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Forrest Gump
original film poster
Directed by	Robert Zemeckis
Produced by	Wendy Finerman Steve Tisch Steve Starkey Charles Newirth
Written by	Winston Groom (Novel), Eric Roth (Screenplay)
Starring	Tom Hanks Robin Wright Gary Sinise Mykelti Williamson and Sally Field
Music by	Alan Silvestri
Cinematography	Don Burgess
Editing by	Arthur Schmidt
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	July 6, 1994
Running time	142 min (US) / 136 min (Europe)
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	US$55 million
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Forrest Gump is a 1985 novel by Winston Groom, a 1994 film adaptation, and the name of the title character of both. The film was a huge commercial success, earning $677 million worldwide during its theatrical run (the top grossing film in North America released that year), although Paramount claimed it was a commercial failure and did not pay Groom his share of the profits.^[1] As such, Groom has refused to allow the novel's sequel, Gump and Co., to be filmed, stating that he could not in good conscience sell the rights to film the sequel to a failure. The film garnered a total of 13 Academy Award nominations, of which it won six, including Best Picture, Best Visual Effects, Best Director (Robert Zemeckis), and Best Actor (Tom Hanks).

The film tells the story of a simple man (or gump) and his epic journey through life, meeting historical figures, influencing popular culture and experiencing first-hand historic events while largely unaware of their significance, due to his low IQ of 75. The film differs substantially from the book on which it was based.

Contents 1 Movie plot 1.1 My Name's Forrest, Forrest Gump 1.2 Football at Alabama 1.3 Forrest in Vietnam 1.4 Forrest makes political history 1.5 Back to the present 2 Meetings with famous people 3 Techniques 4 Reception 5 Cast 6 Differences from the novel 7 Soundtrack 8 Awards and nominations 9 Trivia 10 See also 11 References 12 External links

The movie begins with a feather falling to the feet of Forrest Gump sitting at a bus stop in Savannah, Georgia. Forrest tells the story of his life to a woman seated next to him (the listeners at the bus stop change regularly throughout his narration).

Much of Forrest's philosophy comes from his mother. Forrest often recalls her favorite sayings, "Mama always says, 'Life is like a box of chocolates, You never know what you gonna get.'" and "Stupid is as stupid does." Both sayings became popular catchphrases following the movie's release. Forrest reveals that he is named after a distant ancestor, Nathan Bedford Forrest, who helped found the Ku Klux Klan, as a reminder that "sometimes we all do things that, well, just don't make no sense." Despite his low I.Q., which would normally have necessitated special education, his mother arranges to have him enrolled in public school by sexually bribing an official from the school district. On his first day of school, he is instantaneously picked on by other schoolkids, but is befriended on the school bus by a girl named Jenny Curran, who is being physically and sexually abused by her father.

Forrest's house is filled with visitors often and at one point "every room is filled" because his mother has made it into a Bed and Breakfast. Eventually, a young man stays at the inn, plays the guitar to a dancing Forrest and finds inspiration from the "crazy moves" of Forrest's legs. The audiences learn from a display window television later on, that the musician turns out to be Elvis Presley and those leg moves made Elvis famous.

For the first several years of his life, Forrest has to wear leg braces due to his back being "as crooked as a politician". These make walking awkward for Forrest, and running almost impossible. When a group of bullies chase Forrest on their bicycles, he runs, urged on by Jenny. As Forrest runs, his leg braces fall apart, and he outruns his pursuers leaving behind only a cloud of dust to greet them.

Years later, while again running away from bullies that threw a rock to his head and chase him in a truck, Forrest runs through Greenbow High School's football field during a practice scouted by University of Alabama coaches. He outpaces every player, catches the attention of the coaches and is offered a college football scholarship. His superb running ability makes him a hero with the Alabama team, under legendary coach Bear Bryant. He is named to the All-American team and gets to meet President John F. Kennedy at the White House (and sees a picture of Marilyn Monroe in the President's bathroom). Gump appears on television June 11, 1963, standing behind Governor George Wallace at Foster Auditorium during a protest against University desegregation (the "Stand in the Schoolhouse Door"). He graduates after five years. His college major isn't revealed, though he mentions taking a home economics course.

