As for the timeline of the last scenes, I am willing to concede that the screenplay was probably sloppy in this, although the movie certainly does a good job not referencing the dates explicitly. But the fact that they specified the dates in a few versions of the screenplay lead me to think that they were thinking carefully about the probable timeline, even if they made sure that the actual scenes did not explicitly depend on a rigid one.
Thomas, thanks for adding some wiggle-room. I really am uncomfortable with the screenplay dates, as they don't reflect what I thought I saw in the film. And aren't there 3 screenplays anyway? The original, the director's interpretation, and then a final one which reflects what's actually there in the film, including minor dialogue changes by actors? Something has to give, as a film is made, and here, they may have seen rigid dates as not compatible with what was evolving as they followed some less prolonged of a schedule of events.
And I really think there's room for the time frame being within 6 months.
- AP has the last meet-up in May. Spring is officially still the season until mid-June. So, Jack's father referring to Jack changing his move-in plans from Ennis Del Mar to the foreman "last Spring" could easily mean Jack lost no time, frustrated as he was, in making his move, right away. This makes more sense to me than his waiting a year. "Last Spring", then, referring to Spring of that same year. Ennis was in Lightning Flat in November.
-Jack had complained of the cold, bitterly (which led to the reference to Mexico). So, he had expected the next meeting that summer, in August, and Ennis tells him, no, it has to be November (in the cold weather Jack hated). A gap of 6 months, which would be long enough to have provoked Jack further. To suppose Ennis was suggesting a gap of well over a year is incompatible, IMO, with Jack's complaints of 1-2 meetings a year not being enough. If Ennis was dropping it even lower, I would think he would have SAID that's way over a year away, and he didn't. He said a lot, but not that.
-the returned postcard would seem to be in late October, and there is nothing in the film suggesting 1 and 1/2 years later. Meaning Jack died that same summer, months after the last trip.
-the scene of Ennis' truck racing South at night did show greenery incompatible with his going fairly quickly to Lightning Flat in November, but artistic license would easily cover that detail. The sense of urgency in that scene strongly suggests an early reaction, rather than something delayed, and we should remember, Ennis had free time off that November.
It just seems to me the flow of what I saw on the screen was in an orderly progression and fairly rapid. May, last meeting. May/June, Jack makes his move. That summer, Jack dies. Late October, Ennis gets the postcard. November, he's in Lightning Flat. Dates in the screenplay just became incompatible with where the intensity of events required months, not something dawdling out over a year and a half. I believe the director saw that and followed his instincts. That is why it is the director who makes the final call. And that tender sense of Ang Lee, I think, saw a longer time-line as altering the intensity of the impact on Ennis, and threw the dates out. That's how you win Oscars. Not being imprisoned by a script. But this is just what I felt from the flow of scenes and the nature of the characters, and someone else will have a different take very easily.
