- Joined
- Feb 13, 2005
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I'd like to discuss Forrest Gump as a novel, and how it compares to the movie with Tom Hanks.
Also up for discussion, how would you, as an author, react if a filmmaker drastically changed your book into the film version?
It goes without saying the two are almost diametrically opposite from each other. In the book, Forrest is built like a linebacker and has autism. Not so in the film. I heard once that the filmmakers decided not to mention his autism to avoid comparisons to Rain Man. I don't know how true that is, but it's what I heard.
I saw an interview with Penny Marshall once about the making of Forrest Gump where she got a hold of the novel and read the first line: "Let me say this: bein an idiot is no box of chocolates." Marshall said she read that first line and loved it.
What I think is strange is that I believe FG was originally self published. The copyright page reads: Copyright 1986 Perch Creek Realty and Investments Corp. It was only picked up by Doubleday after the film was optioned.
Aside from those technicalities, the book overall is not a bad read, but I found Forrest's first person narrative to get kind of tiresome, with all the purposeful misspellings and utter cluelessness about the world around him. He does many things in the book that don't appear in the film, like flying out to space and landing on a jungle island.
The book kind of reads like a series of misadventures, one after another until it finally ends. Wish I could comment further, but my copy of FG is currently buried in stacks of books waiting to be re-shelved.
Comments?
Also up for discussion, how would you, as an author, react if a filmmaker drastically changed your book into the film version?
It goes without saying the two are almost diametrically opposite from each other. In the book, Forrest is built like a linebacker and has autism. Not so in the film. I heard once that the filmmakers decided not to mention his autism to avoid comparisons to Rain Man. I don't know how true that is, but it's what I heard.
I saw an interview with Penny Marshall once about the making of Forrest Gump where she got a hold of the novel and read the first line: "Let me say this: bein an idiot is no box of chocolates." Marshall said she read that first line and loved it.
What I think is strange is that I believe FG was originally self published. The copyright page reads: Copyright 1986 Perch Creek Realty and Investments Corp. It was only picked up by Doubleday after the film was optioned.
Aside from those technicalities, the book overall is not a bad read, but I found Forrest's first person narrative to get kind of tiresome, with all the purposeful misspellings and utter cluelessness about the world around him. He does many things in the book that don't appear in the film, like flying out to space and landing on a jungle island.
The book kind of reads like a series of misadventures, one after another until it finally ends. Wish I could comment further, but my copy of FG is currently buried in stacks of books waiting to be re-shelved.
Comments?
