The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

[hammersavage]

David Fincher has a new movie coming out this fall starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. Judging from the trailer, its going to be absolutely stunning.

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[Slumbag]

David Fincher, Brad Pitt and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Sounds like a winning combination.
I'm in.

[donnie_darko]

yeah. we can only hope. trailers mean so little though....as does source material....

lets hope.

[grlNIN]

I just watched this last night and i am very excited to see it when it comes out.

[TheMojoPin]

Wow, great cast, plus Fincher doing old timey stuff. I'm there.

[Sheeplovr]

been waiting for months

saw the full trailer before Indianan Jones

i wooed

[WampusCrandle]

i would have to say that i would def. give this movie a go. cant wait to see it, i really like the concept

[TonyStark]

I didn't know there was a thread for this film...albeit old, I'm extremely excited for this. Fincher always pulls Pitt's best work out and I can't see this being any different. I think their combination is genius.

[Contra]

I want to know who the DP is, because this looks beautiful! Over to imdb

[~Katja~]

I want to know who the DP is, because this looks beautiful! Over to imdb

http://www.claudiomiranda.com/

awesome work

[WampusCrandle]

this is a movie that i actually cant wait to see. i really hope its as good as i think it will be.

[Furtherman]

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[hammersavage]

If anyone was wondering why the new Nike commercial with Troy Polamolu and LaDanian Tomlinson is so awesome, it was directed by Mr. David Fincher.

[TheMojoPin]

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Interesting...it looks amazing, but it's easy to tell they changed a LOT from the original short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald:

In the original story he is never abandoned by his parents. They raise him, though his mother is barely mentioned or seen. His "childhood" years are minly between him and his father. He's also apparently born a fullsize old man, with his father rushing in to see his new son and being shown a fullgrown very elderly man siting uup crammed into a tiny crib. The stuff between his father and him as he grows up is pretty damn funny and heartbreaking, but that's all totally gone since he's apparently raised now by a black family in a black community.

That also means the major twist of him getting dumber as he gets younger is possiby out, or heavily altered. Since he's born fully grown, he takes immediately to wanting to learn adult knowledge like reading encyclopedias and such. As he gets younger, however, his mind adjusts accordingly. One he hits, say, high school age, the knowledge from his "adult" life and college and such suddenly is gone. He just regresses mentally as he gets younger. They'll likely have him act more and more juvenile in the film, but I wonder if he also "loses his smarts" like in the book.

One of the biggest parts of the book's second half is his relationship with his son. It mirrors his relationship with his father in the first half, but in reverse, and is incredibly crushing to read. I hope that makes it to the film.

The ending of the book is one of the creepiest things I've ever read. It's essentially narrated from Benjamin's perspectie as he's a baby, everything getting more and more obtuse and unclear untilt he world starts fading out around him into just giant figures and shapes and loud noises and then finally there's just blackness and nothing.

[realmenhatelife]

Why bump this thread? Because today Dave repeated some bullshit that has always bugged me, the criticism that Benjamin Button and Forest Gump are in any way similar. Now I didn't even care for Benjamin Button that much, but I do hate it when people say smarmy shit to sound smart (which I understand might be somewhat ironic.)

The obvious comparison, for me, would be between a story about two men traveling through significant events of recent history. Gump is a collection of amazing things happening to one man. Things so amazing only a handful of people experience a single event of their magnitude in a lifetime, and yet Gump experiences many. In Button a man experiences significant events from a generational standpoint. He lives through the depression, goes to war, returns home and struggles to find normalcy, see's cultural revolution, starts a family etc. The course of Button's life is the same as most of our grandparents.

It irks me so much because the driving force of the stories are in complete opposition. Gump is about fate, it's like Candide without any satire. By virtue of being true to himself the order of the world takes care of Gump and delivers him to the best of all possible worlds. He does nothing, and in spite of his idiocy he becomes a millionaire sports star war hero cultural icon that marries his constant love and has a kid that dodges both retardation and AIDS.

Button is about breaking away from the handicap of fate and striking out on your own path. He's born with literally no life, as an old man, and his will against his own fate defies the laws of nature and ages him backwards. Button is an active participant in everything he does. The 'fate' of his romance is put aside by both Benjamin and Daisy so that neither will have to sacrifice their will to stay in the relationship. After they're together the reverse aging, which is the mechanism of Benjamin's will, drags them apart again, because sometimes that happens.

