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It's a wonderful drawing of a wonderful movie!!! And I'm impressed by the talent you have.
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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 six, 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.
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
Produced by Wendy Finerman/Steve Tisch/Steve Starkey
Written by Winston Groom (Novel), Eric Roth (Screenplay)
Starring Tom Hanks/Robin Wright Penn/Gary Sinise/Mykelti Williamson
Sally Field
Music by Alan Silvestri
Cinematography Don Burgess
Editing by Arthur Schmidt
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date(s) June 23, 1994
Running time 142 min (US) / 136 min (Europe)
Country United States
Language English
Budget US$55 million
Movie plot
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Forrest's story begins
Sitting at a bus stop, Forrest Gump tells the story of his life of his mother to a woman seated next to him
(the listeners at the bus stop change regularly throughout his narration).
Much of Forrest's philosophy comes from his mother.
Forrest often recalls her favorite sayings,
"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.
Forrest reveals that he is named after a distant ancestor,
Nathan Bedford Forrest, who helped found the Ku Klux Klan, as a reminder that
"sometimes we all do things that, well, just don't make no sense."
Despite his low I.Q., which would normally have necessitated special education, his mother arranges to have him enrolled in public school by having sex with an official from the school district.
On his first day of school, he is befriended on the school bus by Jenny, who, the audience later learns, is being abused by her stepfather.
For the first several years of his life, Forrest has to wear leg braces.
These make walking awkward for Forrest, and running almost impossible. When a group of bullies chase Forrest on their bicycles, he runs, urged on by Jenny.
As Forrest runs, his leg braces fall apart, and he easily outruns his pursuers.
Football at Alabama
Years later, while again running away from bullies, Forrest runs through Greenbow High School's football field during a practice scouted by University of Alabama coaches.
He outpaces the players and is given a football scholarship.
His running ability makes him a hero with the Alabama team, under legendary coach Bear Bryant.
He is named to the All-American team and gets to meet
President John F. Kennedy at the White House.
Forrest 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 (the "Stand in the Schoolhouse Door").
He graduates after five years.
His college major isn't revealed, though he mentions taking a home economics course.
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 recommend 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 is to know about shrimp. They agree to go into the "shrimpin' business" together, after they are 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 as none other than Jenny, sporting her college sweater and nothing else.
The photo gets her expelled from college, and she begins playing guitar in the nude as "Bobbi 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 up, but Jenny is fired as a result.
The couple reminisce about old times, and Jenny recalls when they hid from her stepfather 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 thought.
He 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.
She then hitches a ride in a passing pickup truck.
Forrest in Vietnam
While serving in the Vietnam War under Lieutenant Dan Taylor (Gary Sinise), he earns the Medal of Honor by carrying wounded members of his platoon (including the lieutenant and Bubba, who dies in Forrest's arms) to safety during an ambush.
Lieutenant Dan later has both legs amputated.
While in Washington to receive his medal, he accidentally goes to an
Abbie Hoffman rally and meets Jenny again, by this time a hippie.
During the award ceremony, President Lyndon B Johnson asks Forrest
where he was shot.
Forrest replies "I was shot in the buttocks, sir."
After Johnson jokes about wanting to seeing the wound, Forrest pulls down his pants to show him.
While Forrest is recovering from his wound, he becomes an expert ping-pong player and travels to the People's Republic of China during the
Ping Pong Diplomacy period.
He becomes a national hero playing ping-pong and is offered $25,000 to endorse a 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.
In reference to the lyrics of the song, Lennon remarks,
"No possessions?"
and then
"And no religion too?".
Dick Cavett then remarks, "Hard to imagine," to which Lennon replies,
"It's easy if you try, Dick."
After exiting the studio, Forrest meets Lieutenant Dan, now a bitter, alcoholic cripple who has lost his faith in God.
During a New Year's Eve party, Lieutenant Dan facetiously promises to become his first mate if Forrest ever becomes a shrimping-boat captain.
Forrest makes political history
Upon visiting Richard Nixon after his trip to China, he is invited by the President to stay at the Watergate Hotel complex.
He is awakened by flashlights in the offices opposite his room.
Believing the tenants to be having difficulty with a fusebox, Forrest calls the security office to notify the maintenance crew, inadvertently initiating the Watergate scandal.
After his military service, he returns home with $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
β christened the Jenny, after his "girlfriend" β
and starts a shrimp business, keeping a promise to Bubba.
