{"id":3458,"date":"2013-10-09T00:00:56","date_gmt":"2013-10-09T04:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/smugfilm.com\/?p=3458"},"modified":"2013-10-09T00:59:02","modified_gmt":"2013-10-09T04:59:02","slug":"forrest-gump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/forrest-gump\/","title":{"rendered":"Forrest Gump: A Gritty Indie Film Masquerading as a Hollywood Epic"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"forrest\"
\n

\nForrest Gump<\/a> (1994)
\n<\/b><\/span><\/b>Directed by Robert Zemeckis
\nScreenplay by Eric Roth
\nFrom a novel by Winston Groom
\n142 min.<\/p>\n

I know it’s weird, but there are actual people who don’t like Forrest Gump<\/a>.\u00a0 (Dr. Seuss described this phenomena as having a heart three sizes too small.)\u00a0 Sentimentality is a powerful thing\u2014it makes people cry and tricks intellectuals into thinking art isn’t good.\u00a0 It also tricks moms into thinking that a movie with LSD use, a guy blowing his load early, sexual bartering, and child molestation is appropriate for an 8 year old\u2014or, maybe I just have a really cool mom.<\/p>\n

I was flipping through the channels the other day (I don’t use \u2018the guide\u2019) and I landed on Forrest Gump, which is the epitome of a \u2018whenever it’s on TV I have to finish it\u2019 movie.\u00a0 I landed on one of Jenny’s hippie scenes, the one where a dude pulls up in a Volkswagen Beetle and asks if anyone wants to go to San Francisco, and Jenny says “I’ll go,” and he says “Far out!”, like a very happy hippie. \u00a0At that moment, I had a realization: Forrest Gump is a pretty weird movie to be on ABC Family (which is the channel it was on).\u00a0 When I was a little kid, Forrest Gump was just a big, fun movie that made me laugh and then cry at the end.\u00a0 When I was eight, I didn’t understand that when Forrest is sitting on Jenny’s bed in her dorm and she takes off her shirt, he ejaculates early.\u00a0 Forrest Gump is a gritty, indie film masquerading as a Hollywood epic.<\/p>\n


\nI hear it’s based on a book\u2014in fact, when I heard that, that was when I first realized that most movies are based on books.\u00a0 I was surprised, because I can only ever picture Forrest Gump as a movie.\u00a0 I hear in the book, Forrest ends up going into space on one of the Apollo missions\u2014sounds dumb, but whatever, it’s a book, you make up your own pictures.\u00a0 Movies are more interesting than books because with books, an author spends a few hundred dollars on a laptop and describes stuff, whereas a movie director spends a few hundred million dollars of other people\u2019s money to put their vision on the screen.\u00a0 That’s why 99.9% of movies are terrible, and why Forrest Gump is not.\u00a0 It takes rare talent and vision to play with other people\u2019s money correctly, and Robert Zemeckis’ vision as a director is among the best that movies have ever known.\u00a0 And in Forrest Gump, his ability to juggle harsh reality with gut-wrenching sentimentality earned him an Oscar, a ranking on that AFI list<\/a> I love to mention, and a time slot on ABC Family twenty years later.<\/p>\n

There’s a great shot in the movie that exemplifies everything I just said about his talent.\u00a0 It\u2019s during the sequence where Forrest is talking about the rain in Vietnam.\u00a0 \u201cThen one day, the rain just stopped”.\u00a0 We see the soldiers walking in the fake movie rain and then suddenly it stops pouring and there is a lighting gag to show that the sun is out.\u00a0 There is a tiny moment of pause, which is suddenly and tumultuously interrupted by horrific gun fire.\u00a0 Instead of cutting, the shot continues\u2014we follow Forrest as he drops to the ground and ducks behind an embankment in the dirt, and there are CGI gun blasts and explosions going on all around him.<\/p>\n

The shot was done on a dolly, or possibly with a Steadicam.\u00a0 It’s not handheld and shaky, the cuts are not jumpy and stylized.\u00a0 This is because Zemeckis knows that the most effective way to show action is to show it<\/i>.\u00a0 The less your camera gets in the way, the better.\u00a0 Being lazy and relying on tons of coverage is the pitfall of non-stylized movies.\u00a0 The best directors design shots that express the dramatic beats of the story.\u00a0 They design shots that utilize composition, angle, and sometimes camera movement to tell you something about how you’re supposed to feel.\u00a0 In that moment in Forrest Gump, you’re supposed to feel the jagged surprise of war.\u00a0 A cut would \u2018work\u2019, but the way it’s done is better.\u00a0 Robert Zemeckis<\/i> is better.<\/p>\n

Forrest Gump came out the same year as Pulp Fiction<\/a>.\u00a0 As you can imagine, they were both nominated all over the place, and while Gump won some Oscars, Pulp won an MTV Movie Award.\u00a0 In Tarantino’s acceptance speech, he joked, “When you keep losing to Forrest Gump<\/i>, what do you do? Come to MTV.\u201d\u00a0 (He said the words \u2018Forrest Gump\u2019 in a classic, smarmy Tarantino sneer.)\u00a0 Pulp Fiction is a decent movie, and awards are stupid and stuff, but essentially, he’s right: you have to look to thirteen-year-old kids who think they’re cool for appreciating Pulp Fiction.\u00a0 Forrest Gump is a movie made with invisible style designed to evoke intense emotions.\u00a0 Pulp Fiction is too, except it’s a lot more boring and useless.<\/p>\n

