This article is about the film. For the novel, see Forrest Gump (novel).

For other uses, see Forrest Gump (disambiguation). ForrestGump

Theatricalrelease poster

Directedby

Robert Zemeckis

Wendy Finerman Producedby Steve Tisch Charles Newirth

Writtenby

Winston Groom

Screenplayby

Eric Roth

Narratedby

Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks Starring Robin Wright Gary Sinise Mykelti Williamson

Sally Field

Musicby

Alan Silvestri

Cinematography

Don Burgess

Editingby

Arthur Schmidt

Distributedby

ParamountPictures

Release date(s)

July 6, 1994

Running time

141 minutes

Country

UnitedStates

Language

English $55 million[1] $677,387,716[1]

Budget

Grossrevenue

Forrest Gump is a 1994 American comedy-drama film based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom. The film was directed by Robert Zemeckis, starring Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, and Gary Sinise. The story depicts several decades in the life of Forrest Gump, an Alabama simpleton who travels across the world, meeting historical figures, influencing popular culture, and experiencing firsthand some of the historic events of the late 20th century. The film differs substantially from Winston Groom's novel on which it was based. Filming took place in late 1993, mainly in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Extensive visual effects were used to incorporate the protagonist into archived footage and to develop other scenes. An extensive soundtrack was featured in the film, and its commercial release made it one of the top selling albums of all time. It sold 4.42 million copies. Released in the United States on July 6, 1994, Forrest Gump was well received by critics and became a commercial success as the top grossing film in North America released that

year. The film earned over $677 million worldwide during its theatrical run. The film garnered multiple awards and nominations, including Academy Awards, Golden Globe Awards, People's Choice Awards, and Young Artist Awards, among others. Since the film's release, varying interpretations have been made of the film's protagonist and its political symbolism. In 1996, a themed restaurant opened based on the film, and has since expanded to multiple locations worldwide. The scene of Gump running across the country is often referred to when real life people attempt the feat.

Contents
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1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production o 3.1 Script o 3.2 Filming o 3.3 Visual effects 4 Release o 4.1 Criticalreception o 4.2 Box office performance o 4.3 Home media o 4.4 Accolades 5 Authorcontroversy 6 Symbolism o 6.1 Feather o 6.2 Politicalinterpretations 7 Soundtrack 8 Restaurant 9 Sequel 10 References 11 External links

[edit] Plot
As Forrest Gump sits at the bus stop, his life story gradually unfolds as he speaks to other people. On the first day of school, Forrest meets a girl named Jenny Curran, whose life is followed parallel to his at times. Despite his below average intelligence quotient (IQ), his ability to run very fast gets him into the University of Alabama on a football scholarship. He ultimately becomes an All American and meets President John F. Kennedy. While attending college he witnesses George Wallace's attempt to prevent integration at the school.

After graduation, Forrest enlists in the army. He makes friends with Benjamin Buford Blue, nicknamed Bubba, who convinces him to be his partner in the shrimping business when the Vietnam War is over. He also meets Jenny again and discovers that she is a stripper. In 1967, he and Bubba are sent to Vietnam, and after several months of patrolling with the 9th Infantry Division, their platoon is ambushed. Though Forrest rescues many of the men in his unit, Bubba is fatally wounded and dies. Lt. Dan Taylor, the platoon's commanding officer, is also seriously wounded and loses both legs. He chastises Forrest for saving him, insisting that he would rather die honorably on the battlefield than become a cripple. For Forrest's actions, he is awarded the Medal of Honor by President Lyndon B. Johnson. While in Washington, he becomes swept up in an anti-war rally where he again meets Jenny. They spend the evening walking around Washington, but when the morning comes she leaves with her abusive boyfriend. While in recovery from a gun shot wound to the buttocks, Forrest discovered an uncanny ability for ping pong. He begins playing for the U.S. Army team, eventually competing against Chinese teams on a goodwill tour, sometimes referred to as Ping Pong Diplomacy. He goes to the White House for a third time to meet President Richard Nixon who provides him a room at the Watergate hotel. While there, Forrest witnesses a burglary and calls security. He also goes on the Dick Cavett Show in New York City and talks with John Lennon, presumably inspiring the song Imagine. When leaving, he meets Lt. Dan, now an embittered drunk living on welfare. Forrest is discharged, and uses money from an endorsement for ping pong paddles to buy a shrimping boat, fulfilling his wartime promise to Bubba. Later, Lt. Dan joins him as first mate. They meet little success however, but after Hurricane Carmen hits the Gulf states, their boat is the only one to survive. This results in easy success. Forrest buys an entire fleet of shrimping boats, and the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company becomes a household name. Lt. Dan, having had an epiphany while riding out the hurricane, forgives Forrest and thanks him for saving his life. Forrest returns home when his mother falls ill and she dies soon afterward. In 1976, Jenny returns to visit Forrest, and after some time he proposes to her. Although she declines she tells him that she does love him. Although they sleep together she leaves the next day. On a whim, Forrest elects to go for a run and simply decides not to stop. Over the next three years, two months, fourteen days and sixteen hours, he runs coast to coast across the country several times, gathering a small following. Realizing that he had been running to try and make sense of his feelings for Jenny and the deaths of his mother and Bubba, he abruptly stops and returns home. While finishing his story, Forrest reveals that he is waiting at the bus stop because Jenny has contacted him and asked him to visit her. Once they are reunited, he discovers they have a young son together, also named Forrest. She tells him that she is suffering and dying from an unknown virus. She proposes to him and he accepts. The three move back to Greenbow where they marry but Jenny dies soon afterward. On his son's first day of school, Forrest Sr. sits with his son at the bus stop. As the bus picks Forrest Jr. up and drives away, Forrest Sr. sits on the same tree stump that his mother did, watching a feather float into the air.

