Name: Anonymous 2009-11-23 13:26
I found it far better and deeper than the movie, which was too feel-good. Then again I read the novel first.
This used to be on Wikipedia (sorry for the shortcut):
- Much of the beginning of the film is the same in the book, albeit Zemeckis' Gump is far more placid and naïve than Groom's abrasive, judgmental cynic; the film's line "Life is like a box of chocolates" wholly reverses the novel's sentiment of "Being an idiot is no box of chocolates".
- It is revealed near the beginning of the book that his father (a stevedore) was killed by a falling crate of bananas (Forrest's father apparently left Forrest's mother in the movie but it is never explained).
- Forrest's leg braces were not in the book; nor did Forrest's mother have sex with the school principal to get Forrest in a regular school. In the book, Forrest did not do well in the regular school and was put in a special school for mentally retarded children.
- Forrest failed college and hence did not graduate.
- Forrest's mother does not die in the book but does in the movie, Forrest's mother does die in the book's sequel Gump & Co.
- Unlike the movie, the novel's Forrest is described as an idiot savant, with an extraordinary talent in numerical calculation. One memorable example of this is in college, when Forrest receives an "A" in his physics course (Intermediate Light) and an "F" in physical education. (This is why he fails to graduate).
- Gump does not marry Jenny in the book; she instead marries another man, though she joins a band called "The Cracked Eggs" with him at one point.
- Jenny does not die in the original novel. She does die from unstated causes in the sequel--the book simply states that she and her husband got sick and both ended up dying--with the novel recounting Forrest's subsequent adventures with little Forrest when the boy is sent to live with him.
- Gump and little Forrest do not have the loving relationship that the end of the movie seems to imply. In fact, Little Forrest (who was a teenager at this point in the second book) was mad at his father for not being in his life, and during a pivotal scene in the book calls out Gump for pretending to be his father. Forrest's response is to spank his son, changing their relationship.
- Gump does not meet Lt. Dan until he is in the hospital in Vietnam. In the novel, Lt. Dan is not a professional soldier but a drafted teacher. He has no wish to die in combat and is more of a philosopher. At the end of the novel he proclaims himself to be a Communist.
- Bubba is white and was previously on the football team with Forrest.
- Forrest does not actively catch shrimp with a shrimping boat and sell them; rather, he has a small shrimp hatchery and builds success upon that. He learns how to farm shrimp from a friendly Vietnamese man; back in Bayou La Batre (Bubba's hometown), Bubba's father helps him get started.
- Forrest also has many other adventures in the book that are not mentioned in the movie:
-- During his trip to China, he rescues Chairman Mao from drowning in the Yangtze River (parodying Mao's actual much-publicized swim).
-- Later Forrest becomes an astronaut and crash-lands on a small jungle island in New Guinea with his crew, Major Janet Fritch and a male orangutan called Sue (a homage to the Johnny Cash song 'A Boy Named Sue'). They are captured by cannibals and made to plant cotton.
-- He also becomes a professional wrestler (under the alias of "The Dunce"), a champion chess player (first playing with the cannibal chief and then in a formal tournament), and even stars in a (fictional) remake of The Creature from the Black Lagoon (with Raquel Welch playing the Creature).
-- After his shrimp business booms, he is persuaded to enter politics with the slogan "I've got to pee" (spoken to John F. Kennedy in the film), but withdraws when his opponents spread the word about his earlier misadventures.
- The movie even adds scenes as Forrest's run across America never happens in the book. The movie shows Forrest as a sober-minded man and cuts back scene from scene of Jenny doing a number of drugs. In the book Forrest is a smoker of cannabis and towards the end of the novel smokes tobacco more and thinks about his past and all that he's done in life.
- At the end, he leaves his crew (which includes many people he has met over the years) to run the business, and goes to live with Lt. Dan and Sue as street musicians.
- The book features graphic sex scenes between Forrest and Jenny which do not appear in the movie.
