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INDEX
1. General aspects-------------------------------1
2. The music used in the film------------------3
3. Analysis of musical cues--------------------4
3.1 The "feather theme"---------------------4
3.2 The "running theme"--------------------5
3.3 Everybodys talkin--------------------6
3.4 Imagining the song----------------------8
4. Conclusion------------------------------------9
Appendix-----------------------------------------------10
Bibliography-------------------------------------------12
1. General
aspects
Forrest Gump (1994) is a comedy and drama film, and it differs in many things from the
novel of 1986 by Winston Groom, on which it was based. The film was a very successful
on both, commercial and artistic aspects. In the first case, the film obtained a profit that
placed it in the top ten films of all times. In the artistic aspect, it obtained thirteen
nominations from the Academy Award in United States and it won six Oscar prizes: best
picture, best director (Robert Zemeckis), best actor (Tom Hanks), best visual effects, best
film editing, and best adapted screenplay. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forrest_Gump)
With respect to the background, Forrest Gump (the main character) tells his story to
different people that are seated with him at the bus stop. Although he suffers from low
intelligence, his innocence converts him in a honest person with transparent feelings,
describing the historical facts without any analysis. Forrest has a conservative life, while
his friend Jenny, embraces the countercultural lifestyle of the hippie movement.
The movie shows a panorama of American history from the 50 to 80. Forrest
participated and influenced the most relevant American events of the period without
noticing. In this way, he meets with several presidents, he designed the well known
symbol of smile on T- shirts, he inspired John Lennon for writing the song Imagine,
etcetera.
The movie shows the life as a series of meaningless accidents (like the feather falling at
the beginning and ending of the film) and the opposite as well, as it is governed by a
predetermined destinity.
In general, the viewer accepts all historical distortions in the fiction, but some people
believe that Forrest Gump promoted the republican party ideas with his traditional and
conservative values. The review by Dennis Schwartz (2008) shows this point of view:
...to pursue the American Dream becoming an all-American college football player, a Vietnam
hero, champion ping-pong player and millionaire.... It's not surprising that it was embraced by
several national figures in the Republican Party who viewed it as homage to traditional values and
a disapproval of the 1960's counterculture. But it also glorifies Hollywood's traditional liberalism:
racists are evil, war is hell, and the assassinations of American leaders are not a nice thing to do.
In my oppinion, the film is a great work with several interpretations of its message, with
good performance, good direction, good effects and good original and borrowed music.
Even if the intention was influence us politically, the movie has good artistc values in
itself, as one could prescind of Wagners nationalist intentions when judging about his
music.
I chose this movie not only because music has an important rol, but also because it shows
a wide spectrum of different functions, and there are a couple of strange cases that are
difficult to include in the traditional functions of any theory of film music.
About the original score, Silvestri composed some different themes for specific
necessities of the plot. The most important are four:
1) The opening theme I'm Forrest... Forrest Gump presenting the principal
character.
2) You're No Different represents the life in his childhood with his mother.
3) You Can't Sit Here appears the first time when Forrest knows Jenny.
4) Run Forrest Run is the most famous song of the movie and it is used when Forrest
discovers that he can run.
The director had serious problems for adapting this theme into other different scenes of
the film. Therefore, this theme only appears again, at the final part of the film, in I'll Be
Right Here. (filmtracks, 2009)
It starts at the beginning of the film with feather flying (symbol of fortune or vicissitudes
of life) until the feather felt down in the foot of Forest and he takes it and put into his
book and then into the mallet. The music in this opening scene, spent 2 minutes and 20
seconds, and introducing the history that Forest will tell us.
When this theme returns at the final scene of the movie, it is called I'll Be Right Here.
The melody is played by louder strings starting when the feather felts down from the
book and fly again.
In this cue, the music takes 2 minutes long and his function is non diegetic. Its tempo is
fast and the use of brasses represents a fantastic experience. This musical cue not
becoming to Mickey Mousing music it can be defined as a clich (Eisler-Adorno). In
this way it has been criticized as the most obvious and overrated music in the film: ...a
score that has obviously defined the concepts of sports and competition with fantastic
success. (filmtracks 2009)
Other musical shortcomings are the similarities with other music and lacking of ending of
the theme:
It was obviously inspired by the football action music from Jerry Goldsmith's Rudy, and it would
take tin ears not to notice the thinly disguised similarities in melodic structure, chords, and
rhythm. There are two melodic lines in Forrest Gump's action theme. The 'a' melody is from Rudy,
but Silvestri does manage to come up with a fairly original and heroic 'b' melody. Unfortunately,
the music never goes anywhere once the 'b' melodic line is stated. The orchestra simply fades out
without any attempt to resolve the action theme. The lack of an appropriate ending to this theme,
even in the end credits, leaves this listener unsatisfied and frustrated, almost with a sense that
Silvestri
had
great
idea
and
didn't
know
how
to
follow
through
with
it.
John Barry, who supervised the music for the film, won a Grammy for Best Instrumental Theme.
something external to the film. It brings us to our memory and we remember something
for its similarity. In this sense, that musical cues has an external connotation or
connotative narrative (refers ideologies or cultural meanings) in Gorbmans words.
Other films have used this allusion but in the context of a parody, imitating the same
scene of another movie. This is not the case of Forrest Gump, since its story is original
and independent of the other story.
The most nearly category I found for this situation, is allusion of Kassabian (2001, p.
50). He said about this: Allusion is a particular kind of quotation, that is, a quotation
used to evoke another narrative. But all examples that Kassabian gives us are allusions
to the meaning of another music, like the scene of helicopter attack in Apocalypse Now
with Wagners Ride of the Valkyries. In the case of the song Everybody's Talkin in
Forrest Gump, these quotations do not evoke an external music that expresses similar
feelings, but also the audience remembers the history of other movie.