On his graduation day, he is approached by an Army recruiter and enlisted in the Army. Gump says he fits into the army "like one of them round pegs" and is top of his class in boot camp. When asked by his drill sergeant "What is your sole purpose in this army?", Gump replies "to do whatever you tell me drill sergeant!", whereupon the drill sergeant replies: "Goddamn it Gump! You're a goddamned genius! That's the most outstanding answer I've ever heard! You must have an I.Q. of 160! You are goddamned gifted Private Gump!" Furthermore, after assembling his M14 rifle in record time, his drill sergeant tells him "If it weren't such a waste of a damn fine enlisted man, I would recommend you for OCS, Private Gump! *You* are going to be a general someday Gump!"

His lone friend in boot camp is Benjamin Buford "Bubba" Blue (Mykelti Williamson), a young, not-so-bright African American fisherman who has a protruded mandible and knows "everything they' is to know about shrimping". They agree to go into the "shrimpin' business" together, after they are discharged from the army. While Forrest is white and Bubba is black, the pair discover they have very similar backgrounds, philosophies on life and have similar "Mamas". (Bubba: "My mama says that too.") One night, while in their bunks, a fellow soldier tosses Forrest a Playboy and says to "get a load of the tits on her." Forrest turns a page and recognizes the girl as none other than Jenny, sporting her college sweater and nothing else. The photo gets her expelled from college, and she begins playing guitar in the nude as "Bobbi Dylan" at a strip club. Forrest visits her and witnesses some men "tryin' to grab" her while playing a cover of "Blowin' in the Wind" by Bob Dylan. He beats them up, but Jenny becomes angry with him as a result.

The couple reminisce about old times, and Jenny recalls when they hid from her father in the cornfield and she prayed to God to turn her into a bird so she can fly away. She asks Forrest, "Do you think I could fly off this bridge, Forrest?" This worries Forrest, and Jenny dismisses the thought. He tells her of his impending tour of duty in Vietnam, and she orders him not to be heroic and to just run if he is ever in trouble. She then hitches a ride in a passing pickup truck.

While serving south of Saigon in the 9th Infantry Division's 2nd Battalion, 47th Infantry Regiment under Lt. Dan Taylor (Gary Sinise), he is awarded the Medal of Honor for carrying wounded members of his platoon (including Bubba, who dies later in Forrest's arms) to safety during an ambush on June 7, 1967. Lieutenent Dan later has both legs amputated, to his initial resentment, as not only did he have a peculiar obsession with feet, he saw it as his destiny to die in combat, just as every one of his ancestors had before him (in every single American war up to that time) and now instead had to live the rest of his life as a cripple.

While in Washington to receive his medal, he accidentally bumps into an Abbie Hoffman rally and meets Jenny again, by this time a hippie. A group of hippies, protesting the Vietnam War, think that Forrest is there to speak for them and take him up onto a platform where he says what he thinks about the war. Unfortunately, most of it is lost when the wires to the microphone are pulled out by an army official intending to sabotage the protest and the audience is only able to hear Forrest's starting words "There is only one thing I can say about the war in Vietnam..." and his finishing sentence "... and that's all I have to say about that." Abbie Hoffman seems satisfied with his response, albeit inaudible to the viewer. When he goes with Jenny to a Black Panther gathering where he sees her get struck by her boyfriend, Forrest angrily beats up the man but Jenny makes him stop. He is thrown out of the gathering as a result. ("Sorry for spoiling your Black Panther party".) During the award ceremony, President Lyndon Johnson asks Forrest where he was shot. Forrest replies "I was shot in the buttocks, sir." After Johnson jokes about wanting to see the wound, Forrest, thinking the President really did want to see the wound, pulls down his pants to show him, in front of a TV audience of millions.

While Forrest is recovering from his wound, he becomes an expert ping-pong player (after being told to simply "keep your eyes on the ball") and travels to the People's Republic of China during the famous Ping Pong Diplomacy. He becomes a national hero playing ping-pong and is offered $25,000 to cross-endorse a brand of ping-pong paddles.

