Forrest Gump is a 1994 American comedy-drama film based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom. The film was directed by Robert Zemeckis, starring Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, and Gary Sinise. The story depicts several decades in the life of Forrest Gump, a simple Alabama man who travels across the world, sometimes meeting historical figures, influencing popular culture, and experiencing firsthand historic events of the late 20th century.
Forrest Gump the Novel:
Forrest Gump is a 1986 novel by Winston Groom. The title character experiences adventures ranging from shrimp boating and pingpong championships to thinking about his childhood love. The Vietnam conflict and college football are all part of the story. Throughout his life, Gump views the world simply and truthfully. Throughout the course of the book, he really doesn't know what he wants to do in life. Author and narrator Groom uses intonations that capture Gump's personality. Gump is full of wisdom, but is considered an "idiot" because of his low IQ and disability. According to him, he "can think things pretty good," but when he tries "sayin or writin them, it kinda come out like Jello". He is also physically strong and falls into amazing adventures.
The novel was turned into a film by Paramount Pictures in 1994. The film version, placing Tom Hanks in the title role, won several Academy awards and became, at the time, the fourth highest-grossing film ever. The novel contains many plot lines not included in the movie. The novel was republished by Pocket Books (an imprint of Paramount's then-sister company Simon & Schuster) to tie in with the release of the film.
Plot:
In 1981, Forrest Gump begins to tell the story of his life to a woman who is sitting next to him at a bus stop in Savannah, Georgia. As his story progresses, the listeners at the bus stop change regularly throughout his narration, each showing a different attitude ranging from disbelief and indifference to great interest and fascination.
Although Forrest has well below average intelligence, his mother is able to get him into a public school by sleeping with the principal. On his first day of school, he meets a girl named Jenny whose life at times is followed in parallel to Forrest's. Having discarded his leg braces (used to straighten his spine), his ability to run incredibly fast gets him into the University of Alabama on a football scholarship. He becomes a star kick and punt returner and ends up becoming an All American, which leads him to go to the White House and meet President John F Kennedy. After his college graduation, he enlists in the army. There he makes friends with Bubba, who convinces him to enter the shrimping business with him when the Vietnam War is over. He also meets Jenny again, when he sees her in Playboy magazine. He then goes to find her and discovers that she is a stripper working at a bar. He goes to the bar and attacks two customers who give her trouble. In 1967, Forrest and Bubba are sent to Vietnam, and after several months of patrolling with the 9th Infantry Division their platoon is attacked. Though Forrest rescues many of the men in his unit, Bubba is fatally wounded and dies by the river where Forrest brought him to safety, and Lt. Dan Taylor, the platoon's commanding officer, is wounded in both legs, requiring amputation. Forrest is wounded in the buttocks during the battle, and is awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
Forrest discovers an uncanny ability for ping pong while in recovery for the bullet wound in his buttocks. He starts playing for the U.S. Army team, gaining popularity and rising to celebrity status. He eventually plays competitively against Chinese teams and wins against the Chinese. He goes to the White House for a third time and is awarded by President Richard Nixon and is accommodated at the Watergate hotel. At night, he calls hotel security after he witnesses the Watergate scandal. At an anti-war rally in Washington, D.C. Forrest reunites with Jenny, who has been living a hippie counterculture lifestyle while Forrest was away and is engaged to another man. The other man appeared to be abusive toward Jenny; Forrest witnesses the man slapping her after a short argument. An enraged Forrest attacks the man in order to defend Jenny (an instinct he has gained long ago when he got to know her).
Upon leaving military service and returning home, Forrest accepts an offer to endorse a company that makes ping pong paddles in exchange for an endorsement fee of $25,000. He uses the money to buy a shrimping boat that he named after Jenny and fulfill his wartime promise to Bubba. His commanding officer from Vietnam, Lieutenant Dan, joins him as first mate to fulfill a promise he jokingly made to Forrest some time before. Initially Forrest has little success, but after finding his is the only surviving boat in the area after Hurricane Carmen hits the Gulf states, he begins to pull in huge amounts of shrimp. He buys an entire fleet of shrimp boats, and "Bubba Gump" shrimp becomes a household name. He returns home when his mother falls ill; she dies soon afterward. Lt. Dan takes over operations of the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company and invests the earnings in then-fledgling Apple Computer (which Forrest refers to as "some sort of a fruit company") and Forrest, Dan and Bubba's families become financially secure for the rest of their lives.