True to his word, Lieutenant Dan becomes his first mate in the
"Bubba-Gump Shrimp Corporation."
They are spectacularly unsuccessful until they happen to be out of port during Hurricane Carmen, which wrecks all the other fishing boats in the area, giving them an instant monopoly on the shrimp market and making Forrest a very wealthy man.
During the hurricane, Lieutenant Dan finally faces his demons and undergoes an epiphany.
He takes over the management of the growing business and buys Forrest shares in "some kind of fruit company"
- Apple Computer -
before that company's rise, making Forrest even wealthier.
Even though Lieutenant Dan says he is crazy to do so, Forrest sends a check for what he considers to be Bubba's share of the shrimp business profit to Bubba's mother, who had been working as a cook.
With the proceeds, she moves her large family from their shack into luxurious new accomodations, complete with her own private cook.
Forrest also donates funds to a church and a medical center.
Forrest returns to his childhood home when he receives word that his mama is ill.
His mother dies shortly afterwards.
He is reunited with Jenny, who has made a mess of her 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 awkward marriage proposal.
To fill the void of her departure, Forrest begins to run, first
"to the end of the road",
then
"to the end of town".
Eventually, he runs clear across the country.
He runs from one coast to the other, and then turns around and heads back, running continuously for "three years, two months, fourteen days,
and sixteen hours."
His dedication inspires a running movement, including a flock of "disciples" who run with him.
Along the way, Forrest is alerted he has stepped in dog feces, to which he replies "It happens", thus inspires the catchphrase "Shit happens".
One day, 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 yet another
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.
Forrest shows Jenny's letter to the current listener, explaining why he is at the bus stop.
She tells him that the address is only a short distance away.
He is reunited with Jenny and her young son.
She tells him that the boy is named Forrest, after his father.
She also tells Forrest she is suffering from an unknown virus, the symptoms of which are indicative of AIDS stemming from her drug use and earlier prostitution.
It is not made clear whether Forrest or their son are also infected.
Jenny and Forrest Jr. move in with him back in Greenbow, Alabama.
Jenny and Forrest finally get married. Lieutenant Dan, who has artificial legs
β "magic legs", as Forrest refers to them β and an Asian fiancΓ©e,
attends the wedding.
Jenny finally dies "on a Saturday morning," March 22, 1982
(actually a Monday), making Forrest a single parent to little Forrest
(Haley Joel Osment), a bright child who attends school.
Forrest demolishes the house that Jenny grew up in, as it had reminded her of her abusive stepfather.
Jenny's death causes Forrest to question the nature of life.
"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 accidental-like on a breeze, but I think, maybe it's both, maybe both are happening at the same time."
Spoilers end here.
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, since it's free, Forrest drinks 15 bottles of Dr Pepper.
Over a handshake the president asks him how he feels, to which Gump replies "I gotta pee."
He later meets President Lyndon B Johnson, who awards him the
Medal of Honor for his heroic rescue of his fellow soldiers.
After Forrest tells Johnson about his wound, Johnson says that he would like to see it some time, after which Forrest obediently pulls down his pants and shows the wound on his buttocks.
Finally, 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 turns out to be the Watergate office and hotel complex.
In a deleted scene, Forrest plays 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 chroma key, 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, 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.
Response
In Tom Hanks' words, "The film is non-political and thus non-judgmental" .
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
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
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 naΓ―ve 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 apparently left Forrest's mother in the movie but it is never explained).
It should also be noted that the movie references the death of Forrest Gump's father with the book "Curious George," which is about a meddling monkey.
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 USO 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."
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 along with
Pulp Fiction's Jules Winnifield and Lee Harvey Oswald
(After which Jules says "Run, Forrest, run!".)
In reality, Lee Harvey Oswald is just an actor with a very poorly superimposed image of the real Oswald's head over his head, poking fun
at the technology used in the movie.
The World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) parodied the film as part of their promotion for WrestleMania 21.
In their promotion, WWE superstar Eugene, who is put out to be a
mentally-challenged person when not wrestling, 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."
In a scene in the film Fight Club, Tyler Durden holds a gun to a convenience store clerk named Raymond.
Upon learning Raymondβs dream of becoming a veterinarian, Tyler releases him, with the promise that if he is not on his way to becoming a veterinarian soon, he will kill him.
