Forrest Gump

Forrest Gump is a 1985 novel by Winston Groom, a 1994 film adaptation, and the name of the titular 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, in line with Hollywood accounting, claimed it was a commercial failure and did not pay Groom his share of the profits. 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 6, including Best Picture, 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.

Plot

Forrest's story begins

Sitting at a bus stop, dressed in a clean taned suit, Forrest Gump tells the story of his life to a woman seated next to him.

Named for General Nathan Bedford Forrest, he was born in fictional Greenbow, Alabama, with a crooked spine, which forced him to walk with the aid of leg braces from a young age. During his formative years, Gump's stilted, jerky walk, caused by the leg braces, inspires the distinctive dance style of a young Elvis Presley, who is lodger at the Forrest mother's boarding house. One day, Gump breaks out of his braces and runs from bullies unassisted, discovering he could "run like the wind blows."

Much of Forrest's philosophy comes from his mother. Forrest often recalls her favorite sayings, telling people "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. Despite his low I.Q., which would normally have necessitated special education, his mother arranges to have him enrolled in public school by having an affair with the school's principal. On his first day of school, he is befriended on the school bus by Jenny, who, the audience later learns, is being sexually abused by her father.

Football at Alabama

Years later, while again running away from bullies, Forrest runs through Greenbow High School's football field during a practice observed by University of Alabama coaches. Gump outpaces the players and signs up for the team. His running ability brings him great success with the Alabama team under the direction of the legendary Paul Bryant. A football scholarship earns Gump his college tuition, and he receives a college degree after five years. His college major isn't revealed, though he is seen taking a home economics course. He is also named to the All-American team and meets President Kennedy when Kennedy invites the team to the White House. Gump 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 known as "Stand in the Schoolhouse Door".

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 recommmend you for OCS Private Gump, if it weren't such a waste of a damn fine enlisted man!" His one friend in boot camp is Benjamin Buford "Bubba" Blue (Mykelti Williamson), who knows everything there was to know about the shrimp business. Bubba and Forrest agree to go into the "shrimpin' business" upon being discharged from the Army. While Forrest is white and Bubba is black, the pair discover they have very similar backgrounds, philosophies on life, and 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 on this page as none other than Jenny, sporting her college sweater and nothing else. The photo shoot causes her to be expelled from college, and she begins playing guitar in the nude as "Bobby 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 and tries to rescue Jenny, but the incident causes her to be fired.

The couple later 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 if I jumped off this bridge?…" This worries Forrest, and Jenny dismisses the whole thought and hitches a ride in a passing pickup truck. Forrest tells her of his impending tour of duty in Vietnam, and she advises him not to be brave and to just run if he is ever in trouble.

Forrest in Vietnam

While serving with the U.S. Army in the Vietnam War under "Lieutenant Dan" (Lt. Daniel Taylor, Gary Sinise), he carries wounded members of his platoon (including Bubba) to safety during an ambush, earning him the Medal of Honor. During this rescue, Lieutenant Dan loses his legs, and Bubba is fatally wounded and dies in Forrest's arms. While Forrest recovers from a wound in his buttocks sustained during the rescue, he becomes an expert ping-pong player and travels to the People's Republic of China during the Ping Pong Diplomacy period. While staying in Washington to receive his medal for the rescue, he accidentally goes to an Abbie Hoffman rally and meets Jenny again, who by this time dresses as a hippie. Forrest becomes a national hero playing ping-pong and is offered $25,000 to endorse a certain 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. Lennon remarks, "No possessions?" and then "And no religion too?", lines he sings on the hit song. Dick Cavett then remarks, "Hard to imagine," to which Lennon replies, "It's easy if you try, Dick."

After exiting the studio, Gump meets Lt. Dan, a now disillusioned and angry cripple with a problem with alcohol and religion. During a New Year's Eve party, Lt. Dan promises to become Gump's first mate if indeed Gump ever becomes a shrimping-boat captain.

Forrest makes political history

Upon visiting President Nixon after his visit to China, he is invited by the President to stay in Washington at the Watergate complex. His sleep is disturbed when he sees flashlights in the offices opposite his room. Believing the tenants to be experiencing difficulty with a fusebox, Gumps calls the security office to notify the maintenance crew, thus inadvertently spurring the Watergate scandal.

After his service term ends, Gump returns home with the $25,000 from the Ping-Pong 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 — the Jenny, after his "girlfriend" — and starts a shrimp business, keeping a promise to Bubba. Lieutenant Dan joins him in his business venture, the "Bubba-Gump Shrimp Corporation." The business is unsuccessful until Dan and Forrest happen to be out of port during Hurricane Carmen, which wipes out all the other fishing boat operations in the area, giving them an instant monopoly in the shrimp market and thus making Forrest a very wealthy man. In addition, his financial advisor (Lieutenant Dan) tells Forrest to purchase shares of Apple Computer before the company's rise to fame, making Forrest even wealthier.

Even though Lieutenant Dan says he is crazy to do so, Forrest gives Bubba's share of the shrimp business profit to Bubba's mother, who subsequently moves from her poorly-built shack to a very nice condo. Forrest also donates funds for a church and a medical center.

