6/10/11

Forrest Gump(1994)

Forrest Gump(1994)
"Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." 
Direct by      :  Robert Zemeckis
Starring        :  Tom Hanks
Genre          :   Drama, Comedy
Runtime       : 142 minutes
WI's rating   : 8.6




Forrest gump: My momma always said,"Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get."
Forrest Gump(Tom Hanks), not the sharpest tool in the box, his I.Q. is right below the average scores. But his mama(Sally Field) believes that her boy has the same opportunities as anyone else and lets Forrest know that there's nothing that could hold him back. As a boy he is put into braces for his legs since he has a crooked back and really doesn't have too many friends. When he gets on a school bus for his first day of school, NO ONE will let him sit next to them. This scene is so heart breaking until you hear a little angel's voice "You can sit here if you want". Jenny, Forrest's best friend and crush, she looks so incredibly innocent and you love her because her and Forrest are like pea's and carrots. But we find out that there is an extremely unfortunate side to her life, she has a father that's "always kissing and touching her and her sisters". Forrest just assumes that it's a father's love since he doesn't have a dad that could show him that it's wrong.
Forrest Gump: Will you marry me?
[Jenny turns and looks at him]
Forrest Gump: I'd make a good husband, Jenny.
Jenny Curran: You would, Forrest.
Forrest Gump: ...But you won't marry me.
Jenny Curran: [sadly] ... You don't wanna marry me.
Forrest Gump: Why don't you love me, Jenny?
[Jenny says nothing]
Forrest Gump: I'm not a smart man... but I know what love is.

Forrest and Jenny together walk every day from school and when these kids start throwing rocks at Forrest calling him stupid, Jenny just tells Forrest "Run, Forrest! Run!". He miraculously breaks the braces off his legs and run like the wind blows. Forrest meets many celebrities from his life that just happened to be there: Elvis Presley visited his house before hitting it big, President Kennedy honored him with a all American football award, President Johnson who honored him with a medal of honor for his actions in Vietnam, President Nixon(in which Forrest happens to discover a problem in the Water Gate Hotel because some people seem to be flashing lights around), and John Lennon through a talk show to talk about his medal of honor.




[Forrest Gump referring to Apple Computer]
Forrest Gump: Lieutenant Dan got me invested in some kind of fruit company. So then I got a call from him, saying we don't have to worry about money no more. And I said, that's good! One less thing.
Forrest meets some interesting people along the way too that are even better than these celebrities combined; Bubba his Vietnam war friend who dreams of owning a shrimp boat one day and was born with big gums. He is just so wonderful and charming and won't stop talking about shrimp. lieutenant Dan, a leader of Forrest's army in Vietnam who gets saved by Forrest during a huge attack and looses his legs as a result. Lieutenant Dan was by far my favorite character, he has so much pride and wants to die in Vietnam due to his family history tradition of dying in every single American war. He and Forrest make quite a pair. And of course there's Jenny, a very tragic figure, she gets more mean as she grows up because she knows that Forrest loves her, in some ways you can't blame her really. She was obviously abused and I think she felt that Forrest was too good for her or that he couldn't really give her the love she wanted. Because Forrest Gump is one ridiculous, unbelievable joke followed by another, and when Forrest is teaching Elvis how to dance, giving Lennon the idea for
"Imagine", investing his money on Apple(which he thought was a fruit company), wiping his face on a clean shirt and making a smiley face with the dirt by accident.

don't worry be happy

Forrest Gump: In the land of China, people hardly got nothing at all.
John Lennon: No possessions?
Forrest Gump: And in China they never go to church.
John Lennon: No religion too?
Dick Cavett: Ah. Hard to imagine.
John Lennon: Well it's easy if you try, Dick.

What is the message of Forrest Gump? Stripped to its purest essence, this movie is about loyalty and devotion, particularly to the ones in our lives we love and care about. These are the human values being reinforced. Loyalty. Devotion. Forrest Gump embodies loyalty and devotion. To his mama. To his good best buddy Bubba. To the love of his life, Jenny. To his leader, Lt. Dan. And in the end to Forrest Jr. One by one and all together Forrest sticks by and takes care of his family, friends, and loved ones. This is the thread running through the entire story. This is what carries Forrest to all of the remarkable places he goes along the way.The use of a mentally challenged man as the leading man is a conceit, used to illustrate the point that loyalty and devotion are the most important things in life, trumping everything else. It drives home the point that nothing else really matters anywhere near as much. Indeed, it drives it home with blunt force. Maybe it drives it home too hard for such a simple little point.

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