ROAR Blog #5: Finding Fish & the Antwone Fisher movie

Courtney Patterson
Roar Blog-Book into Movie
Feburay 18, 2010

Roar #5
Compare and Contrast the Movie to the Book:

The book that I read for my roar was Finding Fish: A Memoir by Antwone Quenton Fisher and the movie that was based on this book was Antwone Fisher. Both the book and the movie were very good. They shined a light on the life that Antwone was living. Antwone grew up in Cleveland, Ohio with his forester parents. Antwone didn’t know his birth parents. He was abused throughout his childhood, by his forester parents along with his forester brothers and sister. Antwone was able to leave his situation in his forester home and finally end up in the navy. He had some problems in the navy, but with time, he was able to be successful. Antwone seen the world and feel in love while in the navy, but he was still missing something… his biological family. He wants able find his family which gave him hope that anything could happen. His father’s family loved Antwone and were glad that he was in their lives, but when Antwone when to see his mother, he didn’t feel the same amount of love. Antwone had to forgive his mother for everything she did, but he had to move on.
When I compared the book to the movie there are more things that are different. In the movie all of the characters had their names changed, but Antwone Fisher. With new names, there are also new characters like Cheryl Smolley, who is Antwone’s girlfriend in the movie. In the book Antwone did fell in love, but it was with a woman in Tokyo and their relationship stayed in Tokyo. The relationship that Antwone had with Cheryl was on the ship because she was in the navy with him. While in the navy Antwone found someone that he could talk to and it helped him get things off his chest, but in the book it was not touched on and much as it was in the movie. The movie was revolved around Antwone talking to Dr. Jerome Davenport and telling him his story. Dr. Davenport played by Denzel Washington had helped Antwone played by Derek Luke; realize that he needs to find his biological parents. In the book Antwone wanted to find his parents because he always wondered about them. The way that Antwone went about looking for his biological family and some of the family members had also changed. One of the big events that happened in the movie and not in the book was Antwone going back to his forester parents’ home when he was looking for his biological family. In the book Antwone says that he never tried to reconnect with his forester family, because that was one thing that he didn’t want to revisit.
The events that stayed the change in the movie and the book were the dream that Antwone had when he was younger. This dream was of him being welcomed by people who looked like him and they had a feast prepared for him. This dream came true when he finally met his biological family and they had a feast for him and a way of welcoming him home. Another event that was the same and was shown in the book and movie was Antwone getting into trouble in the navy. Antwone would get in fights because he felt that it was the only way to protect himself. Antwone felt that he had to protect himself, because when he allowed people into his life he felt that they always left like Jessie. Jessie was Antwone close friend and he gave him a place to live for a while, but Jessie tried to rob someone and ended up getting killed. In the book and movie this event was seen and it affected Antwone because that was his friend. While Antwone became depressed about the event that took place, he started to write poetry and the poem that he wrote was expressed in the book and in the movie. The poem was about him and who would care enough to help him. Antwone gave the poem to Dr. Davenport in the movie, but in the book it was just a poem that he wanted to share with the readers.
When I compared the movie to the book it seems that Fishing Fish: A Memoir was better than the Antwone Fisher movie, because there were more details and there were no added characters. It was more realistic than the movie, but the movie was great in its own way. The movie allowed people to view Antwone’s Fisher’s life and it lead to people picking up the book and getting a closer look.