Forrest Gump
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Forrest Gump is a 1994 American comedy-drama film based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom. The film was a huge commercial success, earning $679 million worldwide during its theatrical run making it the top grossing film in North America released that year. The film garnered a total of thirteen 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 and his epic journey through life meeting historical figures, influencing popular culture and experiencing first-hand historic events of the late 20th century while being largely unaware of their significance, due to his borderline intellectual disability. The film differs substantially from the book on which it was based.
[edit] 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. Having discarded his leg braces, his ability to run at lightning speed gets him into college on a football scholarship. After his college graduation, he enlists in the army, where he makes fast friends with a black man named Bubba, who convinces Forrest to go into the shrimping business with him when the war is over. They are sent to Vietnam, and during an ambush, though Forrest ends up saving much of his platoon, Bubba is killed in action. Forrest is awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism.
While Forrest is in recovery for a bullet shot to his "butt-tox", he discovers his uncanny ability for ping-pong, eventually gaining popularity and rising to celebrity status, later playing ping-pong competitively against Chinese teams in ping pong diplomacy. At an anti-war rally in Washington, D.C. Forrest reunites with Jenny, who has been living a hippie counterculture lifestyle.
Returning home, 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. His commanding officer from Vietnam, Lieutenant Dan, joins him. Though initially Forrest has little success, after finding his boat the only surviving boat in the area after Hurricane Carmen, he begins to pull in huge amounts of shrimp and uses it to buy an entire fleet of shrimp boats. Lieutenant Dan invests the money in Apple Computer (which he believes is a fruit company) and Forrest is financially secure for the rest of his life. He returns home to see his mother's last days.
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 HIV, though this is never definitively stated).[2][3][4] Together the three move back to Greenbow, Alabama. Jenny and Forrest finally marry. Jenny dies soon afterward.
[edit] 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 Co. 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 an autistic 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.
[edit] Cast
- Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump
- Michael Conner Humphreys as young Forrest Gump
- Robin Wright Penn as Jenny Curran Gump
- Hanna R. Hall as young Jenny Curran
- Gary Sinise as Dan Taylor
- Mykelti Williamson as Benjamin Buford "Bubba" Blue
- Sally Field as Mrs. Gump
- Sam Anderson as Principal Hancock
- Margo Moorer as Louise
- 'Peter Dobson as Elvis Presley. Kurt Russell provided the voiceover for Elvis Presley in the scene which Presley met Gump, this role was uncredited, but confirmed by Russell on his appearance on The Graham Norton Show in May 2009.
- Siobhan Fallon Hogan as Dorothy Harris, the bus driver
- 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
- Conor Kennelly, Grand L. Bush, and Teddy Lane Jr. as the black panthers
[edit] 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."[5]
Over Jenny's grave, Forrest ponders whether life is governed by a predetermined fate, as his mother offers on her deathbed, or a series of meaningless accidents, as his Vietnam commanding officer emphatically believes, concluding "maybe it's both, maybe both happening at the same time."
In 2009, National Review magazine ranked "Forrest Gump" number 4 on its 25 Best Conservative Movies of the Last 25 Years list[6]. "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."
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.[7]
[edit] Production
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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.
John Travolta was the original choice to play the title role, and admits passing on the role was a mistake.[8]
[edit] Reception
In Tom Hanks's 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. 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's] performance is a breathtaking balancing act between comedy and sadness, in a story rich in big laughs and quiet truths....what a magical movie."[9] 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."[10] As of January 2, 2009, the film currently garners an overall 72% "Fresh" approval rating on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes (based on 50 reviews collected), although its "Cream of the Crop" and community reviews bear much higher approval ratings of 82% "Fresh" (based on 11 reviews collected) and 94% "Fresh" (based on 1410 reviews collected total).[11]
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."[12] The film also came in at #76 on AFI's Top-100 American movies of all time list in 2007.
