Forrest Gump
| Forrest Gump | |
|---|---|
| File:Forrest gump.jpg original film poster | |
| Directed by | Robert Zemeckis |
| Written by | Winston Groom (Novel), Eric Roth (Screenplay) |
| Produced by | Wendy Finerman Steve Tisch Steve Starkey Charles Newirth |
| 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 | 142 min (US) / 136 min (Europe) |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | US$55 million |
Tagline: The world will never be the same once you've seen it through the eyes of Forrest Gump.
Forrest Gump is a 1985 novel by Winston Groom, a 1994 film adaptation, and the name of the title character of both. The film was a huge commercial success, earning $677 million worldwide during its theatrical run (the top grossing film in North America released that year), although Paramount claimed it was a commercial failure and did not pay Groom his share of the profits.[1] As such, Groom has refused to allow the novel's sequel, Gump and Co., to be filmed, stating that he could not in good conscience sell the rights to film the sequel to a failure. 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 simple man's epic journey through life, meeting historical figures and experiencing first-hand historic events while largely unaware of their significance, due to his low IQ of 75. The film differs substantially from the book on which it was based.
Movie plot
Forrest's story begins
Sitting at a bus stop in Savannah, Georgia, Forrest Gump tells the story of his life to a woman seated next to him (the listeners at the bus stop change regularly throughout his narration). A side note, the bus stop bench doesn't exist in Savannah and traffic runs the opposite direction around Chippewa Square.
Much of Forrest's philosophy comes from his mother. Forrest often recalls her favorite sayings, "Mama always says 'Life is like a box of chocolates'" and "Stupid is as stupid does." Both sayings became popular catchphrases following the movie's release. Forrest reveals that he is named after a distant ancestor, Nathan Bedford Forrest, who helped found the Ku Klux Klan, as a reminder that "sometimes we all do things that, well, just don't make no sense." Despite his low I.Q., which would normally have necessitated special education, his mother arranges to have him enrolled in public school by sleeping with an official from the school district. On his first day of school, he is befriended on the school bus by a girl named Jenny Curran who is being physically and sexually abused by her father.
Forrest's house is filled with visitors often and at one point "every room is filled" because his mother has made it into a Bed and Breakfast. Eventually, Elvis Presley stays at the inn and plays the guitar to a dancing Forrest, which, as we learn later on, turns out to make Elvis famous.
For the first several years of his life, Forrest has to wear leg braces due to his back being "as crooked as a politician ". These make walking awkward for Forrest, and running almost impossible. When a group of bullies chase Forrest on their bicycles, he runs, urged on by Jenny. As Forrest runs, his leg braces fall apart, and he outruns his pursuers leaving behind only a cloud of dust to greet them.
Football at Alabama
Years later, while again running away from bullies, Forrest runs through Greenbow High School's football field during a practice scouted by University of Alabama coaches. He outpaces the players and is given a football scholarship. His running ability makes him a hero with the Alabama team, under legendary coach Bear Bryant. He is named to the All-American team and gets to meet President John F. Kennedy at the White House.
Forrest remains friends with Jenny, although she attends a separate all-girls' college, possibly nearby Judson College. Gump appears on television June 11, 1963, standing behind Governor George Wallace at Foster Auditorium during a protest against University desegregation (the "Stand in the Schoolhouse Door"). He graduates after five years. His college major isn't revealed, though he mentions taking a Home Economics course.
On his graduation day, he is approached by an Army recruiter and enlisted in the army. Gump says he fit into the army "like one of them round pegs" and is top of his class in boot camp. After assembling his M14 rifle in record time, his drill sergeant tells him, "I would recommend you for OCS Private Gump, if it weren't such a waste of a damn fine enlisted man!"
His lone friend in boot camp is Benjamin Buford "Bubba" Blue (Mykelti Williamson), who knows everything there is to know about shrimp. They agree to go into the "shrimpin' business" together, after they are discharged from the army. While Forrest is white and Bubba is black, the pair discover they have very similar backgrounds, philosophies on life and have similar "Mamas." (Bubba: "My mama says that too.")
