   #copyright

Forrest Gump

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Films

                           Forrest Gump
                       Original film poster
     Directed by   Robert Zemeckis
     Produced by   Wendy Finerman
                   Steve Tisch
                   Steve Starkey
                   Charles Newirth
     Written by    Winston Groom (Novel), Eric Roth (Screenplay)
      Starring     Tom Hanks
                   Robin Wright
                   Gary Sinise
                   Mykelti Williamson
                   and Sally Field
      Music by     Alan Silvestri
   Cinematography  Don Burgess
     Editing by    Arthur Schmidt
   Distributed by  Paramount Pictures
   Release date(s) July 6, 1994
    Running time   142 min (US) / 136 min (Europe)
       Country     Flag of United States  United States
      Language     English
       Budget      US$55 million
                     All Movie Guide profile
                           IMDb profile

   Forrest Gump is an Academy Award winning 1994 film based on a novel by
   Winston Groom, and the name of the title character of both. The film
   was a huge commercial success, earning USD$677 million worldwide during
   its theatrical run (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 simple man (or gump) and his epic journey
   through life, meeting historical figures, influencing popular culture
   and experiencing first-hand historic events while largely unaware of
   their significance, due to his lower than average IQ of 75 (The average
   human IQ is 100). The film differs substantially from the book on which
   it was based.

Plot

   The movie begins with a feather falling to the feet of Forrest Gump (
   Tom Hanks) sitting at a bus stop in Savannah, Georgia. Forrest tells
   the story of his life to a woman seated next to him (the listeners at
   the bus stop change regularly throughout his narration).

   Forrest is shown to have been taught much about life by his mother (
   Sally Field). Forrest often recalls her favorite sayings, including
   "Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you gonna get"
   and "Stupid is as stupid does." Both sayings became popular
   catchphrases following the movie's release. Other people who play key
   roles in Forrest's life include Jenny Curran, a childhood friend who is
   physically and sexually abused by her father; Benjamin Buford "Bubba"
   Blue ( Mykelti Williamson), a young African-American fisherman who
   serves with Forrest in the Vietnam War and knows "everything they' is
   to know about shrimping"; and Lieutenant Dan Taylor ( Gary Sinise),
   under whose command Forrest and Bubba serve. A few years after the war
   is over, Forrest and Jenny have sex. He then proposes marriage to her,
   but she turns him down and disappears. To cope with his heartbreak,
   Forrest runs across the country to raise money for cancer. Forest
   claims to " dislike the blackies" at this point in the movie.

   Forrest is waiting at the bus stop because on March 30, 1981, he
   received a letter from Jenny who, having seen him run on TV, asks him
   to visit her. Forrest shows Jenny's letter to the current listener, a
   patient elderly lady; she tells him that the address is only a short
   walking distance away. He thanks the lady and immediately starts
   running. Once he is reunited with Jenny and her young son ( Haley Joel
   Osment), Jenny tells him that the boy is named Forrest, after his
   father. She also tells Forrest she is suffering from an unknown virus,
   which is most likely to be the then less commonly known HIV. Together
   the three move back to Greenbow, Alabama, where Jenny and Forrest
   finally marry, but their married bliss is cut short by Jenny's death
   "on a Saturday morning" according to Forrest. Her gravestone gives her
   date of death as March 22, 1982, which in the real world was a Monday.

   The film ends with Forrest escorting his son to a schoolbus, where the
   father and son tell each other that they love each other. A feather in
   Forrest's book is blown away by the wind, and floats into the sky in
   the same fashion as the film's beginning.

Influences on pop culture

   In his travels Forrest:
     * Teaches Elvis his trademark dance
     * Brings an end to segregation
     * Inspires the lyrics to John Lennon's " Imagine"
     * Foils Watergate
     * Starts the jogging craze
     * Brings about the " smiley" after wiping his face with a T-shirt
     * Provides the slogan for the "Shit Happens" bumper stickers
     * Lt. Dan Suggests that they invest some of their money from the
       shrimping business, and the company they invest in eventually
       becomes the Apple computer company (Forrest believes it actually
       sells fruit).

Meetings with famous people

     * While running to escape a group of bullies, Forrest's speed is
       noticed by Coach Bear Bryant of the University of Alabama. Forrest
       is recruited by Coach Bryant to play football, which he does for
       five years, mostly returning kicks. This means that he is a member
       of the 1961 National Championship team. It also means he would have
       played with Joe Namath. While at Alabama, Forrest impresses Bryant
       with his speed, but annoys him with his stupidity. Forrest's skills
       result in him being named to the All American Team.
     * 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 Johnson, who awards him the Medal
       of Honour 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. President Johnson
       responds by walking away, chuckling, "God damn, son."

