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This is the Special Collector’s 2-Disc Edition for those wondering.
The Main Characters
--Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks) isn’t a smart man. He knows one thing that he wants though, Jenny. He goes through many adventures during his life and been a part of many historical vents. One thought always prevailed in his mind, to get back to Jenny.
--Jenny Curran (Robin Wright) is the main person in Forrest’s life. She leads a troubled life, her father abused her as a child and growing up she enjoyed such pleasures as free love and drugs. She cleans up eventually but still doesn’t want to be with Forrest, since she thought he didn’t know what love was.
--Lt. Dan Taylor (Gary Sinise) is Forrest’s commanding officer during Forrest’s time in the Vietnam War. Forrest saves his life despite Lt. Dan not wanting to be saved and creates a love-hate relationship between the two.
--Pvt. Benjamin Buford ‘Bubba’ Blue (Mykelti Williamson) is a private in the Army with Forrest and the two become best friends.
--Mrs. Gump (Sally Fields) is Forrest’s mom. She teaches Forrest a lot of things about life using allegories, metaphors etc to help Forrest understand things.
The Setting
They start off and end in Greenbaugh, Alabama. In between however, Forrest Gump traveled the world and crossed many decades.
The Movie
Where to start? Forrest Gump is not an intelligent man. He lives in Greenbaugh Alabama with his mother in a rather large house that she rents out to passers-by. Early on we can tell Forrest Gump is different. He isn’t as smart as the other children, IQ wise. His back is messed up causing him to wear leg braces. You can bet how well that went over with young kids. He was immediately shunned on his very first bus ride to school! Except by one person, Jenny. Jenny and Forrest become friends and they teach each other many new things. It is Jenny, you could say, that inspired Forrest to break free of his braces while running away from school bullies who throw rocks at him. Her screams of “Run Forrest Run!” made him, well, run. Shortly after, we find out that Jenny was abused by her father and thus had to leave and live with her grandmother, but she was still close so it was no big deal.
They remained friends with each other up until high school. We cut to a scene where the previous rock throwing bullies chase Forrest on their car, so he runs away again, inadvertently running across a football field while people are playing and outruns them all…while scouts are watching. Forrest is now in college, becoming a punt returner for University of Alabama. Yes, the same University of Alabama that first allowed African-American people into school amidst Governor Wallace’s refusal to let them in and JFK having to send troops over there to prevent it. And yes, Forrest made it on TV, and even gave one of the new black girls a book she dropped! Jenny went to an all-girls college and Forrest visited her every chance he got and even beat up one of her boyfriends in a slight misunderstanding while she was making out with him in a car. This led to Jenny bringing him inside and which may have led to her getting expelled because of rules saying you can’t bring them inside after certain hours. After Forrest graduated (and met JFK), he joined the Army, and Jenny became a singer, singing to men while naked with nothing but a guitar. In fact, Forrest would run into her again while she was performing and had to beat up some unruly guys. This pissed Jenny off who almost stormed away until Forrest told her he was going to Vietnam. She told him not to be brave and just run in case anything happened. She left after she said that, the first time they’d be separated.
This would lead Forrest on the most improbable journey of anyone’s life. He would meet Bubba in the Army and the two would become best friends. In Vietnam his company would run under heavy fire causing them to evacuate. Forrest would run the fastest and was soon by himself. He went back numerous times into the forest to rescue many of his fellow soldiers, including Lt. Dan and along the way got shot in the behind. He would also rescue Bubba but unfortunately he would die in Forrest’s arms. While recovering from his injury, he was put next to Lt. Dan, who lost both his legs and cursed Forrest for saving him saying his destiny was to die out there.
Forrest would also start playing ping-pong, which would eventually net him about 20 grand in royalties and send him to China to play there. Once he got back to the states, he wound up in Washington DC to win the Medal of Honor where he would again run into Jenny while delivering a speech. He gave her his medal and they parted ways yet again. Since he was on the pinball team that went to China and having won a Medal of Honor, he wound up going on the Dick Cavett Show in NYC where he met John Lennon (and inspired the song Imagine) and later ended up reuniting with Lt. Dan. They became friends again.
After getting discharged from the Army, he kept his promise to Bubba about planning to be shrimp boat captain. Lt. Dan even came along, remembering his promise to Forrest that if he became a shrimp boat captain he would follow. They did horribly at first but after Hurricane Camille ravaged the shrimp boats down in Mississippi, the Jenny (Forrest’s boat) was the only one left. Shrimping was easy after that and Forrest and Lt. Dan made huge sums of money. However, during a trip, Forrest learns his mother is sick and he goes to see her and she later dies. Forrest stops the shrimp boating after that.
He now had loads of money, and he gave Bubba’s family their share. He worked in his hometown cutting grass for free but was lonely. One day, Jenny showed up yet again. Forrest asks her to marry him but she doesn’t instead copulating with him and leaving as suddenly as he came. After she leaves, Forrest decides to get up and run. And he does just that. For over 2 years. Jenny, now waitressing, sees this and writes to Forrest wanting to meet him again. Forrest shows up and finds out he has a son. The three of them move back to Forrest’s house where Jenny and Forrest wed and live together until Jenny’s death. We finish this movie with Forrest sending little Forrest off to school.
