Brokeback's perfect screenplay - 'It says what it needs to say and then it shuts up'

On 4 August, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences showed Brokeback Mountain as part of its Great to be Nominated series. One of Brokeback's Oscar winners was there - Diana Ossana - who, with Larry McMurtry, achieved the incredible and turned a short story of few but perfectly-chosen words into a screenplay that delivered mountain air and human love and loss into the theatres.


Fellow Brokies and friends were in the auditorium and from them we learn that Diana could not watch the screening herself - she has not seen the film since Heath died. But in her Q&A after the viewing, Diana recalled that on set Heath was a joker when out of character but could immediately snap back into his Ennis suit - Heath also brought his own understanding of Ennis into the film's scenes, knowing perhaps better than anyone how Ennis would protect himself. Jake, meanwhile, was an entertainer, regaling cast and crew with renditions of showtunes. Oh for some more behind the scenes footage!


James Schamus and Ang Lee were among those who sent messages - Ang's said: 'This is a film that was blessed even as we were making it. It was filled with so much love, compassion, and a benevolent spirit. I’m very happy that it is being shown again in the Goldwyn Theater as one to be remembered in the Oscar “pack”. It was great to be nominated. By the way, does “Great to be Nominated” really mean “Should have Won?”' James said: 'Thank you for coming to see Brokeback on the big screen. It's an honor to share it with you again, and I'd like to take this opportunity simply to remember Heath Ledger and acknowledge his tremendous contribution to the film.'


Diana once wrote a letter about 'our little film' to The Advocate, and in it she said: 'I, for one, never doubted the power of Annie Proulx’s story or our screenplay. That is why we optioned the short story with our own money and why Larry and I have been relentless in getting it up on-screen. That is why I am a producer on the film, and that is why we have insisted upon getting it made in an honest and truthful manner.' We really do owe quite an incredible debt to Diana and Larry for driving forward a project that moved them to words. Larry has said: 'We felt that we had a very, very rare opportunity. You just don't get material like that in a normal life as a screenwriter, just once in your lifetime, maybe' - definitely maybe.


Back at the end of 2005, Larry and Diana were joined at a Q&A in Denver by Annie Proulx herself, and Larry described her original story as 'A genius-level story... We used every single line and sentence and stuck to Annie's language like a tick.' Despite Annie's fears about how the landscape of Wyoming - a character in itself - would translate into a screenplay, she found the whole process of turning her story into a film was a 'seamless' journey. Brokeback Mountain itself was there in all its power and emotion: 'This is one of the most powerful landscapes on earth and everybody who roams it knows it. There's a visceral, unexplainable, indecipherable force that binds people to this place... It's got balls.'


Obviously there would have been no Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar without Annie Proulx, but it is also just as certain that neither Ang Lee nor Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger would have been drawn to Brokeback Mountain if it had not been for the dedication, sheer will and genius of Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana. Larry: 'It says what it needs to say and then it shuts up.'



Thanks very much to the Brokies who have been recalling their 4 August experience on the DC Forum. Includes pictures from IHJ and the Academy.