That it's an instance of the movie being better than the book. For all its comedic moments, the movie had a lot of heart. While the book was comedy and the moments got unbelievably ridiculous when it hit the space scene.

I think that’s kind of what I enjoyed about it. The movie was ridiculous as well, just more grounded. I kind of liked how insane it got toward the end.

Maybe I liked the book more because I didn’t like the movie as much as others. I thought the book was hilarious

You know that he wrote a sequel?

And you never have to worry about it being made into a movie. Winston Groom never wants to be associated with a financial failure again. FG wasn't a financial failure, but the studio claimed it never made money in order to cheat Groom. It's called Hollywood bookkeeping and they've used it to cheat many people. (Poor David Prowse [Darth Vadar] would regularly get letters telling him how The Return of the Jedi still hadn't made any money.) In this case, they screwed themselves out of the sequel because Groom won't license the book because of how they cheated him with the first movie.

Hollywood Accounting is such bullshit.

Did you read the second one? I saw it was rated much lower so hadn’t planned on checking it out.

I wasn't crazy about the first one. So, no, I didn't read the second one. But since you liked the first one, I thought you might like the second one.

It was one of the worst books I ever finished (along with Tell All by Chuck Palahniuk). I can only imagine that the audio is what saved it.

The audio was told in a very old man from Alabama tone. I honestly don’t know if I could have read the full book because of the writing style

I was today days old when I learned the movie Forest Gump was based on a book 😳

Forrest Gump. Two "r"s. Named for the Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest.

Ah! Stupid autocorrect ⌨️ I'm leaving it as evidence of my shame 😆

I heard that he made it shit or crazy on purpose so it wouldn't become a movie.

I loved them both, and I agree that they should just be considered two separate stories.

I read the book eons ago and enjoyed it so much I haven't seen the movie. Could not envision Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump. I understand they should be viewed as two separate stories, but still can't get there.

The movie painted Forrest as basically infallible. Any mistake he made was solely because of his condition. In the book, he was a much more flawed character. His relationship with Jenny was basically a complete flip and I really don’t like the direction the movie took after reading the book.

The movie makes fun of the times, the book makes fun of America.

I thought the book was funny. I still can not believe the movie beat Shawshank Redemption at the Oscars.

I had no idea it was based on a book !

What is their relationship like in the book?

Gump & Co? Read it many years ago. The actual story itself seemed a bit subdued compared to the original. However, I'll immediately recommend it for the way novel Forrest refers to the Forrest Gump movie infiltrating and messing up his life, even meeting Tom Hanks at one point. Wonderful approach by Groom that I never would have expected.

You might also want to check out The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out a Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson. Only read the first one (there's a sequel), but it's possibly even more satisfying than Forrest Gump. Lots of fun.

And Pulp Fiction! 1994 was a good year for going to the movies!

Now I want to listen to the audiobook, too!

Very nearly every book made into media might as well be completely different stories down to the bleeping reversal of the actual point.

I recently watched White Noise. Then I read the book. Then I watched the movie again and I was so happy, because they stuck very close and worked ways to include much that did not happen in dialogue but was described in the book! They did leave out, as far as I know, one emotionally important bit of the story, and severely altered another. The former, though, wasn't necessary. The latter probably they felt wouldn't sit well the way it was.

Saw the film first and do think it's a cracker. One of my favourite films. Now read the book about 10 times. I absolutely love it. So funny. The character is marvellous and the people he meets are absolutely the best. The sequel is great too, Gump and co.

There's a great Bollywood film of this book called Laal Sing Chada. Wonderful stuff

Oooh I’ll have to check that out. I really liked White Noise when I watched it back in the day.

Crappy books make good movies and great books make crappy movies

ME TOO! 🫣

The movie was so different from the book they are only tangentially the same story. If you read the book thinking it would expand on the movie, I expect you are disappointed. If you read the book expecting a comic spoof on American life, you were probably pleased.

The book has charm, but I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as the movie. It really makes you notice every bit of how ridiculous and contrived Forrest's life story is.

The movie might just be the best adaption of a novel that was ever made. It does an incredible job of portraying these events as something that just -might- be remotely plausible, and keeping you entertained enough that you don't stop and think about it. They knew exactly what to get rid of (astronauts and cannibals were so unnecessary), and exactly what changes to make to Lt. Dan and Jenny to complete their stories in a more satisfying way.

If you hired 100 other filmmakers to adapt that book into a movie back in 1994, I doubt any of them could have made a movie that turned nearly this well.

While I hate that they did that, I don't think anyone was screwed by the lack of a Forrest Gump movie sequel.

The book is a kind of a mess, just more of the same adventures but worse and even more contrived. At best the movie sequel would have been forgettable, but there's a good chance it would just been terrible and felt like a parody of the original. I will say that Forrest creating New Coke was a good idea, that's the kind of thing that would have fit well into a movie.