FORREST GUMP

US, 1994, 142 minutes, Colour.
Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Sally Field, Mykelti Williamson.
Directed by Robert Zemeckis.

Forrest Gump was enormously popular in the United States and around the world, surpassed in box office only by The Lion King. It won many Oscars, including best film, screenplay, director, best actor for Tom Hanks. The film touches an American nerve (and the American heart). It is funny, often quite touching (for those familiar with American history and culture) to look back over the last 40 years and try to assess what has happened. And we do so through the eyes of a rather simple-minded, but very nice, Forrest Gump. Tom Hanks plays him in a very, very nice way. Back we go to the simplicities of the '50s, spend quite a deal of time in the '60s (from Kennedy to Vietnam and after), some time in the '70s (Nixon and post-Vietnam), finishing in the early '80s. For those who lived through the period, it is a moving overview.

Robin Wright, Forrest's school friend, shows the shadow side of those decades. Sally Field appears as Mrs Gump, Forrest's mother. The film highlights the versatility of its director, Robert Zemeckis, whose films include the Back to the Future series, Romancing the Stone, Who's Afraid of Roger Rabbit.

1.The impact of the film, especially in the US? A mirror of American society, conscience? Its values in the '90s, direction?

2.The Alabama settings? The re-creation of Vietnam? New York City? The Bayous? Forrest Gump's running across the United States and the variety of landscapes? A panorama of American locations?

3.The musical score? The range of songs quoted to illustrate the decades?

4.The variety of eras from the '50s to the '80s? The era of Elvis Presley and the '50s, of Kennedy and racial integration, of Vietnam, of anti-Vietnam protest, of the collapse of values, of the transition of the '70s to '80s?

5.Tom Hanks and his skill as Forrest Gump? His acting ability, screen presence? The range of acting in the voice-over and the accent?

6.The symbol of the feather, the question of each person having a destiny or floating on the breeze - or both? The American interpretation of this symbol?

7.The structure of the film: the long takes on the feather at beginning and end? Forrest Gump sitting throughout most of the film at the bus stop, telling his story? The insertion of the flashbacks? His marriage, speaking at Jenny's grave - and the flashbacks? The feather?

8.The theatrical and novel tradition of the simpleton: the tradition of the fool, wisdom, wit, conscience? The audience able to measure itself against the behaviour and the attitudes of the simpleton? The blend of the comic and the serious?

9.Forrest Gump and his talking, his accent, way of telling a story, vocabulary, quoting his mother? The range of audiences sitting at the bus stop with him, their reactions?

10.Forrest as a child, reliance on his mother, the father away on vacation and the meaning of vacation? The doctor and the testing of his legs, the splints, his fall? His crooked back? His mother wanting him to be educated, her arguments with the principal, the principal's explanation of his IQ? The sexual encounter and the principal allowing him to go to school? Forrest imitating his grunts? Going to school, the bus, getting to know the driver, being despised by the other children on the bus, Jenny and his sitting next to her? Her advice when he was picked on - to run? His running and breaking free? The splints breaking from his legs? His freedom? His mother's love for him, her care? Her maxims and his appreciation of their explanation of things? His playing with Jenny, in the tree, her home, hiding in the fields with her against her father, her wishing she could fly like a bird? Forrest at college, Governor Wallace and the interviews about integration, the integrated students and Forrest picking up the student's book?

11.The transition to the older Forrest and Jenny? Good company? The quality of friendship? His running from his pursuers, onto the football field? His becoming the football champion, the college scholarship? The coach's reaction to his stupidity but appreciation of the champion? College, the audience with John Kennedy - and his eating all the food, drinking Dr Pepper and wanting to go to the toilet? His getting his degree? His mother's pride? His continued friendship with Jenny, sitting outside her college, wet, the sexual encounter, the discovery of his own sexuality? His listening to her vision of herself as a Joan Baez singer?