One night, while in their bunks, a fellow soldier tosses Forrest a Playboy and says "get a load of the tits on her." Forrest turns a page and recognizes the girl as none other than Jenny, sporting her college sweater and nothing else. The photo gets her expelled from college, and she begins playing guitar in the nude as "Bobbi Dylan" at a strip club. Forrest visits her and witnesses some men "tryin' to grab" her while playing a cover of "Blowin' in the Wind" by Bob Dylan. He beats them up, but Jenny becomes angry with him as a result.
The couple reminisce about old times, and Jenny recalls when they hid from her father in the cornfield and she prayed to God to turn her into a bird. She asks Forrest, "Do you think I could fly off this bridge, Forrest?" This worries Forrest, and Jenny dismisses the thought. He tells her of his impending tour of duty in Vietnam, and she orders him not to be brave and to just run if he is ever in trouble. She then hitches a ride in a passing pickup truck.
Forrest in Vietnam
While serving south of Saigon in the 9th Infantry Division under Lieutenant Dan Taylor (Gary Sinise), he is awarded the Medal of Honor by carrying wounded members of his platoon (including Bubba, who dies in Forrest's arms) to safety during an ambush. Lieutenant Dan later has both legs amputated, to his initial resentment, as he saw it as his destiny to die in combat, just as every one of his ancestors had before him (in every single American war up to that time) and now instead had to live the rest of his life as a cripple.
While in Washington to receive his medal, he accidentally goes to an Abbie Hoffman rally and meets Jenny again, by this time a hippie. A group of hippies, protesting the Vietnam War, think that Forrest is there to speak for them and take him up onto a platform where he says what he thinks about the war. Unfortunately, most of it is lost when the wires to the microphone are pulled out and the audience is only able to hear Forrest's final words, "And that's all I have to say about the war in Vietnam". He goes with Jenny to a Black Panther gathering where he sees her get struck by another man. Forrest angrily begins to beat up the man but Jenny makes him stop. During the award ceremony, President Lyndon Johnson asks Forrest where he was shot. Forrest replies "I was shot in the buttocks, sir." After Johnson jokes about wanting to see the wound, Forrest, thinking the President really did want to see the wound, pulls down his pants to show him.
While Forrest is recovering from his wound, he becomes an expert ping-pong player and travels to the People's Republic of China during the Ping Pong Diplomacy period. He becomes a national hero playing ping-pong and is offered $25,000 to cross-endorse a brand of ping-pong paddles.
Forrest appears on The Dick Cavett Show with John Lennon. As Forrest recalls his experiences in Communist China, he gives Lennon the idea for his song "Imagine". In reference to the lyrics of the song, Lennon remarks, "No possessions?" and then "And no religion too?". Dick Cavett then remarks, "Hard to imagine," to which Lennon replies, "It's easy if you try, Dick."
After exiting the studio, Forrest meets Lieutenant Dan, now a bitter, alcoholic cripple who has lost his faith in God. During a New Year's Eve party, Lieutenant Dan facetiously promises to become his first mate if Forrest ever becomes a shrimping-boat captain.
Forrest makes political history
Upon visiting Richard Nixon after his trip to China, he is invited by the President to stay at the Watergate Hotel complex. He is awakened by flashlights in the offices opposite his room. Believing the tenants to be having difficulty with a fusebox, Forrest calls the security office to notify the maintenance crew, inadvertently initiating the Watergate scandal.
After his military service, he returns home with $25,000 from the Table Tennis paddle endorsement. After buying some things for his mother and himself, he uses the balance of $24,562.47 to buy his own shrimping boat — christened the Jenny, after his "girlfriend" — and starts a shrimp business, keeping a promise to Bubba. True to his word, Lieutenant Dan becomes his first mate in the "Bubba-Gump Shrimp Corporation." They are spectacularly unsuccessful until they happen to be out of port during Hurricane Carmen, which wrecks all the other fishing boats in the area, giving them an instant monopoly on the shrimp market and making Forrest a very wealthy man. During the hurricane, Lieutenant Dan finally faces his demons and undergoes an epiphany. He takes over the management of the growing business and buys Forrest shares in "some kind of fruit company" - Apple Computer - before that company's rise, making Forrest even wealthier.
