Directed by Robert Zemekis
Screenplay by Eric Roth
Genre epic, romantic, comedy-drama
Based on Forrest Gump by Winston Groom
Starring
Tom Hanks Sally Field Mikelti Williamson
Robin Wright Gary Sinise
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dcYw4OwCA0
Synopsis:
The establishing shot is a feather floating above Savannah, Georgia, landing on the titular character, Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks) who is sitting on a bench waiting for a bus to take him home to Greenbow, Alabama. Forrest, a man with a below average IQ of 75, tells his remarkable life story. In flashbacks, his life unfolds for the audience. We see young Forrest being bullied by neighborhood children, largely due to the fact that he has to wear leg braces. However, the leg braces seem to have been a blessing as, on command, young Forrest is later able to run faster than anyone. He is being raised by a single mother (Sally Field) who has to sleep with his school principal for him to agree to allow young Forrest to be “mainstreamed” (with an IQ of 75, Forrest would have been in the “special needs” category).
In spite of his low IQ and physical deformity, Forrest lives a remarkable life. He has numerous encounters with well-known political and cultural figures, yet they are more than mere “brushes with fame,” as he is shown to not only be present at, but participating in some key moments in American history and even making significant contributions to history and pop culture, all inadvertently. And, while still in childhood, Forrest meets and falls in love with Jenny, the girl of his dreams. Though they eventually go their separate ways, Forrest continues to carry a torch for her into adulthood.
Forrest goes to college on a football scholarship (his success on the field is all due to his ability to run like lightning when he is told to run). At his graduation, an army recruiter gives Forrest a pamphlet with a picture of Uncle Sam and the caption “Excellent Careers for Excellent Young Men. Apply now at your local U.S. Army Recruiting Center.” The very next scene is of Forrest boarding an army bus.
In Vietnam, he serves with honor, saving Lieutenant Dan (Gary Sinise). He meets President Kennedy, defeats the Chinese national team in table tennis, unwittingly quashes the break-in of the Democratic headquarters at the Watergate Hotel, opens a profitable shrimping business with his old army pal, Bubba (Mikelti Williamson) and becomes an original investor in Apple Computers. Additionally, Forrest appears on the erudite “Dick Cavett Show” where he more than inspires co-guest John Lennon to write the song, “Imagine.”
Meanwhile, Jenny (Robin Wright Penn) was totally immersing herself in the counter-culture movement of the 1960’s. She had embraced the “free love” ideology of the generation, having experiences with numerous men. She also experiments with “consciousness-raising” drugs, as there is the suggestion of her doing LSD in the Sixties.
Several years later, Forrest receives a Congressional Medal of Honor from President Johnson, who had just given a speech claiming a need for further escalation of the war in Vietnam. While unbeknownst to Forrest, the pivotal anti-war rally of 1971 is about to begin. He is mistaken for a “vet against the Vietnam war” by a woman organizing the rally. She grabs him and sticks him in a line with the vets against the war. The woman yells, “Let’s move it out!” and Forrest walks with them. In a voiceover, Forrest is heard saying: “them people were loud and pushy.” One of those people was anti-war activist, Abbie Hoffman wearing an American flag. He rallies the crowd: “We must declare to that f-ing impostor in the White House — Johnson. We ain’t going to work on your farm no more! Yeah!” In a voiceover again, Forrest says, “There was this man, giving a little talk. And for some reason, he was wearing an American flag for a shirt…and he liked to say the “F” word. A lot. “F” this and “F” that. And every time he said the “F” word, people, for some reason, well, they’d cheer.”After, Hoffman calls Forrest up to the microphone. As Forrest begins to speak, an officer pulls the plug on his microphone. Forrest continues to speak, although totally inaudible to both audiences. The woman organizer grabs the officer’s night stick and says, “I’ll beat your head in, you g-damned oinker!” Then, she and another female protester try to plug the mic back in and one says, “Christ, what’d they do with this?” They get it plugged in just in time to hear Forrest say, “And that’s all I have to say about that.” Abbie says to Forrest, “That’s so right on, man. You said it all. What’s your name, man?” Forrest tells him, and Abbie shouts “Forrest Gump!”raising his fist in the air. The crowd cheers and yells, “Forrest Gump!”
