The Perfect Storm

The Perfect Storm

Compare & Contrast :: Movie to Book

The Perfect Storm is a novel written by Sebastian Junger, that retells the horrific story of fishermen and sailors who were caught in the eye of the worst storm in history. The book mainly focuses on the Andrea Gail, a swordfishing boat, with a crew of 6 men, who disappeared without a trace deep into the northern atlantic sea. In the year 2000, almost 10 years after the tragic event took place, a motion picture, perfectly titled, The Perfect Storm which was based on the novel was released. There were subtle to few changes in the plot line of the story, however there were many differences among the book and movie. The movie is very intact with the plot and is very based on the real story behind it. I believe the creator of the movie wanted, to whatever extent possible, recreate the events that happened in the storm as factual and according to the book itself. The movie, however, left out a tremendous amount of rich details that were a part of the book , such as varying kinds of information and direct quotes from people who were associated with the storm. The movie instead added more events to the story that weren't in the book, to add more dept to the movie and to make it more enjoyable.

While watching the movie, I could see that the main characters in the book, both their names and traits, were the same in both the movie and book. However, aside from that there were many different aspects between the movie and the novel. Unlike the book, which spoke about other boats that were caught in the mist of the storm, the movie mainly focused on the Andrea Gail, a swordfishing boat, which was heading straight into the eye of three storms colliding. The movie didn't portray an important aspect, when the Andrea Gail was replacing and upgrading its gears in the beginning, but the book did. That played a key role in why the Andrea Gail was caught in the storm in the first place. The ice machine had broken down leaving the crew with no choice but to return home, which meant heading into the storm, otherwise the fish they had worked so hard to catch would spoil, making a whole waste of the trip. There were also details within the book that offered much enlightment about the sea, the life of a fisherman, how a person dies, and storms, yet the movie failed to offer that. That's just one more argument for the debate of whether its better to read the book or watch the movie.

There were certain plots that took place in the movie, but wasn't mentioned in the book, if not then it was only briefly brought about. When the 6 men were out in the bar drinking and partying the night before they were off to sea once again, the book mentioned only briefly about Murph, one of the crewmen,