Even though Lieutenant Dan says he is crazy to do so, Forrest sends a check for what he considers to be Bubba's share of the shrimp business profit to Bubba's mother, who had been working as a cook, just like all of her ancestors before her. With the proceeds, she moves her large family from their shack into luxurious new accommodations, complete with her own private cook. Forrest also donates funds to a church and a medical center, citing his mother's philosophy that "there's only so much fortune a man really needs, and the rest is just for showing off".
Forrest returns to his childhood home when he receives word that his mother is ill. She dies shortly afterwards. He is reunited with Jenny, who has made a mess of her life, including drug addiction and prostitution. She lives with him for a while, then leaves following a night of passion that originated in Forrest's awkward marriage proposal.
To fill the void of her departure, Forrest begins to run, first "to the end of the road", then "to the end of town". Eventually, he runs clear across the country. He runs from one coast to the other, and then turns around and heads back, running continuously for "three years, two months, fourteen days, and sixteen hours." His dedication inspires a running movement, including a flock of "disciples" who run with him. Along the way, in Flagstaff, AZ, Forrest is alerted he has stepped in dog feces by a man who was asking for a phrase to put on a bumper sticker, to which he replies "it happens" which the guy then took and created the catch phrase "shit happens". Shortly afterward, a mud-splattered Forrest is given a yellow T-shirt by a T-shirt salesman who "couldn't draw all that well and didn't have a camera" but wanted to immortalize Forrest on a shirt. Gump leaves the man with a giant smiley face made of mud imprinted on the shirt and tells him to "have a nice day," thereby inspiring yet another pop culture phenomenon.
Back to the present
One day, he decides to stop running and receives a letter from Jenny asking him to visit her. Forrest shows Jenny's letter to the current listener, explaining why he is at the bus stop. She tells him that the address is only a short distance away. He is reunited with Jenny and her young son. She tells him that the boy is named Forrest, after his father. She also tells Forrest she is suffering from an unknown virus, the symptoms of which are indicative of AIDS stemming from her drug use and earlier prostitution. It is not made clear whether Forrest or their son are also infected.
Jenny and Forrest Jr. move in with him back in Greenbow, Alabama. Jenny and Forrest finally get married. Lieutenant Dan, who has artificial legs — "magic legs", as Forrest refers to them — and an Asian fiancée, attend the wedding.
Jenny finally dies "on a Saturday morning," March 22, 1982 (actually a Monday), making Forrest a single parent to little Forrest (Haley Joel Osment), a bright child who attends school. Forrest demolishes the house that Jenny grew up in, as it had reminded her of her abusive father. Her grave is placed under the tree that they used to climb together when they were children. Jenny's death causes Forrest to question the nature of life. "I don't know if Mama was right or whether it was Lieutenant Dan. I don't know if we each have a destiny, or if we're all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze, but I think, maybe it's both, maybe both are happening at the same time. But I miss you, Jenny." A tearing Forrest concludes with "If there's anything you need, I won't be far away."
Meetings with presidents
Forrest is shown meeting with three American presidents:
- 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 the president asks him how he feels, to which Gump replies "I gotta pee."
- He later meets President Lyndon 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 obediently pulls down his pants and shows the wound on his bu-ttocks.
- Finally, after being a part of the United States Ping Pong team, 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.
Techniques
Worth noting is the work done by Ken Ralston and his team, who 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.
Also notable was the CGI removal of actor Gary Sinise's legs, after his character had them amputated, 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.
Response
In Tom Hanks' words, "The film is non-political and thus non-judgmental" (Time: 42). Nevertheless, in 1994, CNN's Crossfire debated whether the film had a left-wing bias or a right-wing one.
Lloyd Kaufman notes [2] 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. As such, both film and fans are sometimes criticized for "glossing over" this important factor.
