Forest Gump as a Successful Movie

Forest Gump Essay Why do I think Forest Gump was such a successful movie? Three main reasons, first of which is humor. It is a type of humor that makes you feel naughty for laughing at it, as Forest is not trying to be funny. Secondly, because of the plot. The whole story is amazing with twists and turns coming from everywhere and taking Forest to weird and exciting places. Lastly, because of the special effects, they just enhance the movie, which takes it to a different level, and they are done subtlety enough to be believable.

One reason for Forest Gump being so funny is it so unpredictable, with Forest sometimes stating the very obvious, to stating things very far outside left field. The writers were very good at catching everyone off guard at every opportunity possible and making them chuckle, giggle or laugh out loud at the simplest things. The mixture of narration and actual dialog allows Forest to tell you what is about to happen and then let it happen which is humorous in its own way. Forest repeats a lot of lines throughout the film which stick in your head and which you end up spreading to your friends, encouraging them to go view it. Lines such as Mamma always had a way of explaining things so that I could understand” (Forrest Gump, 1994) Are repeated and are humorous in the context used while having a deep connection to other aspects of the film. As for the plot, the writers have once again out done themselves with an easily follow able story line, but one that was not predictable. Even after multiple viewings I still forget parts that happen and am still surprised when small things happen that trigger my memory. The fact that it incorporates so many different areas is remarkable and one thing that made it stand out from the rest is that it use’s real life events.

This allows every viewer to relate to the film in some way and because all of the events are based on real happenings, you start wondering, did my parents meet Forrest Gump? Or, how come we don’t learn about Forrest Gump, as a person, in History? With all these different places that the film takes, you it keeps you interested right until the ending credits. This, to me, is one of the hallmarks of a very good film. The acting in this film was also a definitive factor as to why it was so successful. All the actors played each of their roles to perfection and made the film seem so lifelike.

As if I could just take a flight over to Alabama and meet the real Forrest. Special Effects were probably the thing that makes everything just ‘work’. They tie everything together and help to tell the story without words. The feather in the opening and closing scenes of the film is one of the cleverest special effects I’ve ever seen; with all its twists and turns it’s a story in its self. The places it goes, the close shaves it has are almost a representation of some of the ways Forrest leads his life.

Falling quickly at the start represents the bullying Forrest goes through as a child, then an updraft, as he loses his leg braces and is able to run away from the kids that were bullying him. The close shave with the car represents the storm Forrest and Lt Dan are put through on their fishing trip. In the end the feather represents destiny, it didn’t have a choice of where it went, all it could do was hold of for dear life. The storm scene also had some great special effects, because you obviously couldn’t go out on a small boat like that and find yourself a cyclone so that you can shoot a scene.

The innovation to use a rocket engine to make the wind took care of two problems at once, the need for wind and the need for a lot of background noise, as you never get gale force winds without it making a might large racket. Probably the “coolest looking” special effect was the ping-pong ball. The speed it moves at makes you stare in disbelief at how good Forrest is. Even though it is not doing any real story telling, or implying anything, it still enhanced the movie by putting Forrest up on a pedestal with the likes of world champions.

All in all, I believe the thing that made Forrest Gump a great, memorable movie was the writers. They developed a script that held you in suspense while giving you more and more information, a script that the actors could immerse themselves in enough to play their roles with Oscar winning style and a script that made you laugh, cry in sadness and cry in happiness Sorry this was late, I emailed it to you on Tuesday night, but realized when I got a phone call from Mrs Richards that I had done that over my Hotmail address so you will probably be getting that sooner or later. Sorry once again

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