Forrest and Jenny are reunited at the rally (apparently, she was in attendance). Jenny takes Forrest to a Black Panthers meeting that night. A Black man in a Panther uniform yells at Forrest, “Get your white ass away from that window. Don’t you know we in war here?” Then, Wesley, a Black Panther who is White and apparently Jenny’s boyfriend, brutishly asks Jenny, “Where the hell you been?” She replies, “With a friend,” and introduces him to Forrest who is still in his army uniform. Of Forrest, Wesley says, “Who’s the baby killer?” The first Black Panther then almost violently lectures Forrest on the Black community’s stance against America’s mistreatment of Blacks and the Vietnam War. Forrest ignores what he is saying and focuses on Jenny and Wesley arguing. Wesley slaps Jenny in the face and Forrest starts punching Wesley, knocking him to the floor until Jenny yells at Forrest, “Stop it! Stop!” and goes to help the moaning Wesley. The other Panthers glare threateningly at Forrest. Before leaving with Jenny, Forrest apologizes to the Panthers for having a fight in the middle of their party.
Several years later, when Forrest goes home to see his dying mother, Jenny is there. She gives him a gift. “New shoes. They make them just for running,” she tells him. Forrest asks Jenny to marry him, but she says, “You don’t want to marry me. I do love you, Forrest.” They make love, and in the morning, Jenny leaves. Forrest then puts on the running shoes she gave him and starts jogging across the lawn. “That day, for no particular reason, I decided to go for a little run,” he says in a voice-over. Forrest then embarks on what turns out to be a cross-country run during which he becomes a folk hero. He just keeps saying, “I went this far-I thought I would just keep going. When I got tired, I slept. When I got hungry, I ate.” He was asked by news re-porters if he was doing this for world peace or the Women’s Movement or animals, the environment or nuclear arms, and Forrest says, “they just couldn’t believe that someone would do all that running for no particular reason. I just felt like running.”
Forrest continues his story that one day “out of the blue” he received a letter from Jenny. She had seen him running on television and asked if he could come down to her apartment in Savannah to see her. Once there, she introduces him to her five year old son, Forrest, Jr., and says she named him “after his daddy.” She also tells Forrest she is dying-that she has some kind of virus that has no cure. They get married, with Lt. Dan in attendance. Jenny’s condition worsens and Forrest nurses her for a year
until she dies.
The story ends with Forrest raising his young son alone. They have formed a close and loving bond, and Forrest, Jr. is much like his father. They even share a favorite book-Curious George. Even his school bus driver is the same one Forrest had as a child. In the film’s coda, Forrest talks to Jenny’s grave. After reassuring her that Forrest, Jr. is doing well (they fish a lot and “he can read”) he says, “Jenny, I don’t know if we all have a destiny or we’re all just floating along accidental-like on a breeze. Maybe it’s both.” In the final scene, as Forrest sits on a tree stump, a white feather lands on his foot and then is taken by a breeze. It hovers high above and sways this way and that way, whichever way the wind takes it.
Comment In 1994, the filming techniques used to incorporate the main character, Forrest Gump, into archived footage of historical events were no doubt riveting and fantastical to the audience. And even to today’s moviegoing audience who was born and raised on CGI, its novelty still manages to spark the imagination and draw the audience into this revision- ist tale of history, as this new generation of viewers continues to root for the mostly clueless, but lovable protagonist who inadvertently stumbles into heroism, fantastic feats of athleticism, and great success as a capitalist in spite of his below average IQ and having no independent thought or any discernible personal agency other than obeying commands, acting on instinct (as he says of his cross-country run: “When I was hungry I ate-when I got tired, I slept.”) and the inclination to help a friend in need (accounting for his saving Lt. Dan and helping his friend Bubba be successful in business).
While it is tempting to view Forrest Gump as a tale of inspiration to all who seem to be born physically and/or mentally disadvantaged and a lesson to everyone else to acknowledge the value and potential of “differently-abled people,” there is much else at work in the film. And because of the enormous and enduring popularity of the movie and the fact that movies are arguably the most impactful cultural product in America today, it is worth an objective look at the premises on which the plot is based and the ideology that permeates it. Viewing the film through “clear-colored glasses” protects one from being sucked into the film’s “feel good, everything will be alright (and even more than just alright, as it is for Forrest) for everyone” message. With a thoughtful viewing, the film becomes problematic in several aspects: most of what the protagonist accomplishes is, in reality, impossible, its revision of history shifts the most positive accomplishments of the counterculture movement into the hands of the establishment, its patriarchal society and those who adhered strictly to it, it is blatantly anti- intellectual and its depictions of women and Blacks are highly tendentiously negative.
