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Essay / Gone Girl: Book and Movie Comparison
Gillian Flynn's book Gone Girl and the film adaptation are a story about her husband Nick Dunne and his wife Amy. They were "happily" married for four years until their fifth anniversary when Amy disappeared and was presumed dead a few days later after she was nowhere to be found. This creates a large-scale investigation, a media frenzy, and a bad image of Nick. Nick soon becomes the prime suspect and must do whatever it takes to get to the bottom of things. It is later revealed that Amy is alive and has planned to frame Nick for murder. She thinks this is the best way to punish him for cheating. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Nick begins his own investigation into Amy's past boyfriends when he discovers that she has a history of setting up men. Amy, on the run with no money and nowhere to go, calls her ex-boyfriend and convinces him to let her stay there because Nick was mistreating her. Nick eventually apologizes and confesses his innocence one last time on national television before finally getting arrested. Amy's feelings for Nick are rekindled after seeing him on television. She accuses her ex-boyfriend of kidnapping her and kills him, making it appear that she escaped. She returns to Nick with her story, freeing him from his conviction. After Nick learns what she did, he decides to expose her to the world. She derails his plan by sharing that she is pregnant. Earlier in the story, when they were trying to conceive a child, Amy convinced Nick to give a sperm sample to a fertility clinic. Apparently, among all her other deviant acts, she also obtained Nick's sperm and inseminated herself. After discovering the pregnancy, Nick feels obligated to protect his child from Amy. It’s a beautiful twist that ends an incredible story. This is now a film adapted from a novel, so there are few differences between the book and the film. One of the first differences concerns how Nick and Amy met. In the film, Nick and Amy meet at a party and leave together. In the novel, after Nick and Amy first meet, they do not see each other again until they meet by chance on the street eight months later. This was probably edited to create less confusion and for the sake of the film's length. Another major difference is the scene where Nick proposes to Amy after two years of dating. Amy's parents are the creators of a series of children's books called Amazing Amy, based on their daughter Amy. In the scene, Nick and Amy attend a party for the release of her parents' new book. Amy complains that the Amy in the book is better than her, the real Amy. Amy is talking to reporters about never being married when Nick poses as a reporter and proposes to her. This scene is not described in the book at all. Their relationship is described in the book but the proposal was never brought up. The film also ignores other storylines such as Amy taking care of Nick's mother and Amy's suspicions regarding Nick's affair. There is also a difference in the clues that Amy leaves Nick. In the novel, Amy's second clue sends Nick to Hannibal, his workplace as a teenager and one of his many bonding places. In the film, Nick only has to find three clues. The Hannibal clue is completely cut from the film, preventing us from seeing Nick think back to his moments with Andie during his ride to Hannibal. This also hinders our connection with Andie and prevents us from knowing about their relationship until Andie visits Nick at Margo's. Another oneMinor difference would be the mall survey. In the novel, Nick, a few of his friends, and Amy's father go to the mall to confront the Blue Book Boys, a gang of laid-off factory workers, who now reside in the abandoned mall. They are known for selling drugs and assaulting women. Nick doesn't think the police are doing everything they can in the investigation. During their investigation, they discover that Amy was there to ask to buy a gun. Amy was also seen there looking to buy a gun in the film, but she is discovered by Detective Rhonda Boney and Officer Jim Gilpin. In the film, they are the ones who go to investigate the mall and the Blue Book Boys are never mentioned. We see a lot more of their crime scene work in the film, which helps tie it more to criminal justice. The abandoned mall is simply said to be home to homeless people. Another major difference in the novel is the story of Hilary Handy. In both the novel and the film, Amy is confirmed to have a habit of framing people, especially her former boyfriends. Although in the novel, it turns out that Amy had also framed one of her friends at school. Hilary was the new girl at school and Amy took her under her wing. They became close but eventually Amy noticed that Hilary was starting to become more popular than her and didn't like it. Amy found out that Hilary liked the book Amazing Amy, so she convinced Hilary to dye her hair the same color as Amy's and do all that. other weird things to make it seem like Hilary was stalking Amy. Amy even fell down a flight of stairs only to break her ribs and make it look like Hilary pushed her. Hilary walked away and never told anyone the truth. In the novel, she is one of Amy's first lies and this is also when Nick decides to call Hilary. She finally told the truth about what Amy had done. This isn't even mentioned in the film, although I think the idea of Amy mentoring someone other than her ex-boyfriends would have made for another interesting twist. There is also a different story behind Amy's ex-boyfriend Tommy. In the novel and the film, he is accused of raping Amy. In the film, Tommy pleads and receives a reduced sentence although Nick still discovers him to be an unemployed registered sex offender. In the novel, Nick discovers that Tommy does not suffer such a bad fate after Amy drops the charges. Amy's parents also have a significantly larger role in the book than in the film. Nick has a bad image in most cases in the movie and book. Although in the book he relies heavily on Amy's parents to improve his public image. Amy also writes extensively about her upbringing and her mother's miscarriages before having Amy. None of this is mentioned in the film and his parents are not main characters at all. I think they do this to keep the movie more of an action movie and to avoid becoming boring or slow. Nick's father also plays a larger role in the novel. In the film, Nick's father is only seen once. In the novel, it is revealed that Nick's father struggled with a hatred towards women in his past. Nick's father escapes from an assisted living facility and ends up at the police station the same day Amy disappears, which creates suspicion from the start and also doesn't give a good look at Nick. It turns out that Amy had visited Nick's father and convinced him to go to their house, creating suspicion. In the book, Amy pretends to be afraid of blood. She pretended to have this fear