Brokeback Mountain: Short Story Versus Movie Essay

The adaptation of Brokeback Mountain from short story to film was incredibly accurate. It is the tale of two young men who find themselves alone in there respected lives and only find solace, comfort, and contentment when they are together. The insurmountable odds against them individually are still not enough to bring them together. They try to deny and ignore their attraction and need for one another in excuses of irrational society norms and mainstream obligations they have both accepted in order to survive. The Movie shows a romance between Heath Ledger (Ennis Del Mar) and Jake Gyllenhaal (Jack Twist) with Michelle Williams and Anne Hathaway portraying the wife of the stereotypical mans man. Two young men, who barely survived childhood, colid when trying to make a dime in a summer. They are thrown into the wilds of Brokeback Mountain and survive by finding each other. The short story as well as the movie depicts the struggles with in their own minds and circumstance beautifully. This adaptation would be considered a very close interpretation, as the movie varied from the short story only in its character development of the supporting character such as the wives and periphery interactions.

In the movie more time was spent describing the scene of Brokeback Mountain. The two young boys meet on a sheepherding job on Brokeback Mountain in Signal, Wyoming in the summer of 1963. Jack hired as the herder and Ennis hired as the camp tender they hardly ever saw each other just during meals. After drinking whiskey there talks go longer and longer each day. After on long day of drinking Jacks starts the intimacy and the touching after the temperature drops and it gets really cold the two of then end up in the tent together and this results in the passionate love exchange between them. After all their work is said and done there relationship is deep and very meaningful. They had to depart early because of a horrible snowstorm. This led to a fight between them and left them frustrated and upset. After there departure there was a four-year period this is where the movie shows that Ennis gets married Alma and has two young girls Alma Jr. and Francine. And Jack gets married to Lureen and has a baby boy. After the four years pass they finally meet again and instantly connect to each other. They go out and get a hotel room and there love is rekindled after four years then there after that they meet every year once a year, telling their wives they were going fishing. Jack talked about them leaving there wives and living on a ranch together. Ennis had to tell Jack that there next meeting would not be till November they got into a fight and left angry at each other. After Ennis sent a post card saying that November was still on the postcard was sent back with deceased on it. Ennis went and called Jacks wife and asked how he died and she replied with he was changing a tire on the highway and the hub cap flew off and hit him in the face and he drowned in his own blood. After they she said he always wanted his ashes scattered on Brokeback Mountain that where he was happiest. And the ashes were at Jacks parents place. He went there and introduced himself went up to Jacks room and found a shirt that was his that jack had kept from a fight they had before leaving from the summer job. The short story dos not focus on this part as much it focuses more on the relationship between the two men versus that tome they spend together on Brokeback Mountain.