Firstly, the film suggests the delusory idea that all people can accomplish anything and that achieving in school, sports, war and business requires only obedience and good intention. Forrest is “magically” accepted into college (we see no studying for SATs, and in fact, never see him studying in high school). In reality, a person with an IQ of 100 would struggle in most college courses. As author and research scientist for The American Institutes for Research, Charles Murray states in his article Intelligence and College: “Only a small minority of high school graduates have the intelligence to succeed in college. The refusal to confront the relationship between intelligence and success in college has produced a cascade of harms–to many students who try to go to college, to those who do not, to the system of higher education, and to the nation as a whole”(http://www.aei.org/article/education/k-12/intel-ligence-and-college). Additionally, as stated in an article in The Atlantic: “Just 56 percent of students who embark on a bachelor’s degree program finish within six years, according to a 2011 Harvard study titled Pathways to Prosperity and according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, just 46 percent of Americans complete college once they start” (http://www.theatlantic.com/business/ archive/2012/ 03/why-do-so-many-americans-drop-out-of-college/255226/).
Not showing Forrest studying or even in class makes it easier to accept the anomaly of a person with an IQ of 75 graduating college. Is this a dangerous, misleading message to send to America’s moviegoing audience (which is comprised largely of 18-24 year olds) at a time when America is experiencing a crisis in education, as evinced by so many of our students being ill-prepared for college or unable to complete college? As Joseph De Avila states in a Wall Street Journal article: ‘“A CUNY spokesman noted that “almost four out of every five freshman who arrive at its community colleges with a high school degree require remediation in reading, writing or mathematics”’(http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052970204531404577050312906220578). And as Kelsey Sheehy states in a U.S. News.com article: “More than a quarter of 2012 graduates fell short of college-readiness benchmarks…for all four subjects, and 60 percent missed the mark in at least two of the four subjects. The students who are deemed college-ready in a subject, have a 75 percent chance of passing a first-year college course in that area”(http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/high-school notes/2012/08/2/high-school-students-not-prepared-for-college-career).
One might dismiss Forrest going to college, as well as all of his other accomplishments as fantasy used as allegory, but the film lacks allegorical elements, and with its use of the archived historical video, and verisimilitude that permeates the film, it further insinuates itself to be taken literally. Recently, in a room full of high school students, I was told: “Anyone who wants to be a doctor can become one, even someone with a low IQ.” Every one of them had seen the movie, Forrest Gump.
Yet, there is even more danger in this sensationally popular film purporting the fallacy that all people can graduate college. If it is true that all people can be college graduates, then all people can earn incomes higher than those who never graduate college. According to an L.A. Times article: “College graduates earn 84% more than high school grads, study says” (http://latimes blogs latimes.com/moneyco/2011/08/college-graduates-pay.html).
Thus, living at or below poverty level is rendered null and void. If we combine the fallacy (all people can graduate college) with the fact that college graduates earn significantly higher incomes than non-grads, then anyone who works at say, Wal-Mart or McDonald’s for any length of time is a person who is either lazy or simply does not believe in his or herself and is thus, holding his/her own self down in a low-paying job (and many of these people are in the 47% percent Mitt Romney referenced in his now infamous off-camera speech to some of his campaign contributors). The reality, though, is that there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people for whom working at Wal-Mart is the best they can do. For some, it is even overachieving, and therefore, it is vital that they are provided a livable wage. With less than a livable wage, these workers often turn to supplemental social programs, such as food stamps, etc. to simply “get by.” Forrest Gump assuages our concerns for this segment of our population, and without scrutiny, it could lead to a mindset that condemns those whose lives depend on a society that sees the reality of the American system and is governed by humanity and what serves the greater good.