Forrest appears on The Dick Cavett Show with John Lennon. As Forrest recalls his experiences in Communist China, he gives Lennon the idea for his song "Imagine". In reference to the lyrics of the song, Lennon remarks, "No possessions?" and then "And no religion too?". Dick Cavett then remarks "Hard to imagine," to which Lennon replies, "It's easy if you try, Dick."

After exiting the studio, Forrest meets Lieutenant Dan, now a bitter, alcoholic cripple who has lost his faith in life and in God. On New Year's Eve 1971, Lieutenant Dan facetiously promises to become his first mate if Forrest ever becomes a shrimping-boat captain.

Upon visiting Richard Nixon after his trip to China, he is invited by the President to stay at the Watergate Hotel complex. He is awakened by flashlights in the offices opposite his room. Believing the tenants to be having difficulty with a fusebox, Forrest calls the security office to notify the maintenance crew, inadvertently initiating the Watergate scandal.

After his military service, he returns home with $25,000 from the table tennis bat endorsement. After buying some things for his mother and himself, he uses the balance of $24,562.47 to buy his own shrimping boat — christened the Jenny, after his "girlfriend" — and starts a shrimp business, keeping a promise to Bubba. True to his word, Lieutenant Dan becomes his first mate in the "Bubba-Gump Shrimp Corporation". They are spectacularly unsuccessful until "God showed up". Hurricane Carmen wrecks all the other fishing boats in the area, giving them an instant monopoly on the shrimp market and making Forrest a very wealthy man. During the hurricane, Lieutenant Dan finally faces his demons and undergoes an epiphany, eventually thanking Forrest for saving his life in Vietnam. He takes over the management of the growing business and buys Forrest shares in "some kind of fruit company" - Apple Computer - before that company's rise, making Forrest even wealthier. When told that "money wouldn't be an issue anymore," he responds, "Good. That's one less thing to worry about."

Even though Lieutenant Dan says he is crazy to do so, Forrest sends a cheque for what he considers to be Bubba's share of the shrimp business profit to Bubba's mother, who had been working as a cook, just like all of her ancestors before her. With the proceeds, she moves her large family from their shack into luxurious new accommodations, complete with her own private cook — a white American maid (as a sign of humor). Forrest also donates funds to a church and a medical center, citing his mother's philosophy that "there's only so much fortune a man really needs, and the rest is just for showing off".

Forrest returns to his childhood home when he receives word that his mother is ill. Telling Forrest how proud of him she is, she dies shortly afterwards. He is reunited with Jenny, who has made a mess of her life, including drug addiction and prostitution, as well as depression with one suicide attempt. She lives with him for a while, then leaves following a night of passion that originated in Forrest's awkward marriage proposal.

To fill the void of her departure, Forrest begins to jog, first "to the end of the road", then "to the end of town". Eventually, he runs clear across the country. He runs from one coast to the other, and then turns around and heads back, running back-and-forth continuously. His dedication inspires a running movement, including a flock of "disciples" who run with him. Along the way, in Flagstaff, AZ, Forrest is alerted he has stepped in dog feces by a man who was asking for a inspirational phrase to put on a bumper sticker, to which he replies "it happens" which the guy then took and created the catch phrase "Shit happens". Shortly afterward, a mud-splattered Forrest is given a yellow T-shirt by a T-shirt salesman who "couldn't draw all that well and didn't have a camera" but wanted to immortalize Forrest on a shirt. Gump leaves the man with a giant smiley face made of mud imprinted on the shirt and tells him to have a nice day, thereby inspiring yet another pop culture phenomenon. "Three years, two months, fourteen days, and sixteen hours" later, he suddenly stopped running, leaving his confused and directionless followers with only the words "I'm pretty tired. I think I'll go home now."

One day, on March 30, 1981, with live coverage of the Reagan assassination attempt in the background, Forrest receives a letter from Jenny, who has seen Forrest running on TV, asking him to visit her. Forrest shows Jenny's letter to the current listener, a patient elderly lady, explaining why he is at the bus stop. She tells him that the address is only a short walking distance away. He is reunited with Jenny and her young son (Haley Joel Osment), and she tells him that the boy is named Forrest, after his father. She also tells Forrest she is suffering from an unknown virus, which is most likely to be HIV stemming from her previous drug use and prostitution. It is not made clear whether Forrest or their son are also infected.

