Forrest Gump is one of those great films that brings out all kinds of emotions. The opening scene is the most symbolic of the entire movie. The white feather floating and eventually falling next to Forrest Gump’s feet, sets the stage for a story to be told by Forrest. The lighting is natural, as Forrest sits on a bench at a bus stop. The music starts and the lighting gets brighter, as to draw in the audience’s attention to something that is about to happen (Boggs & Petrie, 2008). The setting is just an ordinary city in Savannah, Georgia (Zemeckis & Roth, 1994). Forrest picks up the feather and places it in his Curious George book. The white feather represents the innocence and purity of Forrest Gump. The bus stop is where Forrest initiates the storytelling and continues to tell his life story to each and every person he comes in contact with at the bus stop. Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks) is a mentally challenged man (Zemeckis & Roth, 1994). Tom Hank’s performance is so believable and outstanding. He’s dressed in a suit in the sultry heat of Georgia, but the setting on the bench is shaded as the sun is shining in the background. The camera stays on Forrest and moves over to each individual he’s talking to for their reaction. Forrest is so intrigued with his own life that he doesn’t really care what the other people think as he continues on with his story telling. Forrest knows a lot about the world from his perspective but not necessarily from reality. The theme of Forrest Gump is how life’s obstacles can be overcome by how one perceives them.
Forrest meets Jenny Curran (Robin Wright) on his first day of school (Zemeckis & Roth, 1994). In one scene when Forrest is bullied due to his leg braces, Jenny tells Forrest to...
... middle of paper ...
...mental disability. Sally Field was a very strong actress that personified how a true Mother constantly encourages her children. As Forrest’s mother is dying, Forrest asked her what his destiny is, her infamous reply was, “life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get” (Zemeckis & Roth, 1994). This quote has played out in many story lines and planted a seed to future generations.
The scene when Forrest was young and in the upstairs bedroom with Elvis, it showed Forrest teaching Elvis how to move his legs. Elvis’ face was blurred out in the entire scene (Boggs & Petrie, 2008). The camera focused on Forrest but had Elvis in the background. How ironic that Forrest can show Elvis how to move his legs but when his Mom saw Elvis on TV she didn’t want Forrest watching it. Maslin, a writer for the New York Times, states, "Forrest Gump is so
The theme of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mocking Bird is the existence of racism and prejudice in the 1930 – 40's. Harper Lee succeeds in presenting the topic in a manner that is not overly simplistic and thus achieves the task of allowing the reader to fully appreciate the complex nature of unjust discrimination. Harper Lee's inclusion of characters such as Tom Robinson, Boo Radley, Dolphus Raymond and many others, aid the reader to grasp the concept of racism and its central role in the town of Maycomb.
A trait that makes Forrest Gump a great hero is that he is protective, of his friends & Jenny. Jenny was constantly being mistreated & hurt. Whenever Forrest was there & saw this, he punched that guy right in the face to defend her. Jenny also had a horrible childhood & was abused by her dad too. Her house reminded her of what ruined her life, so Forrest had it bulldozed. She never had to look at that awful place ever again. After Jenny died, Forrest looked after Forrest Jr. He taught him to read & do many other things. He cared for & protected his family to the
Forrest Gump. Dir. Robert Zemeckis. Screenplay by Eric Roth. Perf. Tom Hanks and Mykelti Williamson. Paramount, 1994. Film.
One event in the movie that really stands out to me as a good example of sociological imagination is Forrest’s stay at the Watergate Hotel. While recovering from a wound received in the Vietnam War, Forrest discovered and developed an outstanding talent for playing table tennis. Due to his exceptional table tennis skills, Forrest was called to Washington, D.C., and recognized as the “Player of the Year.” He went to the White House to receive this award. As President Nixon presented the award to him, he asked where Forrest was staying. Forrest commented, in his very innocent way, that the hotel was not very nice or well kept. Nixon apparently thought Forrest deserved much better accommodations and told Forrest he would arrange for a better place. In the next scene of the movie, Forrest is on the phone with hotel security and is looking across the way into another wing of the hotel. Forrest suggests to the man on the phone that the hotel needs to send a maintenance person “to the room across the way.” He explains that there are some men with flashlights in that room, and he (Forrest) thinks that they are trying to locate a fuse box. In actuality, instead of locating a fuse box, the scene he described was the infamous break-in at the Watergate Hotel. Had Forrest never been shot in the Vietnam War, a major occurrence in society during Forrest’s lifetime, Forrest would never have started playing table tennis nor received the prestigious award from President Nixon. The War was the event in society that shaped Forrest’s pe...
The movie teaches us to look beyond the cover and into who someone is as a person. We also learn that sometimes contact with people makes us reconsider our judgement towards them, to find out the real person underneath.
On March 3, 1915 the movie The Birth of a Nation was released at the Liberty Theatre in New York City. This film was financed, filmed, and released by the Epoch Producing Corporation of D.W. Griffith and Harry T. Aitken. It was one of the first films to ever use deep-focus shots, night photography, and to be explicitly controversial with the derogatory view of blacks.
