“When The Legends Die” Novel/Movie Contrast Joe McNew June 8, 2000 The book,
“When the Legends Die”, was pretty good. Then some idiot had to go and make a
movie out of it. In contrasting the two, I found alot more differences than
similarities. The first similarity came when Blue Elk came and took Thomas Black
Bull to the reservation. Tom had trouble with the kids as in the book. Brother
Bear was chained up and eventually Tom took him back to the woods and left him
just as Tom did in part I of the book. Of course, Red Dillion was a jerk in both
the movie and the book, although the book illustrated a better image in the
reader’s mind. There were quite a few things the two had in common but the
differences outnumber the similarities. I am not going to attempt to represent
every difference but I wil give a few examples. For instance, we first see Tom,
or any characters for that matter, after George and his mom dies. The movie
represents Tom as older, during his rodeo days. In the book, during Red and
Tom’s 2 fight, he only knocks him down but in the movie he beats him up really
bad. He goes home with the nurse but in the book he does nothing of that sort.
So far he hasn’t gone for the bear yet but we’re not finished yet. The book
had alot going for it and I thought that it was much better than the movie. The
movie was a horrible experience and is probably the only time I wished my
teacher wouldn’t have shown it. Usually, I like the movie better than the book
but this was the exception. Whoever made this movie should be charged with
murder (of the book). The movie missed alot of the key points. The movie was
interesting and did illustrate some things better than the book. It did an
excellent job of show Tom’s transitiion from rags to riches. In addition, the
movie moved alittle faster which made it more exciting. I believe that it did a
better job when Tom actually ditched Red and got into the big tournament. Both
had their strong points. The book was better...way better. This is a good
example of why a movie shouldn’t be made from a book or at least a person may
want to consider skipping the movie if they really liked the book. Although, the
movie was better in some areas overall I would definitely recommend the book
over the movie. In conclusion, movie = F book = A.
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