Jenny and Forrest Jr. move in with him back in Greenbow, Alabama, where Jenny and Forrest finally get married. Lieutenant Dan, who has titanium artificial legs "magic legs", as Forrest refers to them — and his fiancée, Susan, attend the wedding.

On a "Saturday morning", Jenny finally dies making Forrest a single parent to little Forrest who becomes a bright child who attends school. Forrest demolishes the house that Jenny grew up in, as it had reminded her of her abusive father. Her grave is placed under the tree that they used to climb together when they were children. Jenny's death causes Forrest to question the nature of life. "Jenny, I don't know if Mama was right or whether it was Lieutenant Dan. I don't know if we each have a destiny, or if we're all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze, but I think, maybe it's both. Maybe both are happening at the same time. I miss you, Jenny." A tearful Forrest concludes with "If there's anything you need, I won't be far away". As he walks away, a flock of birds fly past, presumably signifying Jenny's prayer as a child to be turned into a bird.

The film ends with Forrest seeing his son to a schoolbus, where the father and son tell each other that they love each other. A feather in Forrest's book is blown away by the wind, and floats into the sky.

• While running to escape a group of bullies, Forrest's speed is noticed by Coach Bear Bryant of the University of Alabama. Forrest is recruited by Coach Bryant to play football, which he does for five years, mostly returning kicks. This means that he is a member of the 1961 National Championship team. It also means he would have played with Joe Namath. While at Alabama, Forrest impresses Bryant with his speed, but annoys him with his stupidity. Forrest skill results in him being named to the All American Team.
• He meets President John F. Kennedy after the All American Team of 1963 is invited to the White House. While there, since it's free, Forrest drinks 15 bottles of Dr Pepper. Over a handshake the president asks him how he feels, to which Gump replies "I gotta pee."

• He later meets President Lyndon Johnson, who awards him the Medal of Honor for his heroic rescue of his fellow soldiers. After Forrest tells Johnson about his wound, Johnson says that he would like to see it some time, after which Forrest obediently pulls down his pants and shows the wound on his buttocks. President Johnson responds by walking away mumbling "God dammit, son."

• Finally, after being a part of the United States Ping Pong team, he meets President Richard Nixon, who asks him where he is staying, and then offers to put Forrest up in a much nicer hotel, which turns out to be the Watergate office and hotel complex. Forest calls the front desk after he sees flashlights across the courtyard, bringing attention to the Watergate burglars and precipitating Nixon's downfall.

... and two famous musicians:

• He meets Elvis Presley as a child, when Elvis was staying at their house as a boarding tenant.
• He meets John Lennon on a TV talk show.

Worth noting is the work done by Ken Ralston and his team, who were responsible for the film's visual effects. Using CGI-techniques it was possible for Tom Hanks to meet dead presidents and even shake their hands.

Old documentary footage was used and with the help of techniques like chroma key, warping, morphing and rotoscoping, Tom Hanks was integrated into it. This feat was honored with an Oscar for Best Visual Effects.

Also notable was the CGI removal of actor Gary Sinise's legs, after his character had them amputated, achieved by wrapping his legs with a blue fabric, which later facilitated the work of the "roto-paint"-team to paint out his legs from every single frame.

In Tom Hanks' words, "The film is non-political and thus non-judgmental" (Time: 42). Nevertheless, in 1994, CNN's Crossfire debated whether the film had a left-wing bias or a right-wing one. Filmmaker Lloyd Kaufman has noted that Gump's successes result from doing what he is told by others, and never showing any initiative of his own, in contrast to Jenny's more forthright and independent character who is shown descending into drugs, prostitution, and death.^[2] As such, both film and fans are sometimes criticized for "glossing over" this important factor.

