Latest / Houselights: A Film Director Podcast / Forrest Gump (1994) - Robert Zemeckis | Houselights #247

Transcript

Forrest Gump (1994) - Robert Zemeckis | Houselights #247 · Houselights: A Film Director Podcast

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the net party.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Hello everybody at home, and welcome to House Lights, specifically
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: House of Zamecchas Robert Zamcchis, And tonight we are talking
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: about nineteen ninety four's Forrest Gump. We are continuing our
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: journey into Zamechas's work of the nineties. And I am very,
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: very much excited to talk about this tonight. I feel
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: almost lighter, you know, kind of like a like a
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: feather floating through the air. That's that's how that's how
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: joyful I am tonight. And you know, we promise not
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: to leave you like a halfway through the podcast like
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: Jenny does, but we will stay with you the entire time.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: And my as Tristan Radel, and with me as always
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: is the man who has a surprisingly similar voice but
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: yet loves to teach little kids with leg braces how
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: to dance John Mills. And also joining us is the
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: one and only Lieutenant Darren Moser, who is wearing blue
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: stockings for some reason. He's just constantly wearing blue pantyhose.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: But you know, it's neither here nor there, and this
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: is a this is an audio medium, so you have
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: to rely on me to tell you these things. But regardless,
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: this was written by Winston Groom and Eric Roth, starring
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: the one and only Tom Hanks, America's Dad, And I
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: am ready to get right into it, how about you, guys.
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm interested to get into this specifically because Forrest
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: Gump is one of those movies. It's such a touchstone.
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: But I haven't had like a discussion about it in
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: a long time because you know, I mean, at this point,
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: it's thirty years ago, and it's like it's hard to
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: believe that much time has passed, and it's one of
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: those movies where you can't really recall a time when
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: Forrest Gump wasn't a cultural thing. Like everybody knows Forrest Gump,
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: like even people who were born after us, Like you know,
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: there's still Bubba Gump Shrimp Company at City Walk here
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: at Universal in Orlando, and I did probably over in
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: Hollywood too, And it's it is it's crazy because you know,
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: you just think about it and it's like, this is
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: such an incredible film, Like it puts into perspective why
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: everybody forgets that he did Death becomes Her between Back
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: to the Future Part three and Forrest Gump, like that
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: in your brain. You just sort of short circuit. You
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: could come right to this one.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: Dared, When was the first time you saw this? Do
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: you remember?
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: Oh gosh, so ninety four?
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: Uh.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: This probably would have been like a rental, like, you know,
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: definitely a blockbuster rental. It might have even been a
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: double VHS. It's it's a fairly long movie. I mean
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: it's not three hours, but it's you know, two and
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: a half, two twelve.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: This wasn't a double VHS.
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, no, they would have been able to do this
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: on long play or super long play. Yeah, this wouldn't
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: have been a short play VHS, but long play could
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: have covered this.
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: Well, but just like John stated, this was fun to
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: revisit because I cannot remember the last time I watched
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: this movie. It's it is again one of those touchstones,
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: but you kind of internalize your memory of it, so
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: you don't feel like, oh, I got to watch this
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: over and over. So I was glad to revisit it
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: because I think I remembered the plot in broad brushstrokes,
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: but I did not remember a lot of the detail,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: and that this is not one I it's one. I'm
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: glad that I didn't leave to oh, yeah, I've seen it.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: My memory is good enough, because it was not. It
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: was not good enough to remember all the finer points
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: of this movie.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: When I was Okay, So this came out when in
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: ninety what what did I say, ninety ninety four? Yeah,
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: this came out ninety four. So I was eight years
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: old when this came out, and I remember the first
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: time I attempted to watch this. It was I was
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: over at my aunt's house and the whole family was over.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: I don't know why we were over, but like we
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: were just we were just having to get together. We were eating,
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: we're enjoying ourselves, and somebody said like, hey, let's all
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: like let's keep this party going. You know, nobody wanted
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: to go home. Let's pop in a movie. And so
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: they popped in Forrest Gump on VHS and we all
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: started watching it. And I'm eight years old and I'm
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: enjoying it. And then all of a sudden, we get
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: to him in the army and they throw him the
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: Playboy and then everybody just kind of looks at me
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: and then like we're like, well, let's let's see where
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: this goes. And they made it to the dorm room scene,
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: and that's when my aunt just hit stop and said,
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: you know what, let's have Tristan watch something else in
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: the bedroom, and so they put on Home Alone too.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: I remember this like it was yesterday, and so I
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: was in the I was in the bedroom on my
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: aunt's waterbed, floating up and down watching Home Alone two,
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: and everybody else was in the in the living room
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: watching Force Cup.
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: See it's it's fascinating to me because I saw this
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: in the movie theater and you know, there were people
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: at the time who were, you know, full on young
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: adults where you had to sort of like elbow them
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: and be like, that's what just happened in the in
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: the dorm room scene and they're like oh, and it
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: was like yeah, yeah, yeah, nudge, nudge, that's what just It.
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: Was very subtle and downplayed.
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: So like I there's there's a part of me that's like,
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: I don't know if eight year old Tristan would have
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: necessarily picked up on it, Like it wasn't in your
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: brain to go there sarily. And but I mean, there
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: we go a science experiment that will never come to pass,
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: all thanks to the Ridell family robbing me of that
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: social experiment. So thanks in retrospect.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: And after I have no memory of watching it after that.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: I've watched it several times, but I don't remember my
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: first real time of watching that movie because for some reason,
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: that was such a formative moment. It just it still
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: makes me laugh.