The film received mostly positive critical reviews, however, garnering a 79% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes and accumulated a multitude of awards. [3]
Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Tom Hanks | Forrest Gump |
| Robin Wright Penn | Jenny Curran |
| Gary Sinise | Lieutenant Dan Taylor |
| Mykelti Williamson | Pvt. Benjamin Buford "Bubba" Blue |
| Sally Field | Mrs. Gump |
| Michael Conner Humphreys | Young Forrest Gump |
| Hanna R. Hall | Young Jenny Curran |
| Haley Joel Osment | Forrest Gump Jr. |
| Sam Anderson | Principal |
| Geoffrey Blake | Wesley, SDS Organizer |
| David Brisbin | Newscaster |
| Peter Dobson | Elvis Presley |
| Siobhan Fallon | Dorothy Harris, School Bus Driver |
| Afemo Omilami | Drill Sergeant |
| Brett Rice | High School Football Coach |
| Sonny Shroyer | Coach Paul 'Bear' Bryant |
| Kurt Russell | Voice of Elvis Presley |
Differences from the novel
Much of the beginning of the film is the same in the book, albeit Zemeckis' Gump is far more placid and naïve than Groom's abrasive, judgmental cynic; the film's quote of "Life is like a box of chocolates" wholly reverses the novel's sentiment of "Being an idiot is no box of chocolates".
It is revealed near the beginning of the book that his father (a stevedore) was killed by a falling crate of bananas (Forrest's father apparently left Forrest's mother in the movie but it is never explained).
Also, 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 retarded children.
Forrest actually failed college and hence did not graduate.
Forrest's mother does not die in the book but does in the movie Forrest Gump. Forrest's mother does die in the book's sequel Gump & Co.
Unlike in the movie, Forrest is described as an idiot savant and has 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.
Gump does not marry Jenny in the book. She does marry another man. Forrest does, however, join a band called "The Cracked Eggs" with her at one point. Jenny does not get AIDS and does not die either (but does in the sequel, Gump and Co., recounting Forrest's subsequent adventures with little Forrest). What she died of is not stated in the book. The book simply states that she and her husband got sick and both ended up dying and that Forrest's son was sent to live with him.
As a side to that, Gump and little Forrest do not have the loving relationship that the end of the movie seemed 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 shrimp hatchery 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). Later in the book, Forrest becomes an astronaut and crash-lands on a small jungle island in New Guinea with his crew, Major Janet Fritch and a male orangutan called Sue. They are captured by cannibals and made to plant cotton. He also becomes a professional wrestler (under the alias of "The Dunce"), a champion chess player (first playing with the cannibal chief and then in a formal tournament), and even stars in a (fictional) remake of The Creature from the Black Lagoon with Raquel Welch (playing the Creature). After his shrimp business booms, he is persuaded to enter politics with the slogan "I've got to pee" (spoken to John F. Kennedy in the film), but withdraws when his opponents spread the word about his earlier misadventures.
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 of 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 "graphic" sex scenes between Forrest and Jenny which do not appear in the movie.
Soundtrack
- Main article: Forrest Gump (soundtrack)
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 [4]
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 Supporting Actress (Film) — Robin Wright Penn
- Nominated - Best Director — Robert Zemeckis
- Nominated - Best Music — Alan Silvestri
- Nominated - Best Special Effects — Ken Ralston
- Nominated - Best Writing — Eric Roth
- Won - Best Film (International)
1995 American Cinema Editors (Eddies)
- Won - Best Edited Feature Film — Arthur Schmidt
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Won - Studio Crystal Heart Award — Winston Groom
- 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
- Won - Motion Picture Producer of the Year Award — Wendy Finerman, Steve Tisch, Steve Starkey, Charles Newirth
- 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
- 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
Trivia
- The picture of Forrest Gump receiving his Congressional Medal of Honor used in the movie was actually of an American soldier with Tom Hanks' head superimposed on his body. As a result, the soldier, Sammy L. Davis, who also received the award for his service in Vietnam, is sometimes called "The "Real" Forrest Gump".
See also
External links
- Forrest Gump at IMDb
- Forrest Gump script at the Internet Movie Script Database
- Forrest Gump goofs and continuity errors at MovieMistakes.com
- Tone Deaf: "Forrest Gump" — leitmotivic analysis for Appreciating Great Trash
- 1985 novels
- 1994 films
- American films
- Best Director Golden Globe
- Best Drama Actor Golden Globe (film)
- Best Drama Picture Golden Globe
- Best Picture Academy Award winners
- Coming-of-age films
- English-language films
- Films based on fiction books
- Films directed by Robert Zemeckis
- Films featuring a Best Actor Academy Award winning performance
- Films featuring a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nominated performance
- North Carolina films
- Paramount films
- South Carolina films
- Vietnam War films
- Zen films
- American football films