Forrest Gump

"Forrest gump" redirects here. For other uses, see Forrest Gump (disambiguation).

Forrest Gump
File:Forrest gump.jpg Original film poster
Directed by	Robert Zemeckis
Written by	Eric Roth (Screenplay)
Produced by	Wendy Finerman Steve Tisch Steve Starkey Charles Newirth (co-produced)
Starring	Tom Hanks Robin Wright Gary Sinise Mykelti Williamson and Sally Field
Cinematography	Don Burgess
Edited by	Arthur Schmidt
Music by	Alan Silvestri
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release dates	July 6, 1994
Running time	141 min
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	US$55 million
Box office	US$679,693,974

Forrest Gump is a 1994 drama film based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom and the name of the title character of both. The film was a huge commercial success, earning US$677 million worldwide during its theatrical run making it the top grossing film in North America released that year. The film garnered a total of 13 Academy Award nominations, of which it won six, including Best Picture, Best Visual Effects, Best Director (Robert Zemeckis), and Best Actor (Tom Hanks).

The film tells the story of a man with an IQ of 75 and his epic journey through life, meeting historical figures, influencing popular culture and experiencing first-hand historic events while largely unaware of their significance, due to his lower than average intelligence. The film differs substantially from the book on which it was based.

Plot

The movie begins with a feather falling to the feet of Forrest Gump who is sitting at a bus stop in Savannah, Georgia in 1981. Forrest picks up the feather and puts it in the book Curious George, then tells the story of his life to a woman seated next to him. The listeners at the bus stop change regularly throughout his narration, each showing a different attitude ranging from disbelief and indifference to rapt veneration.

Forrest grew up in fictional Greenbow County, Alabama where his mother ran a bed-and-breakfast out of their home. As a child, Forrest had to wear leg braces due to having a crooked spine. One time, a young Elvis Presley was a boarder at Forrest's home, and we learn that Forrest's "crazy little dance" while wearing the braces would prove to be the inspiration for Elvis's future provocative dance moves.

On his first day of school in the early 1950s, he meets a girl named Jenny, whose life we follow in parallel to Forrest's at times. Jenny was sexually abused by her father as a child, something that torments her for most of the rest of her life, though Forrest sees only the sweet girl who sat next to him on the school bus. Forrest's ability to run exceedingly well gets him into college on a football scholarship playing for Bear Bryant at the University of Alabama. He becomes an All-American kick returner and meets President John F. Kennedy, the first of three U.S. Presidents he will meet in his life. While at the University, he also witnesses the school's desegregation and Governor George Wallace's symbolic blocking of the school doors. At graduation, he enlists in the army and is sent to Vietnam, where he makes fast friends with a man named Bubba, who convinces Forrest to go into the shrimping business with him when the war is over. Forrest also meets his commanding officer Lieutenant Dan Taylor. Though Forrest ends up saving much of his platoon in a Viet Cong ambush, Bubba is killed in action. Forrest's bravery leads him to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, but Lieutenant Dan blames Forrest for robbing him of his destiny to be killed with honor in the field of battle with his men, since "somebody from his family had fought and died in every single American war".

While Forrest is in recovery for a bullet wound to his "but-tocks", he discovers his uncanny ability for ping-pong, eventually gaining popularity and rising to celebrity status due to his participation in Ping Pong Diplomacy. While in Washington, D.C. to be awarded the Medal of Honor by President Lyndon B. Johnson Forrest accidentally gets swept up in an anti-war rally led by Abbie Hoffman. After giving a speech by the Washington Mall Forrest reunites with Jenny. We learn that she's been living a hippie counterculture lifestyle, including drug use. Forrest later goes on television (The Dick Cavett Show) to discuss playing ping-pong in China, and he meets John Lennon, who is also a guest on the program. Thereafter, Forrest temporarily reunites with Lieutenant Dan, who is now living in New York on government disability, having lost both of his legs due to his injuries in Vietnam. Lieutenant Dan jokingly promises Forrest that if he ever becomes a shrimp boat captain, he will become his first mate. Forrest also returns to Washington as a member of the U.S. National Ping Pong Team to meet President Richard Nixon. Nixon arranges for Forrest to stay in the Watergate Hotel and that evening we see Forrest calling Hotel security to complain about people in an adjacent room keeping him up with their flashlights. Nixon resigns shortly thereafter.

