Of Mice And Men (894 words)

Of Mice And Men
Overall, I thought the Of Mice and Men movie was fantastic and very well done by
Gary Sinise. Gary Sinise is the director of the movie and also plays the role of
George. This movie was made in 1992, and for a fairly old movie it is very nice.

I feel that the movie is at a much higher level in entertainment than the book
it was derived from. In the movie you can actually see and hear things that you
probably would not catch on to in the book. For example there are the facial
expressions from the talented actors and actresses. The music soundtrack of Of
Mice and Men is very well composed. At the very beginning of the movie, a
spirited mood was set in the audience when we saw Lennie and George running away
from these men who were chasing them. I especially liked how the music is
classical, which is very appealing to all age groups and genders. The music was
a huge part of the movie; it set the mood for the scene the audience was seeing.

The instruments used in the songs were very effective, such as the violin. The
setting in the movie was just as it was described in the book. The time setting
of the story takes place in the 1930s, when there is the Great Depression. It
seems to take place in the southern part of the United States, because of the
increased ethnic tensions we see in the movie. For example there is Crooks, who
is isolated from everyone else because of the color of his skin. Also, the
clothing worn by the actors were very true to the time frame. The audience can
actually feel that they are back in that time period by watching this movie. The
clothing worn by Lennie and George showed that they were not well off, as were
the majority of the population during the Great Depression. In the movie, the
actors were very good. In scenes the audience would get emotional. An example is
when Carlson shoots Candy’s old dog, and Candy lies down on the bed and tosses
and turns in pain. In the movie, I actually felt sympathetic for Curley’s wife
since she seemed to always be the victim. This is something I had not felt in
the book. Also, the very last scene when George shoots Lennie and then he starts
to cry. In many ways the movie is very similar to the book. Right from the
beginning of the movie you can see that Lennie has a mental illness, and George
is taking care of him like a father. Also, you can tell that George gets
impatient with Lennie numerous times and that he gets frustrated very easily.

The character’s speeches were very strong in language, just like the speeches
were in the novel. The characters in the movie are almost exactly like their
book counterparts. Lennie is very big and bulky, while George is small with a
tanned face. In the movie, Lennie is absolutely crazy about rabbits, if not more
than in the book. Throughout the movie we see time and time again how much
Lennie cares for rabbits, he says numerous times, “An’ I get to tend the
rabbits!” Whenever he says that you can see the gleam in his eye. Slim is
well respected, and he acts and dresses like he is the best without being a
showoff. We get this feeling that Curley OWNS his wife and pushes her around.

This is evident when we actually see him yelling at her to “go home where
she belongs,” and “shutup, I wasn’t talking to you!” Also,
Curley’s wife tells George and Lennie outside the barn one night how Curley
broke all her records because she would charge ten cents for a dance. Like most
films derived from novels, there are many differences. In the very beginning of
the movie we see why George and Lennie are running away. They are running away
because Lennie had accidentally harassed a girl by grabbing on to her dress and
not letting go of it. In the movie I had felt that George only took care of
Lennie because he had to, not because he wanted to. Even though George had
promised Lennie’s Aunt Clara to care for him, he did not seem to enjoy it one
bit. This was evident when George kicks Lennie several times when he was
drinking water saying to “not drink too much.” By the book I had
sensed that Lennie and George were young and in their late 20s. In the movie,
Lennie looked much older since he was beginning to get bald, but that may have
been due to the mental illness. In the movie several scenes contained some
sprinkles of humor, while the movie did not seem to have any funny moments.

Humor was shown when George tells Lennie that “if I were a relative of
yours, I’d shoot myself!” When Candy told George that Curley had “a
glove full of Vaseline for his wife,” everyone started laughing. Even
though it seemed to be a humorous moment, I found nothing funny about that at
all. There is no scene in the movie, which Candy curses at Curley’s wife (who is
dead in the barn) about messing things up. Also, there is no scene in the movie
where Candy tells Crooks of his plan to live with Lennie and George. Even though
there were some differences that the novel, these omitted or added scenes helped
the level of entertainment in the movie. These are all the reasons why I think
the Of Mice and Men movie was very good.