Forrest Gump and the Presidential Handshakes
Visual effects place Tom Hanks alongside real presidents in Forrest Gump. Inside Forrest Gump, that journey includes handshakes with John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon. The presidents appear in historical footage, while Hanks enters their world through visual effects. Industrial Light & Magic combined the older images with newly filmed material, creating encounters between real presidents and a fictional visitor.
The filmmakers shot Hanks in settings designed to match the presidential footage. Shadows, scratches and the timing of the corresponding cuts all mattered. Computer digitizing brought the archival images and the new performance together. The end credits thank CBS News Archives, NBC News Archives, the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and the Nixon Materials Project at the National Archives.
Forrest Gump began its route to the screen when producer Wendy Finerman read galley proofs of Winston Groom's novel in 1985. She brought it to Steve Tisch, with whom she was working. Groom wrote an initial screenplay, and other writers attempted versions before Eric Roth took on the adaptation. Warner Bros. had bought the film rights but withdrew, partly because of similarities to Rain Man. Finerman later established the project at Paramount. After Roth wrote the screenplay, Hanks agreed to play the lead, Paramount approved the film, and Robert Zemeckis joined as the producers' preferred director.
Money became a difficulty shortly before filming. The initial budget was $50 million, but Paramount requested a reduction of $10 million. Much of the cut came from payments planned for Hanks and Zemeckis, whose salaries had been estimated at $7 million and $5 million. They exchanged upfront money for shares of gross profits, an arrangement that rewarded them when the movie succeeded commercially. Production began in Beaufort, South Carolina, on August 8, 1993. The sprawling life on screen would draw on locations in Savannah, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., as well as the work performed after filming. Zemeckis acknowledged that the last-minute cuts angered him, but later said he had made peace with Paramount and was willing to collaborate on future projects.
The landscapes in Forrest Gump also crossed geographical boundaries. The production built the Gump family home on Bluff Plantation in Yemassee, South Carolina. Rice fields on the estate helped it double as Vietnam, while helicopter scenes used a palm-lined lagoon at Hunting Island State Park. A separate unit filmed Forrest's running scenes in Arizona, Montana, Vermont, Maine, North Carolina and Monument Valley, Utah. The bench conversations were filmed over three days in Savannah's Chippewa Square. Cinematographer Don Burgess and Zemeckis used anamorphic lenses to give the background of Forrest's life an expansive scale. In Los Angeles, sets were built at Paramount and the Ambassador Hotel, and the University of Southern California served as the college settings for Forrest and Jenny.
For the antiwar demonstration near the Washington Monument, the filmmakers employed 1,500 extras and gained permission to film in the Reflecting Pool. During postproduction, groups of 700 extras filmed at different positions could be combined to suggest hundreds of thousands of people. ILM also contributed to the Vietnam scenes, the Alabama football stadium crowds and the falling feather.
Gary Sinise played the soldier, whose legs are lost in the Vietnam War. Computers erased the actor's legs, while magician Ricky Jay designed a wheelchair that let Sinise fold them underneath him and appear to have amputated stumps. Ping-pong required another combination of physical action and added imagery: Hanks performed with a paddle, and the balls were inserted digitally. Ken Ralston supervised ILM's visual effects, Sam Comstock supervised animation, Debbie Denise produced the effects work, and Doug Chiang served as its visual effects art director.
Released in July 1994, Forrest Gump received Academy Awards for picture, directing, Hanks's performance, adapted screenplay, film editing and visual effects. Sinise also received a supporting actor nomination and a Commander's Award from the Disabled American Veterans for his portrayal of Dan. The film's commercial life soon spread beyond theaters. Licensing arrangements included a book of Forrest's sayings, ping-pong sets, a shrimp cookbook and a line of seafood planned for grocery stores under the Bubba Gump Seafood Company name. Paramount later partnered with Rusty Pelican Restaurants on plans for Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. restaurants in tourist destinations, with film memorabilia and merchandise inside. Groom later hired a lawyer over unpaid participation fees tied to net profits. Paramount said it still had losses despite the box-office revenue. Groom eventually reached a settlement for an undisclosed seven-figure sum after the studio agreed to buy worldwide film rights to his sequel, Gump & Co.
- Forrest Gump: Industrial Light & Magic — www.ilm.com
- Forrest Gump: AFI Catalog — catalog.afi.com
- Forrest Gump: BFI film information — www.bfi.org.uk