Movie Review
What can I say? It’s my most favorite movie ever. I saw this in the theaters way back when it first opened and I remember having no idea what the movie was about or ever hearing of it, but when I left the theater 2 and a half hours later, I knew I had just watched a masterpiece. This really is one of those rare perfect movies. Anyone can appreciate this film, men, women, children; it is all encompassing. Not to mention that fact that Tom Hanks give the performance of a lifetime. In my opinion, it should be considered with the best films ever made. ****.
DVD Features
A) Extras
---Disc One---
1) Commentary by Robert Zemeckis, Steve Starkey and Rick Carter
Robert Zemeckis is the director, Steve Starkey is one of the producers and Rick Carter is the production designer. This, as far as commentaries go, was excellent. Forrest Gump is a pretty deep movie and it was very interesting to hear their insights on certain shots, certain scenes and everything else. It’s like we were able to pick their mind and in the end makes the movie even better because you pick things up that you didn’t notice or realize before. Definitely worth a listen or two.
2) Commentary by Wendy Finerman
Wendy is the producer of the film. She doesn’t really say much, which is a slight problem because it’s a two and a half hour movie. The things she does say are pretty interesting. Not as good as the first commentary and not really necessary listening.
---Disc Two---
1) Through the Eyes of Forrest Gump Documentary
This is a half hour documentary and they interview the cast members and all.
2) The Magic of Makeup
This is an 8-minute featurette on the makeup.
3) Through the Ears of Forrest Gump – Sound Design
There are 5 sections to this and each is about 2-3 minutes long. The 5 sound featurettes detail: the bike, the crowds, Vietnam, rain and ping-pong. The Vietnam feature runs about 8 minutes.
4) Building the World of Gump – Production Design
This is a 7-minute feature on the production. It’s really interesting as it talks about making the house, how they designed it to fit into the plot of land and how they shot a bunch of the scenes in the area around the house, like the Vietnam scene was using the same plot of land.
5) Seeing is Believing – Visual Effects
They show 11 visual effects, with most running between 2 to 3 minutes.
--A) Birth of a nation
This is the scene where Forrest’s ancestor started the KKK.
--B) Run Forrest, run
The scene where old Forrest runs and the truck behind him is actually CGI.
--C) Martin Luther King Jr.
This is a scene that never made it into the movie where Forrest would run into Martin Luther King at one of his parades. The police would release dogs on the paraders but Forrest would interfere and start playing with the dogs since he had played with those dogs when he was a kid.
--D) George Wallace
This is the scene where Forrest is listening in on Wallace’s speech at his school.
--E) Vietnam
This one is actually over 7 minutes long and details all the special effects they used for the Vietnam section of the movie.
--F) ping pong with George Bush
Another deleted scene where Forrest plays ping-pong with Bush and Bush would miss a shot and it would end up hitting Bush in the groin.
--G) Lyndon B Johnson
The million-dollar wound scene.
--H) Enhancing Reality
This is bit over 7 minutes
--I) John Lennon with Dick Cavett
The famous scene with Lennon and Cavett.
--J) Lt. Dan’s Legs’
This is about 6 minutes long and talks all about Dan’s legs!
--K) Richard Nixon
This is the scene where Forrest meets Nixon for ping-pong.
6) Photo Gallery
Just your average photo gallery. It has shots from the movie and the actors/directors.
7) Screen Tests
There are screen tests for:
--A) Michael Conner Humphrey & Hanna R Hall
They played the young Forrest and young Jenny. There are three screen tests for these two. The first is the scene on the bus, the second is when kids throw rocks at Forrest and he runs and the third one is when Jenny sneaks off to sleep with Forrest.
--B) Robin Wright
Robin of course played Jenny and there are two screen tests with her. The first is when Forrest and Jenny meet. It’s funny because Tom Hanks doesn’t have the accent, or the haircut and it’s actually a scene not in the movie. The second scene is when Forrest and Jenny meet again for the first time after Jenny ran away.
--C) Haley Joel Osment
Who knew he’d become so famous. There are two screen tests for him. The first is when little Forrest reads to Forrest and the second is more of Tom and Haley talking. Its actually pretty funny stuff.
8) Theatrical Trailers
There’s the theatrical trailer (which is 4 minutes long) and a “Remember” trailer that is a shade over a minute long.
B) Audio/Video
The audio is presented in Dolby Digital. It is 5.1 Surround for the English track and surround for the French track. There’s also the choice of English subtitles. The video is presented in widescreen 16:9 ratio.
C) Liner Notes
It’s a simple 4-pager. The front has the cover and the back has some pictures from the movie. On the inside, the 2nd page has the scene selections and the 3rd page has a listing of the extras.
D) Easter Eggs
None
Overall Review
What? What’re you waiting for? Oh, you’re waiting for my recommendation? Like this warrants one. It’s a must-own movie. Literally the best movie of the past two decades. It’s timeless and anyone can enjoy it. The DVD is even awesome too. The two commentaries on the first disc and the over two hours of extras on the second disc make this an easy recommendation and a perfect DVD.
Overall Rating
10.0
10.0 Perfect
9.0-9.5 Near Perfect, Highly Recommended
8.0-8.5 Really good disc, Recommended
7.0-7.5 Good DVD, Mildly recommended
6.0-6.5 Above Average DVD. Mildest of mild recommendations
5.0-5.5 Decent all around disc, but catch it on TV
4.0-4.5 Great Movie but horrible DVD
3.0-3.5 Horrible movie but great DVD
2.0-2.5 There’s at least some merit to this DVD, but not much.
1.0-1.5 Horrible DVD, don’t even bother
0.0-0.5 Worst DVD ever
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