Returning home from the army, Forrest endorses a company that makes ping-pong paddles, earning himself $25,000, which he uses to buy a shrimping boat, fulfilling his promise to Bubba. He writes to Lieutenant Dan, who then fulfils his promise and joins him in his shrimping venture. Though initially Forrest has little success, after finding his boat the only surviving boat in the area after Hurricane Carmen, he begins to pull in huge amounts of shrimp and uses it to buy an entire fleet of shrimp boats. Lieutenant Dan invests the money in Apple Computers and Forrest is financially secure for the rest of his life, and donates much of his newfound fortune to various causes -- including giving Bubba's share of the money to Bubba's previously indigent family.

One day Jenny returns to Forrest without explanation and starts to live with him. Though he is still naive about her past, it is clear that she is still haunted by her father's abuse. Forrest proposes marriage to Jenny and while she declines, she feels obliged to prove her love to him by sleeping with him. She leaves early the next morning. On a whim, Forrest elects to go for a run. Seemingly capriciously, he decides to keep running, doing so across the country several times over the course of several years, becoming famous. Several dozen other people decide to follow him on his run around the country, regarding him as a kind of guru or prophet. We also learn that Forrest's wisdom led the creation of the "Have A Nice Day" yellow smiley-face and the phrase "Shit Happens" on bumper stickers. One day, more than two years after he began to run, Forrest decides that he has run far enough and in the middle of the desert, he turns around to go back to Alabama, leaving his dumbfounded followers trying to figure out what to do next.

Back in 1981, Forrest reveals that he is waiting at the bus stop because he received a letter from Jenny who, having seen him run on television, asks him to visit her. Once he is reunited with Jenny, Forrest discovers she has a young son, Forrest Jr. , of whom Forrest is the father. Jenny tells Forrest she is suffering from a virus (probably HIV, though this is never definitively stated). Together the three move back to Greenbow, Alabama. Jenny and Forrest finally marry, with Lieutenant Dan, wearing prosthetic legs, in attendance with his fiancée. Jenny dies soon afterward.

The film ends with father and son waiting for the school bus on little Forrest's first day of school. Opening the book his son is taking to school, the white feather from the beginning of the movie is seen to fall from within the pages. The bus, driven by the now older driver who once drove Forrest himself to school pulls up. Father and son express their love for each other. As the bus pulls away, the white feather is caught on a breeze and drifts skyward as the movie closes.

Production details

Ken Ralston and his team were responsible for the film's visual effects. Using CGI-techniques it was possible for Tom Hanks to meet dead presidents and even shake their hands.

Archival footage was used and with the help of techniques like chroma key, warping, morphing and rotoscoping, Tom Hanks was integrated into it. This feat was honored with an Oscar for Best Visual Effects.

The CGI removal of actor Gary Sinise's legs, after his character had them amputated, was achieved by wrapping his legs with a blue fabric, which later facilitated the work of the "roto-paint"-team to paint out his legs from every single frame. At one point, while hoisting himself into his wheelchair, his "missing" legs are used for support.

Dick Cavett played himself in the 1970s with make-up applied to make it appear that he was much younger than the actor was during the filming. Consequently, Cavett is the only well-known figure in the film to actually play himself for the feature, rather than via archive footage.

Differences from novel

Forrest Gump is based on the 1986 novel by Winston Groom. Both center around the character of Forrest Gump. However, the film primarily focuses on the first eleven chapters of the novel, before skipping ahead to the end of the novel with the founding of Bubba Gump Shrimp and the meeting with Forrest Jr. In addition to skipping some parts of the novels, the film adds several aspects to Forrest's life that do not occur in the novel, such as his needing leg braces as a child and his run across the country. The run thus, effectively replaces what he did in the corresponding years in the novel.

