So much like Forrest Gump it's not funny
It's like he was going for Forrest Gump 2 but with a twist. I just watched Forrest Gump and I was reminded of how similar they are.
shareSorry I don't see it. And I think this is a superior film. Gump just isn't a character I enjoy watching. Where Benjamin is. Pitt and Cate are exceptional and Fincher makes you not want the film to end.
shareHere's a list of the similarities...
Eric Roth wrote both screenplays...for Forest Gump and Benjamin Button. Roth pretty much only kept the title from Fitzgerald's story ...and changed most of the short story. He completely used his Gump Formula.
It's not just one or two things that kinda-sorta match...it's a whole list of things that were purposely used in both films. These are the same specific items/situations used.
Both FG and BB had deficiencies that society rejects.
Both used braces on their legs or crutches...or wheel chair. Both men had trouble walking and "miraculously" "threw off" their "crutches".
Both characters meet a girl at a young age that they were in awe of ...and these girls were in and out of their lives over decades of years...and were the only women the men ever love.
Both women end up pregnant. In both films they worry the child might inherit their "condition".
In both films the love of the Narrator's life dies ...Jen for Forest and Ben for Daisy.
Both stories ARE narrated ...and told "looking back".
Their mothers offered pretty much the same "wisdom"...
FG: "Life is like a box of chocolates...you never know what you're gonna get"
BB: "You never know what's coming for you."
Both of their moms die.
Both FG and BB grow up without having a relationship with their father.
Both live in the south...in a big southern home...(even though Fitzgerald's story takes place up north)
Both homes have people coming and going... Forest in a bed & breakfast...Ben in an old folks home. The both meet interesting characters at these homes.
Both men fall into financial good fortune... neither "worked" for it... the money came as a surprise. Forest made his in apple stock...and Ben inherited his.
Both of them coincidentally worked on a boat. Forest a shrimping boat...Ben a tug boat.
BOTH fought in the war.
Their buddies...captain mike and lieutenant dan are both "grimy" characters... drinkers and carousers...while both BB and FG are "clean-cut".
Both BB and FG are "loners" ...going their own way...doing their own thing...and both are suppose to be the "best person" in the film.
Both try to "find" themselves...Forest travels around the united states... Ben travels around the world.
Both films use a "sun" scene...
FG: Lieutenant Dan looking to the sunset on the horizon at sea.
BB: Benjamin's father looking to the sunrise on the lake.
Both films feature the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show.
Both films use a bird or bird-feather.
And both have a special children's book...used in the beginning and end of the film...Benjamin - the Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling...and Forest - Curious George and the Man in the Yellow Hat.
A person could say many movies are similar if you wish to find similarities... But not this many similarities! You don't need to find them...they jump out at you. Yes... Eric Roth completely changed Fitzgerald's story...and reused Gump stuff. I wonder WHY he decided to use so much "Gump". It was too much.