Forrest Gump: An American Tale of Innocence and Success, Appunti di Cultura Anglo-Americana

Scarica Forrest Gump: An American Tale of Innocence and Success e più Appunti in PDF di Cultura Anglo-Americana solo su Docsity! Today I’m going to star and complete the work on Forrest Gump, I should manage to do it because most of the details that are going to be mentioned here are familiar to you, as they have been introduced in previous lessons. Forrest Gump What’s different in this film is the general atmosphere. It is meant to be a romance, a comedy, not a critic movie and the issues implied are dealed with in a polite and heartwarming way. It’s the story of this person, from the moment he’s a baby to the moment he finds out he has a child. Forrest is the son of a single mother, which is an important aspect because he’ll also be left alone with his son because Jenny, the mother, dies young. The format of the film is quite familiar, many narratives in the US and in particular in African- American culture focus on individual-personal stories. In this case it’s not very personal, but extended to the close environment of the main character, his family. So we have the same kind of format\structure which is developed in a linear way, where the only aspect of complexity is provided by the narrative frame, which is quite similar to Apocalypse now. In both, we meet the protagonist at the beginning of the film, an adult who starts telling, almost by chance, his story (Forrest talks to a woman who happens to sit next to him). The narrating voice is provided his personal story in the form of flashback. Aside from this, the development of the film is quite linear, at the beginning he is a child, then a college student, then he goes to work, he goes to Vietnam… The other simple and effective aspect is that the characters are always the same. Forrest moves to different spaces, and passes through different contexts, but at the same time the main references in his life stay the same from the beginning to the end, especially his mother and Jenny. Two more friends are added through the story, the first one is an African-american boy, Bubba, and the other one is a white man. He meets both of them during the war in Vietnam. They represent his main support in life. Forrest Gump is an extremely successful film, in particular in the US. Why? It’s the American dream made film. Forrest is a simple person with a low IQ. An idiot in a way, but extremely honest, honorable about life, and he’s able to observe rules. In the army, he fits perfectly in, because he’s very good at doing what he’s asked to. So, in proposing the narrative of the American dream becoming true, the film tends to become an epic journey. There’s a character who is unlucky, discriminated, oppressed and less able than other people but at the end, by accident, he becomes a successful hero. What’s particular about Forest Gump? His main virtues are the basic American virtues. He’s a typical American man humble and persistent, not easily defeated. Once he gives his word, he keeps it against all odds (nonostante tutto). It’s exactly this kind of attitude that makes his fortune. It was a successful film because it was a sort of celebration of the American goodness and innocence, Forrest (as well as real American people) copes with everything, his best-friend’s death, his father’s absence, a girlfriend who loves him only at the end of her life… so it’s the celebration of this kind of identity that belongs to the American tradition. However, the film was criticized because it was simplifying too much, some tragic moments in American history are represented (the Kennedy’s death, the Watergate canal…) in a ridiculous way. Even segregation and the African-American struggle have a simple representation. Anyway, this should be justified by the fact that we are seeing this events through the eyes of an idiot, who is the first-person narrator. The positive aspect is that we are provided in the film a number of different models of the African- American identity. For example, the difference between north and south in perceiving the African-American identity is given very clearly. Forest Gump comes from the South, and while he is representing what happened with him in the South in the 50s, 60s and how important these years were, he’s providing the representation of the African-Americans conditions; at the same time when he is speaking, in the 90s, in the north or in other areas in the USA he’s able to see the difference. Forrest Gump has, for sure, became a model as a character but is it because of his uncorrupted innocence or because of limited comprehension? So you can be happy only if you don’t understand much? This is the main reason why critical positions raised. We’re speaking of an adaptation of the novel. It wasn’t successful at all. The adaptation makes it a totally different kind of work, even though the character is more or less the same, the director Robert Zemeckis has made a great work in particular in creating the personality and the story of Forest Gump on the backdrop (sullo sfondo) of American history. Many things changed between the 50s and the 80s in the States. He builds a connection between Forrest’s choices in life and the big picture. The film became