''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, an Alabama simpleton who travels across the world, meeting historical figures, influencing popular culture, and experiencing firsthand some of the historic events of the late 20th century.
The film differs substantially from Winston Groom's novel on which it was based. Filming took place in late 1993, mainly in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Extensive visual effects were used to incorporate the protagonist into archived footage and to develop other scenes. An extensive soundtrack was featured in the film, and its commercial release made it one of the top selling albums of all time. It sold 4.42 million copies.
Released in the United States on July 6, 1994, ''Forrest Gump'' was well received by critics and became a commercial success as the top grossing film in North America released that year. The film earned over $677 million worldwide during its theatrical run. The film garnered multiple awards and nominations, including Academy Awards, Golden Globe Awards, People's Choice Awards, and Young Artist Awards, among others. Since the film's release, varying interpretations have been made of the film's protagonist and its political symbolism. In 1996, a themed restaurant opened based on the film, and has since expanded to multiple locations worldwide. The scene of Gump running across the country is often referred to when real life people attempt the feat.
Plot
In 1981, Forrest Gump sits at a bus stop, telling his life story to strangers nearby. His tale starts about the childhood braces he wore around his legs. At Forrest's home, he meets
Elvis Presley and teaches him a dance move, which Elvis later displays at a concert. On his first day of school, Forrest meets a girl named Jenny Curran, who he immediately falls in love with and whose life is followed parallel to his. Despite his below average
intelligence quotient (IQ), his ability to run very fast gets him into the
University of Alabama on a football scholarship. He ultimately becomes an
All American and meets President
John F. Kennedy. While attending college he witnesses
George Wallace's
attempt to prevent integration at the school.
After graduation, Forrest enlists in the Army. He makes friends with Benjamin Buford Blue, nicknamed Bubba, who convinces him to be his partner in the shrimping business when the Vietnam War is over. He also meets Jenny again, who is now part of the counterculture movement and working as a stripper. In 1967, he and Bubba are sent to Vietnam, and after several months of patrolling with the 9th Infantry Division, their platoon is ambushed. Forrest is shot in the buttocks but rescues many of the men in his unit, although Bubba is fatally wounded and dies. Lt. Dan Taylor, the platoon's commanding officer, is also seriously wounded and loses both legs. He chastises Forrest for saving him, insisting that he would rather have died honorably on the battlefield than become a cripple. For his actions, Forrest is awarded the Medal of Honor by President Lyndon B. Johnson. While in Washington, he becomes swept up in an anti-war rally where he again meets Jenny. They spend the evening walking around Washington, but when the morning comes she leaves with her abusive boyfriend.
While in the hospital, Forrest discovers an uncanny ability for ping pong. He begins playing for the U.S. Army team, eventually competing against Chinese teams on a goodwill tour, sometimes referred to as Ping Pong Diplomacy. He goes to the White House for a third time to meet President Richard Nixon who provides him a room at the Watergate hotel. While there, Forrest witnesses a burglary and calls security, inadvertently exposing the Watergate scandal. He also goes on the ''Dick Cavett Show'' in New York City and talks with John Lennon, presumably inspiring him to write the song "Imagine". When leaving, he meets Lt. Dan, now an embittered drunk living on welfare. When Forrest tells Lt. Dan about his plans for a fishing business, the lieutenant replies jokingly that the day Forrest becomes a fisherman, he'll be first mate.
Forrest is honorably discharged, and uses money from an endorsement for ping pong paddles to buy a shrimping boat, fulfilling his wartime promise to Bubba. Lt. Dan joins him as first mate, citing his earlier promise. They initially have little success, but after Hurricane Carmen hits the Gulf states, their boat is the only one to survive. Business now booms and Forrest buys an entire fleet of shrimping boats; the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company becomes a household name. As a result, Forrest makes a lot of money, donating much of this to the local Gospel Church and giving Bubba's family a share of the profits. He leaves the company in the hands of Lt. Dan, who invests a portion of their wealth in shares from Apple. This provides Forrest with even more money while Lt. Dan, after having had an epiphany on the boat, forgives Forrest and thanks him for saving his life. Forrest returns home when his mother falls ill, and she dies soon afterward.
In 1976, Jenny returns to visit Forrest, and he eventually proposes to her. Although she declines she tells him that she does love him. They sleep together but she leaves the next day. On a whim, Forrest elects to go for a run and simply decides not to stop. Over the next three years, two months, fourteen days and sixteen hours, he runs coast to coast across the country several times, gathering a small following. Realizing that he had been running to try to make sense of his feelings for Jenny and the deaths of his mother and Bubba, he abruptly stops and returns home.
