The book Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, was written in 1937. Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California on February 27th, 1902, and has written other famous novels such as The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden. His literature was greatly influenced by his hometown of Salinas and the surrounding areas, which was where most of his stories took place. These are sometimes referred to as “Steinbeck Country.” Of Mice and Men was made into a movie, which was directed by Gary Sinise. The movie was made in 1992, and is about 1 hour and 50 minutes long. In its first week alone, the movie made almost $100,000. It was also for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, which is a very prestigious award. The director, Gary Sinise, was born in Blue Island, Illinois on March 17, 1955. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1994 for his role as Lieutenant Dan Taylor in Forrest Gump and won a Golden Globe award for Best Actor in a TV Movie for his role in Truman. I think that the Of Mice and Men movie version was very well done, but many things were different from the book. Of Mice and Men is a story about two men, Lennie Small and George Milton, who go around looking for jobs. Lennie is a strong man, who can do just about any physical labor, but is very intellectually challenged. His Aunt Clara raised Lennie and took care of him until her death, and after she passed away George took responsibility for him. They first had jobs in Weed, California, but when Lennie touched a girl’s dress, she accused him of raping her. Lennie actually just likes touching soft things, and has a history of accidentally killing small animals by petting them too hard.
After being chased out of Weed, they had to find new jobs. They eventually came to a ranch down in Salinas Valley, where they would work bucking barley. The ranch boss’s son, Curley, is a very contentious man who often gets into fights. Curley is unhappily married to a woman with a reputation for flirting with the ranch hands. He is very controlling over her, and is constantly looking for her all over the ranch, needing to know where she is all the time. This makes Curley’s wife is very unhappy with her life, and she hates being stuck on the ranch with no one to talk to. However, her loneliness is not so prominent in the book as it is in the movie, because she is portrayed very differently in each. The movie version shows her as being more intelligent and sympathetic, but also much more lonely.
Gary Sinise changed the movie version of Of Mice and Men to make Curley’s wife seem more intelligent. He did this by adding small things into the scenes that are almost unnoticeable. One thing that he did was during a scene that he added where Curley’s wife is alone with George in the barn, and she is talking to him. She comes into the barn and sits down on the couch, but also holding some sort of book in her hand, most likely a diary. In the book, she doesn’t have a book when she comes in. This change is significant because it implies that she is very articulate and that she probably does a lot of thinking when she is alone in the house. Throughout the story there are scenes that show that she is by herself a lot of the time, and having a diary is something that makes sense for her to have. Another thing that Sinise adds into the story occurs in a scene that he changed where Lennie and George are heading back to the bunkhouse from Crooks’s room.
On their way, they run into Curley’s wife. There, Sinise puts in dialogue for Curley’s wife where she talks about how Curley got angry and broke all of her records. This definitely makes her character more intelligent because it shows that she listens to music. It makes her seem much more civilized and cultured, instead of just some girl out in the country living on a farm. In the book, this never happens. Sinise probably made this change to create more of a sophisticated persona for Curley’s wife. This explains more about her dreams to become an actress. Changing her character this way also makes her seem more out of place on the ranch, which adds to her unhappiness. I think that these modifications do make her appear smarter, but to me they seem somewhat unnecessary. We already know that she hates her life on the ranch, and all the changes did were to emphasize it. I think that the movie would have had the same effect on the viewer with or without the changes. The movie also differs from the book because it makes Curley’s wife more sympathetic. An example of this is when she is talking to Lennie after his fight with Curley. Curley comes into the bunkhouse complaining about how his wife is missing, when he notices Slim isn’t in the bunkhouse. He suspects that Slim and his wife are together in the barn, and rushes out. Later, Slim charges through the door with Curley right behind him apologizing for his assumptions.
Curley then notices Lennie, who is laughing. Curley thinks he is laughing at him but Lennie is actually laughing because he heard someone making chicken noises. But all of a sudden, Curley gets into a fight with Lennie. What ends up happening is that Curley’s hand is badly hurt and Lennie has bruises on his face. After the fight, Curley is talking to Lennie in a later scene about it. In the book, Curley’s wife regards him with a mean tone and treats him like he is stupid for lying to her. However in the movie when she is asking him about her husband’s injury, she acknowledges him with more sweetness in her voice so that Lennie doesn’t feel scared by her, and to amplify her innocence. This minor change that Sinise made definitely makes Curley’s wife more sympathetic, which is a very important to how you perceive her new character. Another change Sinise made was to take out some scenes where Curley’s wife was very callous towards some of the other characters. One scene he omitted was the part where she comes into Crooks’s room and sees Candy, Lennie, and Crooks together. In the book, she comes in and talks to them about how she knows what happened to Curley’s hand, and how Lennie got the bruises on his face. Then she comments that they are “the weak ones” on the ranch. Crooks tells her to leave and she angrily threatens to have him hanged. Obviously, this offended the three, and made Curley’s wife seem like a terrible person to have said this. However, by taking this scene out Sinise made her character much more caring. If Sinise had left this scene in the movie, the viewer would most likely not feel bad for Curley’s wife when she was killed.
They would probably think that she sort of had it coming to her and that she deserved it for being such a horrible person. However, that would have been the exact opposite of what Steinbeck was trying to convey with the climax, so the changes made were definitely a success. The movie version changed Curley’s wife’s character to make her appear much more lonely. Gary Sinise added many things that added to this aspect of her character which ultimately improved it. One scene that he changed was when Curley’s wife finds Candy, Lennie, and Crooks in Crooks’s room. In the book she comes into the room and talks to the three, complaining about how she’s always stuck in the house not being able to talk to anyone. She also says to Lennie that she knew his hand wasn’t really caught in a machine and she knows how Lennie got all of the bruises on his face. However, Sinise alters the scene and makes it so Candy doesn’t come into the room and neither does Curley’s wife. Instead, George finds Lennie in the room earlier and takes him back to the bunkhouse.
On their way back to the bunkhouse they run into Curley’s wife, who says she knows how he got the bruises on his face and what happened to Curley’s hand. When George tells her to go away, she angrily replies that she’s going into town and no one’s ever going to see her again and she runs off. Sinise made this alteration because it puts emphasis on how unhappy she is with her life on the ranch and ultimately accentuates her loneliness. Another change Gary Sinise made to the movie version was a scene he added altogether. The scene is of George in the barn. He is working on a mule’s foot putting on some horseshoes. While he is working, Curley’s wife comes in and starts talking to him. George doesn’t respond, so she angrily tells him to talk to her. Then she starts talking to him about if he’s “ever had a sweetheart,” and Curley comes in and tells his wife to get back to the house. This scene is significant because it shows how much she wants someone to talk to, instead of being stuck in the house all the time. The part where Curley tells her to get back in the house also shows how controlling Curley is over her.
This adds to her character and brings out more of her adverse lifestyle. I think that Gary Sinise added this scene because the book really doesn’t have very many scenes that illustrate her character. He felt like he had to add this scene to do her justice in a way. Otherwise, the message of the story wouldn’t make as much sense to the reader. I think that the changes made by Gary Sinise really give you more of an understanding about Curley’s wife’s character, and the changes he made really make you feel bad for her. This is important because in the end when Lennie accidentally kills her, the impact on the plot is much greater. With all of the changes Sinise made to the story, I think that overall they were a success. The changes made to Curley’s wife’s character definitely improved it and ultimately gave the climax much more of an impact on the viewer. Making her character much more intelligent, sympathetic, and lonely made the final product a success.
