Of Mice and Men
CRITIQUE | THE TEXT | AT THE MOVIES
1939, 1992
First editionFirst publication
1937
Literature form
Novella
Genre
Literary
Writing language
English
Author's country
United States
Length
Approx. 34,500 words
Lennie (John Malkovich) and George (Gary Sinise) make plans with a friend in 1992 film of Of Mice and Men.
George and Lennie as they were
Of Mice and Men (1992): Director Gary Sinise; writer Horton Foote; featuring John Malkovich, Sinise, Ray Walston, Sherilyn Fenn
The 1992 version Of Mice and Men is close to be a replication of the 1992 film—except it's now in full colour and, more significantly, the realism is heightened.
The sentimental gloss has been stripped off, so George played by Gary Sinise, who also directed effectively, is desperately annoyed with the big guy he looks out for. And Lennie really sounds and behaves like a mentally challenged man; amazingly we get this uncomfortable depiction from the usually cerebral and sophisticated actor John Malkovich—a revelation both of Malkovich's talent and of the man Lennie Small would have been in real life.
The story starts just slightly before the earlier film, as Lennie unintentionally annoys a young woman, leading to her screams and a group of men chasing Lennie and George. They escape by hiding under weeds in a ditch exactly as before. They take a little longer to get to their riverbank camp but once there the scene unfolds again as Steinbeck wrote it and as the earlier film presented it. (This time, moreover, it is a dead mouse Lennie carries, as in the book.)
The movie was scripted by the great Horton Foote (To Kill a Mockingbird, Tender Mercies), who knew enough to leave alone those great lines and passages from both the book and earlier film.
All the same important scenes are played out here, though with a slightly harder edge. The only notable exception is that the slight "stable buck" subplot is eliminated.
The final scene, when George gives Lennie his ultimate gift, is again grimmer, not stretched out for suspense and melodrama as in the earlier film, but delivered with understated emotion. It's over before we know it, shockingly quickly.
A less satisfying conclusion than in the 1939 film, but with an unsettling impact of its own.
— Eric
CRITIQUE | THE TEXT | AT THE MOVIES
1939, 1992
