The film tells the story of a simple man (or gump) 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 (Tom Hanks) sitting at a bus stop in Savannah, Georgia. Forrest picks up the feather and puts it in a book, 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 towards Gump's narration, ranging from disbelief and indifference to rapt veneration).
Forrest is shown to have been taught much about life by his mother (Sally Field). Forrest often recalls her favorite sayings, including "Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you gonna get" and "Stupid is as stupid does." Both sayings became popular catchphrases following the movie's release. Other people who play key roles in Forrest's life include Jenny Curran (Robin Wright Penn), a childhood friend who is physically and sexually abused by her father; Benjamin Buford "Bubba" Blue (Mykelti Williamson), a young black shrimper who serves with Forrest in the Vietnam War and knows "everything there is to know about shrimping"; and Lieutenant Dan Taylor (Gary Sinise), under whose command Forrest and Bubba serve. A few years after the war is over, Forrest proposes marriage to Jenny. She turns him down. Later that evening they have sex. In the morning she disappears. To cope with his heartbreak, Forrest runs across the country for three and a half years.
Forrest is waiting at the bus stop because on March 30, 1981, he received a letter from Jenny who, having seen him run on TV, asks him to visit her. Forrest shows Jenny's letter to the current listener, a patient elderly lady who has already passed up one bus to continue listening; she tells him that the address is only a short walking distance away. He thanks the lady and immediately starts running. Once he is reunited with Jenny and her young son (Haley Joel Osment), Jenny tells him that the boy is named Forrest, after his father, who he at first incorrectly believes to be the son of another man named Forrest, although she confirms that the child is indeed his. She also tells Forrest she is suffering from an unknown virus (In all likelihood HIV, which was an unknown virus in the 1980s). Together the three move back to Greenbow, Alabama, where Jenny and Forrest finally marry, but their married bliss is cut short by Jenny's death "on a Saturday morning" according to Forrest. Her gravestone gives her date of death as March 22, 1982.
The film ends with Forrest escorting his son to a schoolbus, where the father and son tell each other that they love each other. The feather in Forrest's book is blown away by the wind, and floats into the sky, echoing the film's beginning.
Lt. Dan suggests that they invest some of their money from the shrimping business, and the company they invest in eventually becomes Apple Computer, now known as Apple Inc. (Forrest believes it actually sells fruit).
Accounts of Gump's meetings with famous people
He is a descendant of Nathan Bedford Forrest, Confederate general and founder of the Ku Klux Klan. This could be considered irony as Gump befriends a black man named Bubba, which he meets whilst serving in the army.
He meets Elvis Presley as a child, when Elvis was staying at their house as a boarding tenant. His awkward attempts to dance in leg braces inspire Elvis's infamous hip gyrations.
While running to escape a group of bullies, Forrest's speed is noticed by Coach Bear Bryant of the University of Alabama. Forrest is recruited by Coach Bryant to play football, which he does for five years, mostly returning kicks. This means that he is a member of the 1961 National Championship team. It also means he would have played with Joe Namath. While at Alabama, Forrest impresses Bryant with his speed, but annoys him with his stupidity. Forrest's skills result in him being named to the All American Team.
He meets President John F. Kennedy after the All American Team of 1963 is invited to the White House. While there, since it's free, Forrest drinks 15 bottles of Dr Pepper. Over a handshake President Kennedy asks him how he feels, to which Gump replies "I gotta pee." File:390593306a188.jpg
He later meets President Lyndon B. Johnson, who awards him the Medal of Honor for his heroic rescue of his fellow soldiers. After Forrest tells Johnson about his wound, Johnson says that he would like to see it some time, after which Forrest hesitantly but obediently pulls down his pants and shows the wound on his buttocks. President Johnson responds by walking away, chuckling, "Goddamn, son."
At a protest in Washington, Gump meets Abbie Hoffman and makes a speech which is unheard due to technical problems (a military police officer pulls the microphone cords off the speakers and sound system). The viewers are taunted by having the lead protester break down emotionally following Gump's conclusion. According to Tom Hanks, Gump says, "Sometimes when people go to Vietnam, they go home to their mommas without any legs. Sometimes they don't go home at all. That's a bad thing. That's all I have to say about that." [citation needed]
Finally, after being a part of the United States ping pong team (see Ping Pong Diplomacy), he meets President Richard Nixon, who asks him where he is staying, and then offers to put Forrest up in a much nicer hotel, which turns out to be the Watergate office and hotel complex. Forrest calls the front desk after he sees flashlights across the courtyard, bringing attention to the Watergate burglars and precipitating Nixon's downfall.
