Brokeback: In Words

If you have been paying close attention to W&C you may have noticed that I have already moved onto another book... having quickly devoured Brokeback Mountain: Story To Screenplay last weekend.  Hands down, it is the most costly "book" I ever read if you go by a "cost per minutes read" ratio.  While, of course, physically a book... it is more a compilation of the original short story, the movie screenplay, and 3 essays... one each from Annie Proulx, Larry McMurtry, and Diana Ossana.

Having seen the movie, probably helped to speed up the reading experience just a bit... after all I had the visuals already in my mind (which, I guess is good and bad).  Proulx's original short story (oft quoted as an 11 page story, it takes all of 28 pages in this book) moves at break neck speed.  It is certainly unusual to read something where pretty much everything made it into the movie (but more on that later).  But at a leisurely pace, I still think I read the entire story in about an hour. 

The screenplay didn't take too much longer than that... after all a written direction of "montage of the moving sheep" takes seconds to read but minutes on film.  Most of Proulx's dialouge from the short story made it directly in the film... and even McMurtry and Ossana used Proulx's text as stage direction... but one McMurtry/Ossana addition particulary stood out for me.  After Alma accidentally sees Ennis and Jack's enthusiastic reunion... the direction is "Alma has seen what she has seen, having aged years in the space of a few moments"... thought that was a great line and something that Michelle Williams captured wonderfully in that scene.

The essays were probably the most interesting to read.  Needless to say, Proulx was ultimately thrilled with the film translation (something you don't hear all that often)... interesting Proulx believes her work as "a story of destructive rural homophobia" rather than "a tale of two gay cowboys."  McMurtry, despite not being a fan of the short-story genre, writes about the luxury of expanding and fleshing out the original piece and ponders why more short stories are not turned into films... again interesting, as the failure of most book-to-movie transitions see to lie with what has to be left out or condensed.  Finally, Ossana writes about falling in love with the story and her utter devotion in getting it onto the silver screen.

On a sidenote, I actually have signed books by all three authors... though it was so long ago, I kind of forgot all about it.  I have a signed copy of Proulx's The Shipping News and, back in 1994, McMurtry and Ossana both signed my copy of their novel Pretty Boy Floyd (which, btw, I never read!).  I am guessing the value of the signatures may have gone up!

And since I am talking about Brokeback, in today's local paper there was a USA Today article of how the movie has spurred (ha!) gay-cowboy jokes.  The piece starts off saying that "I wish I knew how to quit you" is the new "Show me the money." 

While I know some folks take this movie very seriously... i.e., it is politically incorrect to refer the movie by its alternate "porn-ish" title (but if the shoe fits... heck, I didn't see any condoms being used in that one scene... so why not have a little fun?)...

I still think all of this late night chatter, newspaper cartoons, quoting lines from the movie is a good thing.  It really shows that the movie has become of pop-culture touchstone.

The article also quoted David Letterman's Top 10 Signs You Are A Gay Cowboy from his December 13th, 2005 show... they just mentioned item #5 (which I thought was a hoot), so I tracked down the complete list:

10. "Your saddle is Versace"
9. "Instead of 'Home On The Range', you sing 'It's Raining Men'"
8. "You enjoy ridin', ropin', and redecoratin'"
7. "Sold your livestock to buy tickets to 'Mamma Mia'"
6. "After watching reruns of 'Gunsmoke', you have to take a cold shower"
5. "Native Americans refer to you as 'Dances With Men'"
4. "You've been lassoed more times than most steers"
3. "You're wearing chaps, yet your 'ranch' is in Chelsea"
2. "Instead of a saloon you prefer a salon"
1. "You love riding, but you don't have a horse"

So likely offensive to some of my homies (homo-ies?)...so I offer up these words of advice from Avenue Q:

Ethnic jokes might be uncouth
But laugh because
They're based on truth
Don't take them as
Personal attacks
Everyone enjoys them
So relax!

Comments

[Scott C]

Loved the top 10 list.

And I agree, people need to learn how to laugh at themselves more, me included.

[DeAnn]

I wanted to get the short story collection, but now I want that "book" instead!

Also, I am not really offended by the "gay cowboy" jokes, but I think they are the most unoriginal comedy in years, because, hello? "Gay cowboys"? Have I heard that 370 times already or what?

I did think Sean Hayes SAG acceptance speech, however, was hilarious.

[Beth]

I was glad I had gotten Annie's book which contained the short story, from the library. Quite an interesting read but I think it spoiled when I saw the movie after the fact.