Here are a few examples where the movie matches or exceeds the beauty of the original prose story. I quote from the online version. I will also concentrate on scenes preceeding the first love scene.
I.
Ennis and Jack, the dogs, horses and mules, a thousand ewes and their lambs flowed up the trail like dirty water through the timber and out above the tree line into the great flowery Meadows and the coursing, endless wind.
My Comments: Ang Lee's lyrical cinematography captures the ascent up the mountain most wonderfully.
II.
During the day Ennis looked across a great gulf and sometimes saw Jack, a small dot moving across a high meadow as an insect moves across a tablecloth; Jack, in his dark camp, saw Ennis as night fire, a red spark on the huge black mass of mountain.
My Comments: Exquisitely realized in the movie. Ennis' campfire is seen by Jack, and a comforted smile lights his face. Ennis washing the coffee pot by the stream and eyes Jack, a little moving speck against the backdrop of mountain and ominous clouds.
III.
"Tell you what, you got a get up a dozen times in the night out there over them coyotes. Happy to switch but give you warnin I can't cook worth a shit. Pretty good with a can opener."
My Comments: I cite this passage specifically for the wonderful faux-pas from Gyllenhaal in a later scene when he fails to pry open the can of beans cleanly and ends up spattering himself with tomato sauce. This is a faux-pas because THE SCREENPLAY GIVES NO INDICATION THAT GYLLENHAAL IS TO DO THIS. Gyllenhaal must have been caught entirely off guard by this mistake, but his all-too-candid reaction (captured beautifully on screen) gives the entire scene an air of light humour and priceless sponteneity that improves on both text and screenplay.
IV.
"Well, I'm goin a warsh everthing I can reach," he said, pulling off his boots and jeans (no drawers, no socks, Jack noticed), slopping the green washcloth around until the fire spat.
My Comments: As I mentioned elsewhere, Gyllenhaal's portrayal of Jack in this scene -- a gulp coursing down his throat, the subtle tightening of the jaw, and trying SO SO hard not to look full-face at a naked Ennis -- is one of his best moments in the entire film.
V.
They had a high-time supper by the fire, a can of beans each, fried potatoes and a quart of whiskey on shares, sat with their backs against a log, boot soles and copper jeans rivets hot, swapping the bottle while the lavender sky emptied of color and the chill air drained down, drinking, smoking cigarettes, getting up every now and then to piss, firelight throwing a sparkle in the arched stream, tossing sticks on the fire to keep the talk going, talking horses and rodeo, roughstock events, wrecks and injuries sustained, the submarine Thresher lost two months earlier with all hands and how it must have been in the last doomed minutes, dogs each had owned and known, the draft, Jack's home ranch where his father and mother held on, Ennis's family place folded years ago after his folks died, the older brother in Signal and a married sister in Casper. Jack said his father had been a pretty well known bullrider years back but kept his secrets to himself, never gave Jack a word of advice, never came once to see Jack ride, though he had put him on the woolies when he was a little kid. Ennis said 3
the kind of riding that interested him lasted longer than eight seconds and had some point to it. Money's a good point, said Jack, and Ennis had to agree. They were respectful of each other's opinions, each glad to have a companion where none had been expected.
My Comments: The screenplay, of course, abbreviates the subjects both men discuss in this scene. The talk revolves exclusively around Jack's unhappiness with his father, and Ennis' sad upbringing. But the screenplay adds the wonderful exchange beginning with Jack saying 'Friend, that's more words you've said in two weeks...' [my paraphrase]. In this exchange, you see -- for the first time -- looks of very deep affection exchanged by the two men. The 'rodeo scene' that concludes this sequence in the screenplay is indeed very light and quicksilver -- it enforces the ever deepening familiarity and affection the two have for each other.
VI.
Ennis knew the salty words to "Strawberry Roan." Jack tried a Carl Perkins song, bawling "what I say-ay-ay," but he favored a sad hymn, "Water-Walking Jesus," learned from his mother who believed in the Pentecost, that he sang at dirge slowness, setting off distant coyote yips.
My Comments: The screenplay version and movie realization of this scene is priceless. The wonderful tune of "Water-Walking Jesus" (composed by Larry McMurtry's son, I believe) is gorgeous, and Gyllenhaal's earnest and raspy rendition is very apt indeed. Finally, the 'Pentecost' screenplay additions are wonderful. The last line declaimed by Ledger: 'You may be a sinner, but I ain't had the opportunity' [again, my paraphrase] leads directly into the first love scene, injecting an underlying element of the 'forbidden' and 'sin' against the backdrop of the first realization of physical love.
Feel free to comment on the above. I do feel, though, that the bond between the two men were indeed successfully developed in the initial scenes on Brokeback Mountain -- but in a way that is very subtle and exquisitely understated.
