Film· 1994· Drama

Forrest Gump

by Robert Zemeckis

Forrest Gump: it draws on 1 recorded source.

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What influenced Forrest Gump

The works this one is recorded as drawing on.

Forrest Gump

Book · 1986

AdaptationHIGH

Zemeckis's film of Winston Groom's novel, and the two are much further apart than their shared name suggests. Groom wrote a satire. His Gump is a 130-kilo man who plays in a rock band, wrestles professionally, goes into space, crashes among cannibals and ends up running a shrimp business out of spite. The film keeps the premise and the running, drops nearly all of it, and replaces the satire with sincerity. Filed as an adaptation because the line of descent is direct and credited; the size of the change is the interesting part, not an argument against it. Groom's public unhappiness about the profit accounting is a separate matter from the adaptation itself.

About the work

Forrest Gump

The history of the United States from the 1950s to the '70s unfolds from the perspective of an Alabama man with an IQ of 75, who yearns to be reunited with his childhood sweetheart.