Forrest Gump

After viewing Forrest Gump (Zemeckis, 1994), I did a cultural analysis on the film because there are a lot of hidden messages throughout the film. The feather at the beginning of the film kind of symbolizes Forrest Gump’s life throughout the film as a foreshadow of what to expect. Also, another cultural reference in this film is a lot of relationships are formed in this film with many different characters that Forrest meets through his lifetime. The message being stated here is despite all the people in the world Forrest can build friendships with anyone he meets. Another message in the film is how big of a message running has in the film.

            Forrest Gump is about a young man who is sitting and waiting at a bus stop, waiting for something. As we see him sit there another person sits down and he tries to make conversation with this person, talks about his family history, background leading to how he got his name and talks about his magic shoes (leg braces). We then see Forrest’s everyday life going through school, meeting his best friend Jenny and him starting to use his legs, brake out of his leg braces and started running. He then goes to college then the army and becomes a very successful young man throughout his life. He then meets Jenny and unknown to him has a son, then Jenny and Forrest get married. Jenny then is struck by an unknown disease then dies. Forrest then continues on his life with his son and the story ends. This film as a whole mimic’s the attitude of the late 1960s and the early to mid 1970s. Due to the references of the hippies, the Vietnam War and the unknown disease that Jenny gets.

            The narrative of this film is it is shot in third person and it’s very dramatic with comical aspects tied into it. The film starts out very comical and happy at the beginning but then turns sad towards the end. Another thing about the narrative is they all have southern like accents. One distinctive accent is that of Americans who live in the Southern States including Louisiana, Alabama and Georgia. The southern accents were added into the film to make it as comedic as possible. Forrest Gump in some ways conform to the stereotypes of the voice of a typical hillbilly which is used for mockery and humor, but Hanks also questions this by allowing the audience to warm to Gump and sympathize with him. What they state in here is that despite most of the characters speaking in southern accent, Tom Hanks tries to make Forrest a little humorous and comical. The director also probably wanted to that as well since most of the film has a very serious message in it.

            The message that this film says implicitly is no matter who you are, you alone can make a difference. Also, a hidden message about the feather could be a metaphor for Forrest’s life by how the feather just travels throughout the air as he has travelled everywhere through his life. The self-reflexive technical wizardry of the feather is pointedly a dazzling example of that movie magic: it sets the scene, frames the movie and dictates an entire reading of the film. Looking at the beginning of the film the feather travels through the air and we don’t know where it came from. Almost like it’s mimicking Forrest’s past events up until we see him sitting on the bench.

What the film suggests explicitly is how to relate to each other to friendly and kind to one another also try to build relationship or trust with each other. Also, social frameworks are conveyed through communication with others. In the film, Forrest makes some great relationships between characters like Jenny, who is his first best friend (also his girl) that helps him throughout the film when she can but tries to do her own things and career. We then meet Bubba who meets Gump in the service they start a really good but short friendship because they were going to be shrimp boat captains after the war was over. Although, since Bubba died Forrest made a promise to go into the shrimp business. Another character that we get the meet that Forrest builds a relationship with is Lieutenant Dan. Forest meets Lt. Dan at Vietnam and starts building a relationship with him longer than Jenny or Bubba. Their relationship gets stronger after the war because for Forrest has a very low IQ, doesn’t have a lot of smarts and struggles with that the rest of his life, whereas Lt. Dan struggles with being a cripple, being a laughingstock in front of everyone for the rest of his life. They both feel a strong connection after they both come to realize they have similar problems with each other. With both of them being handicapped. Forrest being mentally and Lt. Dan being more physically.

            Running is another big message that is shown explicitly in the film as well. In the course of the film Forrest’s running ability helps him survive in Vietnam and brings him worldwide fame as a “running guru.” Examining the first part of the film Forrest started running as a kid and with the help of Jenny encouraged him to run from the kids picking on him. Then kids from his high school (maybe the same ones) picked on him again but by Jenny he still kept on running, which led him to play for the University of Alabama football team and be part of the all-American football team. It helped him in Vietnam to get away from enemy fire and avoid being shot at until he went back to look for the rest of the platoon. He then ended up towards the end of the film use his running again as a metaphor to run from his problems, since after Jenny left him and his mother died, he had no choice but to just run. It’s also a metaphor to earlier in the film when Jenny wants to be a bird and fly away that she mentions to Forrest early in the film. He ran as a symbol of pride and joy. Forrest ran for three years just because he felt like running and when he continues doing this, he then becomes a national celebrity, running across the country.

While he does this, he becomes a pop culture phenomenon, for example he helps with the yellow smiling face t-shirt and the bumper sticker shit happens. Forrest again his running made him a pop culture icon and helped him reach fame. His fame led him to become the nation’s famous celebrity for running across the country and being known for representing Nike with the shoes he runs in and the shirt he wears in a brief scene.

            After viewing this film there were many different cultural messages seen throughout the film. Looking at these messages from being comical and humorous to dramatic and sorrowful, this film shows these emotions very openly in the film from Forrest’s childhood, all the way until we get to him and Jenny meeting again for the third time at his home. Also, his references to pop culture from the shirt to the bumper sticker and running; Forrest Gump has definitely made a name for himself. Forrest Gump definitely has a lot of hidden messages and cultural references throughout the film.

Works Cited

Fan, Victor. 2008. “The Unanswered Question of Forrest Gump.” Screen 49 (4): 450–61. doi:10.1093/screen/hjn055.

Lavery, David. “No Box of Chocolates: The Adaptation of Forrest Gump.” Adaptation of Forrest Gump, 1999.

Moller, Sabine. 2011. “Blockbusting History: Forrest Gump as a Powerful Medium of American Cultural Memory.” International Social Science Journal 62 (203–204): 67–77. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2451.2011.01794.x.

Neal, Bernadette. “Stupid Is as Stupid Says: Vocal Performance and Southernness in Forrest Gump.” Film Matters 4, no. 2 (June 1, 2013): 40–43. https://doi.org/10.1386/fm.4.2.40_1.

Scott, Steven D. 2001. “‘Like a Box of Chocolates’: ‘Forrest Gump’ and Postmodernism.” Literature Film Quarterly 29 (1): 23. http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.bgsu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f3h&AN=4299274&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

​

Fan, Victor. 2008. “The Unanswered Question of Forrest Gump.” Screen 49 (4): 450–61. doi:10.1093/screen/hjn055.

Neal, Bernadette. “Stupid Is as Stupid Says: Vocal Performance and Southernness in Forrest Gump.” Film Matters 4, no. 2 (June 1, 2013): 40–43.

Lavery, David. “No Box of Chocolates: The Adaptation of Forrest Gump.” Adaptation of Forrest Gump, 1999.

Scott, Steven D. 2001. “‘Like a Box of Chocolates’: ‘Forrest Gump’ and Postmodernism.” Literature Film Quarterly 29 (1): 23.

​

Scott, “Forrest Gump and Postmodernism”

​

Moller, “Forrest Gump as a Medium of American Cultural Memory”

​

Scott, “Forrest Gump and Postmodernism”