I really hope that the rest of this year with reading and watching the movies does not go like how this first book went.
The first book I read is Forrest Gump written in 1986 by Winston Groom
I have said several time before and I will say it many times again, Forrest Gump is one of my all time favorite movies. It wasn't until about two or three years ago did I learn that it was originally a book. Really it was finding this out that really want to do this challenge this year.
Let me tell you it did not go nearly as well as I was hoping. Now, before anyone thinks I am going to be biased towards movies because I love films truest me that it not me at all. There are very few times that I find the movie better than the book. I watched the first 6 Harry Potter films and then I read all of the books and the books are still much better than the films. That is how I feel about most movies that I read the books. Forrest Gump is not one of them.
How they found the screenplay they came up with I will never know. I mean really there are so many differences from the book to the movie that the Forrest in the book is almost unrecognizable from the Forrest in the film. Jenny, for that matter, is not the same person at all.
Let's just start with her.
In the book, her father is not abusive and she doesn't go and live with her grandmother, she was never in a risqué magazine, never ended up in a strip club in Memphis, Tennessee. We see in the movie she keeps thinking about killing herself. She never did any drugs other than smoke some dope. When she saw that Forrest was smoking too much dope, yes he does in the book, she stopped. Also, Jenny never dies in the book! So, all the meaningful stuff Forrest did at her gravesite and tearing down her dad's house never happened at all!
Most of the most memorable events that happened in the movie never happened in the book. Forrest never had to wear braces on his feet. He was a naturally big fella in the book and that is how he got to playing football, which he started in high school and went to college on a scholarship in the book. Meeting Elvis never happened as well. In fact, Forrest is molested by one of the tenants in the house in the book! He never runs across America, he was drafted into Vietnam in the book, where in the movie he volunteered. Bubba was not "stupid" in the book. He was actually on the college team with Forrest and then could not play anymore due to an injury. Lieutenant Dan and Forrest met in the hospital after Forrest ran back to save others. He was not Forrest's commanding officer.
Forrest in the film is seen as this super sweet and really a wholesome character. He really shows that the right thing in the best thing. He see real beauty in people and is able to bring happiness to the world. The Forrest in the book was not nearly as wholesome. It was really heartbreaking to read. I mean he still did the right thing because it was the right thing to do. However, he cusses a lot in the book. Jenny and Him are way more intimate in the book then in the movie. Forrest keeps smoking dope in the book.
The things that don't make it to the big screen are things like him going to jail, several times. He also went to space, when to college classes, lived with cannibals for 4 years with a male orangutan named Sue. He ended up in Hollywood and playing in a movie with Raquel Welch. He played in college bands with Jenny and that is how he made money for a while. He threw is congressional medal of Honor that he got for saving those in Vietnam at a member of congress. Dan never was his first mate. Dan ended up living on the streets and never got a job or lived off the government. Forrest and Dan parted way and they end up running into each other at the end of the book in Savannah, Georgia were Forrest is trying to get away.
Forrest is a millionaire, just from the Shrimping company not because he invested in Apple that never happened in the book, and is tired of being there and wants to take a break. So, Forrest and Sue, yes the orangutan, leave to go to Savannah where he runs into Dan and plays music on his harmonica to make enough money to buy food and that's about it. Where is runs into Jenny.... and her son named Forrest...…
Come to find out she found out she was pregnant shortly after she left him the last time, and ended up finding a good man and married him. She raised Little Forrest as the man's son! That's right JENNY AND FORRST DON'T END UP TOGETHER AND FORREST NEVER SEES HIS SON IN PERSON AGAIN! Forrest says at the end of the book that she send's pictures every once and a while but that is it.
I have to say, whoever saw this book as potential for the book has to be able to see into the future. I am so glad that so many changes happened in the book. The book felt like his life was too fantastic to be not only real, but it was too much to be realistic. However, whoever wrote Forrest as they did for the movie was able to make his life overly fantastic in a believable way. They were able to build on his life experiences in ways that made sense. Nothing in the movie was out from left field. Which in the book is kinda what it felt like the whole time I was reading.
Lord, I hope that was the worst of it. Thankfully, I haven't not see all of the movies from the books. So, I am not going to compare every book to the movie as I am reading but this one was very hard. This might be on the list of book I will never read again... Which is disappointing....
Because I really do love Forrest Gump.
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