12.The Vietnam recruiter, on the bus and the similar reactions to the past? Bubba and his continual talking about shrimps? His obedience, quick with the gun? The trip to see Jenny after finding her in the magazine, the strip show and his rescuing her? Her reaction and running away?

13.The re-creation of Vietnam, Forrest's comments and their ingenuous nature (as of the US going into war)? The troops, the American style? Drugs? His admiration for Lieutenant Dan and listening to his advice? Working with Bubba, the benign interpretations of walking, fighting, the turning on of the rain? The vivid battles, his rescuing everybody, Dan and his resistance, Bubba and the pathos of his death, his feeling that he was bitten? His medal and the audience with Lyndon Johnson?

14.His encounter with Dan and Dan's bitterness about his absent legs, his destiny? Forrest and his own wounding in the buttocks? His ability to play ping-pong, champion, training the others, going to visit China, winning competitions, the audience with Richard Nixon? On television with John Lennon - and his giving him the words for `Imagine' (just as in the past Elvis had stayed with his mother as a guest and had imitated Forrest's own shuffling on his splints and legs)? His discharge?

15.Forrest and his going to Washington, the Medal of Honour, inadvertently joining the demonstrations, the irony of his speech - and its not being heard, Jenny and the reconciliation in the pool, the height of happiness for him, his encounter with the Black Panthers, his saving of Jenny when she was hit? Their talking together, but her deciding to go?

16.Forrest in New York City, the encounter at the studio with Dan, his apartment, bitterness, going to the bars, the girls, Forrest's reticence? The watching of the celebrations for the New Year on TV? His hopes about the shrimp boat - and Dan's promise?

17.The boat, its failure? Going to Bubba's family? Dan and his coming to work with him, Forrest going to church and praying? Dan and his reconciliation with Forrest, the storm and the wreckage, Dan sitting above and defying God? Yet the success because of their being saved?

18.The story of Forrest's success, the prospering of the shrimp business? His preferring to cut grass? The establishment of the firm, its making money, being on the cover of Fortune? Dan's investment in Apple shares? His giving gifts for his own mother, for Bubba's widow - and her never having to be waited on again? For the reconstruction of the church? Yet his still wanting Jenny? Always thinking of Jenny?

19.His going on the run, his explanation of his running, the media coverage, the range of terrains, the growing number of disciples, his becoming a fad? Then his sudden decision to stop and the bewilderment of the disciples?

20.Jenny, her coming home to see him, her walking with Forrest, going to see her father's house and her anger with her father, throwing the stones? Her memories of her childhood, being taken away from her father, going to college and her success, her boyfriends, her not responding to Forrest, sexual encounters, expulsion from college, singing naked on the stage, not answering Forrest's letters and his getting them during his convalescence? Her moving with the Black Panthers, the sequences of her drug experimentation, her final collapse, going onto the roof, her inability to commit suicide? Her visit to Forrest, the happy times, the recollections? The sexual encounter - and leaving quietly in the morning? Working as a waitress, seeing Forrest on the television? Her invitation for him to come, her showing him her son, enabling Forrest to relate to his son? Her dying, the request for the wedding, Dan and his fiancee coming? The intimations of AIDS?

21.Dan and the military tradition, the glimpses of his forbears, the irony of Forrest not allowing him to die and his resentment? The American heritage of war heroes? His bitterness, keeping his word, success with the firm, the new legs, his marriage? A new possibility for an American future?

22.Forrest and his mother, her dying, his going to her, her bequest? Forrest and his son, the amazement, at the television talking, the wedding, Jenny's death, taking his son to school, at the bus? His waiting for his son and giving his life to him?

23.The film as an allegory, the American heart and its simplicity, naivety, free spirit, integrity, ability to save others, love and redemption, true to word? A new future in the '90s? The contrast with Forrest as an image of the US with Jenny: hurt and wounded, lacking love, taking up causes, wanting to die, illness and death, the consequences of the confused years?

24.The emotional impact of the film? Intellectual impact? A symbolic film of the '90s?