Forrest Gump

PLOT:

The film begins with a feather falling to the feet of Forrest Gump who is sitting at a bus stop in Savannah, Georgia. Forrest picks up the feather and puts it in the book Curious George, then tells the story of his life to a woman seated next to him. The listeners at the bus stop change regularly throughout his narration, each showing a different attitude ranging from disbelief and indifference to rapt veneration.

On his first day of school, he meets a girl named Jenny, whose life is followed in parallel to Forrest’s at times. One day after school, he is being threatened by a group of bullies because of his leg braces. Jenny tells him to run, and he does so, losing his leg braces in the process. Having discarded his leg braces, his ability to run at lightning speed gets him into college on a football scholarship. He excels at football so much that he becomes an All-American, and meets John F. Kennedy.

After his college graduation, he enlists in the army and is sent to Vietnam. In Boot Camp, Forrest makes fast friends with a man named Bubba (Mykelti Williamson), who convinces Forrest to go into the shrimping business with him when the war is over. After finishing Boot Camp, Bubba and Forrest are assigned to the same platoon and upon arrival in Vietnam, Forrest meets his commanding officer, Lieutenant Dan Taylor (Gary Sinise). Lieutenant Dan came from a military family, and had lost an ancestor in every American war. Later while on patrol, Forrest’s platoon is attacked. Though Forrest rescues many of the men, including Lt Dan, whose legs were severely injured and are later amputated, Bubba is killed in action. Forrest is awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism, and meets Lyndon B. Johnson at his award ceremony.

While Forrest is in recovery for a bullet shot to his buttocks, he discovers his uncanny ability for ping-pong, eventually gaining popularity and rising to celebrity status, later playing ping-pong in China. After meeting Abbie Hoffman at an anti-war rally in Washington, D.C. Forrest reunites with Jenny, who has been living a hippie counterculture lifestyle. He also encounters Lt. Dan, who has become a bitter alcoholic having felt that it was his destiny to die on the battlefield in Vietnam. Forrest celebrates New Years Eve with Dan, who is initially hostile and uses Forrest as a means of obtaining alcohol. When Forrest tells of his plan to buy a shrimping boat, Dan mocks Forrest and sarcastically states that he will become first mate of the ship. However, Dan later finds empathy with the fact that Forrest has been discriminated against in the past because of his low IQ.

Forrest endorses a company that makes ping-pong paddles, earning himself $25,000, which he uses to buy a shrimping boat, fulfilling his promise to Bubba. Lieutenant Dan returns and fulfills his earlier promise and becomes first mate of the ship. Though initially Forrest has little success, after finding his boat the only surviving boat in the area after Hurricane Carmen, he begins to pull in huge amounts of shrimp and uses it to buy an entire fleet of shrimp boats. Lt. Dan invests the money in “some kind of fruit company” and Forrest is financially secure for the rest of his life. Forrest names his company Bubba Gump, which inspired an actual shrimp restaurant. Returning home, Forrest finds out that his mother has cancer and later dies.

One day, Jenny returns to visit Forrest and he proposes marriage to her. She declines, though feels obliged to prove her love to him by sleeping with him. She leaves early the next morning. On a whim, Forrest elects to go for a run. Seemingly capriciously, he decides to keep running across the country several times, over some three and a half years, becoming famous. During his run, Forrest unwittingly inspires two separate entrepreneurs to create Smiley Face/”Have a Nice Day” t-shirts and “Shit Happens” bumper stickers.

In present-day, Forrest reveals that he is waiting at the bus stop because he received a letter from Jenny who, having seen him run on television, asks him to visit her. Once he is reunited with Jenny, Forrest discovers she has a young son, of whom Forrest is the father. Jenny tells Forrest she is suffering from a virus (probably AIDS, though this is never definitively stated). Together the three move back to Greenbow, Alabama. Jenny and Forrest finally marry, with Lieutenant Dan arriving for the wedding, walking on two legs with the use of prosthetic limbs. However, Jenny dies soon afterward.

The film ends with father and son waiting for the school bus on little Forrest’s first day of school. Opening the book his son is taking to school, the white feather from the beginning of the movie is seen to fall from within the pages. As the bus pulls away, the white feather is caught on a breeze and drifts skyward.

REVIEW:

This film was nominated for countless awards and won quite a few of them, including the Oscar for best picture and best leading man. It’s not very hard to see why. This movie has it all, comedy, tear jerking moments, romance, and a twist. The only thing missing was stuff blowing up!

I’m not sure how much was left out from the novel or what was added, nor do I know what differences are, but I do know thios is a good movie!

“My momma always said life is like a box of chocolates.”

5 out of 5 stars