     * 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. Forrest
       calls the front desk after he sees flashlights across the
       courtyard, bringing attention to the Watergate burglars and
       precipitating Nixon's downfall.
     * He meets Elvis Presley as a child, when Elvis was staying at their
       house as a boarding tenant.
     * He meets John Lennon on a TV talk show.

Visual effects

   Ken Ralston and his team were responsible for the film's visual
   effects. Using CGI-techniques it was possible for Tom Hanks to meet
   dead presidents and even shake their 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.

   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.

Reception

   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. Filmmaker Lloyd
   Kaufman has noted 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 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.") Currently, 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 ranks 76th on IMDb's Top 250 films list.

Cast

            Actor                         Role
   Tom Hanks                Forrest Gump
   Robin Wright Penn        Jenny Curran (Gump)
   Gary Sinise              Lieutenant Dan Taylor
   Mykelti Williamson       Benjamin Buford "Bubba" Blue
   Sally Field              Forrest's mother
   Michael Conner Humphreys Young Forrest Gump
   Hanna R. Hall            Young Jenny Curran
   Haley Joel Osment        Forrest Gump Jr.
   Sam Anderson             Principal Hancock
   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

   Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
     * It is revealed near the beginning of the book that his father (a
       longshoreman) was killed by a falling crate of bananas (Forrest's
       father apparently left Forrest's mother in the movie but it is
       never explained).
     * 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.
       In the book, Forrest did not do well in the regular school and was
       put in a special school for mentally challenged children, which he
       refers to as the 'nut school'.
     * Forrest failed college and hence did not graduate.
     * Forrest's mother does not die in the book but does in the movie.
       Forrest's mother does die in the book's sequel Gump & Co.
     * The novel's Forrest is described as an idiot savant, with an
       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; she instead marries another
       man, though she joins a band called "The Cracked Eggs" with him at
       one point. Jenny does not die in the original novel. She does die
       from unstated causes in the sequel—the book simply states that she
       and her husband got sick and both ended up dying—with the novel
       recounting Forrest's subsequent adventures with little Forrest when
       the boy is sent to live with him.
     * Gump and little Forrest do not have the loving relationship that
       the end of the movie seems 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 (a homage to the Johnny Cash
       song A Boy Named Sue'). They are captured by cannibals and made to
       plant cotton.
     * In the book, Forrestbecomes 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). 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.
     * Forrest's run across America never happens in the book.
     * 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 and 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.
     * The book features rather explicit sex scenes between Forrest and
       Jenny which do not appear in the movie.
     * The movie leaves out a lot of the unexpected details; such as when
       the feather blows onto his shoes and when he gets chased by the
       "bullies" and by the car.

   Spoilers end here.

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 In addition, an album featuring only the score by Alan
   Silvestri was released as well.

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
     * Music 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

Trivia

     * The bus stop bench does, in fact, exist in Savannah in a local
       museum. On a side note, traffic runs the opposite direction around
       Chippewa Square.
     * The picture of Forrest Gump receiving his Congressional Medal of
       Honour used in the movie was actually of an American soldier with
       Tom Hanks' head superimposed on his body. As a result, the soldier,
       Sammy L. Davis, who also received the award for his service in
       Vietnam, is sometimes called "The 'Real' Forrest Gump."
     * After leaving the shooting of the The Dick Cavett Show, Forrest
       Gump meets Lieutenant Dan. While going to his apartment Lieutenant
       Dan is almost hit by a car, to which he responds angrily "I'm
       walking here!", as a homage to Dustin Hoffman's character in the
       movie Midnight Cowboy.
     * Forrest says he got a letter from Lt. Dan stating that he invested
       some of Forrest's money in some kind of fruit company. On the
       letter, it had Apple Computer's logo. Also, Lt. Dan investing in
       Apple Computers is a reference to political activist and founder of
       the Youth International Party, or yippies, Jerry Rubin, who was one
       of the first to invest in Apple Computers, leaving behind political
       activism. This joke is an allusion to the protest held in
       Washington, DC in the movie, and its speakers.
     * In some scenes Forrest is portrayed by Tom Hanks' younger brother.
     * Jenny supposedly dies of AIDS, which had not yet emerged or been
       identified when she died.
     * Comedian Dave Chappelle was originally offered the role of Bubba,
       but he turned it down because he thought that the role was racially
       demeaning and stereotypical. He has since stated that he largely
       regrets not taking the role.
     * A number of exterior shots taking place at the University of
       Alabama were actually filmed at the University of Southern
       California; also the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (home of USC's
       football team) was used to film the scenes in the University of
       Alabama's Bryant-Denny Stadium.

Sequel

   A sequel to the book Forrest Gump was written, Gump and Co., but due to
   a dispute between the author and Paramount Pictures, the screenplay
   written in 2001 based on the book was not put into production. The
   dispute has been worked out and Paramount producers are taking another
   look at the Forrest Gump II screenplay.

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forrest_Gump"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