While finishing his story, Forrest reveals that he is waiting at the bus stop because Jenny has contacted him and asked him to visit her. Once they are reunited, he discovers they have a young son together, also named Forrest. She also tells him that she is dying from an unknown virus. She proposes to him and he accepts. The three move back to Greenbow where they marry but Jenny dies soon afterward. While visiting her grave, Forrest sees a flock of birds fly overhead and remembers when he and Jenny were children and asked God to turn Jenny into a bird so she could "fly far, far away." On his son's first day of school, Forrest Sr. sits with his son at the bus stop. As the bus picks Forrest Jr. up and drives away, Forrest Sr. sits on the same tree stump that his mother did, watching a feather float into the air.
Cast
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. Hanks revealed in interviews that after hearing Michael's unique accented drawl, he incorporated it into the older character's accent.
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. Jenny is a survivor of
child sexual abuse, which results in her struggles with self-destructive behavior throughout much of her life. She eventually sorts herself out and becomes a nurse. She dies from an unknown virus, which reviewers and authors speculated as being
HIV/AIDS. 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."
Hanna R. Hall portrayed the young Jenny Curran.
Gary Sinise as
Lieutenant Dan Taylor: Gump and Bubba's commanding
officer during the Vietnam War, who comes from a long line of soldiers with a dubious history of dying in combat. After losing his legs in an ambush and being rescued against his will by Forrest, he falls into a deep depression. He then later serves as Forrest's
first mate at the
Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, gives most of the orders, and regains his will to live and ultimately forgives Forrest for his actions in Vietnam and thanks him for saving his life. By the end of the film, he is engaged to be married and is sporting "magic legs" –
titanium alloy prosthetics which allow him to walk again.
Mykelti Williamson as Benjamin Buford "Bubba" Blue is 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 Yippie 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.
Production
Script
The film is based on the 1986
novel by
Winston Groom. Both center on 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 Co. and the meeting with Forrest, Jr. In addition to skipping some parts of the novel, the film adds several aspects to Gump's life that do not occur in the novel, such as his needing leg braces as a child and his run across the country.
Gump's core character and personality are also changed from the novel; among other things his film character is less of an autistic savant—in the novel, while playing football at the university, he fails craft and gym, but receives a perfect score in an advanced physics class he is enrolled in by his coach to satisfy his college requirements. The novel also features Gump as an astronaut, a professional wrestler, and a chess player.
Two directors were offered the opportunity to direct the film before Robert Zemeckis was selected. Terry Gilliam turned down the offer to direct. Barry Sonnenfeld was attached to the film but left to direct ''Addams Family Values''.
Filming
Filming began in August 1993 and ended four months later in December. Although most 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. The scene of Forrest running through Vietnam while under fire was filmed on
Fripp Island, South Carolina. Additional filming took place on the
Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC and along the Blue Ridge Parkway near Boone, NC . The Gump family home set was built along the
Combahee River near
Yemassee, South Carolina 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 in
Savannah, Georgia as he sat at a bus stop bench. There were other scenes filmed in and around the Savannah area as well, including a running shot on the Houlihan Bridge (
Port Wentworth,
Georgia) while he was being interviewed by the press, and on West Bay Street in Savannah.
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 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.
Release
Critical reception
The film has received mostly positive reviews. The review aggregator website
Rotten Tomatoes reported that 71% 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 Gleiberman 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." Bruce Kawin and Gerald Mast's textbook on film history notes that Forrest Gump's dimness was a metaphor for glamorized nostalgia in that he represented a blank slate by which the Baby Boomer generation projected their memories of those events.
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." The film has been met with increasingly negative reactions since the films it beat at the Academy Awards, ''Shawshank Redemption'' and ''Pulp Fiction'', have grown in stature.
Box office performance
Produced on a budget of $55 million, ''Forrest Gump'' opened in 1,595 theaters in its first weekend of domestic release, earning $24,450,602. Motion picture business consultant and screenwriter Jeffrey Hilton suggested to producer
Wendy Finerman to double the P&A; (film marketing budget) based on his viewing of an early print of the film. The budget was immediately increased, per his advice. The film placed first in the weekend's box office, narrowly beating ''
The Lion King'', which was in its fourth week of release. For the first ten weeks of its release, the film held the number one position at the box office. The film remained in theaters for 42 weeks, earning $329.7 million in the United States and Canada, making it the fourth-highest grossing film at that time (behind only ''
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'', ''
Star Wars IV: A New Hope'', and ''
Jurassic Park''). As of June 2011, the film is ranked as the
23rd highest grossing domestic film and
45th worldwide.