[edit] Cast

Hanks on the film set in 1993

Sinise on the film set in 1993

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Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump: though at an early age his school principal determines young Forrest possesses an IQ of 75, he has endearing character and devotion to his loved ones and duties, which brings him into many life-changing situations. Along the way, he encounters many historical figures and events throughout his life. John Travolta was the original choice to play the title role, and admits passing on the role was a mistake.[2]Bill Murray was also considered for the role.[3] Hanks revealed that

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he signed onto the film after an hour and a half of reading the script.[4] He initially wanted to ease Forrest's pronounced Southern accent, but was eventually persuaded by director Bob Zemeckis to portray the heavy accent stressed in the novel.[4] Hanks agreed to take the role only on the condition that the film was historically accurate. Michael Conner Humphreys portrayed the young Forrest Gump. Hanks revealed in interviews that after hearing Michael's unique accented drawl, he incorporated it into the older character's accent. Robin Wright as Jenny Curran: Gump's childhood friend who enters his life at various times in adulthood, eventually becoming mother to his son and later marrying Gump. Jenny is a survivor of child sexual abuse, which results in her struggles with self-destructive behavior throughout much of her life. She dies from an unknown virus, which reviewers and authors speculated as being HIV/AIDS.[5][6][7]Zemeckis reflected on Wright's portrayal of the role, "Robin exudes a kind of strength and, at the same time, a vulnerability. She doesn't bring any of her stardom to the role. You don't look at her on-screen and think that this is Robin Wright's interpretation of the character. She's a real chameleon."[8]Hanna R. Hall portrayed the young Jenny Curran. Gary Sinise as Lieutenant Dan Taylor: Gump and Bubba's commanding officer during the Vietnam War, who comes from a long line of soldiers with a dubious history of dying in combat. After losing his legs in an ambush and being rescued against his will by Forrest, he falls into a deep depression. He then later serves as Forrest's first mate at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, gives most of the orders, and regains his will to live and ultimately forgives Forrest for his actions in Vietnam and thanks him for saving his life. By the end of the film, he is engaged to be married and is sporting "magic legs" - titanium alloyprosthetics which allow him to walk again. Mykelti Williamson as Benjamin Buford "Bubba" Blue is Gump's friend whom he meets upon joining the Army. Throughout filming, Williamson wore a lip attachment to create Bubba's protruding lip.[9]David Alan Grier, Ice Cube, and Dave Chappelle were all offered the role before turning it down.[3][10] Chappelle claimed he believed the film would be unsuccessful and has also admitted that he regrets not taking the role.[3] Bubba was originally supposed to be the senior partner in the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company but due to his death in the line of duty in Vietnam, his commanding officer Lieutenant Dan Taylor took his place. The company posthumously carried this name. Sally Field as Mrs. Gump: Forrest's mother, who raises him after his father abandons them. Field reflected on the character, "She's a woman who loves her son unconditionally. ... A lot of her dialogue sounds like slogans, and that's just what she intends."[11] Haley Joel Osment as Forrest Gump, Jr.: Forrest and Jenny's son. Osment was cast in the film after the casting director noticed him in a Pizza Hut commercial.[12] Peter Dobson as Elvis Presley: a house guest Forrest encounters. Although Kurt Russell was uncredited, he provided the voice over for Elvis Presley in the scene where Presley met Gump.[13] Dick Cavett as himself. Cavett played the 1970s version of himself, with makeup applied to make him appear younger. Consequently, Cavett is the only well-known

