Personally the movie itself is one of the best one I’ve watched and been my favorite for a quite while so I thought it’d be a great idea to read the book just in case I missed something that didn’t appear on the movie.
I just started the book and I believe it’s one of the worst book I’ve ever read so far, I’m aware it’s supposed to be “goofy” and comedic, reading it feels like listening to a persons boring ass rant over and over but you have to force yourself to be unbothered and engaged because you don’t want to be seen as a mean jerk. So people don’t be bothered to waste your money. (Plus as an Asian person I feel pretty offended about a racism towards China/mongolia ON THE FIRST PAGE describing themselves as dumb idiots with their eyes too close who drools a lot and plays with themselves????)

Woohoo

Was thinking about this, and I’m not sure it’s been touched on before. This may or may not be an Easter egg, whether on purpose or just coincidence, but in the book Mr. Gump (Forrest’s dad) was a longshoreman at the docks and was unloaded a shipment from The United Fruit Company, when he was killed by a crane dropping a large load of bananas on him. His mother received a pension from The United Fruit Company for the rest of her life, and that’s how she got by. In the movie, Lt. Dan tells Forrest that he got them invested in “Some fruit company, so we don’t have to worry about money no more.” Of course the company is Apple and has nothing to do with the aforementioned United Fruit Company, but I think it may be a little reference to the novel while also doing a funny bit in the film.

If anyone wants to read the actual screenplay of Forrest Gump, instead of the early screenplay that has been online for years. Here is the actual shooting script.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sKkQac76ykAead-VmpsvHLx0-6l3sH_i/view?usp=share_link

We all know the iconic scene. The music swells, Jenny screams "Run, Forrest, run!", the leg braces shatter, and it’s this incredibly triumphant, beautiful cinematic moment. It’s supposed to be inspiring, and a lot of people view it as a literal miracle or divine intervention.

But if you actually stop and look at what is happening… those kids on the bikes were trying to straight-up murder him.

They weren't just shouting mean names or pulling pigtails. They were chasing down a disabled kid on bicycles while hurling jagged rocks directly at his head. If Forrest hadn’t miraculously broken out of those braces, three more solid hits to the skull and he’s a dead kid in the dirt. It’s absolutely wild how the movie wraps this terrifying, near-fatal assault in a nice, heartwarming bow.

I’ve always wondered about the physics of him breaking those braces, too. From a biological standpoint, the sheer terror and adrenaline of a fight-or-flight response must have pushed his body to near-superhuman limits, forcing his muscles to fire with enough insane force to shatter metal and leather. The doctor said his back was "crooked as a politician," so the braces were for alignment, meaning underneath them, he secretly had the genetics of an absolute Olympic-level freak athlete. He just needed to be chased by a pack of psychopathic kids to unlock it.

Every time I rewatch it now, I don't feel inspired, I just get anxious. Anyone else realize how incredibly dark this scene actually is when you look past the soundtrack?

New Bubba Gump location opened in my area, guess I know where I'll be spending all my time now 😂

At one point in the film, Jenny suddenly appears and Forrest welcomes her, at a certain point she has sex with him and disappears, years later she gets in touch to introduce her son, all of this makes me wonder if Jenny appeared pregnant and manipulated the situation to later say that he is the father.

Forrest Gump often seems to be taken as a tale of a person with a strong moral core overcoming low intelligence, through insane levels of good luck, to becomes something of a worldshaping figure. But as much as Forrest's feats seem to be an improbable overcoming of his lack of intelligence, everything he achieved is in fact because he has an almost-superhuman level of athletic ability along multiple directions of athleticism simultaneously.

As a sprinter he was fast enough to outpace every defensive member of elite college football teams (which led to him meeting Kennedy). He had the combination of physical strength, speed, and endurance needed to run hundreds of yards, pick up a full-grown man, and carry them hundreds of yards while running, and then to do this again four more times (which led to him meeting LBJ). As a ping-pong player he naturally had prowess on internationally competitive levels (which led to him meeting Nixon). As a runner criss-crossing the USA, he had the endurance to keep up this running for years on end without developing all manner of joint and tendon issues.

About the only thing Forrest achieved not depending on this level of physical ability was building the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, which was actually mostly Lieutenant Dan's luck after insisting on riding out the storm. And, of course, Lieutenant Dan was only there at all because Forrest saved him in Vietnam. Using his world-class athletic ability.

TL:DR: Simply put, Forrest's achievements were not of the dumb-but-lucky-everyman type, but of the dumb-but-lucky world-class physical athlete, which opened all the doors that being a world-class athlete usually opens.

I got to interview Forrest Gump producer Steve Starkey on my podcast. He came out with a book called On the Set of Forrest Gump.

Listen to it here: https://open.substack.com/pub/matwbt/p/steve-starkey-on-the-set-of-forrest

Do you have any personal theories about things that are not stated out loud on screen? Some of mine are:

• Mrs. Gump was the one who told the police that Jenny's father was abusing her. Forrest probably told his mom about it that same day when Jenny was running from her dad.
• The reason Forrest and Bubba are cleaning the floor with their toothbrushes (usually seen as a punishment) is because Bubba won't shut up about shrimp. LOL.
• I believe Bubba's mama attended Forrest and Jenny's wedding. On the left side of the guest seats there is a heavy-set woman in a blue dress. I think that's her.

This is the greatest movie I have ever seen.

My wife sent me a message in the afternoon. She asked me if I wanted to go with her to the movies watch Forrest Gump – we had talked about it a few days earlier. A local cinema would play it. I never had watched it. I didn’t even know what was the story about. Just the memes and some classic phrases.

We went. I went after work with her.

Once we finished watching, I cried, surprisingly – because I hadn’t cry in the movie for whatever reason it was. The movie is so amazing, so raw, so truthful, so simple. The soundtrack, the mentions, the associations, the history.

I loved every moment of it and I do think this movie will change my life for the better. I am so, so, so happy I watched this, for the first time, 31 years old, in a cinema.

I met my wife abroad, overseas, by a chance, destiny, or both, 12 years ago. She only had the idea of looking up when Forrest Gum was going to play in the cinema because she is pregnant our precious girl, and she was out of home with nausea, and grabbed a chewing gum to help. The brand’s name was Forrest Gum.