He meets Dick Cavett and John Lennon on Cavett's talk show, and his accounts of China inspire Lennon's song "Imagine".
Visual effects
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.
Old documentary 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 1970's with make-up applied to make it appear that he was much younger than the actor was during the filming.
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-wing bias or a right-wing one. 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.[1] As such, both film and fans are sometimes criticized for "glossing over" this important factor. This criticism can also be countered using the example of when Forrest Gump runs back into the jungle to save Bubba despite Lieutenant Dan ordering him otherwise.
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."[2] 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.")[3] Currently, the film garners a 70% "Fresh" rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.[4]
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."[5] As of 26 July, 2007, the film ranks 73rd on IMDb's Top 250 films list.[6] The film also came in at #76 on AFI's Top-100 movies of all time list in 2007.
It is revealed near the beginning of the book that his father (a longshoreman) was killed by a falling crate of bananas (Forrest's father apparently left Forrest's mother in the movie but it is never explained).
The leg braces were not in the book; nor did Forrest's mother have sex with the school principal to get Forrest in the regular school. In the book, Forrest did not do well in the regular school and was put in a special school for mentally challenged children, which he refers to as the 'nut school'.
Forrest failed college and hence did not graduate.
Forrest's mother does not die in the book but does in the movie. Forrest's mother does die in the book's sequel Gump & Co.
The novel's Forrest is described as an idiot savant, with an extraordinary talent in numerical calculation. One memorable example of this is in college, when Forrest receives an A in his physics course (Intermediate Light) and an F in physical education.
In the book Forrest is a wrestler, appearing under the name "The Dunce"
Gump does not marry Jenny in the book; she instead marries another man, though she joins a band called "The Cracked Eggs" with him at one point. Jenny does not die in the original novel. She does die from unstated causes in the sequel—the book simply states that she and her husband got sick and both ended up dying—with the novel recounting Forrest's subsequent adventures with little Forrest when the boy is sent to live with him.
The chapter in the novel entitled "My Best Friend" recounts the tale of his first and only homosexual sexual relationship with his childhood friend Robbie Jameson. This is omitted from the film entirely due to pressure from the film company.
Gump and little Forrest do not have the loving relationship that the end of the movie seems to imply. In fact, Little Forrest (who was a teenager at this point in the second book) was mad at his father for not being in his life, and during a pivotal scene in the book calls out Gump for pretending to be his father. Forrest's response is to spank his son, changing their relationship.
Gump does not meet Lt. Dan until he is in the hospital in Vietnam. In the novel, Lt. Dan is not a professional soldier but a drafted teacher. He has no wish to die in combat and is more of a philosopher. Bubba is white and was previously on the football team with Forrest.
Forrest does not actively catch shrimp with a shrimping boat and sell them; rather, he has a small shrimphatchery and builds success upon that. He learns how to farm shrimp from a friendly Vietnamese; back in Bayou La Batre (Bubba's hometown), Bubba's father helps him get started.
Forrest also has many other adventures in the book that are not mentioned in the movie. During his trip to China, he rescues Chairman Mao from drowning in the Yangtze River (parodying Mao's actual much-publicized swim).
Forrest's run across America never happens in the book.
The movie shows Forrest as a sober-minded man and cuts back scene from scene of Jenny doing a number of drugs. In the book Forrest is a smoker of cannabis and towards the end of the novel smokes tobacco more and thinks about his past and all that he's done in life. At the end, he leaves his crew (which includes many people he has met over the years) to run the business, and goes to live with Lt. Dan and Sue as street musicians.
The book features rather explicit sex scenes between Forrest and Jenny which do not appear in the movie.
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[7] In addition, an album featuring only the score by Alan Silvestri was released as well.
Won - Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures — Robert Zemeckis, Charles Newirth, Bruce Moriarity, Cherylanne Martin, Dana J. Kuznetzkoff
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 sequel to the book Forrest Gump was written, Gump and Co., but due to a dispute between the author and Paramount Pictures, the screenplay written in 2001 based on the book was not put into production. The dispute has been worked out and Paramount producers are taking another look at the Forrest Gump II screenplay.[8]
^"Forrest Gump". by Roger Ebert, The Chicago Sun-Times. 1994-07-06. Retrieved 2007-01-26. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
^"Movie Review: Forrest Gump". by Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly. 1994-07-15. Retrieved 2007-01-26. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
United States