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: But yeah, okay, so that's that's great. But it's fascinating
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: to me. You fixate on that first viewing like it's
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: the other like you know, you've seen it all before,
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: but like every time you think in the movie, you
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: think of that first viewing. That's that's kind of what
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: I think. Really, yeah, that's kind of cool.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: Uh So okay, I want to first talk about the
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: character of Forrest. I want to talk about Tom Hanks's performance.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: You know, how he's an accidental witness to history, you
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: know kind of sometimes people feel like he's a blank
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: slate And I don't mean that like a he's not
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: really there, but like we project a lot onto him.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: And so, Darren, what do you think about Tom Hanks's
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: performance of this Because the studio thought his accent was
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: ridiculous and they wanted him to get rid of it,
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: and Samchus is like, no, it's gonna work. It's gonna work.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: What do you What did you think of his accent.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: I didn't have a problem with the accent, because honestly,
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: he I mean, he talks mostly through narration. He probably
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: has more lines in narration and voiceover than actual dialogue
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: in scenes, so it it wasn't jarring. But as far
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: as the just performance, this is the first time again
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: watching it in a long time, and nowadays I think
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: Hollywood and writers and audiences are a little more sensitive
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: towards the you know, popular actor playing a slow care
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: like that is definitely not in vogue nowadays. I think
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: it might have peaked with like radio and things like that,
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: and now it's almost like an SNL sketch is the
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: only time you're going to see something like that. So
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: to that being said, I didn't have a problem with
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: that part of the performance, but it was the one
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: of the parts that I felt did kind of age
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: the film a little bit.
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: Now, that was just for me. I don't know if
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: that came across to you guys on this rewatch.
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I see, I don't. I don't know if I
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: can honestly assess it from that perspective, because it's just
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: the movie is what it is. So anything I overlay
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: on top of that is you know, I guess, just
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: in my brain, I just immediately consider it moot, right.
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: I think that the accent that he uses is you know,
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: I think it's it's it's perfectly appropriate, like it's it's
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: got this. It's not even about the accent. It's that
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: orst as a character. What makes him work so well
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: is it's he's a child. He's the eternal child, but
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: in a very positive way. And so the movie also
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: never ever takes the stance that he's at a disadvantage
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: to the world or anything. He's the wise character, he's
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: the loving character, he's the accepting character. He's the one
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: that never sees the way other people see, you know,
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: with labels or judgment or anything like that. If anything,
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: you know, I think that Hanks's vocal performance actually puts
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: the audience at ease to understand and accept that positive,
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: childlike nature of Forest. The reason he's a beloved character
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: is because he sounds like somebody that you want to
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: give a hug to, that you know you would love
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: if you just spent some time with him. So, I mean,
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: I'm glad Zamecas fought for the accent, I mean anything else.
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: You know, you could make an argument that it's a
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: you know, it's an amplified Southern accent, and that maybe
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: plays into some you know, underlying prejudices that people might
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: have about people in the South or something. But like
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: even that, like that's sort of like shoveling onto it.
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: I think at its core is just that Hanks sounds
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: childlike through the movie, and I think that's why the
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: movie works so well and hits the heartstrings so effectively.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: Apparently the accent is based off of Young Forest's real
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: life accent, like the actor who played Young Forest, because
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: initially Tom Hanks was going to do something much more
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: subtle or kind of like ease into it or have
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: it kind of disappear as time went on and he
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: started he started interacting with Young Forest and Michael Connor Humphreys,
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: and he said he was talking to them because he's like,
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: why don't I just do that accent? Because I think
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: Humphreys couldn't change his voice, and because he was, you know,
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: he's young, he was a young kid at the time,
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: and so Hank's is like, how about I just change
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: my voice to match the kid? And it worked out
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: and so it was Hanks's instinct to do that, and
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: so he just spent a lot of time with Humphreys
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: and that's what he sounds like. I thought that was
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: really interesting when I read that.
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: And that is and it is like, this is the
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: one where Philadelphia was considered a fluke in terms of
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: Hank's you know, getting the Oscar and giving that performance,
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: being having gone through the time Hank's wins for Philadelphia,
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: and it was this feeling of like, wow, the comedic
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: actor took a big swing and he won. What are
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: the odds? And then this comes out and it's like
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: this is the one that cements where it's like, oh no,
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: he's actually a great actor. It's not just a comedic
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: actor took a chance like this. This moment in time
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: is where Hanks is like there's no looking back toward
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: common like he's just cemented as the serious actor from
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: this point forward.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the only thing he dabbles in is
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: like romantic comedy like You've Got Mail or things like that.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: But yeah, everything after this is or toy story. I mean,
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: you could say comedy as well. But Paul thirteen saving
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: Private writing Castaway, You're all acting chop type movies.
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean he's he's not doing Joe Versus the
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: Volcano or The Burbs or Bachelor Party anymore after this movie,
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: Like that's in the rear view. He's done at that point.
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: And I think Tristan, that story you share is that's
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: the behind the scenes Hanks that the people like me
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: who regarded him simply as a quote unquote comedic actor,
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: only we didn't see those things back then. We didn't
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: understand that he was an actor working behind the scenes.
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: And that's a very thoughtful story what you just shared,
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: So it makes sense.
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: So what did you guys think of him being an
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: accidental witness to history? Know, like that's kind of the
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: shtick of the movie. Like it's hard to say, like, oh,
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: what do you think about that? Because that's was a
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: cornerstone of the plot and the tail like from you know,
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: Watergate to Elvis to you know, like so so many things,
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: like you know, like meeting all the presidents, which we'll
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: you know, we'll talk about later as we talk about
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: the CGI. John. Did that did that land for you?
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: Did you feel like, okay, like could one guy really
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: witness all this stuff? Or did you find it charming.
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: You know what did you think?
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: I found it charming because again, it's it's the story
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: of somebody who experiences history the right way quote unquote right.
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: He doesn't have an air about I went through this
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: or I went through that. And you see everybody else
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: around him going through history and they're reacting in different ways.
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: And if anything, Forrest is the most emotionally well equipped
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: because he goes through all of these situations, but it
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: doesn't change him. And it's not I'm not saying that
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: in a way to you know, obviously demean anything or
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: anything like that. I'm just saying, like Forrest is that
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: ideal of I went through a thing and I was
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: able to contextualize and compartmentalize it and keep moving. And
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: you know, you see from the very first lessons that
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: his mom gives him that he's the perfect guy to
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: have gone through all of these things. Does Is it
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: a shtick? I don't know if I would call it that.
