Forrest Gump (1994)

Forrest Gump is a 1994 American drama film directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Eric Roth with comedic aspects. It is based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom and stars Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Mykelti Williamson and Sally Field. The story depicts several decades in the life of Forrest Gump (Hanks), a slow-witted but kind-hearted man from Alabama who witnesses and unwittingly influences several defining historical events in the 20th century United States. The film differs substantially from the novel.

Principal photography took place between August and December 1993, mainly in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Extensive visual effects were used to incorporate Hanks into archived footage and to develop other scenes. The soundtrack features songs reflecting the different periods seen in the film.

Forrest Gump was released in the United States on July 6, 1994 and received acclaim for Zemeckis's direction, performances, visual effects, music, and screenplay. The film was an enormous success at the box office; it became the top-grossing film in America released that year and earned over US$677 million worldwide during its theatrical run, making it the second-highest-grossing film of 1994, behind The Lion King. The soundtrack sold over 12 million copies. Forrest Gump won six Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Hanks, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Visual Effects, and Best Film Editing. It received many award nominations, including Golden Globes, British Academy Film Awards and Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Varying interpretations have been made of the protagonist and the film's political symbolism. In 2011, the Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.

In 1981, at a bus stop in Savannah, Georgia, a man named Forrest Gump recounts his life story to strangers who sit next to him on a bench.

In 1951, in Greenbow, Alabama, young Forrest is fitted with leg braces to correct a curved spine, and is unable to walk properly. He lives alone with his mother, who runs a boarding house out of their home that attracts many tenants, including a young Elvis Presley, who plays the guitar for Forrest and incorporates Forrest's jerky dance movements into his performances. On his first day of school, Forrest meets a girl named Jenny Curran, and the two become best friends.

Forrest is often bullied because of his physical disability and low intelligence. While fleeing from several bullies, his leg braces break off, revealing Forrest to be a very fast runner. This talent eventually allows him to receive a football scholarship at the University of Alabama in 1963, where he is coached by Bear Bryant; he witnesses Governor George Wallace's Stand in the Schoolhouse Door at which he returns a dropped book to Vivian Malone Jones,^[6] becomes a top kick returner, wins National Championships, is named on the All-American team, and meets President John F. Kennedy at the White House.

After graduating college in 1967, Forrest enlists into the U.S. Army. During basic training, he befriends a fellow soldier named Benjamin Buford Blue (nicknamed "Bubba"), who convinces Forrest to go into the shrimping business with him after their service. In 1968, they are sent to Vietnam, serving with the 9th Infantry Division in the Mekong Delta region. After months of routine operations, their platoon is ambushed while on patrol, and Bubba is killed in action. Forrest saves several wounded platoon mates – including his lieutenant, Dan Taylor, who loses both his legs – before being shot and is awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism by President Lyndon B. Johnson.

At the anti-war March on the Pentagon rally, Forrest meets a man who "had an American flag for a shirt" and briefly reunites with Jenny, who has been living a hippie lifestyle. He also develops a talent for ping-pong, and becomes a sports celebrity as he competes against Chinese teams in ping-pong diplomacy, earning him an interview alongside John Lennon on The Dick Cavett Show, influencing the song "Imagine". He spends the 1972 New Year's Eve in New York City with Lieutenant Dan, who has become bitter due to the loss of his legs and angry at Forrest for unwittingly breaking his family's history of dying in the line of duty. Forrest soon meets President Richard Nixon and is put up in the Watergate complex, where he accidentally witnesses and reports some men with flashlights keeping him awake.

Discharged from the army, Forrest returns to Greenbow, and endorses a company that makes ping-pong paddles. He uses the earnings to buy a shrimping boat in Bayou La Batre, fulfilling his promise to Bubba. Lieutenant Dan joins Forrest in 1974, and they initially have little success. After their boat becomes the only one to survive Hurricane Carmen, they pull in huge amounts of shrimp and create the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, after which Lieutenant Dan finally thanks Forrest for saving his life. Lieutenant Dan invests into what Forrest thinks is "some kind of fruit company" and the two become millionaires, but Forrest also gives half of the earnings to Bubba's family. Forrest then returns home to his mother as she dies of cancer.

In 1976, Jenny – in the midst of recovering from years of drugs and abuse – returns to visit Forrest, and after a while he proposes to her. That night she tells Forrest she loves him and the two make love, but she leaves the next morning. Heartbroken, Forrest goes running, and spends the next three years in a relentless cross-country marathon, becoming famous again. He eventually decides that he's grown tired of running (metaphorically and physically) and returns to Greenbow.

In 1981, Forrest reveals that he is waiting at the bus stop because he received a letter from Jenny, who asked him to visit her, until an elderly woman reveals he can just as easily walk there. As Forrest is finally reunited with Jenny, she introduces him to their son, Forrest Gump Jr. Jenny tells Forrest she is sick with an "unknown virus" and the three move back to Greenbow. Jenny and Forrest finally marry, but she dies a year later. The film ends with Forrest seeing his son off on his first day of school.