Essay Preview: Gump
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In spite of the films positive message, life, as portrayed in Forrest Gump, is not “just a box of chocolates.” It is more than candy-coated sentimentality. The viewer witnesses the assassination attempt on George Wallace, and the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy; the struggles over civil rights; and the war in Vietnam. Lieutenant Dan (Gary Sinise) portrays the bitter horror of what it is like to lose both legs and live as a cripple. Jenny (Robin Wright), born in poverty and molested by her father, becomes a stripper and a slut, a drug addict caught up in the counterculture of love-ins and psychedelics, flower power and antiwar demonstrations. Though Jenny becomes pregnant with Forrests child and eventually marries him, she lives a short, unhappy life that is only a questionable testimony to the overriding power of love. Forrest tells her “Im not a smart man, but I know what love is”Жbut it isnt enough to save her life or that of his friend, Bubba, or to prevent Lieutenant Dan from losing his legs. At the beginning of the film, a feather floating in the wind lands at Forrests feet; he picks it up and places it in his worn copy of Curious George, the book his mother used to read to him. At the end of the film, he passes the book on to his son with the feather intact. “Whats my destiny?” Forrest once asked his mama. Forrest Gump shows that every man and woman, idiot or President of the United States may be blown about by the whims of chance or fate, but that it is still possible to prevail.
In addition to the Oscar for Best Film, Forrest Gump earned five more Academy Awards. Tom Hanks was voted Best Actor for his masterful portrayal of Gump, and Robert Zemeckis was awarded the Oscar for Best Director. The film also won awards for Film Editing, Best Adapted Screenplay, and for Visual Effects. It is the masterful visual effects that enabled Forrest to shake