Of Mice and Men - A Comparison Between the Book and Film

Of Mice and Men - Comparison

The name of this book/movie is 'Of Mice and Men'. The book was written by John Steinbeck, and the movie was directed by Gary Sinise (also stars as George). I will be comparing the movie and book, to see the differences and how effective they are.

George and Lennie are men who travel around working at ranches. George is the small, quick-witted one, and Lennie is the big, slow, dumb and extremely strong one. They have a dream, to have a little place all to themselves, without anyone bothering them. Their dreams are shattered though, when Lennie, who doesn't know his own strength, gets in trouble.

The book starts with Lennie and George travelling towards the ranch, after the incident with Lennie and the girl in the red dress in Weed has already happened, but the movie starts with Lennie and George running away from other guys in Weed, who were chasing them because Lennie has scared the girl in the red dress.

Lennie James

Lennie James

Lennie James

I think that the reason they changed the starting is because it doesn't catch the audience at the start of the movie without some action, and it would be a pretty boring start to a movie just having George and Lennie talking about what had happened.

When Curley finds George in the barn with his wife and when he's complaining that he can't keep up with Lennie, it adds tension between the characters because it gives Curley a very good reason to dislike them, and the tension grows throughout the movie until there's the climax and release point where Curley attacks Lennie, and Lennie crushes his hand. When Lennie kills Curley's wife, a bird is shown escaping the barn. I think this is symbolic of the need to escape,