Forrest's core character and personality are also changed from the novel, and it has been reported that Groom was annoyed by the changes.

Reception

In Tom Hanks' words, "The film is non-political and thus non-judgmental". Nevertheless, in 1994, CNN's Crossfire debated whether the film had a left- or right-wing bias. Filmmaker Lloyd Kaufman has noted that Gump's successes result from doing what he is told by others, and never showing any initiative of his own, in contrast to Jenny's more forthright and independent character who is shown descending into drugs, prostitution, and death.

The film received mostly positive critical reviews at the time of its release, with Roger Ebert saying, "The screenplay by Eric Roth has the complexity of modern fiction....[Hanks'] performance is a breathtaking balancing act between comedy and sadness, in a story rich in big laughs and quiet truths....what a magical movie." The film received notable pans from several major reviewers, however, including The New Yorker and Entertainment Weekly, which said that the movie "reduces the tumult of the last few decades to a virtual-reality theme park: a baby-boomer version of Disney's America." As of March 2008, the film garners a 73% "Fresh" rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.

However, the film is commonly seen as a polarizing one for audiences, with Entertainment Weekly writing in 2004, "Nearly a decade after it earned gazillions and swept the Oscars, Robert Zemeckis' ode to 20th-century America still represents one of cinema's most clearly drawn lines in the sand. One half of folks see it as an artificial piece of pop melodrama, while everyone else raves that it's sweet as a box of chocolates." The film also came in at #76 on AFI's Top-100 movies of all time list in 2007.

Cast

Actor	Role
Tom Hanks	Forrest Gump
Robin Wright Penn	Jenny Curran
Gary Sinise	Lieutenant Dan Taylor
Mykelti Williamson	Benjamin Buford "Bubba" Blue
Sally Field	Forrest's mother
Michael Conner Humphreys	Young Forrest Gump
Hanna R. Hall	Young Jenny Curran
Haley Joel Osment	Forrest Gump Jr.
Sam Anderson	Principal Hancock
Geoffrey Blake	Wesley, SDS Organizer
David Brisbin	Newscaster
Peter Dobson	Elvis Presley
Siobhan Fallon	Dorothy Harris, School Bus Driver
Osmar Olivo	Drill Sergeant
Brett Rice	High School Football Coach
Sonny Shroyer	Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant
Kurt Russell	Voice of Elvis Presley
Harold G. Herthum	Doctor

Soundtrack

Main articles: Forrest Gump (soundtrack) and Forrest Gump - Original Motion Picture Score

The soundtrack from Forrest Gump had a variety of music from the 50s, 60s, 70s, and early 80s performed by American artists. It went on to sell 12 million copies, and is one of the top selling albums in the United States In addition, an album featuring only the score by Alan Silvestri was released as well.

Awards and nominations

1994 Academy Awards (Oscars)

• Won - Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role — Tom Hanks
• Won - Best Director — Robert Zemeckis
• Won - Best Film Editing — Arthur Schmidt
• Won - Best Picture — Wendy Finerman, Steve Starkey, Steve Tisch
• Won - Best Visual Effects — Ken Ralston, George Murphy, Stephen Rosenbaum, Allen Hall
• Won - Best Adapted Screenplay — Eric Roth
• Nominated - Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role — Gary Sinise (as Lieutenant Dan Taylor)
• Nominated - Best Achievement in Art Direction — Rick Carter, Nancy Haigh
• Nominated - Best Achievement in Cinematography — Don Burgess
• Nominated - Best Makeup — Daniel C. Striepeke, Hallie D'Amore
• Nominated - Best Original Score — Alan Silvestri
• Nominated - Best Sound Mixing — Randy Thom, Tom Johnson, Dennis S. Sands, William B. Kaplan
• Nominated - Best Sound Editing — Gloria S. Borders, Randy Thom

1995 Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films (Saturn Awards)