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, it's a historical, you know, chapter book
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: sort of thing, and obviously it doesn't get into really
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: the depth of these events. But I think showing how
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: Forest represents that we're all going through history and like
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: sometimes we don't realize the moments we're in how impactful
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: they are. You know, Like imagine going back through this
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: and having been somebody who lived through those times and
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: be like, oh, oh yeah I did. Yeah I was
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: around for that. You know. Like it's that sort of
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: thing where so much happens in the span of your
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: life and so much happens in the world, you know,
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: like I was there for the fall of the Berlin Wall,
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: but it doesn't even really come up for me too much,
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: and like, but when I sit down, I'm like, oh, yeah,
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: that was pretty big. That was a thing, you know,
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: like that that sort of stuff.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: Darren, Okay, I feel like we need before we get
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: into the supporting characters, because we mentioned that, we have
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: to talk about the special effects, because this was a
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: big deal at the time. This was I remember seeing
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: behind the scenes footage on Extra and Entertainment Tonight about
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: how this was a big deal, about how they were
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: using archival footage of presidents and inserting Tom Hanks digitally
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: into the scene, And I want to know, what did
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: you think about it at the time, and what do
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: you think about it now.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was one of those things where I think
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: at the time, it was flawless.
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: Like you, the.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: Moments were sporadic enough and tight enough that you weren't
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: looking at it too close. You couldn't rewind and pause
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: and be like, oh, well, oh, they're just stretching the
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: pixels of the mouth and or that's the part that's
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: being changed. You're more like, oh my gosh, he's right there,
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: he's right behind the president. So I think that.
• 16:10
  Speaker 4: Part worked, you know, really well.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: You know, I was just looking it up out of
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: curiosity's sake, and for Star Trek Deep Sase nine Trouble
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: and Tribulation, which is another episode where they take characters
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: and insert them into archival footage, but that was about
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: two years after this, So this is the cutting edge
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: of that type.
• 16:31
  Speaker 4: And does it hold up? I think it does as
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: the story goes.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: If you look at it, you know, three inches on
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: your you know, three inches away from your high inch monitor, yeah,
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: you're going to see the pixels move and that part.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: But I don't think that distracts from the story. So yeah,
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: I think it serves the story, It serves the character,
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: and they even kind of point at it later on
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: when he's like, and then I met the President.
• 17:00
  Speaker 4: I went to the White House again.
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: Like for him, it's just you know, it's like the
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: third Thursday of the month, that's when you go meet
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: the president. Of course, so it worked in that way.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: Although I would say, what's even more impressive, and I've
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: also seen behind the scenes on this is Lieutenant Dan's
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: leg removal. That was where that had to hold up
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: in every shot in the way he moved and shifted
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: his weight. And I think the scene that I've seen
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: dissected the most is when he's sitting on the floor.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: I think he'd fallen out of his wheelchair and he
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: swings his body around and if his legs had been there,
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: they would have gone through a small table and that's
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: where you're like, wait, okay, you didn't just remove it.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: And I think the way they accomplished that is the
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: table wasn't there, and they added the table in post.
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: So that you know.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: The archival footage is one thing, but the leg removal,
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: I think is the even under cherry on top well.
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: And the brilliant thing is is it's classic misdirection because
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: everybody knew that Gary Soneze's legs were being removed digitally,
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: so we're all paying attention to the legs so they
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: can get away with inserting the table because we're not
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: going to stare at the table. It's misdirection and it's
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: really clever and Zamechas is on the cutting edge to
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: roll it back to the discussion about the mouth movement.
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: Even back in the day, as the kids say, the
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: mouth movement wasn't the best part of it, Like Kennedy
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: was okay, Johnson was terrible, Nixon was fine, right, but
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: like it's that sort of thing. But it does really
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: shine as well with getting him inserted into the background
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: of scenes like the desegregation moment and showing him behind
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: the guy, like looking around and everything. That is a real,
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: real compliment to the photograph because they got the lighting
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: right because, as we've all seen with plenty of blue screen,
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: green screen CG compositing stuff, if that lighting is not right,
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: the character looks flat, doesn't match up right. So that's
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: where I think they really shine, along with the legs,
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: is they got the lighting and the film grain right,
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: and that I know was a labor of love. Like
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: getting that stuff matched was.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: A film grain because you can't remove the film grain
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: from archival footage. It's there right, and you can lessenate,
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: but it you'll it'll make your digital insert stand out
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: like a sore thumb if they don't match.
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So whoever worked on the edges of him being inserted,
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: great job, really well done, well done.
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: I think that's a really fine point. It is like, yeah,
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: you know, like manipulating the president's is fine, but inserting
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: Tom Hanks, that's that's where it really shined. So okay,
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: Jinny robin.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: Wright, you mean, because that's how I said, Jenny. It's
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: so hard after this.
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: The poor poor women who were named who went by
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: Jenny in the nineties, those poor women, they're doomed because
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: there's no way that there's not a single possibility that
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: they weren't called Jena at least twelve times a month.
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: So I'm a big Robin Wright fan. You guys know this.
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: I felt like she killed it in this role because like,
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: when you're going up against Tom Hanks doing something as
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: different as as this and is something that he doesn't
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: normally do, and yet he's he's still Tom Hanks. He's
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: always Tom Hanks. It's never like he disappears in the role,
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: but he's he's doing it different enough to make you
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: believe who he is, like who he's trying to be.
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: And with Robin Wright, you know, she doesn't have that opportunity.
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: She doesn't get to build play a completely different person. Well,
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: that's not what I'm trying to say, Like, it's it's not, John,
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: what was the term of looking for it? Like, she's
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: not she doesn't fall into fall.
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: Into Yeah, she's not disappearing, she's not inhabiting the character.
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: And that's not a knock, you know, it's just that's
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: the type of character it is. And you know, she's
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: you know, a symbol of counterculture, you know, going in
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: and out of history as well and hitchhiking, going through
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: the hippie movement, you know, like anti government stance and
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: things like that. And so, John, what do you think
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: about her performance? What did you think about her character?