The film received mostly positive critical reviews at the time of its release, with Roger Ebert saying, "The screenplay by Eric Roth has the complexity of modern fiction....[Hanks'] performance is a breathtaking balancing act between comedy and sadness, in a story rich in big laughs and quiet truths....what a magical movie."^[3] The film received notable pans from several major reviewers, however, including The New Yorker and Entertainment Weekly (which said that the movie "reduces the tumult of the last few decades to a virtual-reality theme park: a baby-boomer version of Disney's America.")^[4] Currently, the film garners a 79% "Fresh" rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.^[5]

However, the film is commonly seen as a polarizing one for audiences, with Entertainment Weekly writing in 2004, "Nearly a decade after it earned gazillions and swept the Oscars, Robert Zemeckis' ode to 20th-century America still represents one of cinema's most clearly drawn lines in the sand. One half of folks see it as an artificial piece of pop melodrama, while everyone else raves that it's sweet as a box of chocolates."^[6] The film ranks 80th on Imdb's Top 250 films list.

Actor	Role
Tom Hanks	Forrest Gump
Robin Wright Penn	Jenny Curran (Gump)
Gary Sinise	Lieutenant Dan Taylor
Mykelti Williamson	Pvt. Benjamin Buford "Bubba" Blue
Sally Field	Mrs. Gump
Michael Conner Humphreys	Young Forrest Gump
Hanna R. Hall	Young Jenny Curran
Haley Joel Osment	Forrest Gump Jr.
Sam Anderson	Principal Hancock
Geoffrey Blake	Wesley, SDS Organizer
David Brisbin	Newscaster
Peter Dobson	Elvis Presley
Siobhan Fallon	Dorothy Harris, School Bus Driver
Afemo Omilami	Drill Sergeant
Brett Rice	High School Football Coach
Sonny Shroyer	Coach Paul 'Bear' Bryant
Kurt Russell	Voice of Elvis Presley

Perhaps the biggest difference deals with the main character’s first name. In the movie the character is called “Forrest”. However in the novel, the character is called “Doug”. In fact, when the character is first introduced in the novel, he says, “My name's Doug, Doug Gump.”

It is revealed near the beginning of the book that his father (a stevedore) was killed by a falling crate of bananas (Forrest's father apparently left Forrest's mother in the movie but it is never explained).

Also, the leg braces were not in the book; nor did Forrest's mother have sex with the school principal to get Forrest in the regular school. In the book, Forrest did not do well in the regular school and was put in a special school for mentally retarded children, which he refers to as the 'nut school'.

Forrest failed college and hence did not graduate.

Forrest's mother does not die in the book but does in the movie. Forrest's mother does die in the book's sequel Gump & Co.

Unlike the movie, the novel's Forrest is described as an idiot savant, with an extraordinary talent in numerical calculation. One memorable example of this is in college, when Forrest receives an "A" in his physics course (Intermediate Light) and an "F" in physical education.

Gump does not marry Jenny in the book; she instead marries another man, though she joins a band called "The Cracked Eggs" with him at one point. Jenny does not die in the original novel. She does die from unstated causes in the sequel--the book simply states that she and her husband got sick and both ended up dying--with the novel recounting Forrest's subsequent adventures with little Forrest when the boy is sent to live with him.

Gump and little Forrest do not have the loving relationship that the end of the movie seems to imply. In fact, Little Forrest (who was a teenager at this point in the second book) was mad at his father for not being in his life, and during a pivotal scene in the book calls out Gump for pretending to be his father. Forrest's response is to spank his son, changing their relationship.

Gump does not meet Lt. Dan until he is in the hospital in Vietnam. In the novel, Lt. Dan is not a professional soldier but a drafted teacher. He has no wish to die in combat and is more of a philosopher. Bubba is white and was previously on the football team with Forrest.

Forrest does not actively catch shrimp with a shrimping boat and sell them; rather, he has a small shrimp hatchery and builds success upon that. He learns how to farm shrimp from a friendly Vietnamese; back in Bayou La Batre (Bubba's hometown), Bubba's father helps him get started.

Forrest also has many other adventures in the book that are not mentioned in the movie. During his trip to China, he rescues Chairman Mao from drowning in the Yangtze River (parodying Mao's actual much-publicized swim).

Later in the book, Forrest becomes an astronaut and crash-lands on a small jungle island in New Guinea with his crew, Major Janet Fritch and a male orangutan called Sue (a homage to the Johnny Cash song A Boy Named Sue'). They are captured by cannibals and made to plant cotton.

