Compare and Contrast Forrest Gump

Forrest Gump

After I finished watching the movie <Forrest Gump>, I was confused. Who should be applauded for the excellence of the movie? Is it Winston Groom, the author or Eric Roth, the script writer? Though the movie was based on the book, I could sense that Eric Roth made many changes in characters and storyline while adapting the story into a film. So, what are the changes he made? And what was the purpose of them? Let’s think of the answer.

The biggest change Eric made through adaptation was the change in the personality of Forrest, the main character. Though he was a self-centered character, who curses a lot in the book, he is portrayed too much innocently in the film. In the movie, Forrest is a compassionate character who always cares about others. Through his narration, we can often hear his concerns of Jenny, Bubba and Lieutenant Dan. Furthermore, by changing details like the moment he loses his virginity, Robert tried to emphasize his innocent and heroic character. This change in Forrest’s character made it necessary to change other character’s personality. Jenny, who was veiled in mystery in the book, is described with details in the film. An often interaction between Jenny and Forrest, and frequent usage of the word “love” and “like” enable us to experience the empathy for their love story.

Besides recognizing the differences between the book and the film, it is also important to understand why the two differ in many ways. The reason lies in the characteristic of Hollywood films. To make bigger success, Hollywood films usually draw people’s empathy by portraying universal virtues like love, compassion, hope and so on. This explains why Forrest was portrayed as an innocent, heroic character who gives us hope in the film. This nature of Hollywood movie lets us discover more changes. In the book, Jenny and Forrest are separated in elementary school. When Jenny had Forrest’s child, she is married not to Forrest but to another man. However, in order to emphasize the universal virtue of love, Robert had to put Jenny and Forrest together by sacrificing Forrest’s mother, and make Jenny marry Forrest. Furthermore, the time constraint of about two hours is also the reason for several changes in plot. The story of Forrest as a world class chess player, an astronaut, and physics genius were deleted in the movie to have people’s attention focused on several main events.

As mentioned above, the film and the book of <Forrest Gump> differ a lot from each other. However, their messages are the same. We feel hope, and love both when we read <Forrest Gump> and when we watch <Forrest Gump>. Though many things were changed, Forrest still runs, bringing us hope and love.

Hero's Journey _ Spiderman

Group 1

Our Film : Spiderman

Why we choose it : We believe that the film fits quite well to the stage of the hero's journey and everyone has watched the movie.

ACT I

Ordinary World:

Peter Parker is an ordinary student who works as a photographer for school newspaper. Peter is a secret admirer of Mary Jane (MJ). One day, students including Peter and MJ get a chance to visit a biology lab.

Call to Adventure:

In the lab, students see the fifteen genetically designed super spiders. However, there are only fourteen of them. While taking a picture of MJ, peter is bitten by the missed spider. Peter then discovers that he has earned many superpowers from the bite. With the given abilities and his uncle saying “with great power comes great responsibility”, he starts thinking about his supernatural abilities.

Refusal:

However, rather than using his power with responsibility, Peter goes to wrestling match to win money. He finally wins the match but later finds out that he was cheated by the owner of the venue, so that he cannot receive the prize money. Peter gets mad and decides not to stop a robber who has stolen the owner’s money. All in all, Peter uses his powers only to benefit himself in this part of the story.

Meeting with the Mentor:

With an extremely low possibility, Peter’s uncle is murdered by the robber he let go. Meeting with the mentor (his uncle), Peter realizes that he should use his powers for others and have more responsibility for his actions.

Crossing the Threshold:

After Peter realizes that he could have saved his uncle from death, his inner guilt makes him use his supernatural powers to help others in danger and become a super hero.

ACT II

Tests, Allies, Enemies:

Peter begins to save citizens in danger and he earns a good reputation as Spiderman. Citizens and media gets interested about Spiderman and this led to the negative description of him by the local newspaper.

Approach to the Innermost Cave :

Despite the critical articles portraying him as a villain rather than a hero, Spiderman continues to save and help people of the town.

Ordeal:

A new villain named the Green Goblin appears in town. He claims to destroy Spiderman and take over the city. It is the fate of Spiderman to fight against this fatal enemy on his hero journey.

ACT III

The Road Back :

Peter Parker feels guilty after his friend, Harry, decides to revenge Spider-man whom Harry wrongly believes to have killed his father. Harry doesn't know Peter is Spider Man, so he tells his plan of revenge to Peter, making Peter feel guilty.

Resurrection:

Despite what had happened, Peter decides to leave as the hero and flies through the city, catching criminal and working as the hero.

Return With the Elixir:

Peter is able to keep the peace of the city - at least for this story.

Points of Contention

1. We had a contention on how to view Peter's uncle as a mentor. While some regarded uncle's previous advice(with great power comes great responsibility) as the real lesson, some thought that it is only after uncle's death that Peter's uncle finally becomes Peter's real mentor.

2. Most of us agreed that Spiderman approaches the innermost cave by rescuing people's lives, as he decides to become a hero. But some argued that Spiderman faces real challenge when he meets the Green Goblin, and that this stage must be the approach to the innermost cave

3. Spiderman doesn't return to ordinary life, so there were some disagreements on which is the stage of "the Road Back." Some pointed out guiltness of killing his friend's father as the trigger of Peter's inner struggle, while some thought the relationship with MJ was the key factor.

1

Ordinary World

Peter Parker is an ordinary student who works as a photographer for school newspaper. Peter is a secret admirer of Mary Jane (MJ). One day, students including Peter and MJ get a chance to visit a biology lab.

Call to Adventure

In the lab, students see the fifteen genetically designed super spiders. However, there are only fourteen of them. While taking a picture of MJ, peter is bitten by the missed spider. Peter then discovers that he has earned many superpowers from the bite. With the given abilities and his uncle saying “with great power comes great responsibility”, he starts thinking about his supernatural abilities.

Refusal

However, rather than using his power with responsibility, Peter goes to wrestling match to win money. He finally wins the match but later finds out that he was cheated by the owner of the venue, so that he cannot receive the prize money. Peter gets mad and decides not to stop a robber who has stolen the owner’s money. All in all, Peter uses his powers only to benefit himself in this part of the story.

Meeting with the Mentor

With an extremely low possibility, Peter’s uncle is murdered by the robber he let go. Meeting with the mentor (his uncle), Peter realizes that he should use his powers for others and have more responsibility for his actions.

Crossing the Threshold

As he realizes that his inconsiderate action with little responsibility killed his uncle, Peter decides to become a superhero, a watchman of peace of the city.