The Perfect Storm, originally
written by Sebastian Junger, has developed into a very well known novel and an
icon to the Gloucester fishing community. Because of its widespread interest, a
film company has taken it upon themselves to create a visual of what the crew
of the Andrea Gail went through those few days before the destruction of the
vessel. This turned into a massive motion picture and just like the book it
became a large hit throughout the United States. I started reading the book
initially forgetting that I have watched the movie. Within the first chapter I
had realized I actually have seen the movie before. The connection was made
when jflska’s wife asked him “did I do that” as she looked at his black eye. I
am now about halfway through the book and have recently watched the movie again
to compare and contrast the plot, themes and accurate story depiction. The plot
of both the book and movie are the exact same but similar to all movies written
about a book some parts are either skipped over, not given the same attention
or given too much attention.
One example of this is the
communication between the Andrea Gail and ground control about the upcoming
storm. The book goes through no dialog about the communications but in the
movie much of it is present. My best guess as to why this is the case is
because in the book, the readers are given what is almost data about the storm.
This is truly needed in order to understand what the crew is going through.
Facts and descriptions like how waves are formed initially by a storm and how
the storm faced by the Andrea Gail relate to other storms are all explained in
the book but not in the movie at all. There are just a few scenes of the
control room in a state of bedlam as they try to figure out what in the world
this freak of a storm is doing. There is also a noticeable difference in the
themes presented in both the book and the movie. In the movie, a theme of love
especially between jfkdls and jhfsdlkajk is clearly represented. In the book,
love is really not presented between human and human but is very evident
between human and sea. In the beginning of the movie, when the Andrea Gail and
crew set out on their voyage to the north Atlantic seas in search of great
fishing out on the Georges Bank, fjkdsl and jfkldsa go through this full love
scene. He “needs to go fishing” but she doesn’t want him to leave and she “has
a bad feeling” and “its gonna be the last one” he promises and so and so. His
love for the sea takes over and he leaves and throughout the entire movie their
love is represented with constant flash backs and refrains back to Gloucester of
her missing him and such. At the end of the movie, the rest of the crew sinks
down with the ship and he floats up to the surface and he says in his mind something
to her as he gets pounded by waves and she is listening to him speak and it
somewhat kills the accuracy and validity of the movie but not to an extent of
making it a bad depiction. Overall, I feel like both the movie and book do a
great job accurately representing what the crew of the Andrea Gail went through
during that violent tempest that cost them their lives. I recommend to anybody
who has read the book to watch the movie and vice versa.
So did you just recently watch the movie or had you seen it already before reading the book? That can definitely impact one or the other.
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