Thats the meat of it for me, but there are a lot of reasons why these two movies are nothing alike, and I've never really heard anyone make an argument for how they are alike- they just say "Same movie" They are similar in the respect that they are about a man and a woman, and some things happen.

[sailor]

Why bump this thread? Because today Dave repeated some bullshit that has always bugged me, the criticism that Benjamin Button and Forest Gump are in any way similar. Now I didn't even care for Benjamin Button that much, but I do hate it when people say smarmy shit to sound smart (which I understand might be somewhat ironic.)

The obvious comparison, for me, would be between a story about two men traveling through significant events of recent history. Gump is a collection of amazing things happening to one man. Things so amazing only a handful of people experience a single event of their magnitude in a lifetime, and yet Gump experiences many. In Button a man experiences significant events from a generational standpoint. He lives through the depression, goes to war, returns home and struggles to find normalcy, see's cultural revolution, starts a family etc. The course of Button's life is the same as most of our grandparents.

It irks me so much because the driving force of the stories are in complete opposition. Gump is about fate, it's like Candide without any satire. By virtue of being true to himself the order of the world takes care of Gump and delivers him to the best of all possible worlds. He does nothing, and in spite of his idiocy he becomes a millionaire sports star war hero cultural icon that marries his constant love and has a kid that dodges both retardation and AIDS.

Button is about breaking away from the handicap of fate and striking out on your own path. He's born with literally no life, as an old man, and his will against his own fate defies the laws of nature and ages him backwards. Button is an active participant in everything he does. The 'fate' of his romance is put aside by both Benjamin and Daisy so that neither will have to sacrifice their will to stay in the relationship. After they're together the reverse aging, which is the mechanism of Benjamin's will, drags them apart again, because sometimes that happens.

Thats the meat of it for me, but there are a lot of reasons why these two movies are nothing alike, and I've never really heard anyone make an argument for how they are alike- they just say "Same movie" They are similar in the respect that they are about a man and a woman, and some things happen.

same movie

[JPMNICK]

this all started with ron bringing this up, i think from a youtube video he saw comparing them

[sailor]

this guy's thoughts (http://www.scene-stealers.com/blogs/benjamin-button-forrest-gump/)

[TooLowBrow]

He lives through the depression, goes to war, returns home and struggles to find normalcy, see's cultural revolution, starts a family etc.

Gump, goes to war, returns home and struggles to find normalcy, see's cultural revolution, starts a family etc.

[TheMojoPin]

Most damning?

How similar they are...and that they're written by the same guy.

[realmenhatelife]

this guy's thoughts (http://www.scene-stealers.com/blogs/benjamin-button-forrest-gump/)


The guy makes only the most superficial comparisons and some of them are real stretches. Both characters, when physically ill, recieve medical aid. There is romantic conflict. People move away from home, People alive during the draft go to war, People know a black guy. An old lady dies in her bed- Holy shit, what balls to repeat such a maverick plot point.

If you generalize the story enough they do get similar, but you could say that of most stories. There are only so many kinds of conflict, and only so many ways to present that conflict. Any narrative is really about its thematic componants, and thematically these are two opposite stories.

Dont you think that out of Fincher, Pitt, Blanchett and the studio that spent tens of millions of dollars someone would've said 'Is it a problem that this movie is kinda sorta like Forest Gump?" Did it get all the way to the blogosphere for some douche to point out and make the film making elite slap their foreheads?

[TheMojoPin]

Dont you think that out of Fincher, Pitt, Blanchett and the studio that spent tens of millions of dollars someone would've said 'Is it a problem that this movie is kinda sorta like Forest Gump?"

Nope.

Yeah, someone at the studio is going to be worried that the film resembles one of the most profitbale ones of all time. If anything, they were probably hoping it could be even more Gump-y.

I dunno, I felt the FG vibe when I was watching it in the theaters. When I saw that the same screenwriter wrote both films and how different the film was from Fitzgerald's actual story it pretty much sealed the deal for me.

[Chip196]

Nope.

Yeah, someone at the studio is going to be worried that the film resembles one of the most profitbale ones of all time. If anything, they were probably hoping it could be even more Gump-y.

I can definitely picture someone excitedly saying "this could be our next Gump"

[Crossweird]

Why does it feel like this thread used to be longer?