The movie Forrest Gump was released in 1994 and directed by Robert Zemeckis. The production designer was Rick Carter who is also an art director. The film also earned Mr. Carter an Oscar nomination, as well as other numerous nominations. Most of which were earned while working on the films of Amistad and A.I. The art directors mentioned were William James Teegarden, and Leslie McDonald. As far as the lighting goes for the film, a satellite was actually used to determine the position of the sun for the best picture when the film was shot outdoors. Most of the lighting of the film was bright and cheery. This type of lighting would be known as high-key lighting. This is to keep the audience in a good sense of optimism throughout the film; it caused you to pay attention to the details. When films are shot with a dim light or back light it causes a more dramatic affect to give the audience that type of feeling. Costumes are used as a tool to tell part of the story of what is going on in the movie. For instance if a man were wearing dirty garments and was full of filth obviously in a film he could be construed as being “low class”. The same goes for makeup and hair styling no matter how subtle they may be. The costumes tell about the era and the social class of the individuals in the movie. The film is shot to depict the time of late fifties through the sixties and seventies. A time when Vietnam was going on and hippies had a major impact over the minds of many. It tells the life story of a man who was born with the intellect below average and still managed to achieve much in his life – after having problems with legs and wearing leg braces Forrest manages to enroll to the football team at school, then enlists to the army and gets to Vietnam, returns from the war and starts the shrimp business. His life path crosses much with the life of Jenny Curran, the girl who has always been close with him but has chosen a different life path. Due to Forrest’s persistence in everything he does, he manages to succeed in his shrimp business, invest in the Apple Corp. and secure the life of his family and his friends, Lieutenant Dan Taylor (having shrimp business with him) and Benjamin Buford called “Bubba” (who died in the war and whose dream of shrimp business Forrest fulfilled). Finally, it turns out that Jenny has a child from Forrest and is dying from an unknown disease, so she dies shortly afterwards their marriage and leaves Forrest with his son also called Forrest. Speaking more closely about the main characters, it is worth mentioning that Forrest himself is the central one, and he is mostly surrounded by Jenny, Lt.Dan and Bubba throughout the film. Forrest Gump is depicted as a persistent, serious and unemotional personality, so his character has raised much criticism and disagreement – whether his achievement was due to his internal force and ability to love life, make objective judgments and keep the right path or due to his low intellectual level and plain luck. He is never happy or sad about any events of his life, which supposes his indifference (Forrest Gump). Jenny Curran is his soul-mate, his partner from childhood to whom Forrest feels sentimental feelings and thinks he loves her. She has chosen the path of experimentation and rebellion, which is seen from her anarchist friends and boyfriend seen by Forrest during one of their encounters. However, she manages to prove her genuine feelings to Forrest by having a child from him and marrying him at the end of her life (Forrest Gump). Bubba is an honest and naïve young man who has a dream but has no time to make it true, so Forrest who has no dreams of his own pursues Bubba’s wish and does not leave Bubba’s family after his friend’s death. Lt. Dan Taylor is a real warrior, cynical and down-to-earth, but he proves how well he treats Forrest by collaborating with him on the boat and achieving success together despite the fact that he became crippled after the war (Forrest Gump). The major conflict of the present movie is the stereotypes perception of mentally challenged people as cripples; Forrest Gump is not a smart man and he understands this from the very beginning of his life. However, Gump manages to live a decent life, to achieve success that may be never achieved by normal people and becomes a hero of the United States, then a tremendously rich man and finally a happy father. There is hardly anyone who can boast such achievements within one life, and the only wisdom Forrest follows is very simple: “You have to do the best with what God gave you (Memorable Quotes for Forrest Gump). Thus, the conflict of expectations from a challenged person and the reality of his life are put to the foreground of the movie. All of the elements of this movie appear to work together fabulously, from beginning to end. The use of the feather in the movie grasps the audience right away, and the constant change and use of non-linear forms were done flawlessly. “Each method of manipulating time to tell a story shows that following a certain method is not as important as telling the story in the manner best suited to tell it”. I also believe that there were not any inconsistencies in any part of the film what so ever. The director really did a great job with this movie. If there are any flaws I have not seen any. However, after doing some research there are actually some historic flaws in the movie. In particular it was described that Forrest was on the Dick Cavitt show that was filmed in September. Then Forrest walks out and it’s Christmas. There are minor historical flaws that are evident in studying the movie. However, the dates are really close most of which are just off a couple of months. I think that the design elements flow very nice with what the film maker wants to accomplish throughout the film. Everything appeared to be perfect. I thought everyone involved with the film Forrest Gump did a fantastic job with everything from the smallest detail to the most important ones.

References

http://www.movie-locations.com/movies/f/ForrestGump.html

http://www.oscars.org/education-outreach/teachersguide/costumesmakeup/activity1.html

http://www.geneseo.edu/~blood/CostumeDesign1.html

Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. (2011). Film: From Watching to Seeing. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.