Well now, if a real-life Forrest is excluded from higher education, one would think joining the army would be a viable alternative. Sounds great in theory and it actually happens in the movie, but this is another delusory idea. At his college graduation, a recruiter says to him, “Congratulations, son. Have you given any thought to your future?” Forrest replies, “Thought?” as if to say, “What’s that?” and after looking at a pamphlet, he seemingly automatically follows its command: “Apply now at your local recruiting office!” The film conveniently avoids the process of joining the services and for good reason, as in reality, passing the AVSVAB (the aptitude test for the armed forces) today, in America, is apparently too difficult for many average IQ applicants, let alone for someone with an IQ of 75. As reported by NPR: “Nearly one of every four high school graduates can’t pass the basic military entrance exam, a new report shows” (http://www.npr.org/2011/01/02/132592329/high-school-graduates-shut-out-of-military)
However, Forrest signing up for and serving valiantly in the military serves as a contrast to the thousands of young men who protested the Vietnam War, whether by leaving the country, actively protesting it on our soil or claiming “conscientious objector,” status. In the film, those young men are represented by the foul-mouthed, rowdy, American flag-desecrating “hippies” at the rally and the violent, insensitive, ungrateful, cowardly and unpatriotic (as they are depicted) Black Panthers. The negative depiction of the young people in the film who are in opposition to Forrest (which is all of them, including Jenny) who, in reality, are responsible for getting the country out of the war (as well as bringing equality among the races) serve to totally dismiss the criticisms of that war that have now come to be widely accepted as legitimate. Forrest then emerges as more patriotic, heroic, respectful and “manly.” And the fact that he suffers no loss of limb, life or, most amazingly, no discernible PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) suggests that if one served without question and without qualms (in essence, no independent thought or negative thoughts) one would come out of it completely unscathed. Therefore, it was the complaining and resisting that got one killed or maimed or emotionally and psychologically damaged for life.
Forrest’s involvement with John Lennon further serves to undermine the positive accomplishments of the counterculture generation. The film has Forrest as the inspiration for, and basically the originator of Lennon’s song “Imagine,” which not only became one of the most legendary pop songs of all time, but the defining song of a generation that strove to eschew the trappings of the establishment and to embrace a more spiritual existence, all while promoting world peace. By having Forrest responsible for the song, the voice calling for a higher morality, humanity and spirituality is taken away from the counterculture movement as represented by John Lennon, one of the most visible and vocal anti-war activists and proponents of world peace during the era, and gives it to the individual who represents the idea of maintaining the status quo and blindly following “the powers that be”-Forrest Gump. Lennon is essentially reduced to a mere vehicle through which Forrest’s message is conveyed to the world. And if John Lennon is not an evocator and visionary, he is merely an agitator and an enemy of the state, as President Nixon saw him, and “the establishment” is the agent of goodwill and peace.
As for Forrest unwittingly sabotaging the Nixon-orchestrated break-in at the Democratic headquarters which led to the Watergate scandal, the need for Woodward and Bernstein, the two Washington Post reporters whose superb investigative reporting broke the story of Watergate, is nullified, thus negating the idea that a conscientious and independent media is needed to monitor the government/establishment. The film completely omits the entire cover-up and scandal, as the very next scene after Forrest calls for security at the hotel is of President Nixon resigning. This makes Nixon appear honorable, when in fact, he only did so after the scandal broke and to avoid impeachment. Again, the film rewrites history to make the conservative establishment look good and the baby boomers appear to be unnecessary and worthless, at the very least.
The era during which the majority of the action of Forrest Gump is set was one of great social upheaval. In addition to America’s involvement in Vietnam, The Civil Rights Movement was in full force, as young people of all races used the idea of “civil disobedience” to fight the establishment within the law, yet many suffered arrest, injury by police brutality or worse. However, these people and the movement are only represented in this film by the militant group, The Black Panthers, and they are depicted as violent, single-minded, anti-American and un-manly. Thus, the audience can only view them as reproachable and morally wrong. And when the Black Panther says to the uniformed war hero, Forrest: “Get your white ass out the window! Don’t you know we in war here?” the audience can only see them as being the racist ones and completely absurd. And in the Black Panther sequence, the film reiterates its anti-intellectual stance, as the Panther Jenny is dating is depicted as an intellectual with his slight build and eyeglasses. He is less than a man than the pro-establishment, Forrest, as he hits women and is physically overpowered by Forrest. Thus, the movement is presented as racist rhetoric spewed by violent, unpatriotic and uncouth Black males who are fueled by hatred against Whites, and any intellectual White man who aligned himself with them is a coward, and less of a man, and perhaps even doing so in an attempt to co-opt what is seen from a racist perspective as the hyper-masculinity of the Black male. In Jenny’s case, her association with The Black Panthers is shown as misguided and masochistic, and ultimately, a poor choice.