The irony is, neither film has much of an arc.\u00a0 I’ve always been fascinated by Gump because it doesn’t really have a story.\u00a0 Forrest doesn’t change, but he shouldn’t.\u00a0 How could he?\u00a0 Of course, Forrest Gump isn’t the first movie to tackle this premise. \u00a0Arthur Penn’s Little Big Man<\/a> (1970) is essentially the same thing.\u00a0 And not a bad movie either, albeit dated.\u00a0 However, since the Hoffman character is not mentally challenged, we expect his journey to mean something more.\u00a0 And with that, we start to feel the length of the film.<\/p>\n

Gump famously opens with a symbolic wafting feather, which now looks a lot more fake than it did in 1994 (it basically looked real then).\u00a0 It’s a simple and even easy image, but then again, so is Forrest.\u00a0 He is a soft, warm, and never-changing person; the \u2018constant\u2019 in the experiment of the sexual revolution, the hippie movement, the Vietnam war, and all that followed.\u00a0 Similar to Goodfellas<\/a>, it’s a large-scope story made intimate by documentary-esque calculation and focus on a main character that acts as our shepherd.\u00a0 Both movies are constructed primarily through medium shots, with slight variation.\u00a0 This gives the viewer a close proximity to our chaperone (Gump and Henry respectively) and just enough extra space in the frame to show the world around them.\u00a0 In each film, the camera is almost always moving; this keeps the world alive and simply allows you to show more.\u00a0 But enough has already been said about the beautiful collage-like universe of Forrest Gump.<\/p>\n

Forrest Gump isn’t just a picture of a turbulent America, it’s a picture of growing up.\u00a0 In a way, the entire movie is a rite of passage that culminates in Forrest and Jenny’s relationship near the climax of the film.\u00a0 Forrest never grows up, but somehow, in another way, he does\u2014it just takes him a lot longer than most folks.\u00a0 And he is able to deal with insane situations like war, protest, and sexual experimentation, with childlike innocence and sensitivity.\u00a0 That’s why the movie plays so well to kids; from Forrest’s vantage, the world seems pure, even at its most cruel.\u00a0 Parents like it simply because it is a picture of the baby boom generation, and thus, the bridge is gapped.\u00a0 What Hollywood no longer understands is that you need to make movies for adults that kids<\/i> will like, not movies for kids that adults<\/i> will like.\u00a0 Adults don’t actually care about Ice Age 2<\/a>, whereas kids want to feel like adults\u2014it’s the paradox of the whole ”I don’t wanna grow up” thing.\u00a0 They do <\/i>want to grow up.\u00a0 Why do you think every fucking thirteen year old drinks coffee and wants an iPhone?<\/p>\n

My favorite sequence is when Forrest just starts running.\u00a0 There’s no part of the film more inherently symbolic of both Forrest’s journey, and the larger human journey, than the sequential images and sounds of Forrest Gump running across America with a caveman-like beard.\u00a0 The running sequence makes literal what the entire movie has been doing all along.\u00a0 Forrest Gump is a directionless character.\u00a0 He sits and things happen to him.\u00a0 Ironically, it’s when he decides do something that things stop happening.\u00a0 And there is an even more beautiful moment near the end when Forrest is remembering tidbits of his travels and he thinks back on one particular moment when the shadows of the clouds cascaded over the prairies.\u00a0 The movie is intelligent poetry.<\/p>\n

But, let’s get back to the grit.\u00a0 There’s a scene where Jenny takes acid and almost commits suicide by standing on a ledge over traffic\u2014another great example of \u00a0photography eliciting tension. We follow Jenny with clever cuts from inside a seedy hotel room to the balcony where she eventually stands on the ledge.\u00a0 The camera is being used as the viewer; it’s not POV, but more as if we’re looking over the ledge with<\/i> Jenny.\u00a0 The first time you see it, you absolutely feel like you’re going over that ledge, and the effect is so powerful that it never really leaves on subsequent viewings.<\/p>\n

There’s a scene where Jenny’s dad is hunting her down with a whiskey bottle to molest her. Brilliantly, we never see his face; we see him obscured, in wide shot, and most cleverly, in a harsh tracking shot where we see a close up of the whiskey bottle in his hand.\u00a0 Again, Zemeckis understands that suggestion is much more powerful that literal, and <\/i>that these scenes are from the point of view of a child.\u00a0 It’s that construction that makes them suitable for ABC family, yet also doubly as effective as any R-rated indie, because in Gump, we actually feel the danger and tension of the situation.<\/p>\n