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: Did you have sympathy for her towards the end of
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: course frustrating with her without the movie through a movie, Like,
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: tell me about that journey you had with her?
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: I want to say, first and foremost, I hate this
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: sort of modern thing of people coming at it as
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: like Jenny's the real villain. No that that that bit
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: was tired. The second that somebody rolled out with it.
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: It drives me nuts. Jenny is they establish what she
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: goes through as a kid, and the way that she's
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: behaving is a very well established behavior pattern in somebody
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: who's gone through that type of abuse, and I think
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: it really gets to the point of one of the
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: lessons of the character of Forrest Gump is that he
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: never does anything but love her, and except that he's
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: just always going to give her a chance to make
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: it right. He's always going to be there for her,
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: he's always going to love her, he's always going to
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: see the best in her. And what an incredible lesson
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: to put out there to say, Look, you know, you're
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: not going to be defined by the times you screw up.
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: Just keep getting back up, and I will be there
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: for you, I will love you. And it's beautiful like
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: this other stuff that you're laying on there. I think additionally,
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: Zamechas and this I mean the script and Zamechas, you know,
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: the film is making an interesting comment. I think that
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: gets overlooked a lot that they're sort of like these
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: repercussions and a lot of stuff that we go through
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: in history and you know, generational and cultural stuff is
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: sort of like this collective processing of what happened in
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: our childhoods or in our lifetime sort of thing. Right,
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: Jenny is a reaction to what her father was, and
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: it's sort of this thing where it's like that post
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: war generation raising kids, did you know they were processing
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: their own things and their own struggles and taking it out.
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: And I just think that that Jenny's an incredibly layered character,
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: and I think that she's very much presented at like
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: with a very sympathetic approach in the film, and I
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: give Zamechas a lot of credit for that. When he
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: shows Jenny going on her benders or bouncing around, she's
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: a person trying to find her identity. And the character
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: that comes to mind actually is Done Beatle's character from
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: Boogie Nights a few years later, where he's just going
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: around inhabiting all of these different personae because he's unsure
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: of who he is, and then at the end it's
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: somebody loving him that makes him who he could fully be.
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: And it's like, I know, that's a weird comparison to draw,
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: but there are similarities in that arc and I think,
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: you know, I think Robin Wright's wonderful in this and
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: I think the way the movie approaches her character is wonderful.
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: Darren, what are your feelings? I don't even know if
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: I can't comment anymore, because John, I think you wrapped
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: it up pretty well there now.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: I think the only thing I would add is as
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: much as she seems to conveniently or inconveniently float into
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: Forrest's life or or I guess, show up, there are
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: times when you realize, well, she's also living these events
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: just like he is. I think of the rally at
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: the Washington Monument, like she was there. It wasn't like, oh,
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: Forrest is going to be there, I'm going to show up. Now,
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: Well that's I'm going to this event, and we happen
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: to be there together. So I try to remind myself
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: it's not just oh, I'm going to go visit Forrest moment,
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: it's I'm living through history as much as he is.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: There are times when she is seeking him out and
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: vice versa. But yeah, it honestly, just look at it
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: this way. Can you imagine this story without Jenny?
• 25:24
  Speaker 4: I can't.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: Like. There's something gravitational about her in his life that
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: adds a lens to things, adds a constant to things.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: I think it would be a lesser movie if you
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: were like, oh, just let him go through history. He doesn't,
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: and maybe he meets her towards the end instead of
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: a childhood friend. I don't think that would have worked.
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree, this is you know, as he talks
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: about at the beginning, they go together like peas and carrots,
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: Like they establish from the get go that they come
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: as a pair, and you know, they float in and
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: out of each other's lives. And I think that's what
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: makes it. That's part of the reason why it's so interesting,
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: is because sometimes we have relationships like that where whether
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: they're romantic or friendships or family. You know, years can
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: go by, many many years can go by, and yet
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: we are drawn to each other, and when we come
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: back together, we fall in line. We're just like, oh man,
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: it's almost like no time has passed. And I like
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: that aspect of it with Forrest and Jenny and John.
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: I really really agree with what you're talking about. How
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: like her behavior is. Her type of behavior is well
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: documented with people who have had this kind of trauma
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: and this kind of abuse in their childhood. And I
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: absolutely love her introduction because the actress who plays young
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: Jenny was a perfect get Oh yes, good lord. I
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: can't even imagine a better casting than that, because she
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: looks so beautiful and so innocent and so lovely and
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: so emotional and powerful just in this tiny little body.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: And I love that. Like when we hear Tom Hanks
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: say like, she was the most beautiful, beautiful thing I've
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: ever seen, and we see for young force reaction like
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: he's portraying that she's my god, what is in front
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: of me? And yeah, soing, but nothing but love for Jenny.
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: And because when she screw up, when she screws up
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: or does something that the audience doesn't want her to do,
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: it's not like, oh I hate this character or anything
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: like that. It's very much a oh that's a shame.
• 27:34
  Speaker 4: You know.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: You just feel like if you hear a family member
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: going through that, you react a different way and you're like, oh,
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: I don't want that for you. I want better for you.
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: Instead of oh, man, look she's ruined in her life.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: It's like, no, there's the sympathies baked in from the
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: first time you see her on screen.
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, Tasa, I like that you point out the
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: young actress who plays young Jenny because there's also a fragility.
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: There's a fragility to her that from that first moment
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: you see her, and it's I don't know, I don't
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: know what she ever went on to do afterward, but
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: I hope she had great success doing, you know, whatever
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: she wanted to do, uh, you know. And I think
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: that what I think is beautiful to speak to your point, Tristan,
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: about how the peas and carrots thing can go in
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: many different types of relationships. I think Michael T. Williamson
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: as Bubba is I mean, everybody it's easy to talk
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: about Robin Wright and Tom Hanks and Gary Sonise, who
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: I mean talk about a calling card movie like this,
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: This Gary Sonise was a name after this movie. Everybody
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: fell in love with Lieutenant Dan. Everybody's heart broke for
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: Lieutenant Dan. Everybody enjoyed going on the journey with Lieutenant Dan.