He also becomes a professional wrestler (under the alias of "The Dunce"), a champion chess player (first playing with the cannibal chief and then in a formal tournament), and even stars in a (fictional) remake of The Creature from the Black Lagoon (with Raquel Welch). After his shrimp business booms, he is persuaded to enter politics with the slogan "I've got to pee" (spoken to John F. Kennedy in the film), but withdraws when his opponents spread the word about his earlier misadventures.

The movie even adds scenes as Forrest's run across America never happens in the book.

The movie shows Forrest as a sober-minded man and cuts back scene from scene of Jenny doing a number of drugs. In the book Forrest is a smoker of cannabis and towards the end of the novel smokes tobacco more and thinks about his past and all that he's done in life. At the end, he leaves his crew (which includes many people he has met over the years) to run the business, and goes to live with Lt. Dan and Sue as street musicians.

The book features rather graphic sex scenes between Forrest and Jenny which do not appear in the movie.

Main article: Forrest Gump (soundtrack), Forrest Gump - Original Motion Picture Score

The soundtrack from Forrest Gump had a variety of music from the 50s, 60s, 70s, and early 80s performed by American artists. It went on to sell 12 million copies, and is one of the top selling albums in the United States^[7] In addition, an album featuring only the score by Alan Silvestri was released as well.

1994 Academy Awards (Oscars)

• Won - Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role — Tom Hanks
• Won - Best Director — Robert Zemeckis
• Won - Best Film Editing — Arthur Schmidt
• Won - Best Picture — Wendy Finerman, Steve Starkey, Steve Tisch
• Won - Best Visual Effects — Ken Ralston, George Murphy, Stephen Rosenbaum, Allen Hall
• Won - Best Adapted Screenplay — Eric Roth
• Nominated - Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role — Gary Sinise (as Lieutenant Dan Taylor)
• Nominated - Best Achievement in Art Direction — Rick Carter, Nancy Haigh
• Nominated - Best Achievement in Cinematography — Don Burgess
• Nominated - Best Makeup — Daniel C. Striepeke, Hallie D'Amore
• Nominated - Best Original Score — Alan Silvestri
• Nominated - Best Sound Mixing — Randy Thom, Tom Johnson, Dennis S. Sands, William B. Kaplan
• Nominated - Best Sound Editing — Gloria S. Borders, Randy Thom

1995 Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films (Saturn Awards)

• Won - Best Supporting Actor (Film) — Gary Sinise
• Won - Best Fantasy Film
• Nominated - Best Actor (Film) — Tom Hanks
• Music|Best Music]] — Alan Silvestri
• Nominated - Best Special Effects — Ken Ralston
• Nominated - Best Writing — Eric Roth

1995 Amanda Awards

• Won - Best Film (International)

1995 American Cinema Editors (Eddies)

• Won - Best Edited Feature Film — Arthur Schmidt

1995 American Comedy Awards

• Won - Funniest Actor in a Motion Picture (Leading Role) — Tom Hanks

1995 American Society of Cinematographers

• Nominated - Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases — Don Burgess

1995 BAFTA Film Awards

• Won - Outstanding Achievement in Special Visual Effects — Ken Ralston, George Murphy, Stephen Rosenbaum, Doug Chiang, Allen Hall
• Nominated - Best Actor in a Leading Role — Tom Hanks
• Nominated - Best Actress in a Supporting Role — Sally Field
• Nominated - Best Film — Wendy Finerman, Steve Tisch, Steve Starkey, Robert Zemeckis
• Nominated - Best Cinematography — Don Burgess
• Nominated - David Lean Award for Direction — Robert Zemeckis
• Nominated - Best Editing — Aurthur Schmidt
• Nominated - Best Adapted Screenplay — Eric Roth

1995 Casting Society of America (Artios)

• Nominated - Best Casting for Feature Film, Drama — Ellen Lewis

1995 Chicago Film Critics Association Awards

• Won - Best Actor — Tom Hanks

1995 Directors Guild of America

• Won - Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures — Robert Zemeckis, Charles Newirth, Bruce Moriarity, Cherylanne Martin, Dana J. Kuznetzkoff

