MovieChat Forums > The Rum Diary (2011) Discussion > Can someone list the major differences b...

Can someone list the major differences between the book and the movie?


SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! obviously.




This is what I have gathered so far...

There's a great funny introductory scene where we see Kemp arriving on a plane to Puerto Rico and it's in this plane where he meets Sanderson for the first time.

The book has a second major character called Yeamon who's a adventurous rebellious young man living like a wild child and a great inspiration for Kemp because of his freedom in thought and action, but is ultimately doomed by his hotheadedness.

There's a bar called Al's where most of the rum drinking takes place.

Kemp moves out of Sanders' apartment early in the book and rents a cheap crummy flat.

The scene where they all go to a local club and get thrown out so the locals can have their way with the drunk girl Chenault is much more explicit and disturbing.

Lotterman gets murdered by Yeamon in a fit of rage.

In the book, there is no diamond turtle, cock fighting, major drug abuse, happy ending where Kemp meets up with Chenault when he goes back to the mainland, there's much less focus on the evil entrepreneur subplot and the subplot where they try to save the papers and give one last middle finger to Sanders with their "tell-all" final edition.

Anything else? Any corrections?

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[deleted]

Who is "Sanders" that you keep referring to?

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Aaron Eckhart - Sanderson. My bad.

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the book has very little to do with the movie.

Removing Yeamon from the the rum diary is like removing Aragorn from lord of the rings.

Depp was too old for the part. Sanderson's character was wrong. The savagery of the locals was not depicted properly. Ribisi was about the only thing right with this one.

It was a decent movie, but the book is great. The book has several morals and social commentary that the movie never even hints at.

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It wasn't even a decent movie... The worst part for me is it simply didn't capture the essence of a broke journalist.. he wouldn't be living in a place as luxurious as the one he's in... He's in a land of paradise, yet it's this gap between the rich (Sanderson) vs the "poor" Yeamon battling for Paul's admiration in his head.. It's ridiculous that they changed the essence of the book for this complete piece of trash.. It's a good thing Hunter Thompson didn't seen this... ugh

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I must disagree! I thought the film was surprisingly faithful, despite the differences listed above. Likening Yeamon to Aragorn? That's a bit much! Yeamon was just a mixed-up, pontificating whacko who was gradually losing touch with reality, in-between bursts of pithy philosophy (he gets some of the best quotes).

Depp was playing a guy who thinks he's washed up at 30, which in those days, a guy was if he hadn't become successful yet. Now, though 50 is pushing it, there are few 30 year olds I know who sweat not having won the Pulitzer Prize by then! People at 30 are barely getting their feet wet, with a few exceptions, so having a guy who's 50, but looks 40, was fine. Depp would have looked like a teen at age 30.

What's wrong with Sanderson? He was a a major bastard and Eckhart really gave it his all. My problem was Ribisi as Moburg. He sounded like one of the weirdos in that Clash song "Red Angel Dragnet", who mutters in the background about animals coming out.

I do agree that the book was better, but at least this film didn't butcher HST as "Fear and Loathing" did, with Terry Gilliam's absurd acid trip monsters...cripes!


She deserves her revenge, and we deserve to die.

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The drug use and getting drunk scenes were really glossed over in the book. I don´t even remember Kemp speaking about using drugs.

Chenault was Yeamon´s girlfriend not Sanderson´s and Yeamon is not included in the movie, he was a broke hot-headed guy who got fired from the paper as opposed to the rich playboy Sanderson.

Chenault actually gets naked on the dance floor before the implied rape, this doesn´t actually happen in the movie.

Kemp, Yeamon and some other guy are thrown in jail after a wild night out, I can´t remember that being in the film, tho its been a while since I saw the movie.

It is implied in the book that Kemp will visit Chenault in New York after she leaves his house.

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