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Forrest Gump

Forrest Gump is a 1994 comedy 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 of the 20th century while being largely unaware of their significance, due to his low intelligence. The film differs substantially from the book on which it was based.

Plot

The film begins with a feather falling to the feet of Forrest Gump who is sitting at a bus stop in Savannah, Georgia. 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.

On his first day of school, he meets a girl named Jenny, whose life is followed in parallel to Forrest's at times. One day after school, he is being threatened by a group of bullies because of his leg braces. Jenny tells him to run, and he does so, losing his leg braces in the process. Having discarded his leg braces, his ability to run at lightning speed gets him into college on a football scholarship. He excels at football so much that he becomes an All-American, and meets John F. Kennedy.

After his college graduation, he enlists in the army and is sent to Vietnam. In boot camp, Forrest makes fast friends with a man named Bubba (Mykelti Williamson), who convinces Forrest to go into the shrimping business with him when the war is over. After finishing boot camp, Bubba and Forrest are assigned to the same platoon and upon arrival in Vietnam, Forrest meets his commanding officer, Lieutenant Dan Taylor (Gary Sinise). Lieutenant Dan came from a military family, and had lost an ancestor in every American war. Later while on patrol, Forrest's platoon is attacked. Though Forrest rescues many of the men, including Lt Dan, whose legs were severely injured and are later amputated, Bubba is killed in action. Forrest is awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism, and meets Lyndon B. Johnson at his award ceremony.

While Forrest is in recovery for a bullet shot to his buttocks, he discovers his uncanny ability for ping-pong, eventually gaining popularity and rising to celebrity status, later playing ping-pong in China. After meeting Abbie Hoffman at an anti-war rally in Washington, D.C. Forrest reunites with Jenny, who has been living a hippie counterculture lifestyle. He also encounters Lt. Dan, who has become a bitter alcoholic having felt that it was his destiny to die on the battlefield in Vietnam. Forrest celebrates New Years Eve with Dan, who is initially hostile and uses Forrest as a means of obtaining alcohol. When Forrest tells of his and Bubba's plan to buy a shrimping boat, Dan mocks Forrest and sarcastically promises that he will become first mate of the ship. However, Dan later finds empathy with the fact that Forrest has been discriminated against in the past because of his perceived low IQ, likening it to his own experience of disability.

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. Lieutenant Dan returns to fulfill his earlier promise and becomes first mate of the ship. Forrest and Lt. Dan fail to pull in much shrimp at first. During Hurricane Carmen, both men stay out in the middle of the ocean with the boat-- by fate, theirs is the only shrimping boat surviving. The lack of competition helps Lt. Dan and Forrest's catch to become huge amounts of shrimp. Lt. Dan invests the money in "some kind of fruit company" and Forrest is financially secure for the rest of his life. Forrest names his company Bubba Gump, which inspired an actual shrimp restaurant. Returning home, Forrest finds out that his mother has cancer and later dies.

One day, Jenny returns to visit Forrest and 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 keep running across the country several times, over some three and a half years, becoming famous. During his run, Forrest unwittingly inspires two separate entrepreneurs to create Smiley Face/"Have a Nice Day" t-shirts and "Shit Happens" bumper stickers.

In present-day, 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, of whom Forrest is the father. Jenny tells Forrest she is suffering from a virus (probably AIDS, though this is never definitively stated). Together the three move back to Greenbow, Alabama. Jenny and Forrest finally marry, with Lieutenant Dan arriving for the wedding while walking on two legs with the use of prosthetic limbs, along with his Vietnamese wife. However, 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. As the bus pulls away, the white feather is caught on a breeze and drifts skyward.

Cast

Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump
Robin Wright Penn as Jenny Curran
Gary Sinise as Lt. Dan Taylor
Mykelti Williamson as Benjamin Buford "Bubba" Blue
Sally Field as Mrs. Gump
Michael Conner Humphreys as Young Forrest Gump
Hanna R. Hall as Young Jenny Curran
Sam Anderson as Principal Hancock
Margo Moorer as Louise
Peter Dobson as Elvis Presley
Siobhan Fallon as Dorothy Harris
Sonny Shroyer as Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant
Richard D'Alessandro as Abbie Hoffman
Geoffrey Blake as Wesley
Haley Joel Osment as Forrest Gump Jr.
Dick Cavett as Himself

Themes

Though superficially Gump might not seem to understand all that goes on around him, the viewer gets the sense that he knows enough, the rest being superfluous detail. Roger Ebert offers the example of Jenny telling Forrest, "You don't know what love is."

Over Jenny's grave, Forrest ponders whether life is governed by a predetermined fate, as his Vietnam commanding officer emphatically believes, or whether it's a series of meaningless accidents, as his mother offers on her deathbed, concluding "maybe it's both, maybe both happening at the same time." The feather at either end of the movie may represent this train of thought-- it floats randomly in the breeze, but will eventually, inevitably come floating back down.

It has been noted that while Forrest follows a very conservative lifestyle, Jenny'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.

Other commentators believe that the film forecast the 1994 Republican Revolution and used the image of Forrest Gump to promote traditional, conservative values adhered by Gump's character.

Production details

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 now-deceased presidents and shaking 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 commentator 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 novel, 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.

Forrest's core character and personality are also changed from the novel, among other things he is a savant - while playing football at the university, he fails craft and gym, but receives a perfect score in an advanced physics class he was enrolled in by his coach to satisfy his college requirements.

Reception

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 counter-culture movement of the 1960s. 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 June 2008, the film garners a 72% "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 American movies of all time list in 2007.

While the film illustrates "the powerful role that social memory plays in constructing concepts of nation" by placing "in relief the power of memory and narratives of memory to create subjective connections to the past," it also "creates a kind of prosthetic memory of the period [the 1960s] so that it can be integrated into the traditional narrative of nation" and "thus imagines America as a kind of virtual nation whose historical debts have been forgiven and whose disabilities have all been corrected.

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

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.

Sequel

A screenplay based on the original novel's sequel, Gump and Co., was written by Eric Roth in 2001. For unknown reasons, the sequel was never put into production. In March 2007, however, it was reported that Paramount producers are now taking another look at the screenplay.