a sort of paradigm it was loved by conservative politicians, for reasons easily understandable: Forrest is the typical white American elector. Very simple, honest and white. Never opposing the government, always accepting what happens to him and trying to make the most of it. If you compare him to Jenny, you can easily see how he’s the perfect American while she’s unconventional, more intelligent, fighting for peace, going to college… For this reason, she’ll get eventually punished, she dies very young. As the part of the audience you are moved and you participate, but at the same time you observe that she’s been taking provocative positions her whole life. While Forrest Gump was fighting in Vietnam, he was a real patriot, a real American man. He’s so simple and naïve he successes in gaining the sympathy of all type of public. Do you know anything about Robert Zemeckis? He also directed a trilogy: Ritorno al futuro. (Back to the future). When he directed the first one in 1985 (before Forrest Gump), he was very famous, it was his best moment. It won a lot of prizes and academy awards. It was extremely successful also in terms of market. He also directing Cast away, adaptation of Robinson Crusoe. If you work on adaptation, if you find a novel which is interesting from the point of your cinema intent you can do different operations, I’m asking you to remember these 3 possibilities. -Transposition: a novel “directly given on screen” (for example Heart of Darkness by Nicolas Roeg, Shakespeare bbc version *dice un altro nome che non capisco minute 25*), the novel is taken as such and it’s made into film. The cinematic result is not important, the director just wants to respect the story, no changing or modifying. -Commentary: an original is taken and either purposely or inadvertently altered in some respects. Takes more distance from the original modifying a little, for example the setting, the names of the characters, but not drastically. (For example, Cast away is a commentary, even though the basic condition is the same, a shipwreck, a man alone on a island…) -Analogy: essential changes are made, though the source text is still, if vaguely, identifiable. The director changes a lot, it’s a new story in which you can see the shadow of the original work. For example, Apocalypse now is the most respectful and successful adaptation of heart of darkness, but the story is almost unrecognizable, even though you can understand that colonel Kurtz is similar to the original Kurtz. Anyway, the difference between Commentary and Analogy is a subtle one. The analogy between literature and cinema has always been very deep. Cinema was born more or less at the beginning of the 20th century, which was also the age when the best of English fiction was produced, Victorian fiction is suitable to cinema in a way previously unimaginable. Virginia Woolf was adopting some stylistic choices that were quite similar to the techniques later adopted by cinema. So there is an immediate relationship between literature and cinema. Normally, cinema made a novel more famous because it produces a story which is easier to watch and to listen to. The structure of the film “Forrest Gump” is perfect, you have a main character you follow and he is always fascinating, as a child, as a student, as an adult. He gains your sympathy; he lives this intrinsic experience, which is at the same time individual and collective. So you have a sort of unity in the story, extremely well done and built on the figure of Forrest who isn’t the only protagonist because he’s able to relate well with people, and this is one of his main qualities. He’s often rejected but he never gives in. decision). So, at this point, some African-Americans jave been introduced in the film, but the basic moment in which Forrest gets in touch with the African-American identity is, in fact, in the Army. [ RIPRESA FILM da scena in cui si spiega l’uccisione di Kennedy alla scena in cui nessuno lo fa sedere sul bus diretti al campo militare ] So, you know, the explanation is very simple and childish and this is a very important aspect of the film. Forrest finally gets a degree, making his mother very proud of him, and after that he joins the Army. (Riguardo la scena in cui non lo fanno sedere sul bus) You see, this is the same scene repeted several times in the film, it’s a structural device, which is quite relevant because you get the idea of the situation which Forrest is obliged to face, whith his life differencies. One thing noticeable is that he never reacts, he is able to bear almost everything and in this aspect of his character, he reminds of a prototype of the negro in literature, like “Unce Tom’s Cabin”, so just like Uncle Tom, even though he’s white, he is able to bear almost everything. [ RIPRESA FILM fino alla scena della camerata con il sargente ] Pay attention to the African-American characters who are presented in these two sequencies, one of them being Bubba’s mother and the way in chich her work is presented: the maid serving in other peopl’es kitchen is sort of presented as a tradition (the grandma, the mother are doing the same things) and the visual effect of the scene repeted twice, with the same woman with different clothes getting into the dining room