The film took 66 days to surpass $250 million and was the fastest grossing Paramount film to pass $100 million, $200 million, and $300 million in box office receipts (at the time of its release). The film had gross receipts of $329,694,499 in the U.S. and Canada and $347,693,217 in international markets for a total of $677,387,716 worldwide.
Home media
''Forrest Gump'' was first released on VHS on April 27, 1995, LaserDisc April 28, 1995 (2 Discs Containing the Through The Eyes of Forrest Special Feature), before being released on a two-disc DVD on August 28, 2001. Special features included director and producer commentaries, production featurettes, and screen tests. The film was released on Blu-ray in November 2009.
Accolades
In addition to the following list of awards and nominations, the film was recognized by the
American Film Institute on several of its lists. The film ranks 37th on ''
100 Years... 100 Cheers'', 71st on ''
100 Years... 100 Movies'', and 76th on ''
100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition)''. In addition, the quote "Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." was ranked 40th on ''
100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes''. The film also ranked at number 240 on Empire's list of the 500 Greatest Movies of All Time.
| Award
|
Category
|
Nominee
|
Result
|
|
|
Tom Hanks
|
|
|
Robert Zemeckis
|
|
|
|
|
|
Wendy Finerman, Steve Starkey, and Steve Tisch
|
|
|
Ken Ralston, George Murphy, Allen Hall and Stephen Rosenbaum
|
|
|
Eric Roth
|
|
|
Gary Sinise
|
|
|
Rick Carter and Nancy Haigh
|
|
|
|
|
|
Daniel C. Striepeke and Hallie D'Amore
|
|
|
Alan Silvestri
|
|
|
Randy Thom, Tom Johnson, Dennis S. Sands, and William B. Kaplan
|
|
|
Gloria S. Borders and Randy Thom
|
|
|
|
Gary Sinise
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tom Hanks
|
|
|
Alan Silvestri
|
|
|
Ken Ralston
|
|
|
Eric Roth
|
|
|
Best Film (International)
|
|
|
| 1995 American Cinema Editors
|
Best Edited Feature Film
|
Arthur Schmidt
|
|
| 1995 American Comedy Awards
|
Funniest Actor in a Motion Picture (Leading Role)
|
Tom Hanks
|
|
| 1995 American Society of Cinematographers
|
Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases
|
Don Burgess
|
|
| rowspan="8" |
Outstanding Achievement in Special Effects
|
Ken Ralston, George Murphy, Stephen Rosenbaum, Doug Chiang, and Allen Hall
|
|
|
Tom Hanks
|
|
| Best Actress in a Supporting Role
|
Sally Field
|
|
|
Wendy Finerman, Steve Tisch, Steve Starkey, and Robert Zemeckis
|
|
| Best Cinematography
|
Don Burgess
|
|
| David Lean Award for Direction
|
Robert Zemeckis
|
|
| Best Editing
|
Arthur Schmidt
|
|
| Best Adapted Screenplay
|
Eric Roth
|
|
| 1995 Casting Society of America
|
Best Casting for Feature Film, Drama
|
Ellen Lewis
|
|
| 1995 Chicago Film Critics Association Awards
|
Best Actor
|
Tom Hanks
|
|
| 1995 Directors Guild of America
|
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures
|
Robert Zemeckis, Charles Newirth, Bruce Moriarity, Cherylanne Martin, and Dana J. Kuznetzkoff
|
|
| rowspan="7" |
|
Tom Hanks
|
|
|
Robert Zemeckis
|
|
|
Wendy Finerman
|
|
|
Gary Sinise
|
|
|
|
|
|
Alan Silvestri
|
|
|
Eric Roth
|
|
|
Best Breakthrough Performance
|
Mykelti Williamson
|
|
| Best Male Performance
|
Tom Hanks
|
|
| Best Movie
|
|
|
| 1995 Motion Picture Sound Editors (Golden Reel Award)
|
Best Sound Editing
|
|
|
|
Best Actor
|
Tom Hanks
|
|
| Best Supporting Actor
|
Gary Sinise
|
|
| Best Picture
|
|
|
|
Motion Picture Producer of the Year Award
|
Wendy Finerman, Steve Tisch, Steve Starkey, Charles Newirth
|
|
|
Favorite All-Around Motion Picture
|
|
|
| Favorite Dramatic Motion Picture
|
|
|
| Favorite Actor in a Dramatic Motion Picture
|
Tom Hanks
|
|
|
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
|
Tom Hanks
|
|
| Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
|
Gary Sinise
|
|
| Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
|
Sally Field and Robin Wright
|
|
| 1995 Writers Guild of America Awards
|
Best Screenplay Adapted from Another Medium
|
Eric Roth
|
|
|
Best Performance in a Feature Film – Young Actor 10 or Younger
|
Haley Joel Osment
|
|
| Best Performance in a Feature Film – Young Actress 10 or Younger
|
Hanna R. Hall
|
|
| Best Performance in a Feature Film – Young Actor Co-Starring
|
Michael Conner Humphreys
|
|
American Film Institute Lists
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – No.71
AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs – Nominated
AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions – Nominated
AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains:
* Forrest Gump – Nominated Hero
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:
* "Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." – No.40
* "Mama says, “Stupid is as stupid does.”" – Nominated
AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores – Nominated
AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers – No.37
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – No.76
AFI's 10 Top 10 – Nominated Epic Film
Author controversy
Winston Groom was paid $350,000 for the screenplay rights to his novel ''
Forrest Gump'' and was contracted for a 3% share of the film's net profits. However, Paramount and the film's producers did not pay him, using
Hollywood accounting to posit that the blockbuster film lost money—a claim belied by the fact that Tom Hanks contracted for the film's gross receipts instead of a salary, and he and director Zemeckis each netted $40 million. Additionally, Groom was not mentioned once in any of the film's six Oscar-winner speeches.
Symbolism
Feather
Various interpretations have been suggested for the feather present at the opening and conclusion of the film. Sarah Lyall of ''The New York Times'' noted several opinions that were made about the feather: "Does the white feather symbolize the unbearable lightness of being? Forrest Gump's impaired intellect? The randomness of experience?" Hanks interpreted the feather as: "Our destiny is only defined by how we deal with the chance elements to our life and that's kind of the embodiment of the feather as it comes in. Here is this thing that can land anywhere and that it lands at your feet. It has theological implications that are really huge." Sally Field compared the feather to fate, saying: "It blows in the wind and just touches down here or there. Was it planned or was it just perchance?" Visual effects supervisor Ken Ralston compared the feather to an abstract painting: "It can mean so many things to so many different people."
The feather is stored in a book titled ''Curious George'', Forrest's favorite book, which his mother read to him, connecting the scene's present time with his childhood in the 1940s. The placement of the feather in the book is directly on a picture of the monkey walking on a tightrope. Whether that was intentional or not, it is very symbolic. The feather also has a correlation with Jenny's constant obsession with "becoming a bird and flying far far away" due to the abuse (sexual and physical) she endured from her father. She goes as far in the film as to ask Forrest if she jumped off the bridge, could she fly?
Political interpretations
In Tom Hanks' words, "The film is non-political and thus non-judgmental". Nevertheless, in 1994, CNN's ''
Crossfire'' debated whether the film promoted conservative values or was an indictment of the
counterculture movement of the 1960s. Thomas Byers, in a ''Modern Fiction Studies'' article, called the film "an aggressively conservative film".
It has been noted that while Gump follows a very conservative lifestyle, Curran's life is full of countercultural embrace, complete with drug usage and antiwar rallies, and that their eventual marriage might be a kind of tongue-in-cheek reconciliation. Jennifer Hyland Wang argued in a ''Cinema Journal'' article that Curran's death to an unnamed virus "...symbolizes the death of liberal America and the death of the protests that defined a decade [1960s]." She also notes that the film's screenwriter, Eric Roth, when developing the screenplay from the novel, had "...transferred all of Gump's flaws and most of the excesses committed by Americans in the '60s and '70s to her [Curran]."
Other commentators believe that the film forecast the 1994 Republican Revolution and used the image of Forrest Gump to promote his traditional, conservative values. Wang argued that the film was used by Republican politicians to illustrate a "traditional version of recent history" to gear voters towards their ideology for the congressional elections. In addition, presidential candidate Bob Dole cited the film's message in influencing his campaign due to its "...message that has made [the film] one of Hollywood's all-time greatest box office hits: no matter how great the adversity, the American Dream is within everybody's reach."
