my name is forrest gump. people call me forrest gump
TRANSCRIPT
My name is Forrest Gump.People call me
Forrest Gump
Forrest Gumpfilm review by
Rob Humanick
At some point, Forrest Gump effectively stopped being a movie, transformed by its own success into an un avoidable cultural moment that came equipped with everything from its own line of catchphrases to a tie-in restaurant chain. An unlikely film about an unlikely man, both with accolades heaped upon them, it’s easy to see how the earnest absurdity of its very premise invites ridicule. Over the course of a prolonged bus-stop conversation, Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks)—a man with an IQ of 75—recounts to various strangers how he helped spark the sexual revolution, fell in love with his childhood friend,
Jenny (Hanna Hall as a child, later Robin Wright), exposed the Watergate scandal, earned the Medal of Honor, met three American presidents, ran coast to coast, and fathered Haley Joel Osment, among other accomplishments he’s also largely unaware of. Some of Forrest’s cameos throughout history push the limits of believability or taste (such as the bit involving John Lennon), but that’s certainly intentional, and the overarching silliness finds shelter in Robert Zemeckis’s assuredly optimistic, even self-deprecating sleight of hand. It’s impossible to imagine the film having been absorbed by the culture wholesale without such conviction and affecting sincerity. Zemeckis is a storyteller frequently drawn
Forrest Gumpby Rob Humanick
to tales of outsiders (characters outside of their time, their medium, their civilization), and his populist touch—equal parts everyman empathy and technical prowess—is a fitting match with Forrest’s just-below-average perspective on things, amid a deftly camouflaged f/x powerhouse. That Hanks seems to take everything happening to and around Forrest in stride, from the desegregation at the University of Alabama to the hurricane that ultimately makes the character a millionaire, was surely key to the film’s many gambles, both visual and narrative, paying off. Coming on the heels of Steven Spielberg’s dinosaurs in the decade’s CGI wellspring was a magical feather and Gary Senise sans legs, to name two
extremes, no less impressive for their realism, and while the celebrity lip manipulations now appear about as convincing as an episode of Mister Ed, at least they function well in the intended context of a seemingly common, profoundly humble man showing the rest of us how it’s done. Unfortunately, that merging of the real with the impossible is both pivotal to the film at a conceptual level (in Winston Groom’s novel,
the outlandishness goes even further, with Forrest ultimately traveling to space, and upon returning to Earth, getting captured by cannibals) and deeply problematic. If Forrest and Jenny’s respective paths through life are taken seriously as a reflection on society of the times, any conclusions drawn from their escapades—best represented by the scene of their walking together through Washington D.C. circa
1968, Forrest a decorated Vietnam veteran, Jenny a proud flower girl—reveal a facile understanding of the political turmoil those people experienced. One might prefer to just embrace the hokum and take it all in as if through Forrest’s eyes, though the film isn’t entirely conducive to this approach either, particularly with Jenny ultimately, almost despicably, being added to the film’s historical bullet points as an AIDS victim—a moment that lands with calculated velocity for maximum tissue dispensation. This was among the deviations from the novel in Eric Roth’s script, and even if only incidentally, it suggests that a callous sacrifice was necessary for her counter-cultural lifestyle. Had Jenny lived, she might have been able to offer some much-needed perspective. Yet there remains something to be said for Forrest Gump’s commitment to its vision, one that’s alternately beautiful and naïve. It might hit you right in the feels, even as your eyes are rolling. To quote one of Forrest’s truest pieces of wisdom: Maybe both is happening at the same time.
15 Thingsyou didn’t know about
Forrest Gump
2
The bench on which Forrest sat sold at auction in 2013 for $25,000.
3
5
Ice Cube and Dave Chappelle turned down the role of Bubba, which was eventually played by
Mykelti Williamson.
7
Both Tom Hanks’ daughter, Emily, and Robert Zemeckis’ son, Alexander, are seen in the school bus scene. She’s the red-haired girl, he’s the first boy who won’t let
Forrest sit down.
