Starring: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Mykelti Williamson, Sally Field
Release Date: June 23, 1994
Running Time: 142 min
Genres: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Commentary Forrest Gump is a rather amusing tale about a man with a mild case of mental retardation who always seems to be in the right place at the right time. He ends up meeting several important historic figures and participating in key events without ever fully realizing their significance. Tom Hanks does a terrific acting job in this film.
Plot Summary
Introduction: Forrest Gump tells the life of Forrest Gump, a mildly retarded man who is born in Alabama. As a child he meets Elvis Presley before he becomes famous, one of his mother's frequent guests. On his first day of school, he falls for a blonde girl named Jenny Curran, who rides the bus with him. His legs are in braces and he can barely walk, but Jenny urges him to run from boys who try to bully him, so he ends up breaking his braces and outrunning his adversaries.
Football at Alabama: The same thing happens to him in high school, whence he runs into a football practice and gets noticed by University of Alabama coaches and ends up playing for them. He even gets invited to the White House by President Kennedy.
Vietnam: Years later, he ends up fighting in Vietnam. He saves the life of Lieutenant Dan Taylor (Gary Sinise), his commanding officer, who needs to have both his legs amputated. Forrest receives a medal and accidentally runs into a Abbie Hoffman rally where he meets Jenny. He also ends up meeting President Johnson and John Lennon, as well as being invited to China to play ping-pong and being given $25,000 to endorse a new set of ping-pong paddles.
Watergate: After returning from China, he stays in the Watergate Hotel where he inadvertently initiates the Watergate scandal.
The Bubba-Gump Shrimp Company: Forrest uses most of the $25,000 he made to buy a shrimping boat and start a shrimping business, keeping a promise to his army buddy Bubba while in Vietnam. Eventually he strikes it rich when a hurricane strikes, wrecking all the other fishing boats in the area and giving him a monopoly on the shrimp. Forrest ends up paying Bubba's mother a fortune, making his family quite rich. He gives most of the rest of his fortune away to charity.
The Running Craze: Forrest returns home to meet Jenny, whose life is now topsy-turvy. He proposes to her but she refuses to marry him. Out of frustration, he starts running and doesn't stop for over three years. He ends up running across the country several times, attracting lots of followers.
Reunion with Jenny: Eventually Forrest receives a letter from Jenny, urging him to meet her. It turns out that he has a new son and also that Jenny is terminally ill, presumably with AIDS. He marries her, but she dies shortly thereafter.
Use of CGI Forrest Gump is the first film I know of which makes use of computer graphics imagery (CGI) techniques to make it appear as if he's interacting with historic figures, such as now dead presidents and celebrities. This technique has been used in other movies since then, including Contact. Another CGI effect used in the film is the appearance of Lieutenant Dan having been amputated.
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Title: Forrest Gump 
