Forrest Gump is the eponymous protagonist of a heavily satirical novel by Winston Groom, and of a 1994 Paramount Pictures film based on the novel. Gump himself was said to have been named after Nathan Bedford Forrest.

Contents

1 The film 1.1 Plot summary of the movie 1.2 Criticism of the film 2 Divergence 3 Trivia 4 External link 5 Credits

The film

The film was directed by Robert Zemeckis and tells the story of a mentally challenged man's epic journey through life, passing historical figures and incidents largely unaware of their significance: in the film, Forrest (played by Tom Hanks) calls the police about the Watergate break-in, invents the smiley without realizing it, and makes millions on Apple Computer stock thinking he has invested in a fruit company.

The film was a huge commercial success, although Paramount claimed it was a failure, and did not pay Groom his share of the profits. Groom therefore denied Paramount the rights to adapt the novel's sequel, Gump & Co.

The film was praised by many critics as a modern fable. The film won several Academy Awards, including the Academy Award for Directing and the Academy Award for Best Picture. The film's special effects included the, at the time, stunning, near-seamless blending of Gump with footage of various historical figures, a process sometimes referred to as "gumping."

Plot summary of the movie

Young Forrest Gump was born in fictional Greenbow, Alabama with crippled legs and was forced to walk with the aid of leg braces, his odd walk being imitated famously by a young guitarist named Elvis Presley. Overcoming this handicap, he got into superb physical shape. His running ability brought him success at the University of Alabama in college football (playing for the legendary Paul Bryant), and he carried his wounded platoon to safety during a battle in the Vietnam war.

After coming home from the war, he began a shrimp business drawing on advice from his African American army buddy Bubba. His former commander, Lieutenant Dan (Gary Sinise), joined him in the venture, and they took their boat out during Hurricane Carmen. They returned to port to find that all other fishing boats in the area have been destroyed by the storm, giving them an instant monopoly in shrimp and making Forrest a wealthy man. Forrest then gives Bubba's mother what he felt was Bubba's share of the profits; he also buys and tears down the house where his childhood sweetheart, Jenny (Robin Wright), had been abused.

The movie has striking similarities with the Indian Telugu movie Swathimuthyam, released one year before the novel was pubished (in 1985).

Criticism of the film

Though popular among many, Forrest Gump's warm reception was not universal. Particularly outside the United States, the film was viewed as extended and undeserved praise of ignorant naïveté, a stereotype widely associated with Americans in some quarters.

Divergence

Much of the beginning of the film is the same in the book - albeit Zemeckis's Gump is far more placid and na�ve than Groom's abrasive, judgmental cynic; the film's quote of Life is like a box of chocolates wholly reverses the novel's sentiment of Being an idiot is no box of chocolates.

Later in the book Forrest becomes an astronaut, after which the two stories diverge greatly. For instance, in the novel Gump (after becoming an astronaut) crash-lands on a small jungle island with his crew.

Trivia

This is one of the three Tom Hanks movies (along with Saving Private Ryan and Apollo 13) where socks play a role in the plot. During the war, Lieutenant Dan's main advice to Gump is for him to keep his feet clean and dry, and change his socks often.

External link

• IMDb entry on Forrest Gump (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0109830)

Credits

• Direction: Robert Zemeckis
• Cast: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Mykelti Williamson, Sally Field
• Writer: Winston Groom, Eric Roth
• Composer: Alan Silvestri.
• Editor: Arthur Schmidt.
• Producer: Wendy Finerman, Charles Newirth, Steve Starkey, Steve Tisch for Paramount Pictures (USA).

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