Produced on a budget of $55 million, the film brought in $329.7 million in the United States, making it the fourth-highest grossing film (behind only E.T., Star Wars, and Jurassic Park) by the end of its original theatrical run in 1994. It currently ranks 17th in all-time box office gross in the United States.[14] The film took sixty-six days to surpass $250 million and remains the fastest-grossing Paramount film to pass $100 million, $200 million, and $300 million in box office receipts.[15]
[edit] Conflict with the author
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Winston Groom's price for the screenplay rights to his novel Forrest Gump included a share of the profits. However, Paramount and the film’s producers did not pay him, using Hollywood accounting to posit that the blockbuster film lost money—[16]a claim belied by the fact that Tom Hanks contracted for points instead of a salary, and netted more than $20 million.[17] Additionally, no one mentioned Groom’s name in any of the film’s six Oscar-winner speeches. For years, Groom refused to sell the screenplay rights to the novel's sequel, stating that he "cannot in good conscience allow money to be wasted on a failure".
[edit] Awards and honors
American Film Institute recognition
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies #71
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 Cheers #37
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes #40
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) #76
[edit] Soundtrack
The soundtrack from Forrest Gump had a variety of music from the 50s, 60s, 70s, and early 80s performed by artists. It went on to sell 12 million copies, and is one of the top selling albums in the United States.[18] The score for the film was composed and conducted by Alan Silvestri.[19]
[edit] Sequel
A screenplay based on the original novel's sequel, Gump and Co., was written by Eric Roth in 2001. Roth's script began 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".[20] In March 2007, however, it was reported that Paramount producers took another look at the screenplay.[21]
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."[22] 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.[23] 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 look on the film.
[edit] See also
- Bubba Gump Shrimp Company
- Forrest Gump (1986)
- Gump and Co. (1995)
[edit] References
- ^ "Forrest Gump (1994)". Box Office Mojo. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=forrestgump.htm. Retrieved on 2009-02-05.
- ^ Maltby, Richard (2003). Hollywood Cinema. Blackwell Publishing. pp. 441. ISBN 0631216154.
- ^ Sobchack, Vivian Carol (2000). Meta-Morphing: Visual Transformation and the Culture of Quick-change. University of Minnesota Press. pp. 199. ISBN 0816633193.
- ^ Chapman, James (2003). Cinemas of the World: Film and Society from 1895 to the Present. Reaktion Books. pp. 151. ISBN 1861891628.
- ^ a b Ebert, Roger. Forrest Gump. July 6, 1994.
- ^ http://nrd.nationalreview.com/article/?q=YWQ4MDlhMWRkZDQ5YmViMDM1Yzc0MTE3ZTllY2E3MGM=
- ^ Gordinier, Jeff. Mr. Gump Goes to Washington. Feb 10, 1995.
- ^ http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/25/nicole-kidman-gwyneth-paltrow-kate-winslet-business-media_star_misses_slide_5.html?thisSpeed=30000
- ^ "Forrest Gump". by Roger Ebert, The Chicago Sun-Times. 1994-07-06. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19940706/REVIEWS/407060301/1023. Retrieved on 2007-01-26.
- ^ "Movie Review: Forrest Gump". by Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly. 1994-07-15. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,302943,00.html. Retrieved on 2007-01-26.
- ^ "Forrest Gump". RottenTomatoes.com. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/forrest_gump/. Retrieved on 2008-05-25.
- ^ "Cry Hard 2: The Readers Strike Back". Entertainment Weekly. 2004-01-09. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,570497,00.html. Retrieved on 2007-01-26.
- ^ Robert Burgoyne (1997). It is believed by many to be the greatest film, in any genre, in moviemaking history. Film Nation: Hollywood Looks at U.S. History. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 14 - 15
- ^ "All-Time Gross". http://www.imdb.com/boxoffice/alltimegross. Retrieved on 2009-06-20.
- ^ "Trivia". http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109830/trivia. Retrieved on 2009-06-20.
- ^ http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4182/is_19950525/ai_n10082506/
- ^ http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VDD-3SX25BS-2&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=268e0c40e03183c434a7233c91814120
- ^ Top Albums at the Recording Industry Association of America. (Archived version)
- ^ Silvestri, Alan. Forrest Gump: Original Motion Picture Score. Ensign Music Corpoation (BMI). 1994.
- ^ Peter Sciretta (2008-12-07). "9/11 Killed the Forrest Gump Sequel". /Film. http://www.slashfilm.com/2008/12/07/911-killed-the-forrest-gump-sequel/. Retrieved on 2008-12-08.
- ^ Forrest Gump Gets a Sequel
- ^ Winston Groom, Gump & Co. Pocket Books, page 1
- ^ Alonso Delarte, "Movies By The Book: Forrest Gump" in Bob's Poetry Magazine February 2004, page 24
