BellaOnline Forums TV and Movies Classic Films Forrest Gump?

crazy with <Forrest Gump > all the time...
i can't i'm impressed by him.
your comments?

FORREST GUMP by WINSTON GROOM

Forrest Gump introduces himself. He is from Mobile, Alabama. He is named after Nathan Bedford Forrest, the Civil War General. He has an IQ of 70. Forrest recounts being put in a school for retards. Jenny is the only girl who will not run from him. He and Jenny go on an ill-fated date. Forrest plays football because of his size and gets into the University of Alabama on a football scholarship. His and Jenny's paths cross again in college. Forrest's friend, Bubba, gives him a harmonica, and Forrest becomes a virtuoso. He plays in Jenny's band. It is explained that idiots have pockets of brilliance. But Forrest flunks out of school and gets drafted. He goes to Fort Benning, Georgia and on to Vietnam. This is the late 1960s. Forrest survives a gook attack and meets up with Bubba, who is also in Vietnam. Nothing is said in the book about Bubba being black. Forrest learns that Jenny quit school and is protesting the war. Forrest and Bubba agree to go into the shrimp business after they get out of the Army. Bubba is killed in combat. Forrest is shot in the [censored] and spends time in an Army hospital. He plays ping-pong. He is awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Lyndon Johnson pins it on him at the White House. Forrest thinks the war is "a bunch of [censored]." He is chosen to play against the Chinese as a member of the U.S. ping-pong team. While in China, he saves Chairman Mao from drowning. Forrest and Jenny hook up. She is in a rock band in Cambridge. They have sex. It becomes a regular thing. Forrest's odyssey takes him to NASA and into space. The narrative is out of control at this point. Indeed, Forrest confesses to seeing life as a chain of events with no underlying purpose.

Winston Groom's novel is satire. It is meant to be funny while conveying basic truths. Forrest Gump's speech is colloquial, country slang. After all, he is a simple man. The book is written in the first person as Forrest tells his story. There is nothing in the book about life being like a box of chocolates. There is no Elvis and no Dick Cavett interview with John Lennon. The movie added them. Groom was born in 1943. He is a consummate baby boomer like Forrest.

The spacecraft Forrest shares with the lady astronaut lands in the jungle. They are taken captive by cannibals and forced to plant cotton. Forrest is rescued although the lady astronaut chooses to remain with her jigaboo lover. Groom's language becomes bolder as his novel progresses. Forrest returns to the White House for an encounter with a paranoid Richard Nixon. He finds Jenny working for a tire company in Indianapolis. From there, he becomes a pro wrestler. Jenny is turned off by it and eventually leaves. Jenny and Forrest are forever moving in and out of each other's lives. Forrest finds himself in Hollywood doing a remake of "The Creature from the Black Lagoon." Naturally, he is the creature. Raquel Welch is his co-star. When Forrest carries her in his arms butt naked, we sense that Groom is giving vent to his own fantasy. Forrest and Raquel make it to a dress shop on Rodeo Drive. She tries to buy a dress but has no money and no identification. The police come. Raquel tells Forrest he will never work in this town again. He returns to Alabama, dreaming of his mother, Jenny and the shrimp business. He starts his shrimp business and turns it into a multi-million dollar corporation. He hires many of the characters he has come across in the book. Even Raquel does TV ads. But Forrest is haunted by the fact that Jenny has married. He leaves his business to go to Savannah. No surprise that he runs into Jenny. It is a poignant revelation when he learns that he is the father of her son. In the movie, Jenny dies with AIDS. That does not happen in the book. They merely go separate ways. Dan, the soldier who lost his legs in Vietnam, would be receiving compensation as a disabled veteran. Groom failed to include that. I take exception with Forrest for not building a relationship with his son. Being an idiot is no excuse.

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Forrest Gump is a great movie. Tom Hanks was really on his game then and it helped breath some life into Robin Wright-Penn's career. One of the best things about the movie was the music which was perfectly timed with every scene. This is one of those movies that you can watch over and over and still enjoy it, the characters and all the nuances that make it a great film.

Oh I agree! What a fabulous movie. When I watch that movie, I forget it's Tom Hanks, and just see the character.

What a long way from Bachelor Party, ay?

You know I had completely forgotten about that movie. He's certainly grown a lot since then.

I wonder what he thinks about when he looks back on his career. What movies he wishes he had not done or done differently.

Do you remember his first series? Bosom Buddies? I actually remember him doing a dungeons and dragons movie (it was made for tv back in '82 I think).

I also loved his movie, That Thing You Do. My hubby and I still love to watch it together --- and then we sing the theme song for the next two weeks LOL.

OMG yes. I remember them both. I wish Bosom Buddies would come back on in reruns. I wonder if it would still be funny. I'm going to have to check Zip to see if they have Dungeons and Dragons...

I don't know if Bosom Buddies would still be funny or not. I've tried watching a couple of those old 80s sitcoms, and thought "what was I thinking??"

Just in case anyone else was looking Dungeons and Dragons is actually listed as Mazes and Monsters.