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: But Michael T. Williamson, what a just powerhouse secret weapon performance.
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: And seeing him paired up with four Forest and seeing
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: how they meshed. I mean, I have to give credit
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: to Williamson and Hanks for finding that chemistry. I believed
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: in Bubba and Forrest. I completely accept every time I
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: watch this film, that these are two people who belong together.
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: And I know that you said earlier, and I agree
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: with it. You never lose Hanks in this but the
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: scenes with Bubba, I lose Hanks. And I gave Williamson
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: a whole lot of credit because he finds the energy
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: that just transforms it in such a way that I
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: only see Forest and Bubba, and I think probably that's
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: why I gravitate toward their relationship a lot when I
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: think about this film.
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: Now, yeah, I agree. There's also the tragicness. I mean,
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: when he says things like if I had known that
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: was the last time we were going to talk, or
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: you know, he and I should have gone together into
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: the business, but instead he died there in Vietnam, you're
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: just like, oh man, And not that I mean, I
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: don't personally know anyone who tied at Vietnam, but there
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: are tons of people who do who can relate to that,
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: to people who never made it home who And there's
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: so many characters in this that you can imprint on
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: or imprint a friend on, and that I think is
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: one of the strengths of the movie overall, especially Bubba.
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: Yes, especially Bubba but you can't overlook Lieutenant Dan. I
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: mean Lieutenant Dan is you know, for the longest time,
• 30:31
  Speaker 3: I had a friend Tom who for years after this movie,
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: whenever I would see him at some point in the night,
• 30:36
  Speaker 3: he was a Lieutenant Day and as cream, Lieutenant Day,
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: and he'd like to be walking up to me, and
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: it was like it was almost like a signal, like
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: it's time to leave. Come on, Like he was Lieutenant
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: Day and ice Cream, and I was like, okay, okay,
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: gotch Tom, gotcha.
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: I think that Okay, that's that's one thing that we
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: need to talk about the cultural impact of this movie,
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: because we all have moments like that, and I think,
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: like my family, I think the one that we have
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: quoted the most is she tasted Louts cigarettes.
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: As in next Smoker. That's uh that that line made
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: a lot of us laugh in the movie theater, let
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: me tell you Yeah.
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: And of course I think the most ubiquitous one is
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: run Forrest run.
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah.
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: I feel like that's probably the quote of the movie.
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: Do you disagree to it allmost? I think you're right.
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: I think life is like a box of chocolates. Is
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: also you right up there? Or even just the way
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: you pronounce Jena or Lieutenant Dan, Like there are so many.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: It's weird because they're kind of they're quotes, but they're
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: also just things you say and then everyone goes like,
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: oh yeah, Forrest Coup. Like it's like you're bringing everyone
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: back to that moment, which I know is obviously what
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: a quote does, but it was something different.
• 31:58
  Speaker 4: It was a touchstone way in the nineties. It was special.
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I still remember in the in the late nineties
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: working at a store and I was like running in
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: from like icy rain, you know, and somebody who worked
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: in the store with me was in the parking lot
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: and I didn't know it, and I start, I start
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: running to get into the store because you know, the
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: icy rain is coming down and everything, and I just
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: hear from across the parking lot run Forest Run, and
• 32:27
  Speaker 3: like everybody in the parking lot has a laugh. I
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: think life is like a box of chocolates came out
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: of the gates strong. But I think over time run
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: Forest Runs, I've become right go to. I think it's
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: just it's just overtaken it.
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: I think the first time I heard it used in
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: pup culture was in fight Club. I think that's the first.
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: Time when another movie references you, then you know you're
• 32:53
  Speaker 3: really a part of the conversation.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: I mean, Forrest Gump exists in the Fight Club universe.
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: Those people have seen that movie. I know that's a
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: ridiculous course to say, but it's true.
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: No it isn't no, no, no, that absolutely exists. Yeah,
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: they exist in our world, and I.
• 33:09
  Speaker 4: Key so and.
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so okay, what else would you say? Has become
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: a cultural touchstone of this movie, like obviously, like his accent,
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: the way he says certain words like Jenny and Lieutenant
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: Dan and things like that, run force, run, life as
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: a box of chocolates? What else is there with this?
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: This movie score by Alan Silvestri has a que that
• 33:36
  Speaker 3: has been used in so many frickin' trailers over time.
• 33:42
  Speaker 3: Universal Pictures presents it like you hear it go and
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: it still gets you. You still get like the goosebumps,
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: but you're like, oh, you're cheating. I don't want to
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: see your movie now because you're cheating. You're trying to
• 33:53
  Speaker 3: trick me into seeing this. This movie's probably not very good,
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: but yeah, that one queue where the music swells that so.
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: Much so watching it in this movie, I was like, oh,
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: so that's right. It came from this, like it's now
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: so ubiquitous. Like I was almost pulled out of the
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: movie being like, wait, that's right, it came from this,
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: not they used it and then they put it in
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: It's oh man, it's just it was like that in
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: Robinhood Prince of Thieves.
• 34:19
  Speaker 4: That was they were like, oh, used in trailer.
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: Do you guys remember when the last Samurai music was
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: used in every single trailer anything to do with fighting
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: or non America?
• 34:33
  Speaker 3: Yes, yes, yes, yes, hey listen, it's a It is
• 34:38
  Speaker 3: an absolute tip of the hat to Silvestri because he
• 34:42
  Speaker 3: has this score. He worked with Zamechis on Back to
• 34:46
  Speaker 3: the Future. Like those are two absolutely iconic themes right there.
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: Like I was gonna say, well, just those two right
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: there would submit you in history.
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: And then he goes on he does the Avengers theme.
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: It's like people sleep on his name, Like Silvestri is
• 34:59
  Speaker 3: like legit, big influence, but people would rather talk about,
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: you know, Zimmer and Williams and stuff like that, Like.
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: Those were the two I was about to utter, and
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: because you're right, it's Williams and Zimmer. That's all everyone
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: talks about. Williams and Zimmer and you know it's silvestry. Yeah,
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: it's true. A lot a lot of people don't put
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: him in the running where he needs to be, uh.