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figure in the film to play a cameo role rather than be represented through the use of archival footage.[14] Sam Anderson as Principal Hancock: Forrest's elementary school principal. Richard D'Alessandro as Abbie Hoffman: A Yippie at a Vietnam War rally who gives Forrest a chance to speak about the war. Geoffrey Blake as Wesley: A member of the SDS group and Jenny's abusive boyfriend. Siobhan Fallon Hogan as Dorothy Harris: The school bus driver who drives both Forrest, and later his son, to school. Sonny Shroyer as Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant: Forrest's football coach of the University of Alabama. Grand L. Bush, Conor Kennelly, and Teddy Lane Jr. as the Black Panthers: Members of an organization that protests against the Vietnam War, President Lyndon B. Johnson, and anti-black racism. Bill Roberson as Fat Man on Bench: An older man who sits on the bench next to Forrest in Savannah, Georgia and listens to Gump's stories.

[edit] Production
[edit] Script
Main article: Forrest Gump (novel)
"The writer, Eric Roth, departed substantially from the book. We flipped the two elements of the book, making the love story primary and the fantastic adventures secondary. Also, the book was cynical and colder than the movie. In the movie, Gump is a completely decent character, always true to his word. He has no agenda and no opinion about anything except Jenny, his mother and God." director Robert Zemeckis[15]

The film 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 Gump's life that do not occur in the novel, such as his needing leg braces as a child and his run across the country.[16] Gump's core character and personality are also changed from the novel; among other things his film character is less of an autistic savantin the novel, while playing football at the university, he fails craft and gym, but receives a perfect score in an advanced physics class he is enrolled in by his coach to satisfy his college requirements.[16] The novel also features Gump as an astronaut, a professional wrestler, and a chess player.[16] Two directors were offered the opportunity to direct the film before Bob Zemeckis was selected. Terry Gilliam turned down the offer to direct.[17]Barry Sonnenfeld was attached to the film but left to direct Addams Family Values.[18]

[edit] Filming
Filming began in August 1993 and ended four months later in December.[19] Although the majority of the film is set in Alabama, filming took place mainly in Beaufort, South Carolina, as well as parts of coastal Virginia and North Carolina,[4] including a running shot on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The scene of Forest running through Vietnam while under fire actually was filmed on Fripp Island, South Carolina. In fact the explosions actually were set up to create the layout for what eventually became Ocean Creek Golf Course. Additional filming took place on the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC and along the Blue Ridge Parkway near Boone, NC . The Gump family home set was built along the Combahee River near Yemassee, South Carolina and the nearby land was used to film Curran's home as well as some of the Vietnam scenes. [20] Over 20 palm trees were planted to improve the Vietnam scenes.[20] Forrest Gump narrated his life's story in Chippewa Square in Savannah, Georgia as he sat at a bus stop bench. There were other scenes filmed in and around the Savannah area as well, including a running shot on the Houlihan Bridge (Port Wentworth, Georgia) while being interviewed by the press, as well as on West Bay Street in Savannah.[20]

[edit] Visual effects

Gump with President John F. Kennedy. A variety of visual effects were used to incorporate Tom Hanks into archive footage with various historical figures and events. 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 deceased personages and shaking their hands. Hanks was first shot against a blue screen along with reference markers so that he could line up with the archive footage.[21] To record the voices of the historical figures, voice doubles were hired and special effects were used to alter the mouth movements for the new dialogue.[15] Archival footage was used and with the help of such techniques as chroma key, image warping, morphing, and rotoscoping; Hanks was integrated into it. In one Vietnam War scene, Gump carries a wounded Bubba away from an incoming napalm attack. To create the effect, stunt actors were initially used for compositing purposes. Then Hanks and Williamson were filmed, with Williamson supported by a cable wire as Hanks ran with him. The explosion was then filmed, and the actors were digitally

added to appear just in front of the explosions. The jet fighters and napalm canisters were also added by CGI.[22] 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 legs are used for support.[23] The scene where Forrest spots Jenny at a peace rally at the Lincoln Memorial and Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C., required visual effects to create the large crowd of people. Over two days of filming, approximately 1,500 extras were used.[24] At each successive take, the extras were rearranged and moved into a different quadrant away from the camera. With the help of computers, the extras were multiplied to create a crowd of several hundred thousand people.[4][24]