Gump returns to his childhood home when he receives word that his mama is ill. His mother dies shortly after his return home. Jenny reunites with Forrest after having been through the worst of pits and troughs in 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 proposal of marriage. After her departure, Forrest begins to run across the country. He runs from one coast to the other, and then turns around, continuously running for "three years, two months, fourteen days, and sixteen hours."

His dedication inspires a running movement, including a flock that runs behind Forrest. Along the way, Forrest inspires a famous catchphrase derived from his comment after being alerted he has stepped in dog feces: "Shit happens." Also during his running phase, 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 a 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. By this time in Gump's tale, the woman on the bus bench has gone, but another has come along. Forrest shows Jenny's letter to her, and she tells him that the address of Jenny's house is only "five or six blocks" down Henry Street, in Savannah, Georgia. He is reunited with Jenny and her young son. Jenny tells him that the boy is named Forrest, after his father. Jenny also tells Forrest she is suffering from an unknown virus, the symptoms of which are indicative of AIDS or Hepatitis stemming from her drug use.

Jenny and Forrest Jr. move in with Forrest in Greenbow, and Jenny and Forrest are finally married. Lieutenant Dan, who has a fiancée and has artificial legs — "magic legs" — to replace those lost in the war, attends the wedding.

Jenny finally dies "on a Saturday morning," March 22, 1982, making Forrest the only parent to little Forrest (Haley Joel Osment), a bright child who attends school. Forrest orders the house that Jenny grew up in to be torn down, as it had reminded her of her abusive father. Jenny's death causes Forrest to question the nature of life when he asks the question, "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 on a breeze accidental-like, but maybe it's a little of both."

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, Forrest drinks an excessive amount of Dr Pepper — 15 bottles by Forrest's estimation. Over a handshake the president asked him how he felt to which Gump replied "I gotta pee."
He later meets President Lyndon Johnson who awards him the Congressional Medal of Honor for his heroic rescue of fellow soldiers in Vietnam. After Forrest tells Johnson about his wound, Johnson says that he would like to see it some time, after which Forrest immediately pulls down his pants and shows the wound on his buttocks.
And later, 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 turn out to be in the Watergate office and hotel complex.
In a deleted scene, Forrest played ping-pong with then-Ambassador to China George H. W. Bush.

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 hands.

Old documentary footage was used and with the help of techniques like bluescreen, 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.

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 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 RottenTomatoes and accumulated a multitude of awards. ^*

Cast

Actor	Role
Tom Hanks	Forrest Gump
Robin Wright Penn	Jenny Curran
Gary Sinise	Lieutenant Dan Taylor
Sally Field	Mrs. Gump
Mykelti Williamson	Pvt. Benjamin Buford 'Bubba' Blue
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 (uncredited)

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 apprently left Forrest's mother in the movie but 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.

Forrest's mother does not die in the book but does in the sequel Gump and 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. He 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).

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.

In popular culture

"Weird Al" Yankovic's parody song "Gump" (to the tune of The Presidents of the United States of America's "Lump") was inspired by the film, and the song's video parodies some of the film's elements and devices.

In one case of life imitating art, the film's success gave rise to Bubba Gump Shrimp Company a chain of seafood restaurants featuring various styles of shrimp and other seafoods, along with a large variety of movie-themed souvenirs. The logo is a smiling shrimp, altered somewhat from the logo used in the film.

In a less commercially-minded example, since 2003 Gary Sinise has been involved with the Lieutenant Dan Band, performing for charities and non-profit organizations including the United Service Organizations and Operation Iraqi Children. Sinise has said in interviews that many people know him by sight as "Lieutenant Dan" rather than by his real name.

Lieutenant Dan tells Forrest "The day you're a shrimp boat captain is the day I'm your first mate...the day you're a shrimp boat captain is the day I'm an astronaut" Later Dan dons prosthetic legs made of metal from astronauts' ships. Sinise later costarred with Hanks as an astronaut in Apollo 13.

A 1995 episode of the Fox Network variety show MadTV aired a short film titled "Gump Fiction," a merging of Forrest Gump and Pulp Fiction, in which the Forrest character dances with an Uma Thurman lookalike, and then, instead of meeting President Kennedy, assassinates him.

The World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) parodied the film as part of their promotion for WrestleMania 21. In their promotion, WWE superstar Eugene sat on a bench and offered a chocolate to another woman who sits down. He proclaimed "my mama always said that life was like a box of chocolates, but I think life is more like WrestleMania." Eugene accidentally punched the woman in the face knocking her unconscious while recalling his favorite WrestleMania memories. As he dashed away at the end of the spot Eugene's then-partner William Regal shouts "Run, Eugene! Run!"

The phrase "Run, Forrest, Run!" is often quoted by people as a humorous or belittling remark about running. In the satire Jane Austen's Mafia!, a young boy selling flowers is instructed to, "Run Florist, Run!"

In an episode of the animated series The Critic, Jay Sherman gets hit in the head with a baseball and remarks, "My name is Forrest Gump, people call me Forrest Gump", a nod to Forrest's response after his new Army buddy introduced himself by his full name and added "people call me Bubba."

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 ^*

Awards and nominations

1995 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

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

References

All Music Guide

External links

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