8
9
Every time Forrest appears in a photo onscreen he has his eyes
closed.
10
11
A sequel novel was published in 1995 and in 2001 Eric Roth, writer of the first movie, turned it into a screenplay. But Hanks and Zemeckis decided a follow-up
would no longer be relevant.
12
13
Tom Hanks was suffering from flu when he had to film the football
scenes.
14
Adjusted for inflation, Forrest Gump is the 24th highest grossing
film in history.
15
Tom Hanks ad-libbed the line “My name is Forrest Gump. People call
me Forrest Gump”.
25 Piecesof wisdom fromForrest Gump
“Life’s a box of chocolates, Forrest.
You never know what you’re gonna
get.”
“You have to do the best with what God
gave you.”
“Don’t you be afraid, sweetheart. Death is just a part of life, something we’re all
destined to do.”
“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, I think maybe it’s
both. Maybe both is happening at the
same time.”
“Coons? When raccoons try to get on our back
porch, Mama just chases ‘em off with a
broom.”
“Now the secret to [ping pong] is, no matter what happens, never,
never take your eye off the ball.”
“I guess Lieutenant Dan figured there’s some things you just can’t change.
He didn’t want to be called crippled, just like I didn’t want to be called stupid.”
“Stupid is as stupid does.”
“Mama said not to be taking rides from
strangers.”
“Mama always said, God is mysterious.”
“You know, it’s funny how you remember
some things, but some things you
can’t.”
“It’s funny what a young man
recollects. ‘Cause I don’t remember
being born.”
“I’m not a smart man, but I know
what love is.”
“Now, Mama said there’s only so much fortune a man really needs... and the rest is just for showing
off. So, I gave a whole bunch of it
to the Four Square Gospel Church.”
“Two standing orders in this
platoon. One, take good care of your
feet. Two, try not to do anything stupid, like gettin’ yourself
killed.”
“Bubba was my best good
friend. And even I know that ain’t
something you can find just around the
corner.”
“My Mama always said you’ve got to
put the past behind you before you can
move on.”
“Now, the real good thing about meeting the President of the United States is the
food.”
“My Mama always said you can tell a lot about a person
by their shoes. Where they’re going, where
they’ve been.”
“Don’t ever let anybody tell you
they’re better than you, Forrest. If God
intended everybody to be the same, he’d
have given us all braces on our legs.”
“[Jenny] gave me the best gift anyone
could ever get in the wide world. New
shoes.”
“Remember what I told you, Forrest. You’re no different than anybody else
is.”
“Sometimes we all do things that, well, just don’t make no
sense.”
AGEING HIPPIE: “Whoa! Man, you just ran through a
big pile of dog shit!”FORREST: “It
happens.”AGEING HIPPIE:
“What, shit?”FORREST:
“Sometimes.”
“When I got tired, I slept. When I got
hungry, I ate. When I had to go, you know, I went.”
10 Questionsabout
Forrest Gump
"Jenny and me was ."
like pigs in mud
thick as thieves
like peas and carrots
1
Where did Forrest reunite with Jenny?
Arlington National Cemetery
Outside the White House
Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool
2
What did Forrest do in China?
Played ping pong
Ran along the great wall
Raced fishing boats
3
What did Bubba like to talk about?
Shrimp
The army
Women
4
What did Forrest name his boat?
The Alabama
Jenny
Bubba
5
Which soon-to-be famous person stayed as a guest in Forrest’s house?
Elvis Presley
John F. Kennedy
John Lennon
6
Forrest tells most of his life story through:
a journal for his son
letters to Jenny
talking to srtangets
7
Where did Forrest decide to stop running and go home?
The desert
The East coast
The mountains
8
Jenny prayed that God would make her into a:
Bird
Horse
Tree
9
The opening and closing scenes feature a:
Feather
Park bench
Box of chocolate
10
‘Forrest Gump’ was great, it was fabulous. It lasted much longer than anybody thought, and brought me a degree of attention that no human being on the face of the planet deserves.
“