Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 8, 1994 TAG: 9407140048
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By BOB STRAUSS LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Long
At least, that's the line put forth by much of the talent involved in bringing Winston Groom's tragicomic tall tale of a novel to the screen.
These include Oscar winner Tom Hanks, who plays the lower-than-average-IQ hero who wanders through 30 years of turbulent recent history unaffected but affecting many.
``I don't think there's any big message that comes out of this, other than that, as a nation, we've been through a lot,'' said Hanks, who won the Best Actor Academy Award for portraying an AIDS victim in ``Philadelphia.''
``One of the best lines that comes out of Forrest's mouth is when he's asked, `What do you want to be, Forrest?' He says, `Want to be? Aren't I going to be me?' That's almost a Zen approach to existence, and it would be unfair to say that he represents anything else.''
Then there's director Robert Zemeckis, the history-obsessed techno-whiz responsible for the ``Back to the Future'' trilogy and ``Who Framed Roger Rabbit.''
``Because I made this movie through Forrest's point of view, I was liberated as a filmmaker,'' he said. ``I just presented. I presented the '60s, I presented the Vietnam War, I presented what we did. Forrest has no opinion about the '60s movement. To him, the war was just the war; people went there, people died there, people came back from there.
``The amazing thing is that it's fiction, but it's all wrapped up in, to use the commercial phrase, the fabric of our lives,'' Zemeckis said. ``We all share common images from the last half of this century, because everything's recorded now. So it was a wonderful way of presenting a story that's not only about this fictional character who's life you get involved in emotionally, but you're also reliving your own life through the same sort of signposts and markers that he takes you by.
``And the reason you can do that is because there's not a filmmaker there editorializing for you.''
Forrest Gump guilelessly tells his life story to an enthralled assortment of commuters on a bus bench in Savannah, Ga. As a boy in Alabama, his Mama (Sally Field) loved him without letup and insisted that, even if he was a little slow, he was really no different from anybody else.
Through a combination of physical prowess and weird fate, the adult Forrest proved her wrong - he excelled in every field of human endeavor where brainpower is not the key yardstick of achievement. He became a college football star, a Vietnam War hero, a ping-pong whiz, a self-made business success and a millionaire investor.
He also absurdly, inadvertently invented many a pop culture phenomenon, triggered a history-changing political crisis or two and met the famous and powerful of his time.
Yet, as the country cracked up socially, Forrest remained pure of heart, nonjudgmental and dumb as a board. He also stayed chastely devoted to his childhood friend Jenny (Robin Wright), a troubled soul badly buffeted by every cultural trend and tragedy of the era.
With minimal prodding, Zemeckis acknowledged that Forrest and his various acquaintances each represent something larger than themselves.
``All the characters were metaphors for a different aspect of America in the last half of the century,'' the director said. ``Forrest represents what's decent and pure, possibly naive, honest, trustworthy - all that's good.''
Abused as a child, Jenny flits in and out of Forrest's life while pursuing her own adventures as a nude folk singer, a hippie, a war protester, a drug addict and a single parent.
``Jenny represents the damaged character,'' Zemeckis said. ``She's wide-eyed hopeful, desperately so; the person who is always looking for something to believe in. That started big time in the '60s, then became way twisted in the '70s and very, very out of control. And of course, we pay the big price for all that excess and abuse.''
Then there's Bubba (Mykelti Williamson), a shrimp-obsessed Louisianan who shares Forrest's outsider status, decency and limited brainpower. Best buddies in Vietnam, Forrest eventually prospers by following his unluckier friend's dream.
``Bubba is the unfortunate son,'' Zemeckis said of the significantly African-American character. ``The cannon fodder, tragic American who did what he thought was right because he was told to.''
Lt. Dan is another Vietnam casualty. Played by Gary Sinise (TV's ``The Stand''), he's a career soldier from a long line of officers who died with their boots on. But instead of a glorious death in combat, Lt. Dan is saved by the uncomprehending Forrest - for a bitter amputee's existence stateside.
``Lt. Dan represents the crippled,'' Zemeckis said. ``Loss of innocence, blood on our hands, cynical; but he's ultimately a hopeful character, in that maybe we can heal from that.''
As for Mama, ``She's the mother,'' Zemeckis said simply.
Sally Field, who played Hanks' lover in the 1988 ``Punchline,'' had a little bit more to say about her optimistic yet pragmatic, unconditionally loving character.
``Mama is the generation before mine,'' said Field, who has won Oscars for other resonant representations of Southern strength in ``Norma Rae'' and ``Places in the Heart.''
``She stands for all the promises of what America was to be. She loves her son unconditionally, but she raises him with a very strong sense of morality and ethics and responsibility. And it gives him magic and power.
``In contrast, the Jenny character has many gifts from God that Forrest hasn't. She's beautiful, she's intelligent, but because she's not loved, she can find very little use for the gifts that God gave her. It's very difficult for human beings to be productive members of this world unless somebody, somewhere loved them.''
Forrest, of course, loves Jenny without doubt or question. Yet it takes the full course of the movie for her to reciprocate his affections to an equivalent degree, so wrapped up is she in her own selfish/self-destructive behavior. This will likely make Jenny as controversial as the film's read-into-it-what-you-will socio-political content.
The difference is, the filmmakers were well aware of Jenny's potential for trouble. ``Her self-interest was always a discussion, believe me,'' said Wright, probably best-known until now for her title role in ``The Princess Bride.'' ``I always saw her following a path of selfishness. She took from Forrest for so long, and all he ever wanted was for her to be his girl.
``But Bob kept appeasing me by pointing out that we couldn't look at it through our eyes, the way adults with intellectual minds would. That is not how Forrest sees her. He doesn't have any of that knowledge; he doesn't know what selfishness is.''
And Wright, as others may, sees an honesty in Jenny's standoffishness that defies simplistic, feel-good film dynamics. ``She always knew Forrest was good, she always knew he was honest, she always knew that's where the real love resided,'' Wright said. ``That was never a question in her mind. But they were so different intellectually, she knew they could never be equal.''
by CNB