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: To answer a lot of interest in I think the
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: one other touchstone was maybe it's just for me. But
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: when anytime I have to like list something, I think
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: of Bubba when he's listing all the ways you can
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: make shrimp. Yes, and he's just like yes, and I
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: just kind of get into that drawl, like you know,
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: it's like shortcut, long cut, fast cut, slow fade, make
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: it ass all, Like you just kind of go into
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: that drawl like he does, because because it's a montage
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: and you just you don't know all the ways of
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: shrimp and he maybe he doesn't.
• 35:59
  Speaker 4: But it's it's funny every.
• 36:01
  Speaker 3: Time every time we're talking about dinner and you know,
• 36:06
  Speaker 3: and and and my wife, like we'll mention like shrimp
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: is an option, I immediately will start going shrimp, gumbo,
• 36:12
  Speaker 3: shrimp to femp. I guess that's about it. And it's
• 36:16
  Speaker 3: just like, yeah, you can't help it. It's a reflex
• 36:20
  Speaker 3: like a Simpsons quote.
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, So okay. One common criticism, because we've
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: been We've been loving on this movie pretty hard with
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: good reason. But one common criticism is that it has
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: an oversimplified history view of history, kind of a conservative nostalgia.
• 36:41
  Speaker 3: Of the past.
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: And it's one criticism that I've found very interesting. I
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: heard this from from a couple of film students in
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: my younger days who were saying, like, oh, it's the
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: it's pro establishment and the reason why I I can
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: see your face, John, And I'm going to explain myself.
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: And I'm not advocating this. I'm not saying it's right.
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: I'm not saying it's wrong. I'm just saying the theory
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: is out there is that Tom Hanks survived. I'm sorry
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: Forrest Gump survives and becomes a millionaire and has all
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: these great things happened to him because he only does
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: what people tell him to do, only what people in
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: authority tell him what to do. And I find that interesting, Like,
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: don't discount it right away, Boy is it.
• 37:30
  Speaker 3: I didn't even say anything.
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: I can I can see your faces. The listeners can't,
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: but I can see your listeners.
• 37:36
  Speaker 3: I just want to say that he's impugning our character.
• 37:39
  Speaker 3: Right now, I'll speak up for both myself and Darren, but.
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: I want okay, but if you disagree with that, that's fine,
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: but I want to I want to hear it because
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: I think it's it's interesting because you know, like you know,
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: like the the his football coach loves him because he
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: just runs fast and they when they tell him to run,
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: he runs. When they tell him to stop, he stops.
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: His drill sergeant loves him because he's so fricking simple,
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: and he does what he's told.
• 38:02
  Speaker 4: Uh.
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: He runs way in battle because Jenny told him that's
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: what he needed to do. He goes and talks at
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: the Washington Monument and makes history because somebody told him
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: that he needed to get in line and do it.
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: He helped, He helped. He becomes a ping pong star
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: for those same reasons. Uh, you know, he just the
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: list just goes on and on that like pretty much
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: the only thing he does of his own accord is
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: run yeah for like later like across the country.
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and and love Jenny and forgive Jenny and be
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: there for his friends. And the thing is people. Okay,
• 38:40
  Speaker 3: I'm going to start with the particular and the I'm
• 38:42
  Speaker 3: gonna I'm gonna zoom out, Okay, yes, Jenny tells him
• 38:45
  Speaker 3: to run, but he runs and saves, he runs back,
• 38:50
  Speaker 3: he keeps running back. Okay, and yes, his running is
• 38:53
  Speaker 3: a is a touchstone of his But that scene in particular,
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: Forrest made it. Forrest was clear, and he turned around
• 39:01
  Speaker 3: and he went back, and he kept running and he
• 39:03
  Speaker 3: kept running specifically because he wouldn't leave people behind. He
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: did the right thing. And I think if anything, moving
• 39:11
  Speaker 3: out to the macro, oh, well, he does stuff that
• 39:14
  Speaker 3: people tell him. He's the feather on the wind. That's
• 39:17
  Speaker 3: the whole point of seeing the feather at the beginning.
• 39:19
  Speaker 3: At the end is Forrest's life is He's just where
• 39:22
  Speaker 3: he needs to be when when life, when history needs
• 39:26
  Speaker 3: him to be there, And in the context of people
• 39:29
  Speaker 3: quote unquote telling him what to do, he finds a
• 39:32
  Speaker 3: way unintentionally just because he has such a good heart
• 39:35
  Speaker 3: of doing the right thing with what he's being told
• 39:39
  Speaker 3: to do. And it's it is a I think that
• 39:45
  Speaker 3: what happens with a movie like Forrest Gump is an
• 39:49
  Speaker 3: inverse of what happens with a movie that I always
• 39:53
  Speaker 3: love to bring up at every chance. Star Trek five. Okay,
• 39:56
  Speaker 3: let me explain Star Trek five.
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: Listen long time. Yeah, this is a common occurrence.
• 40:03
  Speaker 3: Star Trek five was curb stomped when it came out,
• 40:06
  Speaker 3: and you can say with good reason, Okay, people absolutely
• 40:10
  Speaker 3: made fun of it. They mocked the hell out of it.
• 40:13
  Speaker 3: When I was in line for Star Trek six, after school,
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: people were still referencing how much they hated Star Trek five.
• 40:19
  Speaker 3: It was a laughing stock. And then you flash forward
• 40:22
  Speaker 3: thirty years and screen Rant and all of these sites
• 40:26
  Speaker 3: are like, maybe it's time to rethink Star Trek five.
• 40:28
  Speaker 3: Maybe it's not so bad, guys. The inverse is always
• 40:32
  Speaker 3: going to happen where something like Forrest Gump, which is
• 40:35
  Speaker 3: a huge, powerhouse, beautiful film, Eventually somebody's gonna put their
• 40:39
  Speaker 3: hands on their hips and they're gonna go, well, you know,
• 40:42
  Speaker 3: if you'll really think about it, shut up, Like, I
• 40:46
  Speaker 3: hate that sort of trend.