And in what may be the film’s most troubling and offensive claim, it purports that D.W. Griffith’s film, Birth of a Nation was in fact right in its portrayal of the KKK as righteous and good and restoring order to the South. Forrest says that his mother named him after The Civil War hero, Nathan Bedford Forrest who founded the KKK. Forrest’s image is actually superimposed into the form of the KKK founder in a still from the film, Birth of a Nation. By making this parallel between the protagonist, Forrest Gump, whom we see as goodhearted, well-intended, patriotic and honorable, and the founder of the KKK, the film constructs a congruity with Griffith’s ideology that the KKK was a force of good, and an endorsement of Griffith’s highly negative depiction of African-Americans in
his film.
Women do not fare any better in this film, beginning with Forrest’s mother, who chooses to work within the established system which has women being subjugated by men, instead of defying it, fighting against it and trying to redefine a woman’s place in it. She lives and no doubt suffers privately within the constructs of this patriarchal and female-debasing society, while she is rewarded only in that her son is treated with equality and afforded a solid foundation for life. As always, prior to the Women’s Movement, the female’s role is purely sacrificial and she is denied a life of her own outside of motherhood. The film takes no issue with any of this, including Forrest’s mother having to sleep with the principal-it again, promotes the status quo.
The women at the rally are depicted as foul-mouthed, wannabe men who use profanity and take the Lord’s name in vain, but are ultimately ineffectual. Friedkin uses this same tactic in The Exorcist, an allegory for the control of female sexuality and clearly representative of the backlash against The Women’s Movement. In it, outspoken “liberated woman” Chris McNeil, the possessed girl’s mother, repeatedly uses phrases like “Jesus Christ” and “for Christ’s sake,” and it is not until she is subdued by the Devil and order is restored to her single-female headed family by the two priests does she change, for in the film’s
denouement, she is soft-spoken and reverent.
And then there is Jenny-a character who has intellectual curiosity, independent thinking and spirituality and is severely punished for just that. The sex she engages in with other men is depicted as wrong and the sex she has with Forrest, which results in conception is shown as good, thus suggesting sex is only for procreation. This negates one of the main tenets of the counterculture movement- the freedom to love whom we want and not have to marry to do it. She is completely devoid of any power other than to destroy herself. It is only Forrest who saves her, and repeatedly, from herself. Ultimately, it is her self-exploration and her resisting of the traditional marriage and family Forrest offers her that leads to her demise. This is an indictment of The Women’s Movement which espoused the idea that a woman has choices and can be the “master” of her own destiny without it being to her detriment.
In additional opposition to The Women’s Movement is the film’s promotion of patriarchy. From the male school principal to the older army recruiting officer and LBJ both calling Forrest “son,” to Lt Dan who is a surrogate father to him, the film presents patriarchy as comforting and rewarding, but only to males and only to those who play by its rules.
With patriarchy, White supremacy, unquestioning patriotism and “bootstrapping” (lifting oneself up the social and economic ladder through individual effort, hard work and personal responsibility) being promoted, while gender and racial equality, independent thinking and civil disobedience being denounced, it is difficult not to see Forrest Gump as right-wing propaganda wrapped in a warm and fuzzy package of hope, love and possibility, narrated by a man whom we can’t help but love and embrace as a role model, but who is essentially robotic. It is only until his last line in the film that Forrest utters words which have any thought whatsoever behind them-he waxes philosophical and says: “I don’t know if we all have a destiny or we’re all just floating along accidental-like on a breeze. Maybe it’s both.” So, according to Forrest and the film, one’s life has only two possible determining factors- fate and/or chance, both of which exclude personal agency. Using my own life and that of many people I know or know of, I can say that the likelihood of that working to most people’s advantage is small. I can say that if I “went with the wind” as the film’s bookended symbol for Forrest, the feather, does, I’d be in serious trouble. And the bootstrapping I did do was facilitated by the benevolent social structure of New York City, genetics and of course, personal agency. All in all, the film is as hollow a promise as its most famous line, “stupid is as stupid does” is meaningless. (Forrest’s mother made it up by playing on a popular southern saying, “beauty is as beauty does” simply to placate her dim-witted son). Without thoughtful contemplation, Forrest Gump, itself, is just that-placating of the masses.
Additionally, the character, Mr. Rzykruski, although voiced by Martin Landau, was no doubt created in the image of Vincent Price, who is best known for starring in American horror B-movie classics in the 1950’s and 1960’s, and at the end of his career, as Edward’s “father” in 
Beyond the Obvious by Catherine M. Espinosa 