I decided to read this collection of short stories because I am a huge fan of the film Brokeback Mountain having watched it dozens of times - but there was of course a worry that the original story wouldn't live up to the film, or that the original was even more special and in the future I would look at the film as second best. Thankfully I can report that neither of these scenarios played out - the original story clearly meshes with the film, the iconic lines of dialogue from the film all seemed to be there and the big open empty landscape that features so heavily in the film means that in making the film there was no need to pad the story out to turn it from a short to a feature.
The rest of the collection is also up there in standard with Brokeback, one of the interesting things is that the landscape comes across more in some of the other stories - one of the really powerful additions of the film is setting the claustrophobic relationship between Jack and Ennis in the wide open spaces. Several of the stories centre around fantasy, ghoasts and visions, where you never quiet resolve if the incident is a phantom born out to the insanity of the character or a genuine mythical folklore. Overall there is the same hard grit about the people and a feeling of truth that it every story tellers goal.
Those who have brought this collection and only every read Brokeback (I am sure there are many many people in this category) have miss a dozen treats!
No comments:
Post a Comment