While the the film and short story of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button share similar themes and the basis to the story line are pretty much the same, the two also share many differences. To start with the similarities, both story show the story of a man who is born old and has to cope with his problem of aging backwards. Because of how this is kept consistent between the two, some themes between the two are kept the same. However, this is really the only significant detail kept consistent. The significant differences then become numerous. For instance, one major change the movie made was that at the birth of Benjamin, the mother dies and Benjamin's father puts him at the doorstep of a nursery home. In the short story, the mother remains alive and the father keeps the baby. This changes how we view Benjamin Button in the movie. In the movie, he grows up with the old people in the nursery and this causes us to compare Benjamin to older people. His mind is that of a child, but, nevertheless, he acts like the older people in the nursery home. Because of this, I was able to observe how a child's mind in an aged person's body is almost identical to a normal old person and how older people act. The film also went to include scenes how aging backwards is similar to aging forwards like, for example, learning how to walk was something that Benjamin went through because he was in wheelchair before that.
Point of View
The point of view between the short story and the film are completely different. In the short story, there is an omniscent point of view; however, in the film, the story is told in almost two points of view. The first is Benjamin Button himself while the story of his life is told from a diary that a woman reads throughout the movie. The second comes from the old lady in the hospital bed who would also help contribute to the story. With this different point of view, I felt that I became more connected with Benjamin Button and understood him as a character better. This is because through this different point of view in the movie, we can learn more personal things about Benjamin including how he truly was as a character. In the short story, the omniscent point of view allows us to get more information about other characters, but in the movie, we are limited only to what Benjamin knows. With this more personal view in the movie, we can more easily compare Benjamin to other characters that are old when he is old looking but truly young.
Characterization
Benjamin Button is not a very complex person in the short story. Its simply an overview of his life, but we never get to know him too well making him a flat character. But in the movie, with the story from the diary being told in Benjamin's own voice, we get more of a feel of what he really is like making him into more of a complex person. With this complexity, the character is able to better establish relationships with others. In the short story, he has relationships with his father and wife, but they are not told in very much detail or complexity. It's simply a stoy being told. However, in the movie, he establishes multiple, complex relationships with others in the nursing homes. These relationships then are capable of adding more themes to the movie than the short story was capable of doing. Like the book however, both characters are developed through indirect characterization which almost force us to compare him to old people when he is young allowing us to further understand certain themes.
Setting
The setting between the movie and the film are very different. The short story begins on 1860 around the civil war time while the film begins on the day WWI ended which was Benjamin's day of birth. However, this time change allows us to understand that the themes present in this novel are timeless. Moreover, the two share a similar setting in relationship to how the story begins and ends. In both versions, the stories begin with them growing up in a certain place and having to be taken care of. Then, in both, Benjamin goes off to live his life whether it be to fight a war as in the short story, or to live on a fishing boat as in the movie. However, in both, when they degress to being young, when in fact they are old, both versions have Benjamin returning to his home and having to be taken care of again until he dies as a baby. This setting shows how it is identical to that of a normal aging man. So the movie keeping this aspect of the short story helps the story itself remain with a few certain themes.
Theme
The short story was difficult to extract any sort of theme from is becuase of it lack of depth. But the movie shared themes included in the short story plus any more that are not present in the short story due to the films depth and complexity. One theme that I was able to learn from the movie was to be grateful for things while you have them. Since Benjamin was a child as an old man, he was exposed to others that were already old and would therefore die in Benjamin's lifetime. So Benjamin at first had to learn to be grateful for what he had because he found out that people don't stay in his life forever early on. While watching this movie, I was quick to be able to spot this theme, not because they simply said this, but because the increased complexity and depth of the movie allowed for it to be easy to find a theme. The short story seemed so blunt and shallow that finding a theme quite a task.
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