and offerung food to a white person this is quite meaningful because at the end of the film, Bubba’s mother receives a great amount of money from Forrest and she gets being served by a white woman, so the scene is exactly the same but the person sitting is Bubba’s mother, and the person serving is a white woman (this is an example of reversal). Bubba, which is the other black character, appears to be at once a sort of Unce Tom, a very simple man who’s been working since he was 9 and who knows everything there is to know about shrimps (which is a rather simple topic, but it’s the center of his life). Third, the sargeant is a black man and he’s not so intelligent, he’s presented basically as stupid to the point that he considers Forrest as a “fucking genious”, as he says. This part belongs to the character, but also belongs in a more evident way to the military discipline that is presented here as a basically stupid activity: a matter of repiting mechanically actions (the more mechanical, the better) and to “do as you are told to do” and Forrest is extremely good at this job. [ RIPRESA FILM dalla scena in cui Forrest monta il fucile alla scena in cui Bubba elenca tutti i tipi di ricette con i gamberi poi dalla scena in cui Jenny parte fino alla scena in cui scrive lettere a Jenny ] So, what you can notice is that Forrest always trie sto stick to his community formed by his mother, Jenny and Bubba, so the idea is that you are forming a close group and you are very protective about this group (that’s what Forrest is doing at this point, he’s trying to protect himself and Bubba). Bubba says, in fact, “we are looking after each other and this will save us” [ RIPRESA FILM dalla scena dell’inizio dell’attacco alla scena in cui Bubba muore ] So you have the same situation, in a complicated area, during a comlicated contingency, Forrerst starts running because someone he loves (ndr. Jenny) told him to run in he ever got in trouble, so he start sto run but at a certain point he realizes that he forgot to save Bubba, so he goes back out of friendship, not because he’s a patriot, but because he just wants to save his friend (what happens is that he saves a lot of other soldiers while he’s looking for Bubba). The lieutenent tells him not to go back because he ordered an air strike in the whole area but he goes back anyway for Bubba. So you get the idea that being a friend becomes for Forrest even more important than being a patriot, to save his friend although he’s risking his life. This becomes rather epic, in a way, he’s saving his friend being very brave without even knowing he’s brave (and this is quite typical of the kind of narrative that we call “epic”). [ RIPRESA FILM dalla scena in cui Forrest arriva alla manifestazione alla scena in cui si rincontra con Jenny ] This is a quite important scene, it is the moment in which Forrest has just received the Medal of Honour and it’s quite meaningful because, again, you have an official event (the demonstration in 1968 in Washington) in which you see that he is a very simple man: there are people who are demonstrating and he doesn’t even understand what this is about. So, at this point, he has just been given the Medal of Honour for being a good fighter and he’s taking a tour in Washington when he’s collected by these group of demonstrators who don’t realize that he’s a war hero (he’s thought to be a manifestant dressed up). (Riguardo alla scena super romantica in cui Forrest e Jenny si corrono incontro) That’s why they said that the film was neutralizing political resistence. I want to show you something more because, in fact, Forrest is spending the evening with Jenny and he’s meeting another kind of African-American citizen, that is a Black Panther fighting for peace. [ RIPRESA FILM dalla scena in cui Forrest incontra il Black Panther alla scena in cui difende Jenny ] The representation is, of course, simplified and extremely ironic: everybody is behaving in a very grottesque way (also Black Panthers are made fun of), but at the same time the film is showing different characteristics of each issues, each character and each move which are introduced in the film. So, in this case, you have demonstrators fighting for peace, wearing uniforms and being extremely aggressive, and at the same time you have also a white person (ndr. quello che schiaffeggia Jenny) who used to be a leader in Berkeley (which was a protest of the Vietnam War) and he’s hitting his girlfriend, beating her, and Forrest, who is supposed to be the soldier, the one using violence, is trying to protect Jenny. This is more or less what I had plannes to show you, the slides sum up what we said: so, in this case you have the circle producing the way in which Forrest Gump develops (always looking more his own context). It is important the use of the word “destiny” in the film, it is a key word in the film and it is to be connected to the notion of “manifest destiny”, which is a basic notion in american culture. We call “manifest destiny” the notion that US have a mission, and this missioni s to be the bravest, the strongest and the most civilisez country in the while world. So, it is not by chance that the word “destiny” is so often used when referring to Forrest Gump and to his final ending.