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: It's just I call it the Titanic effect.
• 40:50
  Speaker 3: I love it. I'm stealing it, and we're going to
• 40:54
  Speaker 3: use that the Titanic effect. I love that. You are
• 40:57
  Speaker 3: absolutely gosh darn right, yes, yes.
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: I mean I even saw an article in researching this
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: of people. I guess they re asked people who voted
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: to give it best picture and a lot.
• 41:10
  Speaker 4: Of them were like, well, we actually probably.
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: Should have given it to Shawshank Redemptions that year, and
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: I'm like, well, sorry, you didn't. You gave it to
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: Forrest Gun Like that's what.
• 41:20
  Speaker 4: You did, you know, own it. But to your question, Tristan,
• 41:24
  Speaker 4: I mean, I can see the pieces on the board
• 41:28
  Speaker 4: that you're describing with him being told what to do, but.
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: I totally echo with John says of we see enough
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: of his childhood and his mother's upbringing of him that
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: we know this is a character that strives to do
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: the right thing. And he has a fictional character, so
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: he's going to be in these crazy situations, and of
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: course the plot is going to have him do the
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: right thing.
• 41:52
  Speaker 4: But yeah, his.
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: Running is for the right thing, even when it's not.
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: It's not always running away, it's running across America just
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: because it's doing all of that. So, yes, he is
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: told a lot and directed, but I wouldn't go so
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: far as to say he's not even as the own character.
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: It's it's yeah, if a guy hits your girl, we
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: will all want to react like he does. We want
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: to do the right thing of in those moments. But
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: of course it's set up that way, he's the main character.
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: So but yes, it's in twenty more years we'll look
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: back again and be like.
• 42:34
  Speaker 4: Well, let's take another Crack and Forth comp.
• 42:37
  Speaker 3: And it turns out is a great film after all.
• 42:40
  Speaker 3: And listen, ninety four was a weird, weird year at
• 42:44
  Speaker 3: the Oscars. Absolutely everybody actually saw every film up for
• 42:49
  Speaker 3: Best Picture, Like it was one of those weird lightning
• 42:52
  Speaker 3: in the bottle types of years. And I still, like,
• 42:56
  Speaker 3: it still blows my mind how strong that year was.
• 42:59
  Speaker 3: I mean, like, yeah, Shawshank Redemption is also an incredible film.
• 43:04
  Speaker 3: Pulp Fiction is also an incredible like good Lord, like
• 43:08
  Speaker 3: out of the gate Man, like it's crazy how strong
• 43:11
  Speaker 3: ninety four was. But Forrest Gump that was the movie
• 43:15
  Speaker 3: everybody talked about. Like I knew people who didn't like
• 43:19
  Speaker 3: pulp Fiction. I knew people who were met on Shawshank Redemption,
• 43:23
  Speaker 3: but I never encountered a single person who walked out
• 43:26
  Speaker 3: of the theater of Forrest Gump and was like, eh,
• 43:28
  Speaker 3: that kind of sucked.
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: Like, oh, I'm looking at the list right now, So
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: top of the list is Forrest Gump. Of course, of
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: movies that came out in ninety four, Shawshank YEP, pulp Fiction,
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: The Lion King YEP, Leon, The Professional Clerks, Four Weddings
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: and a Funeral YEP, Interview with the Vampire, Dumb and Dummer,
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: Ace Ventura, The Mask, Hudsucker, Proxy, ed Wood, Speed River, Wild,
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: Miracle on thirty fourth Street, The Crow, Little Giants, The
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: Santa Claus, Black Beauty.
• 44:00
  Speaker 3: A hell of a year, man, it was a hell
• 44:02
  Speaker 3: of a year for movies.
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: It rarely heads Stumbolina, Richie rich D, Two Mighty Ducks,
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: Little Rascals, three Ninjas kicked back. Okay, we're gett we're
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: starting to lose steam here.
• 44:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you're definitely let's love stop stop here.
• 44:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah, but ye made it to say okay, John is right. Oh.
• 44:20
  Speaker 3: Also, so this had about that I need I need
• 44:23
  Speaker 3: a new ring tone. Please, I need that as a
• 44:25
  Speaker 3: ring tone, please, I beg you.
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: Okay. So the budget was fifty five million and the
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: box office return was six hundred and seventy eight.
• 44:33
  Speaker 3: I made a couple of bucks.
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: That's inice four dollars.
• 44:37
  Speaker 4: That's a lot of money.
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: That's a lot of money. Okay, I'm gonna Darren, can
• 44:42
  Speaker 2: you look that up for me.
• 44:43
  Speaker 3: We gotta know, we gotta know.
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: What seventy eight million in today's money.
• 44:48
  Speaker 3: And the answer should depress everybody as we realize what
• 44:50
  Speaker 3: inflation has done.
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: So during the during production, they the studio wanted them
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: to cut lots of stuff, saying, make it sure this
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: doesn't work. I can't remember exactly what they wanted him
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: to cut. A lot of the running they wanted him
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: to cut, which honestly him running across America. I probably
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: could have cut that too.
• 45:09
  Speaker 3: The song is really good, so no.
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: But they they wanted to cut a lot. They even
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: sent a stooge to stay on set to make sure
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: that he stayed on budget. And Zamechas and Hanks both
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: gave up big portions of their salary in order to
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: make the movie happen in the reduced budget. But they
• 45:29
  Speaker 2: did it by getting points on the back end, smart
• 45:33
  Speaker 2: so smart Scotty more than his original salary by getting
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: plants in the back end. I think Hanks walked away
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: with seventy million in ninety four dollars nineteen ninety four
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: dollars for this movie.
• 45:47
  Speaker 4: So, uh, seven hundred and six hundred and seventy.
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: Eight million in nineteen ninety four is one point four
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: eight billion dollars in twenty twenty five.
• 45:59
  Speaker 4: This made more enough money.
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's and that's not even counting for like the
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: how far your dollar winn in ninety four, Like that
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: money is just worth more.
• 46:10
  Speaker 4: It's just oh my gosh, so much money.