In 1976, Jenny returns to visit Forrest, and after some time he proposes marriage to her. She declines, though 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 run coast to coast across the country several times, over some three and a half years, becoming famous again.
While finishing his story, 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, also named Forrest, and Jenny says Forrest is the boy's father. Jenny tells Forrest she is suffering and dying from an unknown virus which has no known cure. Together, the three move back to Greenbow, Alabama where Jenny and Forrest finally marry. Jenny dies soon afterward, leaving their son in Forrest's care. Forrest talks to Jenny's grave and tells her how well their son is doing in school. On his son's first day of school, Forrest sits with him at the school bus stop. Forrest's first bus driver is shown to also be his son's first bus driver. The movie concludes with Forrest sitting on the same tree stump his mother did, waiting for Little Forrest to come home from school.
Characters:
- Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump: though at an early age his school principal determines young Forrest possesses an IQ of 75, he has endearing character and devotion to his loved ones and duties, which brings him into many life-changing situations. Along the way, he encounters many historical figures and events throughout his life. John Travolta was the original choice to play the title role, and admits passing on the role was a mistake. Bill Murray was also considered for the role. Hanks revealed that he signed onto the film after an hour and a half of reading the script. He initially wanted to ease Forrest's pronounced Southern accent, but was eventually persuaded by director Bob Zemeckis to portray the heavy accent stressed in the novel. Hanks agreed to take the role only on the condition that the film was historically accurate. Michael Conner Humphreys portrayed the young Forrest Gump.
- Robin Wright as Jenny Curran: Gump's childhood friend who enters his life at various times in adulthood, eventually becoming mother to his son and later marrying Gump. Zemeckis reflected on Wright's portrayal of the role, "Robin exudes a kind of strength and, at the same time, a vulnerability. She doesn't bring any of her stardom to the role. You don't look at her on-screen and think that this is Robin Wright's interpretation of the character. She's a real chameleon."[8] Hanna R. Hall portrayed the young Jenny Curran.
- Gary Sinise as Lieutenant Dan Taylor: Gump and Bubba's commanding officer during the Vietnam War. After losing his legs in a climactic attack, he falls into a deep depression. He then later serves as Forrest's first mate at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company (although he gave most of the orders), regaining his will to live. By the end of the film, he is engaged to be married and has even received "new legs" (titanium alloy prosthetic legs) allowing him to walk again.
- Mykelti Williamson as Benjamin Buford "Bubba" Blue: Gump's friend whom he meets upon joining the Army. Throughout filming, Williamson wore a lip attachment to create Bubba's protruding lip. David Alan Grier, Ice Cube, and Dave Chappelle were all offered the role before turning it down. Chappelle claimed he believed the film would be unsuccessful and has also admitted that he regrets not taking the role. Bubba was originally supposed to be the senior partner in the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company but due to his death in the line of duty in Vietnam, his commanding officer Lieutenant Dan Taylor took his place. The company posthumously carried this name.
- Sally Field as Mrs. Gump: Forrest's mother, who raises him after his father abandons them. Field reflected on the character, "She's a woman who loves her son unconditionally. ... A lot of her dialogue sounds like slogans, and that's just what she intends."
- Haley Joel Osment as Forrest Gump, Jr.: Forrest and Jenny's son. Osment was cast in the film after the casting director noticed him in a Pizza Hut commercial.
- Peter Dobson as Elvis Presley: a house guest Forrest encounters. Although Kurt Russell was uncredited, he provided the voice over for Elvis Presley in the scene where Presley met Gump.
- Dick Cavett as himself. Cavett played the 1970s version of himself, with makeup applied to make him appear younger. Consequently, Cavett is the only well-known figure in the film to play a cameo role rather than be represented through the use of archival footage.
- Sam Anderson as Principal Hancock: Forrest's elementary school principal.
- Richard D'Alessandro as Abbie Hoffman: A hippie at a Vietnam War rally who gives Forrest a chance to speak about the war.