for over a year before finally faking her death. She goes up topretending to faint at the sight of him at one point. She creates this fear in order to make it seem like she will never be able to shed her own blood on her own soil like she does. In the book, she carries a box cutter on her arm to cause blood to flow everywhere. In the movie there is nothing about her being afraid of blood and she obtains her blood using an IV in a much more careful manner. I think in the book and the movie it really shows how much time and thought she put into this plan to perfect it. Another small difference is when Noelle Hawthorne makes her first appearance. Noelle Hawthorne is the friend Amy made before she disappeared to cause problems for Nick and reveal the fake pregnancy at the time. In the novel, we don't introduce her until she shows up at the search team's headquarters. In the film, she is on the lawn on the first day of the investigation and looking for answers. I think Noëlle brings more of a comedic side to prevent the story from being dark and intense. There are also a few characters absent from the film who are in the book. One being Nick's, as said earlier, only appears once at the beginning of the film. Two others being Tanner Bolt's wife Betsy Bolt and Desi's mother. After Amy returns, Nick decides to try to gather enough evidence against her but Amy is already one step ahead. In the novel, Amy poisons herself with antifreeze, then throws it away for safe storage in the freezer. This is a failsafe, so if Nicks tries to expose him in any way, she can take him to the police to charge Nick with attempted murder. Luckily, Nick finds it and gets rid of it. This is not mentioned in the film, but a short shot of the freezer may imply that there is something there. In the novel we also see up to the birth of the baby. The film ends before we can see a pregnant Amy. Instead, we have in-home interviews after returning. I like the interviews, but I also think it would be interesting to see how the pregnancy would affect their marriage after everything that happened. Especially how Nick would treat a pregnant Amy. A small but interesting scene missing from the film is when Andie bites Nick in the face. In the novel, Tanner Bolt convinces Nick to break up with Andie and she doesn't take it well. Nick tries to let Andie down easily by using a speech that Tenner helped prepare. Andie accuses Nick of using her for sexual purposes. She tries to leave but Nick grabs her and tries to make her understand but she ends up biting his face leaving him in pain for a few days. I think this would have been a good scene to include in the movie because you can't really see Andie's emotions once they're exposed. Desi's death scene is already graphic in the book, so you can believe they made it gruesome for the movie. movie. In the book, the plan to kill Desi is shortened. He is drugged with sleeping pills and is assumed to be asleep when his throat is slit with a box cutter. In the film, every step of Amy's plan to frame Desi is shown, even the most unthinkable ones. The main difference is the cameras in the house which she just uses as further evidence and the manner in which Desi is killed. Instead of him being drugged and killed in his sleep, she slits his throat while they make love. Blood is spilled all over the white bed and her white lingerie. Even with the many differences mentioned in the novel and film, the plot is the same and makes for a great story. I think some changes were necessary and others could have been madedifferently, but that didn't take away from either one. It's a great read and watch. I would recommend this book and movie to any adult who loves a good mystery and drama. There are many aspects of criminal justice throughout the film, from crime scene investigation to rape. The crime scene investigations in the film and book are very realistic, especially when they use luminol to reveal the blood mopped up in the kitchen. A major aspect is the abuse of both husband and wife. Throughout the story, readers are inclined to choose sides, between Nick and Amy. Although both are clearly lying and will do anything to get people on their side. We never find out if Nick ever pushed Amy, but Amy suffers psychological abuse. It can be said that all of this stems from Nick and Amy's marital dissatisfaction and symptoms of depression. Depression is never clearly stated, but Nick and Amy exhibit signs and symptoms of it after they both lose their jobs and move to Missouri. An article in the Journal of Family Violence describes a study linking martial dissatisfaction and depressive symptoms to domestic violence. or IPV. The study included 681 patients from 12 different academic centers. Patients were eligible to participate if they met criteria for current chronic major depressive disorder, dysthymic disorder with superimposed major depressive disorder, or recurrent major depressive disorder for at least two years. Patients had to be aged 18 to 75 and have a score greater than 20 on the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. Patients were excluded if they were at high risk for suicide, had abused or been dependent on an illegal substance in the past six months, or had any other type of mental illness. Of these 681 patients, 316 were eligible, 96 men and 220 women. Martial dissatisfaction was assessed using a 6-point self-report scale and another follow-up interviewer rating. The correlation was high between these two assessment methods, with men's self-report being 0.59 and the interviewer's rating being 91. Women scored higher with a self-report of 0. 73 and the interviewer's rating being 205. About half of the women and one-third of the men reported being dissatisfied with their marriage. Depressive symptoms were measured using the 24-item Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression. The results indicate moderate to severe depression with a score between 20 and 43. The average score for men is 25.79 and 27.45 for women. This may indicate that men are more likely to be depressed when married. The results concluded that of the 96 men in the study, 73 were psychologically victimized and that of the 220 women in the study, 155 were psychologically victimized. Three of the 96 men reported having suffered physical injuries at some point and 10 of the 220 women reported having suffered physical injuries at some point. This is only a small representation of the male and female population. The physical injuries may not be very numerous, but the psychological victims are very numerous. In Gone Girl, Amy severely psychologically abused Nick. Some may say he deserved it and others may think differently. For most of the film, Nick was the only suspect in his wife's murder. Another study called “The Quebec Study” took place in Canada and looked at spousal homicides in Quebec from 1991 to 2010. In this study, investigators examined files from the Quebec coroner's head office...