They say it is a sin to kill a mockingbird because all they do is make music for us to listen to. In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee there characters like a mockingbird that are harmed. One mockingbird was Tom Robinson and how he got accused for raping Bob Ewell's daughter, Mayella Ewell. Another mockingbird was Atticus Finch because all he did was find the good and believed in what he thought no matter what others said. Lee shows often the best lessons are learned outside the classroom.
The Gender roles in society have greatly changed throughout the years of America from puritan women who thought that showing skin was undoubtedly a sin from the flapper era in american history that welcomed the idea of women showing more of their sexuality. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird which depict the events that occur when a white man who defends an african american man during the era of the great depression and what results from the story. Gender roles are a prevalent theme in the story. Through the characters dialogue and Scout's narration, Miss Maudie is characterized as a modern women while aunt Alexandra is characterized by her adherence to tradition.
It has been said that the Declaration of Independence was more democratic and for equality and the Constitution was more for a republic that benefited only some people. The Declaration was idealistic the Constitution realistic. That 1776 gave us liberty and 1787 gave us order. Although as unfair as it may sound this seems to be true. After gaining liberty this country had to establish a system that would have order.
Until this day, many members of the LGBTQ community are still fighting for their rights and to be accepted for who they are. This community has to challenge political set beliefs such as same-sex marriage to change the societal norm because of who they choose to love and to find their identity. Jonathon Demme’s Film Philadelphia embodies the G and Q in LGBTQ. The protagonist, Andrew Beckett, is fighting an ongoing battle with AIDS but has continued to excel in his job at a Prestigious Law Firm in Philadelphia. Beckett has kept his identity to himself due to some homophobic remarks made by his boss’s in fear of losing his job. Soon enough, Beckett started to show what looked like lesions on his face. He was then sabotaged which caused him to lose his job due to suspicion of Beckett’s gay identity. This could have been questioned because of the connection of lesions to Aids and Aids to homosexuality. Beckett ironically proceeds to hire a prejudiced lawyer, Joe Miller to help him with his case of injustice and prejudice actions done against him. Beckett and Miller won the case against the head partners in the firm for firing him, but Becket lost his own battle with AIDS and lost his life. The root of prejudice and discrimination against Beckett is led by the idea of an over sexualized LGBTQ community derived from Social Media and Hollywood.
...nd genuine kindness extend further than just treating the President of the United States like a normal person, even though Forrest Gump is ignorant of the ‘issues’ of different people. At the University of Alabama, two African American students are granted acceptance after an enormous ordeal on blacks going to colleges with whites because of the insane amount of racism the United States of America had. As the two African American students made their way up the staircase, one dropped a book and Forrest rushed through police officers and rioters to pick up the book and hand the book to the colored student who dropped it. Forrest’s ignorance definitely contributes to his selflessness and generosity towards people who are different (during the time period in American history the movie was based on), however, it is one of his traits that makes him a true unexpected hero.
This movie is a wonderful production starting from 1960 and ending in 1969 covering all the different things that occurred during this unbelievable decade. The movie takes place in many different areas starring two main families; a very suburban, white family who were excepting of blacks, and a very positive black family trying to push black rights in Mississippi. The movie portrayed many historical events while also including the families and how the two were intertwined. These families were very different, yet so much alike, they both portrayed what to me the whole ‘message’ of the movie was. Although everyone was so different they all faced such drastic decisions and issues that affected everyone in so many different ways. It wasn’t like one person’s pain was easier to handle than another is that’s like saying Vietnam was harder on those men than on the men that stood for black rights or vice versa, everyone faced these equally hard issues. So it seemed everyone was very emotionally involved. In fact our whole country was very involved in president elections and campaigns against the war, it seemed everyone really cared.
...ain starts to know everything about the different side of his wife. That basically questions does Mrs. Forrester have true love for Mr. Forrester or was she just putting up an image that was solely about the money that Mr. Forrester bestowed.
The character Jenny Curran from the movie Forrest Gump, had a tough life from the very beginning of the movie throughout to the end. During the movie, most parts were assumed and not actually said. For example, as a child she was physically abused as well as sexually abuse, however, it isn’t said, a scene of her with dirty ripped clothes and older Forrest narrating says “her father was always touching and kissing her and her sister” that implies that her father was sexually abusing her. Jenny’s father was not only abusive but an alcoholic and neglected the care of Jenny. Throughout the rest of the movie, Forrest is always there to support and love her, and the detrimental decisions she makes and the different paths she endeavors, inevitably catch up with her in the end. In this essay, one of the main points we see by Jenny’s character are all of the metaphors between what she says and the advice she gives to Forrest, for example, to run from danger and her own constant behavior to fun away from whatever she is afraid of. Jenny Curran will be the focus observation and personality study. Although the main character in this film is Forrest Gump, we are able to see the trials Jenny’s incurs and how it develops her personality. The main idea of this essay is to look at Jenny’s life and find the foundation for what her personality was build on and all of the influences of change throughout her life. Her various personality and life changes will be examined as well as the environmental and social influences.
The main subject that is in the film is racism. The one of the two concepts I learned was within a busy city people’s lives collide with one another. Another concept is that everyone has different amounts of racism in them ranging from prejudice to full out racism. I felt much emotion while watching the movie as struggle added up for all the characters. I mostly