: Study Questions: Week Ten

Earn It: Innocence Regained

Forrest Gump (1994)

Saving Private Ryan (1998).

On the surface, Forrest Gump and Saving Private Ryan seem to take very different views of what it means to have regained the American Dream during the 1980s. Robert Zemeckis' Forrest Gump, by listening to his Mama, manages to pass through the social, political, and cultural upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s unscathed. He experiences the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama, survives the war in Vietnam with no lasting physical or psychological wounds, becomes a successful entrepreneur, and helps his son set out in his own footsteps. Despite the loss of his mother and Jenny Ben "Bubba" Blue, Forrest remains relentless upbeat, and his movement (with the aid of digital imaging technology) through almost all of the major events of the baby-boom era links him to the spirit of America itself. In many ways he is the very embodiment of the enduring values of the American Dream. Spielberg, on the other hand, returns to the America of World War II in search of an undeniably heroic moment to find a model of the citizen hero, Capt. Miller. In another way both films take us back to the future in the search for a form of spiritual and cultural redemption.

1. What is the significance of the feather which Forrest picks up as the film opens? When does it return again? How is it related thematically to Forrest's attempt do decide whether we 'each have a destiny' or whether 'we're all just floating around accidental like'? What does the film suggest is the correct choice. What specific aspects of the film influenced your choice?

2. What do you make of the emphasis on the fact that the hero is named after the founder of the Ku Klux Klan? In what way does it begin a series of events which link the hero to American history? What, for instance, is the reason for showing Forrest in the company of national leaders and celebrities (beyond revealing the sophistication of modern computer graphics)?

3. To what degree is Forrest presented as the American Everyman (Person)? What does the film suggest by showing that his innocence cannot be separated from his retardation?

4. What is the significance of Forrest's braces? How does his liberation from them reflect his mother's belief that people create their own destinies?

5. How might the fact that his liberation is pure fantasy call into doubt the reality of the American Dream he eventually shares?

6. In many parts of Forrest Gump, the hero seems to express an understanding of events which he never explicitly acknowledges and which his low intelligence would forbid. For example, while his mother seduces the school principal to get her son a better education, Forrest sits outside with a strangely knowing expression on his face. How many similar moments can you find in the film?

5. Why is Forrest immediately attracted to Jenny? Are we to see her as a realistically conceived character or as the symbol of a particular period in American history? If Forrest represents the populist spirit of America swept up in the cultural upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s, what does Jenny represent? Is she another aspect of the American character? Does she represent the traumas, desires, and dreams which led the country astray?

7. The film places Forrest in the midst of many history-making events: the integration of the University of Alabama, the war in Vietnam, etc. At the same time the hero's naive narrative voice tends to strip these events of troubling political and moral contexts. How does this technique influence your attitude toward these events?

8. How do Forrest's whimsical responses help obscure the serious implications of the events which divided the country during the 1960s and 1970s?

9. How does the fate of Lt. Dan reflect the effect of the war on America at large? What is the significance of attending Forrest's wedding with a Vietnamese fiancee?

10. "Stupid is as stupid does" is a refrain heard throughout Zemeckis' film. How do you interpret this phrase? Does it mean that is is wiser not to be too smart? To be naively obedient rather than rebellious? Could he be the goodhearted foil to an age that is too intellectual and too cynical?

11. What is the significance of Forrest's run across America? He claims that "it gave people hope" and helped "put the past behind." What past needs to be forgotten? What sort of hope does it inspire. In what way is this theme of redemption and recuperation similar to that in Zemekis's Back to the Future?

12. What is the significance of the sequences in the American cemetery which frame the main plot of Saving Private Ryan? How does it comment on the legacy of D-Day and the sacrifices of men like Capt. Miller (Tom Hanks)?

13. The first 30 minutes of the film have been described as Hollywood's most realistic depiction of modern war. What, in your opinion, is the thematic significance of the extended sequence of violence and suffering?

14. In what way does Saving Private Ryan fit the conventions of the war film found in The Caine Mutiny and other war films about WWII?

15. Aside from being portrayed by Tom Hanks, what qualities do Forrest Gump and Capt. Miller have in common?

16. Cpl. Upham (Jeremy Davies) quotes Ralph Waldo Emerson and Tennyson on the ability of war to build character in the participants. Are we to take his musings seriously or dismiss him as hopelessly naive? Why? Why not?

17. What are the motives for saving Private Ryan? Are they completely altruistic, or does Gen. Marshall (Harve Presnell) worry about public relations too?

18. How does the defense of the bridge turn the mission of Miller and his men from the rescue of Pvt. Ryan into a classic climax of a war film? Consider the discussions of its crucial importance? Does this conventional ending seem at odds with the opening sequences on Omaha Beach? Why? Why not?

19. What is the meaning of Miller's final admonition to Ryan, "Earn it"? What does he mean, and how does it serve to relate the cemetery scenes to the War itself? Has Ryan "earned it"?

20. How does the emphasis on the heroism of the common men who fought World War II manage to suggest that the bleak assessments of American life in films such as The Wild Bunch or Nashville or The Deer Hunter are not the final word on the country's future?