As Raymond runs away, Tyler calls after him βRun, Forrest, Run!β
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 Oscars
Won - Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role β Tom Hanks
Won - Best Director β Robert Zemeckis
Won - Best Film Editing β Arthur Schmidt
Won - Best Picture β Wendy Finerman, Steve Starkey, Steve Tisch
Won - Best Visual Effects β Ken Ralston, George Murphy,
Stephen Rosenbaum, Allen Hall
Won - Best Adapted Screenplay β Eric Roth
Nominated - Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role β
Gary Sinise (as Lieutenant Dan Taylor)
Nominated - Best Achievement in Art Direction β
Rick Carter, Nancy Haigh
Nominated - Best Achievement in Cinematography β Don Burgess
Nominated - Best Makeup β Daniel C. Striepeke, Hallie D'Amore
Nominated - Best Original Score β Alan Silvestri
Nominated - Best Sound Mixing β Randy Thom, Tom Johnson,
Dennis S. Sands, William B. Kaplan
Nominated - Best Sound Editing β Gloria S. Borders, Randy Thom
1995 Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films (Saturn Awards)
Won - Best Supporting Actor (Film) β Gary Sinise
Won - Best Fantasy Film
Nominated - Best Actor (Film) β Tom Hanks
Nominated - Best Supporting Actress (Film) β Robin Wright Penn
Nominated - Best Director β Robert Zemeckis
Nominated - Best Music β Alan Silvestri
Nominated - Best Special Effects β Ken Ralston
Nominated - Best Writing β Eric Roth
1995 Amanda Awards
Won - Best Film (International)
1995 American Cinema Editors (Eddies)
Won - Best Edited Feature Film β Arthur Schmidt
1995 American Comedy Awards
Won - Funniest Actor in a Motion Picture (Leading Role) β Tom Hanks
1995 American Society of Cinematographers
Nominated - Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases β Don Burgess
1995 BAFTA Film Awards
Won - Outstanding Achievement in Special Visual Effects β Ken Ralston, George Murphy, Stephen Rosenbaum, Doug Chiang, Allen Hall
Nominated - Best Actor in a Leading Role β Tom Hanks
Nominated - Best Actress in a Supporting Role β Sally Field
Nominated - Best Film β Wendy Finerman, Steve Tisch, Steve Starkey, Robert Zemeckis
Nominated - Best Cinematography β Don Burgess
Nominated - David Lean Award for Direction β Robert Zemeckis
Nominated - Best Editing β Aurthur Schmidt
Nominated - Best Adapted Screenplay β Eric Roth
1995 Casting Society of America (Artios)
Nominated - Best Casting for Feature Film, Drama β Ellen Lewis
1995 Chicago Film Critics Association Awards
Won - Best Actor β Tom Hanks
1995 Directors Guild of America
Won - Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures β Robert Zemeckis, Charles Newirth, Bruce Moriarity, Cherylanne Martin,
Dana J. Kuznetzkoff
1995 Golden Globe Awards
Won - Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama β Tom Hanks
Won - Best Director - Motion Picture β Robert Zemeckis
Won - Best Motion Picture - Drama
Nominated - Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture β Gary Sinise
Nominated - Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture β Robin Wright Penn
Nominated - Best Original Score β Alan Silvestri
Nominated - Best Screenplay - Motion Picture β Eric Roth
1995 Heartland Film Festival
Won - Studio Crystal Heart Award β Winston Groom
1995 MTV Movie Awards
Nominated - Best Breakthrough Performance β Mykelti Williamson
Nominated - Best Male Performance β 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 β Tom Hanks
Nominated - Best Supporting Actor β Gary Sinise
Nominated - Best Picture
1995 PGA Golden Laurel Awards
Won - Motion Picture Producer of the Year Award β
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 β
Tom Hanks
Nominated - Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role β Gary Sinise
Nominated - Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role β Sally Field & Robin Wright Penn
1995 Writers Guild of America Awards
Won - Best Screenplay Adapted from Another Medium β
Eric Roth
1995 Young Artist Awards
Won - Best Performance in a Feature Film - Young Actor 10 or Younger β Haley Joel Osment
Won - Best Performance in a Feature Film - Young Actress 10 or Younger β Hanna R. Hall
Nominated - Best Performance in a Feature Film - Young Actor Co-Starring β Michael Conner Humphreys
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