[edit] Release
[edit] Critical reception
The film has received mostly positive reviews. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 71% of critics gave the film a positive review based on a sample of 53 reviews, with an average score of 6.9/10.[25] At the website Metacritic, which utilizes a normalized rating system, the film earned a favorable rating of 82/100 based on 19 reviews by mainstream critics.[26] The story was commended by several critics. Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times wrote, "I've never met anyone like Forrest Gump in a movie before, and for that matter I've never seen a movie quite like Forrest Gump. Any attempt to describe him will risk making the movie seem more conventional than it is, but let me try. It's a comedy, I guess. Or maybe a drama. Or a dream...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."[27] Todd McCarthy of Variety wrote that the film "...has been very well worked out on all levels, and manages the difficult feat of being an intimate, even delicate tale played with an appealingly light touch against an epic backdrop."[28] In addition, the film received notable pans from several major reviewers. Anthony Lane of The New Yorker called the film "Warm, wise, and wearisome as hell."[29]Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly said that the film "...reduces the tumult of the last few decades to a virtual-reality theme park: a baby-boomer version of Disney's America."[30] Critics had mixed views on the main character. Gump has been compared to various characters and people including Huckleberry Finn, Bill Clinton, and Ronald Reagan, among others.[31][32][33] Peter Chomo writes that Gump acts as a "...social mediator and as an agent of redemption in divided times".[34]Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called Gump "...everything we admire in the American character honest, brave, loyal...".[35]The New York Times reviewer Janet Maslin called Gump a "...hollow man..." who is "...self-

congratulatory in his blissful ignorance, warmly embraced as the embodiment of absolutely nothing."[36] Marc Vincenti of Palo Alto Weekly called the character "...a pitiful stooge taking the pie of life in the face, thoughtfully licking his fingers."[37] 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's 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."[38]

[edit] Box office performance

Produced on a budget of $55 million, Forrest Gump opened in 1,595 theaters in its first weekend of domestic release, earning $24,450,602.[1] Motion picture business consultant and screenwriter Jeffrey Hilton suggested to producer Wendy Finerman to double the P&A (film marketing budget) based on his viewing of an early print of the film. The budget was immediately increased, per his advice. The film placed first in the weekend's box office, narrowly beating The Lion King, which was in its fourth week of release.[1] For the first ten weeks of its release, the film held the number one position at the box office.[39] The film remained in theaters for 42 weeks, earning $329.7 million in the United States and Canada, making it the fourth-highest grossing film at that time (behind only E.T. the ExtraTerrestrial, Star Wars IV: A New Hope, and Jurassic Park).[39][40] As of September 2010, the film is ranked as the 23rd highest grossing domestic film and 44th worldwide.[40][41] The film took 66 days to surpass $250 million and was the fastest grossing Paramount film to pass $100 million, $200 million, and $300 million in box office receipts (at the time of its release).[42][43][44] The film had gross receipts of $329,694,499 in the U.S. and Canada and $347,693,217 in international markets for a total of $677,387,716 worldwide.[1]

[edit] Home media

Forrest Gump was first released on VHS on April 27, 1995, LaserDisc April 28, 1995 (2 Discs Containing the Through The Eyes of Forrest Special Feature), before being released on a two-disc DVD on August 28, 2001. Special features included director and producer commentaries, production featurettes, and screen tests.[45] The film was released on Blu-ray in November 2009.[46]

[edit] Accolades
In addition to the following list of awards and nominations, the film was recognized by the American Film Institute on several of its lists. The film ranks 37th on 100 Years... 100 Cheers, 71st on 100 Years... 100 Movies, and 76th on 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition). In addition, the quote "Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." was ranked 40th on 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes.[47] The film also ranked at number 240 on Empire's list of the 500 Greatest Movies of All Time.