Another great example is the Black Panther Party party scene.\u00a0 In it, Zemeckis uses slow motion to put you in Forrest’s mind as he’s seeing Jenny get slapped (very Scorsese-esque).\u00a0 It’s timed to Hey Joe by Jimi Hendrix, with Forrest wailing on the guy during the solo.\u00a0 It doesn’t get much grittier than that.\u00a0 The wail session is capped by the hilarious line, “I\u2019m sorry I had to fight in the middle of your Black Panther party” and is a great example of one of the movie’s ingenious switches from high drama to high comedy.\u00a0 It’s the kind of tone only a true artisan can pull off because it requires the meticulous juggling of many threads; if one thread is loose, the whole thing unravels, but if tightly wound, you can dance from laughs to tears within scenes\u2014as happens many times in Gump.<\/p>\n

And that’s it really, Forrest Gump is probably the most complex and moving of all of the best movies ever made.\u00a0 Not just in scope, but in the minutia as well.\u00a0 There might not be a more quotable movie, from the famous “Run, Forrest, Run” to the lesser known “It was a bullet wasn’t it, that jumped up and bit ya” or “Haha, we was sittin\u2019 next to a millionaire” or “Your momma sure does care about your schoolin\u2019, son”.\u00a0 And that leads me back to my original point\u2014think about the context of that last quote! How the fuck is a movie where shit like that happens being aired on ABC Family!?<\/p>\n

The reason why is because Forrest is a kid watching his own movie.\u00a0 His take on things are the same as the eight-year-old ABC Family viewer.\u00a0 So, thanks mom for showing me Forrest Gump when I was a little kid. You did right by me. (Although we might have to talk about you letting me watch Fargo<\/a>\u2026)<\/p>\n

1 out of 1 stars.<\/i><\/p>\n

Oh, one more thing! \u00a0Obviously Forrest Gump is one of the dozen or so perfect movies ever made. \u00a0However, one thing always bugged me. \u00a0There’s a great gag that we all know (it was even in the trailer) were Forrest sees Luetenant Dan on the doc and excitedly jumps off his boat to greet him. \u00a0Since the boat is still moving, it then crashes into an adjacent dock in the background of the coverage. \u00a0It’s a great visual gag, but it contains a huge<\/em>\u00a0continuity error that even bothered my eight-year-old brain. \u00a0The boat is going to the right, but then in the background it’s going left. \u00a0Had they simply flipped the coverage shot in post, it would’ve been fine, but as is, it’s oddly jarring and it makes no sense!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"forrest\"
\n

\nForrest Gump<\/a> (1994)
\n<\/b><\/span><\/b>Directed by Robert Zemeckis
\nScreenplay by Eric Roth
\nFrom a novel by Winston Groom
\n142 min.<\/p>\n

I know it’s weird, but there are actual people who don’t like Forrest Gump<\/a>.\u00a0 (Dr. Seuss described this phenomena as having a heart three sizes too small.)\u00a0 Sentimentality is a powerful thing\u2014it makes people cry and tricks intellectuals into thinking art isn’t good.\u00a0 It also tricks moms into thinking that a movie with LSD use, a guy blowing his load early, sexual bartering, and child molestation is appropriate for an 8 year old\u2014or, maybe I just have a really cool mom.<\/p>\n

I was flipping through the channels the other day (I don’t use \u2018the guide\u2019) and I landed on Forrest Gump, which is the epitome of a \u2018whenever it’s on TV I have to finish it\u2019 movie.\u00a0 I landed on one of Jenny’s hippie scenes, the one where a dude pulls up in a Volkswagen Beetle and asks if anyone wants to go to San Francisco, and Jenny says “I’ll go,” and he says “Far out!”, like a very happy hippie.<\/p>\n

At that moment, I had a realization: Forrest Gump is a pretty weird movie to be on ABC Family (which is the channel it was on).\u00a0 When I was a little kid, Forrest Gump was just a big, fun movie that made me laugh and then cry at the end.\u00a0 When I was eight, I didn’t understand that when Forrest is sitting on Jenny’s bed in her dorm and she takes off her shirt, he ejaculates early.\u00a0 Forrest Gump is a gritty, indie film masquerading as a Hollywood epic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,15],"tags":[2854,2852,2404,2853,2857,2858,2850,1526,2673,2863,2862,2861,65,37,2859,2860,2856,327,383,2849,104,185,2855,1015,2851],"class_list":["post-3458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-allposts","category-gregsreviews","tag-100-movies-100-years","tag-abc-family","tag-afi-100-best-movies","tag-afi-list","tag-arthur-penn","tag-dustin-hoffman","tag-eric-roth","tag-fargo","tag-forrest-gump","tag-forrest-gump-analysis","tag-forrest-gump-essay","tag-forrest-gump-review","tag-goodfellas","tag-greg-deliso","tag-ice-age-2","tag-jimi-hendrix","tag-little-big-man","tag-pulp-fiction","tag-quentin-tarantino","tag-robert-zemeckis","tag-smug-film-2","tag-smugfilm","tag-steadicam","tag-tom-hanks","tag-winston-groom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3458"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3468,"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3458\/revisions\/3468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}