The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - A Short Story and A Movie

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Many books when adapted for the motion pictures, has subtle changes, sometimes-vast changes. When short stories are adapted for the motion picture, it is highly likely that there will be vast changes.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald is about 26 pages. Consequently, it is expected to have many aspects in the film that was not present in the book. Although the movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button starring Brad Pitt will not be release in theaters until December, around Christmas time, viewing the trailer demonstrates detail contrasts.

The first distinction between the short story and the movie is the physical appearance of Benjamin Button at birth. Granted that books have more leeway than the movies, the book describes Button as an old man with a long grey beard whose legs hang from the hospital’s baby crib. However, in the movie, Button is small as an average baby but appears to be a septuagenarian with aged wrinkled skin. Another distinction that immensely changes the story is Benjamin Button’s cognitive ability. In the book, when born Button’s has the intellectual level of a wise elderly man, but in the movie, Button’s intellectual level is of a normal infant.

The short story has a theme that while Button gets younger so does his intellectual ability correspond with his physical changes; he is finally in harmony physically and intellectually, and eventually is socially accepted. Fitzgerald short story demonstrates that Button had an entire life experience, as would a normal person even though he has had an aberrant beginning. Thus, there is a major theme difference between the short story and the movie. Lastly, in the book, Button’s father never leaves him on a stranger's doorsteps. In my perspective, it is essential for Button to be raised by his relentless father who has a mindset that his child is average, because it illuminates the second half of Button’s life with congruity. Nevertheless, I am going to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button in theaters December, because well, I am curious.