense of pleasure because Jack Twist was in his dream.

Really, it’s all there – all the aspects and themes of the story are contained in this paragraph, but the reader isn’t allowed to know the full meaning of them yet. It’s one of those astonishing paragraphs that are incredibly punchy to start with, but when you come back to them after you’ve finished the story they take on a whole new meaning: the shirts; the poverty of Ennis’ life; the transitory nature of the work he does; the choices he makes and doesn’t make; his difficult family situation; the way he saves the mention of Jack until the very end of his thought process; and how that opens out a whole baggage of painful emotions that both breaks through into and is contained by the physical facts of his life. Hard to get all that into film then, no matter how good the actor.


http://vulpeslibris.wordpress.com/2009/07/23/adaptation-week-brokeback-mountain-–-the-choices-we-make-and-those-we-don’t/[/url

[foreverinawe]

Hi folks,

I'm new to this group, although I've been a member of the BBM yahoo group for years. I just got curious, and decided to look around. Surprise! You've got some wonderful posters, and in the past two days I've read all 50 pages of Film vs Book — Which was better? Like a lot of you, I long ago decided that each is a masterpiece, and while they certainly have differences, they mesh in my mind as a perfect symbiosis.

My handle, if you didn't notice, is foreverinawe. That's meant literally and figuratively.

Most of this thread is from the first year of the movie, and while I love it all, I'm not here to re- plow this rich ground. I was recently inspired to do something unusual, and to be perfectly honest, I'm a bit proud of it. It's a video. I'd like you to see it.

Do you remember when the stageplay Les Miz began?

I do and I don't. I live in Tennessee, a long way from Broadway: I have never been there. But of course I heard the music via TV and radio, so I did become familiar with the songs as time went by. I just wasn't aware of when it started. And time, of course, has dimmed my memory even of the songs.

Enter Susan Boyle. The world, it seemed, was bowled over by her.

Me too, but not because of Susan, although I think she is a treasure. It was because of "I Dreamed A Dream", which I had forgotten, and Brokeback Mountain, which I never will. I was awestruck by how well they go together, as easily as the right key turns the lock tumblers, as someone said.

In my mind, these two disparate masterpieces cried out to be united, and so that's what I did.
I tried to tell Ennis's story, post Jack. (Pardon my narration, I just couldn't find a volunteer, but I tried.)

Disappointingly, Youtube's sound track does not keep up with the video, and there is a lot of starting and stopping as the buffer keeps running out. If one is willing to let the entire video download to the buffer before starting Play (about six minutes), it plays properly.

Here's the Youtube link (hit Pause, then let the buffer fill completely before hitting Play!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1CzvPxLGs4

I must warn you: this is not about pretty faces or happy trysts. It is how I think Annie saw the story, certainly how I see it. I'd love to hear what you think.

   ~~~foreverinawe

PS I would be happy to post it to YouSendIt, if anyone is interested enough. It would play on Windows Media Player (or any other video player), and eliminate the audio hitch. It's 34 megs.

[BayCityJohn]

Welcome to the forum foreverinawe!

I'm watching your video. It's great.


This is a good thread to read. The original "How Brokeback Affected Me" thread from 2005:

http://www.davecullen.com/forum/index.php?topic=101.0

If new members have questions, try "New Members Ask - Experienced Members Respond "

http://davecullen.com/forum/index.php?topic=4687.0

We also have a site map here:

http://www.davecullen.com/forum/index.php?topic=8878.0

You might also be interested in our book:

Selected from among the most compelling writing on The Ultimate Brokeback Forum, the stories in Beyond Brokeback: The Impact of a Film convey the remarkable power of the film Brokeback Mountain to affect the lives of all sorts of people—straight and gay, old and young, male and female—on six continents. Ranging from the amusing to the emotionally devastating, the pieces collected in Beyond Brokeback crystallize the deep, frequently life-changing reactions of its often-unsuspecting viewers.

http://www.davecullen.com/brokeback/book/

[katkrimar]

yesterday evening I had a Brokeback evening.

I drink some wine, watch the movie, go to bed, read the short story.

And yes.

Next day feel very sad again.

[foreverinawe]

Reply to BayCityJohn's post #737

Thanks for the link to the Adaption Week BBM article.

Anne Brooke's discussion is breathtaking in scope and insight. Her sensitivity to the humanity of the ladies in the movie is just wonderful.

[BayCityJohn]

You're welcome 

[suelyblu]

Hi  BCJ, is the book  " Beyond Brokeback " available in England . Have no ref to it so far over here? Thanks and waiting for your reply.  sue x

[BayCityJohn]

Hi  BCJ, is the book  " Beyond Brokeback " available in England . Have no ref to it so far over here? Thanks and waiting for your reply.  sue x

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beyond-Brokeback-Members-Ultimate-Forum/dp/1595941223/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1248747926&sr=8-1

[suelyblu]

Hi BCJ only just looked on this thread. Thanks for the info.   xx

[andy]

I was so moved by foreverinawe's tribute movie. It was so masterfully put together with great insight and sensitivity. After hearing his words in Ennis' thoughts say, I just hurt, all I do is hurt, I felt the whole agony of the original effect of the movie's ending on me. Well done and maybe you'll do some more. We need another song, right?

If you hadn't done this, I would for ever have listened to Susan Boyle's rendition of the song and heard only the voice, but you've made me listen to the words. thanks.

Andy.

[suelyblu]

Hello Andy,  Would it be possible to tell me more about your last post? If not.....thats o.k.         sue x

[andy]

Hi Sue. All I know is what I saw on the utube clip that's posted on TDS. Here, scroll down towards the bottom...http://www.davecullen.com/forum/index.php?topic=37195.msg1637588#msg1637588

[Flyboy]

Very nice video, very nice, and the song is so fitting too..........thanks so much foreverinawe...............