I guess this is accurate. Here are some links discussing the changes in adaptation:
http://everything2.com/?node_id=17168 (first entry)
http://www.univie.ac.at/Anglistik/webprojects/LiveMiss/FGump/movie%20and%20novel.htm
http://davidlavery.net/writings/Movies/No_Box_Chocolates.pdf
This used to be on Wikipedia (sorry for the shortcut):
- Much of the beginning of the film is the same in the book, albeit Zemeckis' Gump is far more placid and naïve than Groom's abrasive, judgmental cynic; the film's line "Life is like a box of chocolates" wholly reverses the novel's sentiment of "Being an idiot is no box of chocolates".
- It is revealed near the beginning of the book that his father (a stevedore) was killed by a falling crate of bananas (Forrest's father apparently left Forrest's mother in the movie but it is never explained).
- Forrest's leg braces were not in the book; nor did Forrest's mother have sex with the school principal to get Forrest in a regular school. In the book, Forrest did not do well in the regular school and was put in a special school for mentally retarded children.
- Forrest failed college and hence did not graduate.
- Forrest's mother does not die in the book but does in the movie, Forrest's mother does die in the book's sequel Gump & Co.
- Unlike the movie, the novel's Forrest is described as an idiot savant, with an extraordinary talent in numerical calculation. One memorable example of this is in college, when Forrest receives an "A" in his physics course (Intermediate Light) and an "F" in physical education. (This is why he fails to graduate).
- Gump does not marry Jenny in the book; she instead marries another man, though she joins a band called "The Cracked Eggs" with him at one point.
- Jenny does not die in the original novel. She does die from unstated causes in the sequel--the book simply states that she and her husband got sick and both ended up dying--with the novel recounting Forrest's subsequent adventures with little Forrest when the boy is sent to live with him.
- Gump and little Forrest do not have the loving relationship that the end of the movie seems to imply. In fact, Little Forrest (who was a teenager at this point in the second book) was mad at his father for not being in his life, and during a pivotal scene in the book calls out Gump for pretending to be his father. Forrest's response is to spank his son, changing their relationship.
- Gump does not meet Lt. Dan until he is in the hospital in Vietnam. In the novel, Lt. Dan is not a professional soldier but a drafted teacher. He has no wish to die in combat and is more of a philosopher. At the end of the novel he proclaims himself to be a Communist.
- Bubba is white and was previously on the football team with Forrest.
- Forrest does not actively catch shrimp with a shrimping boat and sell them; rather, he has a small shrimp hatchery and builds success upon that. He learns how to farm shrimp from a friendly Vietnamese man; back in Bayou La Batre (Bubba's hometown), Bubba's father helps him get started.
- Forrest also has many other adventures in the book that are not mentioned in the movie:
-- During his trip to China, he rescues Chairman Mao from drowning in the Yangtze River (parodying Mao's actual much-publicized swim).
-- Later Forrest becomes an astronaut and crash-lands on a small jungle island in New Guinea with his crew, Major Janet Fritch and a male orangutan called Sue (a homage to the Johnny Cash song 'A Boy Named Sue'). They are captured by cannibals and made to plant cotton.
-- He also becomes a professional wrestler (under the alias of "The Dunce"), a champion chess player (first playing with the cannibal chief and then in a formal tournament), and even stars in a (fictional) remake of The Creature from the Black Lagoon (with Raquel Welch playing the Creature).
-- After his shrimp business booms, he is persuaded to enter politics with the slogan "I've got to pee" (spoken to John F. Kennedy in the film), but withdraws when his opponents spread the word about his earlier misadventures.
- The movie even adds scenes as Forrest's run across America never happens in the book. The movie shows Forrest as a sober-minded man and cuts back scene from scene of Jenny doing a number of drugs. In the book Forrest is a smoker of cannabis and towards the end of the novel smokes tobacco more and thinks about his past and all that he's done in life.
- At the end, he leaves his crew (which includes many people he has met over the years) to run the business, and goes to live with Lt. Dan and Sue as street musicians.
- The book features graphic sex scenes between Forrest and Jenny which do not appear in the movie.
I guess this is accurate. Here are some links discussing the changes in adaptation:
http://everything2.com/?node_id=17168 (first entry)
http://www.univie.ac.at/Anglistik/webprojects/LiveMiss/FGump/movie%20and%20novel.htm
http://davidlavery.net/writings/Movies/No_Box_Chocolates.pdf