The Weather Underground Organization broke off from a group formally known as “Students for a Democratic Society”. The Weather Underground was a more of a radical group that opposed the Vietnam War, and to counteract the war they turned to violence in American rather than peaceful protest. The book and move The Company You Keep differs from each other in the fact on how the members of Weather Underground/Students for a Democratic Society were depicted. The book went more into details about the murders, bombings, and protest that weathermen went through. The book differed in the fact how the fugitives of weathermen lives changed after they went on the run, or after they gave themselves up. Also the books setting, characters were slightly changed …show more content…
In the movie Ben is more understanding of the movement and that the United States Army is essentially doing the same thing. In the book Ben describes the Weatherman as a bunch of pricks and druggies. Who only were creating acts of terror and treason rather than helping the political cause of ending the war in Vietnam. In the movie Ben is a whole different character. The movie portrays Ben as someone who is understanding. Ben mentions to another character Rebecca Osborne that the Weathermen were doing exactly what the United States military was doing and that was killing innocent people for no reason. I think the changes are made to Ben because it shows that the American citizens were accepting of the Weather Underground Organization. Younger American citizens felt that the only way to get government officials to stop lying about the war was to bring the war to American soil. Also Ben character was changed because in the book there was a sense of him being more right while in the movie he was more left. Another character who was different from book to movie was Jim Grant. Grant was one of the fugitives who was on the run. Jim Grant’s real