Runaway Jury
Okay, now for a book/movie decision that is as easy to call as The Firm.
Runaway Jury, written in 1996, is about a huge tobacco trial in Biloxi. A woman is suing on behalf of her late husband. The tobacco companies keep a "fund" for such lawsuits, and they hire Rankin Fitch (now is that a great name for a bad guy, or what!) to select a jury that will quickly deliver an acquittal. What Fitch doesn't count on is a jury member (Nicholas Easter) with his own plans to sway the jury. He boldly offers the jury for sale to both sides in the trial, but in fact he has already made up his mind how the trial will turn out. The rest of the story is a study of mind control by both sides, with Easter and his lovely accomplice winning out.
What's Different:
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What huge differences! First of all, the movie presents a trial against gun manufacturers based in New Orleans! I guess that's considered more PC. Cusack's Easter admonishes his building super to stop smoking in a nod to the original premise.
Second, Hackman's Rankin Fitch is not nearly as obnoxious as his literary counterpart. I'm afraid Gene is just too stinkin' likeable!
Third, Nicholas and Marlee simply rip off Fitch in the end. In the book, they "borrow" his ten million dollars, invest it in tobacco stocks sold short, and take advantage of the trial's verdict to make millions (and even pay Fitch back).
Why the Book Is Better:
Grisham knew what he was doing when he wrote a novel critical of the tobacco companies. The very idea that such an industry is sanctioned by the government when it has been conclusively proven to harm and kill its users is hypocrisy at its greatest. The same entity that bans artificial sweeteners (cyclamates) that might possibly cause cancer in large doses has laws in place offering economic aid to those who produce this lethal product. And despite how one feels about gun control, the same argument simply can not be made concerning firearms, which can and do provide beneficial uses.
Not only that, but the book's ending is much more satisfying. Fitch is dethroned, the tobacco industry begins facing a litany of lawsuits, and the only ones who lose are the tobacco companies themselves, and those who invest their funds in them.