• 46:12
  Speaker 3: It's not it's not just worth it's also average price
• 46:15
  Speaker 3: of a ticket. Back then.
• 46:16
  Speaker 4: I was think of how much do you sell to make.
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: Oh gosh, so even more people, more people saw it
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: than what were Yeah, anyway, you guys understand, Yeah, listeners understanding.
• 46:29
  Speaker 3: Listen, man, when when a movie like this comes along
• 46:33
  Speaker 3: and you watch it with your girlfriend at the time,
• 46:36
  Speaker 3: and I mean listen that scene still to this day
• 46:40
  Speaker 3: when his son played by a then unknown who went
• 46:44
  Speaker 3: on to do great things Joel Osmond, when he says
• 46:48
  Speaker 3: I love you Dad, Like, oh my god, Like I
• 46:52
  Speaker 3: remember being in the movie theater with my girlfriend at
• 46:56
  Speaker 3: the time and like the scenes building and I'm like,
• 46:58
  Speaker 3: don't don't you do this to me? Don't know, no,
• 47:02
  Speaker 3: we haven't been going out that long, and so I
• 47:04
  Speaker 3: love you dad.
• 47:05
  Speaker 4: Boom.
• 47:06
  Speaker 3: I just started bawling, like it's just absolutely like a
• 47:09
  Speaker 3: shot to the heart and yeah, so everybody walks out.
• 47:12
  Speaker 3: I was like you got to see this film, man,
• 47:14
  Speaker 3: you gotta see this thing.
• 47:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, Nick, what do we say? Nail the ending?
• 47:18
  Speaker 4: And I mean that's half the film right there they
• 47:21
  Speaker 4: did it.
• 47:21
  Speaker 3: Yep.
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, what a what a point to end?
• 47:25
  Speaker 2: And to move move on to our personal ratings, Darren
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: and I always make you go first, how many feathers
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: in the wind? Are you giving this this movie?
• 47:33
  Speaker 4: The cgi feather? Yes? Is it tumbled around? You know?
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: It's again it's a ubiquitous movie. It's a movie that
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: is just will be, was and forever will be. So
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: you have to give it five for a bump. I
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: think for its cultural touchstoneness. I will say that was a.
• 47:55
  Speaker 4: Factor of my rating overall. Like it is, it's a
• 47:58
  Speaker 4: great story.
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: This is still, though, a movie that I'm probably gonna
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: watch once a decade. This is not a oh man,
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: you know, I want to have the feels again or
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: something like that.
• 48:09
  Speaker 4: So that doesn't dimits it at all. It's just a
• 48:11
  Speaker 4: different kind of movie that you watch in you know,
• 48:14
  Speaker 4: decade by decade.
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: And uh yeah, I got a well a couple of years,
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: we'll cross that bridge with my young lings and I'm
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: sure they'll be quoting Run Forest run all the time
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: after that.
• 48:27
  Speaker 4: So five feathers on the wind for Darren John, how
• 48:31
  Speaker 4: about you?
• 48:31
  Speaker 3: Five duh? I mean, like, I'm sure I tipped my
• 48:35
  Speaker 3: hand early, but like it is like we didn't even
• 48:39
  Speaker 3: detour for anything. But I think this movie moves so fluidly,
• 48:44
  Speaker 3: so effortlessly that I remember on this rewatch like I
• 48:49
  Speaker 3: had to pause it for a second. I was like, oh,
• 48:50
  Speaker 3: I'm already forty seven minutes into this. It was like
• 48:53
  Speaker 3: forty seven minutes if it was you know, thirty seconds,
• 48:56
  Speaker 3: Like you just get sucked in and it's just the
• 48:59
  Speaker 3: story moves so incredibly well, like this is this is
• 49:04
  Speaker 3: mind blowing when you think about the fact that Zamechas
• 49:07
  Speaker 3: does the Back to the Future trilogy, he does what
• 49:10
  Speaker 3: he does with Death becomes Her, and then he comes
• 49:13
  Speaker 3: two years later, two years later with this, Like that's insane.
• 49:17
  Speaker 3: Back to Future Part three is nineteen ninety Death becomes
• 49:20
  Speaker 3: Hers ninety two, Forrest Scump is ninety four. Like wow,
• 49:24
  Speaker 3: so yeah, five.
• 49:25
  Speaker 2: I'm giving it five two. I mean, it's it's hard
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: not to Like I could have been a jerk and
• 49:29
  Speaker 2: said four point five, but I'm not going to because
• 49:32
  Speaker 2: this is a great movie. It deserves the five and
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: I could repeat myself with everything that we've said already,
• 49:38
  Speaker 2: but it's there. Robert Zemechis should be heralded for this,
• 49:43
  Speaker 2: for this movie, like his direction, how he worked the
• 49:46
  Speaker 2: cinematography and the editing, and how it was almost like
• 49:49
  Speaker 2: a storybook in the way that it was shot and
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: edited together. That's something that we didn't really talk about.
• 49:54
  Speaker 2: But I love the transition, the transitions I should say,
• 49:57
  Speaker 2: between sections and scenes, and like when he's closing his
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: eyes and things really hard and then all of a
• 50:02
  Speaker 2: sudden we see young Forrest who opens his eyes. Just
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: little things like that. It's just really great transitions, and
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: you can tell that it was thought out that it
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: wasn't necessarily found in editing. It was like, no, this
• 50:13
  Speaker 2: is what we're going to do to move to this section.
• 50:15
  Speaker 2: We're going to have him wear a blue plaid shirt
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: in this scene and then he's going to wear something
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: similar in the next scene in order to kind of
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: help transition forward. It was just little things like that.
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: This was meticulous, This was well thought out. It was exact,
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: but yet it didn't feel cold and technical. So five
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: stars easy. Thank you guys so much for discussing this
• 50:36
  Speaker 2: movie tonight and Darren, what are we doing next week?
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: That's right, we're here still in the nineties with Robert Zemeckis.
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: Next week we're going to be covering nineteen ninety seven's
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: Contact here on house Lights. Join the Revolution, Join the
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: net Party.