Forrest Gump is the Purest Soul

‘Well I’m going to heaven lieutenant Dan’ – Forrest Gump

The innocent Forrest Gump is loveable from the start.

The 1994 film adaption of the Winston Groom novel of the same name tells the story of Forrest Gump, played by Tom Hanks, who was born with a curved spine as he navigates through life.

Forrest has an admirable drive and focus on everything he does which enabled him to succeed in each of his new endeavours, all of which have a surprising historical impact. He literally does everything he is told or whatever his heart desires, such as drinking an abundance of Dr Pepper. When explaining himself he simply states, ‘stupid is as stupid does.’

He has the same dedication in maintaining his relationships with both friends and family particularly Jenny(Robin Wright) whom he loves but she spends the film struggling to find herself. Her adventures are more varied and less successful than Forrest’s, they even push her to the edge but still Forrest remains committed to their friendship.

The impressive use of CGI done by Industrial Light and Magic caught me off guard when it was used to show Gump meeting with deceased presidents and John Lennon. It caused me to wonder if the movie was based on a true story, despite the amount of different people and important social events Gump had a part in would make it difficult for his story to be unknown to the masses, this coupled with the irregular timeline of the film, pointed out by many fans on IMDB – like presenting the restored Statue of Liberty in 1976 when it wasn’t restored until 1986- would make it impossible. But still ‘Is Forrest Gump a true story?’ remains one of the top google searches for the film, and signals to me that they ILM have done something very right.

The film runs over two hours long but still misses out a few elements from Groom’s novel which may leave it lacking for Groom fans but for someone who hasn’t read the novel there is no sense that anything is missing.

With many quotes transcending the film and becoming valued pop culture references, like Gump’s mothers quote ‘Life is like a box of chocolates’ and young Jenny screaming ‘Run Forrest, Run’, the Robert Zemeckis directed film still remains a classic decades later.