• Won - Best Supporting Actor (Film) — Gary Sinise
• Won - Best Fantasy Film
• Nominated - Best Actor (Film) — Tom Hanks
• Nominated - Best Music — Alan Silvestri
• Nominated - Best Special Effects — Ken Ralston
• Nominated - Best Writing — Eric Roth

1995 Amanda Awards

• Won - Best Film (International)

1995 American Cinema Editors (Eddies)

• Won - Best Edited Feature Film — Arthur Schmidt

1995 American Comedy Awards

• Won - Funniest Actor in a Motion Picture (Leading Role) — Tom Hanks

1995 American Society of Cinematographers

• Nominated - Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases — Don Burgess

1995 BAFTA Film Awards

• Won - Outstanding Achievement in Special Visual Effects — Ken Ralston, George Murphy, Stephen Rosenbaum, Doug Chiang, Allen Hall
• Nominated - Best Actor in a Leading Role — Tom Hanks
• Nominated - Best Actress in a Supporting Role — Sally Field
• Nominated - Best Film — Wendy Finerman, Steve Tisch, Steve Starkey, Robert Zemeckis
• Nominated - Best Cinematography — Don Burgess
• Nominated - David Lean Award for Direction — Robert Zemeckis
• Nominated - Best Editing — Aurthur Schmidt
• Nominated - Best Adapted Screenplay — Eric Roth

1995 Casting Society of America (Artios)

• Nominated - Best Casting for Feature Film, Drama — Ellen Lewis

1995 Chicago Film Critics Association Awards

• Won - Best Actor — Tom Hanks

1995 Directors Guild of America

• Won - Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures — Robert Zemeckis, Charles Newirth, Bruce Moriarity, Cherylanne Martin, Dana J. Kuznetzkoff

1995 Golden Globe Awards

• Won - Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama — Tom Hanks
• Won - Best Director - Motion Picture — Robert Zemeckis
• Won - Best Motion Picture - Drama
• Nominated - Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture — Gary Sinise
• Nominated - Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture — Robin Wright Penn
• Nominated - Best Original Score — Alan Silvestri
• Nominated - Best Screenplay - Motion Picture — Eric Roth

1995 Heartland Film Festival

• Won - Studio Crystal Heart Award — Winston Groom

1995 MTV Movie Awards

• Nominated - Best Breakthrough Performance — Mykelti Williamson
• Nominated - Best Male Performance — Tom Hanks
• Nominated - Best Movie

1995 Motion Picture Sound Editors (Golden Reel Award)

• Won - Best Sound Editing

1994 National Board of Review of Motion Pictures

• Nominated - Best Actor — Tom Hanks
• Nominated - Best Supporting Actor — Gary Sinise
• Nominated - Best Picture

1995 PGA Golden Laurel Awards

• Won - Motion Picture Producer of the Year Award — Wendy Finerman, Steve Tisch, Steve Starkey, Charles Newirth

1995 People's Choice Awards

• Won - Favorite All-Around Motion Picture
• Won - Favorite Dramatic Motion Picture

1995 Screen Actors Guild Awards

• Won - Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role — Tom Hanks
• Nominated - Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role — Gary Sinise
• Nominated - Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role — Sally Field & Robin Wright Penn

1995 Writers Guild of America Awards

• Won - Best Screenplay Adapted from Another Medium — Eric Roth

1995 Young Artist Awards

• Won - Best Performance in a Feature Film - Young Actor 10 or Younger — Haley Joel Osment
• Won - Best Performance in a Feature Film - Young Actress 10 or Younger — Hanna R. Hall
• Nominated - Best Performance in a Feature Film - Young Actor Co-Starring — Michael Conner Humphreys

Sequel

A screenplay based on the original novel's sequel, Gump and Co., was written by Eric Roth in 2001. Due to a legal dispute between Winston Groom and Paramount Pictures over the first movie, the sequel was never put into production. In March of 2007, however, it was reported that the dispute has been resolved and that Paramount producers are now taking another look at the screenplay.

See also

• Bubba Gump Shrimp Company

External links

• Forrest Gump at IMDb