Earning over $677 million worldwide, the drama, Forrest Gump, that took home 6 oscars still strikes as a classic in many hearts. Ranked number 71 on American Film Industry’s 100 best movie list, the director, Robert Zemeckis captures a powerful dimension of an incredible story. Musical genius Alan Silvestri pairs with the unmatched cinematography by Don Burgess into an overall best picture of 1994. The portrayal of the mixed genres of this film brings it home to an overall feel-good movie that’s sure to jerk a tear.
Tom Hanks portrays Forrest Gump, who isn’t all-the-way there; “I’m not a smart man, but I know what love is,” he often says. Simply put, he’s a rather unremarkable man who’s lead to a more than remarkable life by a way of falling into situations through integrity, good intentions, love. While leading the high life, his love, Jenny (Robin Wright-Penn), falls into some rather (bad) unfortunate circumstances mostly due to her casual sex appeal throughout college. His mother (Sally Field) plays a big role in Forrest’s life by her determination in helping him succeed. While enrolled in the military, Forrest meets Bubba (Mykelti Williamson) and Lieutenant Dan Taylor (Gary Sinise) who both end up playing big roles in his life. Bubba, a shrimp-loving soldier, becomes Forrest’s main comrade at boot camp. (Stubborn) Tenacious Lieutenant Dan ends up learning more from the retard, Forrest, than he learns from Dan.
Despite his simple I.Q., Forrest Gump leads quite a the charmed vivacity. He runs through childhood with his best and only friend Jenny. His 'mama' teaches him the ways of life and leaves him to choose his destiny. Entirely without trying, Forrest teaches Elvis Presley to dance, becomes a football star, serves with honor in Vietnam, speaks at an anti-war rally at the Washington Monument, hangs out with the Yippies, defeats the Chinese national team in table tennis, discovers the break-in at the Watergate, (opens) initiates a profitable shrimping business, becomes an original investor in Apple Computers, and decides to run back and forth unceasingly across the country for several years without really understanding the velocity of it all. And let’s not even mention all the presidents he’s met. However, this is all irrelevant to Forrest who can only think of his childhood sweetheart, Jenny, although she makes her own journey through the turbulence of the 1960s and 1970s that is far more troubled than the path Forrest happens upon. Forrest eventually analyzes this about his life, “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.”
Although in the end all he wants to prove is that with a little bravery, anyone can love anyone, a touching theme. He learns to love things because as opposed to despite, and whether he knows it or not, he teaches that to the world. A rare, a pure, a perfect ideal. Something is fundamentally wrong by the way the world approaches love; Forrest teaches us that. As Martin Luther King Jr. says, “Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”
There are lot of differences between the book and the movie. One big difference is that in the book, Forrest becomes an astronaut and goes to outer space. He meets an ape there named Sue and they crash in the jungle and are taken hostage by cannibals. Which doesn’t happen in the movie. Also in the book, he studied in a school for special children; he didn’t finish university because he wasn’t clever enough during the lessons. He went to a regular school and college in the movie. A lot of the plot-line is changed, they match having a first-person narrator who is at once seemingly naive and acutely sussed. Hence there is great irony in Gump's many triumphs against the odds. In this rewriting of the American dream, anyone can succeed - even an absolute idiot.
The relationship between Forrest and Jenny is probably the most memorable and impacting feeling because we can relate. Even though both characters lived both spectrums of life, the end up coming back to each other. Through the good and the bad, but we always have that one person to really connect with because they are home to us.
Now, what made Forrest Gump such an iconic movie? You could start off with the story of a simple man who (lived) flourished (extremely) exceptionally. But, at the core of this movie is a love story. The powerful love story between Forrest and Jenny prevails in minds and hearts forever. Beyond that, this incredible movie defined an American generation, stumbling from one historical event to another, swept along by circumstances, sometimes thriving into great heroic action, sometimes falling by the wayside. This movie is a must. Your life will never be the same once you see the world through the eyes of Forrest Gump.
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