- Geoffrey Blake as Wesley: A member of the SDS group and Jenny's abusive boyfriend.
- Siobhan Fallon Hogan as Dorothy Harris: The school bus driver who drives both Forrest, and later his son, to school.
- Sonny Shroyer as Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant: Forrest's football coach of the University of Alabama.
- Grand L. Bush, Conor Kennelly, and Teddy Lane Jr. as the Black Panthers: Members of an organization that protests against the Vietnam War, President Lyndon B. Johnson, and anti-black racism.
- Bill Roberson as Fat Man on Bench: An older man who sits on the bench next to Forrest in Savannah, Georgia and listens to Gump's stories.
Filming began in August 1993 and ended four months later in December. Although the majority of the film is set in Alabama, filming took place mainly in Beaufort, South Carolina, as well as parts of coastal Virginia and North Carolina, including a running shot on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Additional filming took place on the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC, although that footage does not appear to have been used. The Gump family home set was built in Savannah, Georgia and the nearby land was used to film Curran's home as well as some of the Vietnam scenes. Over 20 palm trees were planted to improve the Vietnam scenes. Forrest Gump narrated his life's story in Chippewa Square as he sat at a bus stop bench.
Visual Effects:
Ken Ralston and his team at Industrial Light & Magic were responsible for the film's visual effects. Using CGI techniques, it was possible to depict Gump meeting deceased personages and shaking their hands. Hanks was first shot against a blue screen along with reference markers so that he could line up with the archive footage. To record the voices of the historical figures, voice doubles were hired and special effects were used to alter the mouth movements for the new dialogue. Archival footage was used and with the help of such techniques as chroma key, image warping, morphing, and rotoscoping; Hanks was integrated into it.
In one Vietnam War scene, Gump carries a wounded Bubba away from an incoming napalm attack. To create the effect, stunt actors were initially used for compositing purposes. Then Hanks and Williamson were filmed, with Williamson supported by a cable wire as Hanks ran with him. The explosion was then filmed, and the actors were digitally added to appear just in front of the explosions. The jet fighters and napalm canisters were also added by CGI.
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 legs are used for support.
The scene where Forrest spots Jenny at a peace rally at the Lincoln Memorial and Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C., required visual effects to create the large crowd of people. Over two days of filming, approximately 1,500 extras were used. At each successive take, the extras were rearranged and moved into a different quadrant away from the camera. With the help of computers, the extras were multiplied to create a crowd of several hundred thousand people.
Critical Reception:
The film has received mostly positive reviews. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 70% of critics gave the film a positive review based on a sample of 53 reviews, with an average score of 6.9/10. At the website Metacritic, which utilizes a normalized rating system, the film earned a favorable rating of 82/100 based on 19 reviews by mainstream critics.
The story was commended by several critics. Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times wrote, "I've never met anyone like Forrest Gump in a movie before, and for that matter I've never seen a movie quite like Forrest Gump. Any attempt to describe him will risk making the movie seem more conventional than it is, but let me try. It's a comedy, I guess. Or maybe a drama. Or a dream...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." Todd McCarthy of Variety wrote that the film "...has been very well worked out on all levels, and manages the difficult feat of being an intimate, even delicate tale played with an appealingly light touch against an epic backdrop." In addition, the film received notable pans from several major reviewers. Anthony Lane of The New Yorker called the film "Warm, wise, and wearisome as hell." Owen Gordinier of Entertainment Weekly said that the film "...reduces the tumult of the last few decades to a virtual-reality theme park: a baby-boomer version of Disney's America."
Critics had mixed views on the main character. Gump has been compared to various characters and people including Huckleberry Finn, Bill Clinton, and Ronald Reagan, among others. Peter Chomo writes that Gump acts as a "...social mediator and as an agent of redemption in divided times". Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called Gump "...everything we admire in the American character — honest, brave, loyal...". The New York Times reviewer Janet Maslin called Gump a "...hollow man..." who is "...self-congratulatory in his blissful ignorance, warmly embraced as the embodiment of absolutely nothing." Marc Vincenti of Palo Alto Weekly called the character "...a pitiful stooge taking the pie of life in the face, thoughtfully licking his fingers."
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's 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."
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