Еssay on Forrest Gump

Table of contents:

1. Introduction

2. The plot of the film:

a. School

b. College education

c. The Army

d. Family

3. Conclusion

 1. Introduction

The name of Forrest Gump is known by every single American. The movie Forrest Gump may be called one of the most exciting movies that I have seen in my whole life. It seems to be easy but at the same time it is very serious because it touches important issues such as war, not being like other people, fight for the right to be equal and many others. As Forrest is not an ordinary boy he faces some difficulties in his life which eventually leady him to be a success. Forrest Gump ”“ is a story about a boy, whose mother fought for making him equal to everybody else. It is a story about a boy and later a man who has the IQ of 75, but even a person with normal IQ is not so noble. Forrest Gump stays true to himself till the very end of the movie thought he realizes that he is not as smart as other people.

This understanding makes him able to accept anything that happens in his life and be “strong”.

The movie “Forrest Gump” with Tom Hanks is very important for the American culture because it also shows the history of the country. It teaches American people to believe in the national values and what is to be a good American. It says ”“ You do not have to be smart to make your country better, you just have to be a good person and a good citizen. “Forest Gump” has many moments that make people cry because they show sadness and happiness, birth and death, love and rejection. This is the reason this movie is a vital element of getting to know American culture.

 

2. The plot of the film

The first second the movie shows a feather “falling to the feet of Forrest Gump who is sitting at a bus stop in Savannah, Georgia” (Wikipedia, 2008). Forest takes the feather and gently places it in his favorite book for children “Curious George”. The next moment he starts telling the story of his life to a young nurse who is waiting for a bus and is sitting next to him. The woman first ignores him but then gets interested in the story. He offers her a chocolate candy and says that his mother compared life with a box of chocolates as “you never know what you are going to get”.

He makes an accent on the nurse shoes and thinks that they must be very comfortable. He adds that his mother used to say that shoes can tell a lot of things about the person as they show where he was and where he is going.

Forrest Gump starts the story with describing his young years with his mother. He tells that his mother named him Forrest Gump as the man who established the CCC had the same name. She did it because this name is a memory that all people sometimes do stupid and crazy things. After this Forest is shown in the physician’s office and the physician puts leg braces on his legs. They make the boy’s movements very slow and strange and make everyone look at him. Forrest’s mother loves him very much and does not let people make fun of Forrest. She wants Forest to learn on important thing ”“ if must not let people say that they are better than he is.

Forrest mother always says everything in a way that Forrest understands all the lessons of life she gives him. They live friendly in a house with his mother. The house Forrest and his mother live in is a very old house as if was built around thousand years ago by Forrest’s grand-grand-grand-grandfather.  The house is very big and has a lot of rooms. This is why Forrest’s mother took in lodgers and got the money for her and Forrest to live.

2.a. School.

It happens that is time for Forrest to go to school and his mother takes him to the local school’s principle office. The principle tells Forrest’s mother that Forrest is not like other children in the school because his IQ is 75 and he accepts children with the IQ of at least 80 points.  The principle continues and tells that Forrest needs to go to a special school for special children. Mrs. Gump tells the principle that the different between 75 and 80 is only 5 point and shows that she will do anything for Forrest to study in normal school. This is how she fights for the equal right for her boy. Mrs. Gump sleeps wit the principle and Forrest is accepted to school.

As Mrs. Gump always has a lot of lodgers in her house Forrest meets a lot of people. One day he meets a young man with a guitar. Forrest becomes interested in him as he loves the guitar very much. They become friends and the young man play for Forrest and Forrest dances for him. The man loves the way Forrest dances and asks to show it again. After some time Forrest and his mother see a TV-set in a store, where the same young man sings and dances like Forrest. This man is Elvis Priestly.

The first day of school Forrest enters the school bus and nobody want to seat with him. Everybody says:”You can’t seat here” and turn away from him. And only one person with the sweetest voice in the world asks him to seat with her. This girl is an angel for Forrest as she talks to him. Before this only his mother talked to him and asked him questions. The girl’s name is Jenny. Since this day Forrest and Jenny become friends and Jenny becomes the only friend for Forrest. They spend a lot of time together as Jenny never wants to go home. Forrest is happy with her. One day three boys on bikes attack Forrest and throw rocks at him. Jenny asks Forrest to “run Forrest, run”. Forrest starts running and at the beginning he runs absurdly because of his leg braces. As the boy get closer Forrest starts running faster and faster and in one second the braces fall apart and Forrest start running without them. His legs get very fast and he easily gets away from the boys. Since that moment Forrest ran very fast to every place he needed to get.

One day Forrest runs to Jenny’s house because Jenny did not come to school. Jenny’s father drunk and hurt Jenny and her sisters. Forrest and Jenny pray to God in the maize and ask God to make Jenny a little bird and let her fly away. Soon, police takes Jenny’s father and she goes to live to the house of her grandmother. But even after that very often in the night Jenny comes to Forrest’s house as she feels safe with him.