In 1995, ''National Review'' included ''Forrest Gump'' in its list of the "Best 100 Conservative Movies" of all time. Then, in 2009, the magazine ranked the film number four on its 25 Best Conservative Movies of the Last 25 Years list. "Tom Hanks plays the title character, an amiable dunce who is far too smart to embrace the lethal values of the 1960s. The love of his life, wonderfully played by Robin Wright Penn, chooses a different path; she becomes a drug-addled hippie, with disastrous results."
Others have interpreted the movie as adding to a discourse of race through the changing contours of white power and privilege during the civil rights era. From the standpoint that studies of whiteness work to dislodge whites from positions of power, Robyn Weigman has argued that Forrest Gump is a "filmic celebration of fundamental white goodness." For example, when George Wallace fails to keep blacks out of the University of Alabama, Gump "symbolically joins the students when he retrieves one of their dropped books," though it is an innocent gesture. His innocent alignment with desegregation coupled with his attributes as a quintessential white—his name being that of Bedford Forrest, Ku Klux Klan leader—leads Weigman to conclude that the movie works to split "whiteness" from the white body, as "white power and privilege are displaced from any inherent relation—historically, ideologically, politically—to white skin."
Soundtrack
The 32-song soundtrack from the film was released on July 6, 1994. With the exception of an eight-minute suite from
Alan Silvestri's score, all the songs are previously released; the soundtrack includes songs from
Elvis Presley,
Creedence Clearwater Revival,
Aretha Franklin,
Lynyrd Skynyrd,
Three Dog Night,
The Byrds,
The Doors,
Jimi Hendrix,
The Mamas And The Papas,
The Doobie Brothers,
Bob Seger, and
Buffalo Springfield,
Michael McDonald among others. Music producer Joel Sill reflected on compiling the soundtrack: "We wanted to have very recognizable material that would pinpoint time periods, yet we didn't want to interfere with what was happening cinematically." The two-disc album has a variety of music from the 1950s–1980s performed by American artists. According to Sills, this was due to Zemeckis' request, "All the material in there is American. Bob (Zemeckis) felt strongly about it. He felt that Forrest wouldn't buy anything but American."
The soundtrack reached a peak of second place on the ''Billboard'' charts. The soundtrack went on to sell twelve million copies, and is one of the top selling albums in the United States. The score for the film was composed and conducted by Alan Silvestri and released on August 2, 1994.
The film inspired a seafood restaurant called Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, named for the shrimping company formed by Gump in the film, named for himself and his friend, Bubba. The first restaurant opened in 1996 in
Monterey, California, and has since branched out to over 30 other cities in the U.S., Indonesia and other countries. The restaurants' design feature memorabilia from the film. Licensed merchandise is sold at the restaurants.
Sequel
The screenplay for the sequel was written by
Eric Roth in 2001. It is based on the original novel's sequel, ''
Gump and Co.'' that was written by Winston Groom in 1995. Roth's script begins with Forrest sitting on a bench waiting for his son to return from school. After the
September 11 attacks, Roth, Zemeckis, and Hanks decided the story was no longer "relevant". In March 2007, however, it was reported that Paramount producers took another look at the screenplay.
In the very first page of the sequel novel, Forrest Gump tells readers "Don't never let nobody make a movie of your life's story," though "Whether they get it right or wrong, it don't matter." The first chapter of the book suggests that the real life events surrounding the film have been incorporated into Forrest's storyline, and that Forrest got a lot of media attention as a result of the film. During the course of the sequel
novel, Gump runs into Tom Hanks, and at the end of the novel is the film's release, including Gump going on ''The David Letterman Show'' and attending the Academy Awards. It is mentioned Hanks plays Gump, and Forrest seems to have a positive view of the film.
References
External links
Category:1994 films
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bn:ফরেস্ট গাম্প
bg:Форест Гъмп
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cs:Forrest Gump (film)
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hr:Forrest Gump (1994)
id:Forrest Gump
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mr:फॉरेस्ट गम्प (चित्रपट)
mn:Форрест Гамп
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pt:Forrest Gump
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ru:Форрест Гамп
sq:Forrest Gump
simple:Forrest Gump
sk:Forrest Gump (film)
sl:Forrest Gump
sr:Форест Гамп
fi:Forrest Gump
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ta:ஃபாரஸ்ட் கம்ப் (திரைப்படம்)
th:ฟอร์เรสท์ กัมพ์ อัจฉริยะปัญญานิ่ม
tr:Forrest Gump
uk:Форрест Гамп
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zh:阿甘正传
