BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN Author Regrets Writing the Book, Calls it a 'Hassle'

Despite the huge success of the film adaptation of her book, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, author Ang Lee says she regrets the whole thing.

In a recent interview, Lee told the Paris Review that she wishes she had never written the book.

"It's just been the cause of hassle and problems and irritation since the 2005 film came out," says Lee. "Before the film it was all right... In Wyoming they won't read it. A large section of the population is still outraged. But that's not where the problem was. I'm used to that response from people here, who generally do not like the way I write."

She says the book is not what she regrets as much as the film, saying, "The problem has come since the film. So many people have completely misunderstood the story. I think it's important to leave spaces in a story for readers to fill in from their own experience, but unfortunately the audience that BROKEBACK reached most strongly have powerful fantasy lives."

Many fans have expressed deep disappointment with the ending and have taken it upon themselves to change it to the ending they desire, says the author.

"One of the reasons we keep the gates locked here is that a lot of men have decided that the story should have had a happy ending. They can't bear the way it ends - they just can't stand it. So they rewrite the story, including all kinds of boyfriends and new lovers and so forth after Jack is killed. And it just drives me wild."

Lee has become deeply frustrated with the number of filmgoers and even readers who completely missed her story's intention, "They can't understand that the story isn't about Jack and Ennis. It's about homophobia; it's about a social situation; it's about a place and a particular mindset and morality."

"They just don't get it. I can't tell you how many of these things have been sent to me as though they're expecting me to say, 'Oh great, if only I'd had the sense to write it that way.' And they all begin the same way - I'm not gay, but?.?.?.?The implication is that because they're men they understand much better than I how these people would have behaved. And maybe they do. But that's not the story I wrote. Those are not their characters. The characters belong to me by law."

Brokeback Mountain is a 2005 American epic romantic drama film directed by Ang Lee. It is a film adaptation of the 1997 short story of the same name by Annie Proulx; the screenplay was written by Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry. The film stars Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway, Michelle Williams, and Randy Quaid, and depicts the complex romantic and sexual relationship between two men in the American West from 1963 to 1983.

Brokeback Mountain won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and was honored with Best Picture and Best Director accolades from the British Academy Film Awards, Golden Globe Awards, Producers Guild of America Awards, Critics' Choice Movie Awards, and Independent Spirit Awards among many other organizations and festivals.

Brokeback Mountain was nominated for eight Academy Awards, the most nominations at the 78th Academy Awards, where it won three: Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Score.

Source: The Paris Review

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