Forrest Gump

Released Year: 1994

Directed by Robert Zemeckis

Casted by:

Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump

Robin Wright as Jenny Curran

Gary Sinise as Lieutenant Dan Taylor

Mykelti Williamson as Benjamin Buford "Bubba" Blue

Sally Field as Mrs. Gump 

 Story: 

While waiting at a bus stop in 1981, Forrest Gump begins telling his life story to strangers who sit next to him on the bench. His story begins with his being named for a relative, Nathan Bedford Forrest, and proceeds to the leg braces he had to wear as a child in the 1950s, which resulted in other children bullying him. He lives with his mother, who tells him that "stupid is as stupid does." His mother runs a rooming house and Forrest teaches one of their guests, a young Elvis Presley, a hip-swinging dance. On a bus for his first day of school, Forrest meets Jenny, with whom he immediately falls in love, and they become best friends. One day, while fleeing from bullies, Forrest's leg braces break apart and he discovers that he can run very fast. Despite his below-average intelligence, his speed earns him an athletic scholarship to the University of Alabama. While in college, he witnesses George Wallace's Stand in the Schoolhouse Door, is named an All-American football player, and meets President John F. Kennedy.

After graduating, Forrest enlists in the United States Army, where he befriends former shrimp fisherman Benjamin Buford "Bubba" Blue, and they agree to go into the shrimping business together once they end their service. They are sent to Vietnam, and while on patrol their platoon is ambushed. Forrest saves four of the men in his platoon, including platoon leader First Lieutenant Dan Taylor, but Bubba is killed. Forrest himself is wounded and receives the Medal of Honor from President Lyndon B. Johnson. While recovering from his injuries, Forrest meets Lieutenant Dan, who has had both of his legs amputated due to his injuries. He is furious at Forrest for leaving him a "cripple" and cheating him out of his destiny to die in battle.

Forrest discovers an aptitude for ping pong and begins playing for the U.S. Army team, eventually competing against Chinese teams on a goodwill tour. After his return from China, he appears on the The Dick Cavett Show with John Lennon, which after describing his experience in China as best as he can inspires Lennon to write his 1971 hit Imagine. He visits the White House again and meets President Richard Nixon, who provides him a room at the Watergate hotel, where Forrest inadvertently helps expose the Watergate scandal. He again encounters Lieutenant Dan, now an embittered drunk living on welfare. Dan is scornful of Forrest's plans to enter the shrimping business and mockingly promises to be Forrest's first mate if he ever succeeds.

Forrest is discharged from the military as a Sergeant and uses money from a ping pong endorsement to buy a shrimping boat, fulfilling his wartime promise to Bubba. Lieutenant Dan keeps his own promise and joins Forrest as first mate. They initially have little luck, but after Hurricane Carmen wrecks every other shrimping boat in the region, the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company becomes a huge success. Forrest returns home to care for his ailing mother, who dies soon afterwards. He leaves the company in the hands of Dan, who invests the proceeds of the company in shares of "some kind of fruit company", making them both wealthy.

Jenny returns to visit Forrest and stays with him. He proposes but she turns him down. They make love, but she quietly slips away the next morning. Distraught, Forrest decides to go for a run, which turns into a three-year coast-to-coast marathon. Forrest becomes a celebrity, attracting a band of followers. One day he stops his marathon suddenly and returns home, where he receives a letter from Jenny asking to meet.

This brings Forrest to the bus stop where he began telling his story at the start of the film. During his reunion with Jenny, Forrest discovers they have a young son, also named Forrest. Jenny reveals that she is suffering from an unspecified viral illness, presumably HIV/AIDS. She proposes and he accepts, and they return to Alabama with Forrest Jr. and marry. At his wedding, he meets Lieutenant Dan, who now has titanium alloy prosthetic legs and can walk (although he still has a cane at this point), as well as his fiancee.

Eventually, Jenny dies of her illness. Forrest waits with Forrest Jr. for the bus to pick him up for his first day of school, and watches his feather bookmark float off in the wind.

 L² Scored: 10/10

L² Comment: 

 This epic movie is based on the novel of Winston Groom in 1986. It has won the best movie, the best director, best actor and many others~ The storyline is just damn perfect, its a motivation and inspirational movie which makes me feel like "if u dont give up, the God will prepare a road for u"~... i really do believe that there are chances and faiths always wait for those who tries~