1995 Golden Globe Awards

• Won - Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama — Tom Hanks
• Won - Best Director - Motion Picture — Robert Zemeckis
• Won - Best Motion Picture - Drama
• Nominated - Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture — Gary Sinise
• Nominated - Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture — Robin Wright Penn
• Nominated - Best Original Score — Alan Silvestri
• Nominated - Best Screenplay - Motion Picture — Eric Roth

1995 Heartland Film Festival

• Won - Studio Crystal Heart Award — Winston Groom

1995 MTV Movie Awards

• Nominated - Best Breakthrough Performance — Mykelti Williamson
• Nominated - Best Male Performance — Tom Hanks
• Nominated - Best Movie

1995 Motion Picture Sound Editors (Golden Reel Award)

• Won - Best Sound Editing

1994 National Board of Review of Motion Pictures

• Nominated - Best Actor — Tom Hanks
• Nominated - Best Supporting Actor — Gary Sinise
• Nominated - Best Picture

1995 PGA Golden Laurel Awards

• Won - Motion Picture Producer of the Year Award — Wendy Finerman, Steve Tisch, Steve Starkey, Charles Newirth

1995 People's Choice Awards

• Won - Favorite All-Around Motion Picture
• Won - Favorite Dramatic Motion Picture

1995 Screen Actors Guild Awards

• Won - Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role — Tom Hanks
• Nominated - Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role — Gary Sinise
• Nominated - Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role — Sally Field & Robin Wright Penn

1995 Writers Guild of America Awards

• Won - Best Screenplay Adapted from Another Medium — Eric Roth

1995 Young Artist Awards

• Won - Best Performance in a Feature Film - Young Actor 10 or Younger — Haley Joel Osment
• Won - Best Performance in a Feature Film - Young Actress 10 or Younger — Hanna R. Hall
• Nominated - Best Performance in a Feature Film - Young Actor Co-Starring — Michael Conner Humphreys

• The bus stop bench doesn't exist in Savannah and traffic runs the opposite direction around Chippewa Square.

• The picture of Forrest Gump receiving his Congressional Medal of Honor used in the movie was actually of an American soldier with Tom Hanks' head superimposed on his body. As a result, the soldier, Sammy L. Davis, who also received the award for his service in Vietnam, is sometimes called "The 'Real' Forrest Gump."

• After leaving the shooting of the The Dick Cavett Show, Forrest Gump meets Lieutenant Dan. While going to his apartment Lieutenant Dan is almost hit by a car, to which he responds angrily "I'm walking here!", as a homage to Dustin Hoffman's character in the movie Midnight Cowboy.

• Lt. Dan investing in Apple Computers is a reference to political activist and founder of the Youth International Party, or yippies, Jerry Rubin, who was one of the first to invest in Apple Computers, leaving behind political activism. This joke is an allusion to the protest held in Washington, DC in the movie, and its speakers.

• In some scenes Forrest is portrayed by Tom Hanks' younger brother.

• Forrest says he got a letter from Lt. Dan stating that he invested some of Forrest's money in some kind of fruit company. On the letter, it had Apple Computer's logo.

• According to a 2007 article on Sally Field in Entertainment Weekly, Hanks asked his close friend Field to play his mother in this movie for no salary. Field was also filming Mrs. Doubtfire at the same time.

• Bubba Gump Shrimp Company
• Forrest Gump Soundtrack
• Forrest Gump - Original Motion Picture Score

• Forrest Gump at the Internet Movie Database
• Forrest Gump script at the Internet Movie Script Database
• Forrest Gump goofs and continuity errors at MovieMistakes.com
• Tone Deaf: "Forrest Gump" — leitmotivic analysis for Appreciating Great Trash

Preceded by Schindler's List

Golden Globe for Best Picture - Drama 1995

Succeeded by Sense and Sensibility

Films directed by Robert Zemeckis
The Lift • A Field of Honor • I Wanna Hold Your Hand • Used Cars • Romancing the Stone • Back to the Future • Who Framed Roger Rabbit • Back to the Future Part II  • Back to the Future Part III  • Death Becomes Her • Forrest Gump • Contact • What Lies Beneath • Cast Away • The Polar Express • Beowulf • The Corrections