‘Forrest Gump’ was released in 1994, directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Eric Roth. The film was based on the novel ‘Forrest Gump’ by Winston Groom. In the first eighteen days after its release, it took in $100 million at the American box office. Two weeks after, the movies intake had doubled to over $200 million. The film itself covers thirty years of history, from the 1950s to the 1980s, and centers around the life of an intellectually disabled man in a seemingly dubious storyline that earned critical acclaim, huge audiences, and the winner of six academy awards. ‘Forrest Gump’ compared to other Hollywood films, does not have a straightforward and linear plot. Typical films feature some well-known events in history whereas this film incorporates a range of different events whereby America went through a number of political, social and economic changes. In a standard Hollywood movie, you have different stereotypes. In ‘Forrest Gump’, no character fits into any standard stereotype.
In standard film making, there is a beginning, a problem, the solution to the problem and then the story reaches its inevitable end. While their plot, may twist and turn, they still follow the same formula and rarely deviate. The plot of ‘Forrest Gump’ is rather ambitious and non-linear. The film is shot across the world, has a massive cast of thousands of people and showcases many different decades. The film shows Forrest’s life story while also displaying the tapestry of American history. Its scenes do not push each other forward, they simply follow one another, similar to a series of small stories. The film itself is more of a biographical narrative, rather than just a narrative that involves a main character.
In most films, typically one main historical event is featured. However, in ‘Forrest Gump’ the director touched on several significant events including the Vietnam War 1955-1975, the Watergate scandal, including references to John Lennon and Elvis Presley among others. ‘Forrest Gump’ uses various music tracks from each decade to separate each era and strongly put characters from each decade in their place. The song ‘Hound Dog’ by Elvis Presley was used for the 1950s. Elvis Presley comes to stay at the boarding house that Forrest and his mother run. Elvis was playing the guitar, while young Forrest was dancing in quite an odd way since he had to have leg braces on. This inspires Elvis to find new dance moves, similar to those that Forrest showed him. Although this did not happen in reality, Elvis Presley was one of the greatest revolutions in rock and roll pop culture, he was well known for his very suggestive dancing. Another difference between regular Hollywood movies and ‘Forrest Gump’, is that Forrest plays a very active part in history rather than just simply observing it. Hence the audience being led to believe that young Forrest was partially responsible for Elvis’ famous dance moves.
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The characters of ‘Forrest Gump’ develop, grow and change throughout the film. The characters do not fit common archetypes such as villains, a hero, or a tough person. As an example, Forrest is an accidental hero who is not very smart and is quite innocent for his age right from the beginning. He had an IQ below 75 and was mentally undeveloped. He is significantly different from your normal main leading man and does not understand sarcasm, irony or humorous comments. Jenny Curran was a non-typical love interest of Forrest. They first met on his first day of school when she let him sit next to her on the bus when no one else would. Jenny had a tough life which caused her to make some bad decisions, this led her to travel and come in and out of Forrest’s life throughout the film. Forrest didn’t quite understand everything that had happened in her life. Jenny came to stay with Forrest for a while. One night, Forrest asked Jenny to marry him, however she refused and said You don’t want to marry me. Later that night Jenny came into Forrest’s room. She explained that she did love him and then the two had sex. Jenny left early the next morning leaving Forrest heart broken. A few years went by and Jenny wrote a letter to Forrest asking him to meet with her. When he arrived, he gave her a box of chocolates – which meant something to Forrest as his mother always said to him life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get. Jenny explained to Forrest that she had a son and she had named him after his father. “‘His name is Forrest’, – Jenny Curran. ‘Like me’, – Forrest Gump. ‘I named him after his daddy’, – Jenny Curran. ‘He got a daddy named Forrest, too?’ – Forrest Gump. ‘You’re his daddy, Forrest’, - Jenny Curran”. As you can see from this conversation, Forrest didn’t not quite realize things as quick as others.
Throughout the film a range of techniques are used. During the opening scene a feather is featured drifting along a perfectly planned trajectory until it reaches its precise destination. The director used a camera focus technique which is called hard focus to do this, it shows that the feather is the point of concentration. During the film, an editing technique called a montage is used. This is a series of short shots edited together to condense a part of a story, usually showing the main character learning or improving skills leading towards the ultimate goal. In the film, after jenny has left him, his pain and despair cause him to begin running across the United States. While he was running a voice over of Forrest was used, he explained that he decided to go for a run one day: “That day, for no particular reason, I decided to go for a little run. So, I ran to the end of the road. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd run to the end of the town. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd just run across Greenbow County. And I figured, since run this far, maybe I'd just run across the great state of Alabama. And that's what I did. I ran clear across Alabama. For no particular reason I just kept on goin'. I ran clear to the ocean. And when I got there, I figured, since I'd gone this far, I might as well turn around, just keep on goin'. When I got to another ocean, I figured, since I'd gone this far, I might as well just turn back, keep right on goin'” (Forrest Gump). A montage of him running across the United States through different states, him being asked by the public as to why he’s doing it and his reply being that he just felt like running, is used.
The film ‘Forrest Gump’ was a huge success, due to the hard work of the director and the rest of the creators as well as the actors. Throughout the film, a range of different techniques were used. During each era shown a variety of popular music was used to showcase each decade. There was a wide use of technological techniques creating a more realistic effect. A wide range of historical references were also used, the director was quite creative by placing the main character in each of these events to create a great backdrop of well-known events. Each character was simply different to your typical Hollywood stereotypes, particularly Forrest being a simplistic man who is can be quite oblivious to what is going on in the world around him. This multi-million-dollar film was complete success, is well-known and loved by many.
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