The next episode Jenny and Forrest are shows teenagers as they are finished high school. Forrest walking with Jenny again gets attacked by three young men on a car. Again Jenny tells:”Run Forrest, run!”.  Forrest runs very fast again to escape them and runs on a football field when the game is on. The coach notices him as he runs faster than all the players.

2. b. College education

The coach invites Forrest and he gets a football scholarship and possibility to attend college (Wikipedia, 2008). He was a valuable player for the American football team because was very fast and the team always won. Though Forrest acts and talks strange the college still appreciates him for his talent for running and wining football games.

Next moment the question of admission of Afro-American people to the university make the country worried. Forrest gives the Afro-American woman an exercise book she droops and gets to the TV next to the governor. At this point the nurse who was listening for Forrest’s story leaves on bus number 4 and a woman with a little boy continues listening to Forrest’s life story.

During the years of Forrest’s college education, Jenny studies in college for girl only. One time Forrest comes to visit Jenny and sees Jenny in a car with a young man. She says the words “It hurts” and Forrest runs to the car and beats the man. He does it because he protects her from everything.

Later, Forrest gets to the national American football team. As the team is good the president meets with it. As there are a lot of tasty things for the reception of the players, Forrest enjoys it and drinks fifteen bottles of Dr. Pepper.

When Forrest meets the president Kennedy, he shakes the president’s hand and says that he want to go “pee-pee”.

Forrest does not act like the rest of the people, but he is never mean and always ready to help. Not long after the meeting the president Kennedy gets killed followed by his brother. This is a hard time for America. Eventually, Forrest gets the university diploma and makes his mother proud of him. It was so hard to get him to school and now he is a university graduate. After the graduation Forrest is invited to join the Army.

2.c. The Army

When he enters the Army bus he meets his best Army-mate ”“ Babba. Babba is not very smart but he and Forrest get along very well. Babba seems to be mentally retarded, too. The only thing that Babba talks all of the time is shrimps.

Babba’s family knows everything about shrimps. He dreams about having a shrimping business and has many ideas for that.

Forrest in the Army becomes a prefect soldier and it is very easy for him to be one. His captain tells that one day Gump will be a general because he carries out the commands very quick and good. During his Army Forrest finds out that Jenny made nude photos in the college uniform and was expelled. He finds her in a bar singing song with a guitar and without any cloths on. Again he protects her from the man in the bar. They speak not for a long time.

Forrest tells her he loves her and she says Forrest:  “You don’t know what love is”. When she finds out that Forrest is sent to Vietnam she asks him to do only one thing ”“ if he faces danger he has to run! She leaves in the first car she sees.

In Vietnam Forrest and Babba meet Lieutenant Dan whom he likes very much. During an attack Forrest does what Jenny told him ”“ he runs but after he realizes that Babba is there and he comes back after him. Every time he runs for Babba he sees fellow-soldiers and saves them. This is how he saves Lieutenant Dan, too but Babba dies. Forrest becomes a real hero and gets a medal for heroism. Lieutenant Dan is not happy Forrest saved him, because he has no legs now. In the hospital he tries to attack Forrest and shows that he hates him. In the hospital Forrest start playing ping-pong. He becomes very popular for this and eventually plays against Chinese teams. Accidently, he happens to say a word form a tribune in an anti-war rally. Jenny sees him and they meet again. Jenny is a hippie and has a correspondingly life-style. They spend a day talking and Jenny leaves again.

2.d. Family

 

After Army, Forrest earns money on his ping-pond talent and decides to buy a shrimping boat as he promised Babba to do. After some attempts Forrest already together with Lieutenant Dan get lucky and become the only shrimp-boat owners in the region. Lieutenant Dan at that time invests into Apple Computer and makes Forrest very rich. As Forrest mother dies he comes back to their house and stays. After months of drinking and taking drugs Jenny comes to visit Forrest and stays to live with him. When he proposes she refuses to become his wife. Nevertheless, she spends a night with Forrest to make him happy and leaves the next morning. Forrest is hurt so much that he decides to run a little and stops only after three years of running. As his run becomes popular Jenny finds out about him.

Forrest gets a letter from Jenny asking him to come.

The scene comes back to the bus stop and now an old woman tells him that he does not need a bus because his address is just five blocks away. He runs again. When Forrest meets Jenny she reveals that they have a son named Forrest. Forrest and Jenny get married but soon she dies from a virus. Forrest’s become a very good father. The last moment of the movie the view sees his little son on his first school day. As the little boy takes “Curious George” with him, the little feather which was there for so many years flies away indicating that each person’s life is both a feather taken by the wind and the control that each person has over it.

4. Conclusion

The movie “Forrest Gump” is about one of the most interesting movies I have ever seen. It is very deep and touching.

This is the reason the Academy has given it a set of awards (Encyclopedia Britannica,par.3) It got Academy awards in 1994: for best picture, for best actor, for best director,  for best screenplay, for best film editing, for best visual effects and three Globe awards in 1995: for best motion picture, for best motion actor and the award for best motion picture director (Encarta,par.3). The movie is very strong as it strives for fighting the stereotype of discriminating disabled people. It may be said that it is one of the greatest movies of the American cinematograph.