If Gorbman defined meta diegetic (Milicevic, 2009), when the music expresses what
the character is feeling, so it may be possible to call meta non diegetic, when it
expresses only what the viewer is feeling.
Of course, this meaning is only perceived for a viewer that has knowledge of classic
movies or the Cowboy Midnight in particular. For the rest of viewers, this music
quotation is only one song more with a non diegetic function.
For this reason is good to have into account the point of view of the viewer. Kassabian
said that the Gorbmans model considers the music in relation to the narrative world of
the film: ...that narrative world has been unhinged theoretically from authorial intention
but not connected thereby to audience reception. (2001, p. 41)
We can interpret in the same way the use of the song Mrs Robinson of the famous duet
Simon & Garfunkel. This song was a symbol of the film The Graduate (1967), and it is
used in Forrest Gump, when the president of United State gives to Forrest a decoration as
heroes of war. This quotation maybe symbolizes the graduation of a man, but in this
case, it is not clear the relation of both stories. The plot of The Graduate is a student that
graduated from a secondary school, and on the other hand, his graduation in the sexual
aspect with a woman.
Conclusion
Although the original score is lovely and represents very well the character's innocence,
Silvestri applies the film music in a conventional way.
In my opinion, Silvestri wants to establish the mood only, not supporting a story by using
of leitmotif. This is the reason for the lack of development of the themes.
Also the music keeps invariably calm even when the narrative changes in intensity;
maybe it can reflect the point of view of Forrest (meta diegetic).
The directors imposition of using several borrowed songs between the original scores,
forced Silvestri to use several fades out and not to develop the music. Although this
eclectic music lacks of unity, on the other hand, it helps to establish the historical context
of the story.
The film has a couple of strange allusions of music (one present and other absent) that I
dare to give as new categories.
Finally, I thought the music (original and borrowed) of the film to achieve very well the
aim of the work. Like some reviewers said, Todd China (2008): While not a masterpiece
of film scoring, the score to Forrest Gump is a memorable, melodic effort that remains
one of Silvestri's most enjoyable scores.
Appendix
Tracks (* Tracks analized)
1. * I'm Forrest...Forrest Gump
2.
You're No Different
3.
You Can't Sit Here
4. * Run Forrest Run
5.
Pray With Me
6.
The Crimson Gump
7.
They're Sending Me to Vietnam
8.
I Ran and Ran
9.
I Had a Destiny
10. Washington Reunion
11. Jesus on the Mainline
12. That's My Boat
13. I Never Thanked You
14. Jenny Returns
15. The Crusade
16. Forrest Meets Forrest
17. The Wedding Guest
18. Where Heaven Ends
19. Jenny's Grave
20. I'll Be Right Here
21. Suite from Forrest Gump
Plot
"Stupid is as stupid does," says Forrest Gump (played by Tom Hanks in an Oscarwinning performance) as he discusses his relative level of intelligence with a stranger
while waiting for a bus. Despite his sub-normal IQ, Gump leads a truly charmed life, with
a ringside seat for many of the most memorable events of the second half of the 20th
century. Entirely without trying, Forrest teaches Elvis Presley to dance, becomes a
football star, meets John F. Kennedy, serves with honor in Vietnam, meets Lyndon
Johnson, speaks at an anti-war rally at the Washington Monument, hangs out with the
Yippies, defeats the Chinese national team in table tennis, meets Richard Nixon,
discovers the break-in at the Watergate, opens a profitable shrimping business, becomes
an original investor in Apple Computers, and decides to run back and forth across the
country for several years. Meanwhile, as the remarkable parade of his life goes by,
Forrest never forgets Jenny (Robin Wright Penn), the girl he loved as a boy, who makes
her own journey through the turbulence of the 1960s and 1970s that is far more troubled
than the path Forrest happens upon. Featured alongside Tom Hanks are Sally Field as
Forrest's mother; Gary Sinise as his commanding officer in Vietnam; Mykelti Wiliamson
as his ill-fated Army buddy who is familiar with every recipe that involves shrimp; and
the special effects artists whose digital magic place Forrest amidst a remarkable array of
historical events and people. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
(http://www.answers.com/topic/forrest-gump)
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Principal Cast
Disc Two
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
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John Lennon's song "Imagine" is mentioned in the film, but does not actually appear in it, therefore it is not
on the soundtrack.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Gorbman, Claudia. 1987. Unheard Melodies: Narrative Film Music. Bloomington,
Indiana: Indiana University Press, 22-23, 83.
Kassabian, Anahid. 2001. Hearing Film. Tracking Identifications in Contamporary Film
Music. London Routledge.
Milicevic, Mladen. 2009. Film sound beyond reality: Subjetive Sound in Narrative
Cinema. Available in: http://www.filmsound.org/articles/beyond.htm
Schwartz, Dennis. 2009. "Ozus' World Movie Reviews" - Reviewed on 3/10/2008 http://www.sover.net/~ozus/forrestgump.htm
China, Todd. 2009.
http://www.filmtracks.com/comments/titles/forrest_gump/index.cgi?read=3
Thompson, Michael. 2009. http://michaelthompson.org/gump/
American Film Institute. 2009. http://www.afi.com/tvevents/100years/songs.aspx
Answers. 2009. http://www.answers.com/topic/midnight-cowboy
Filmtracks. 2009. http://www.filmtracks.com/titles/forrest_gump.html
Filmsound. 2009. http://www.filmsound.org/articles/beyond.htm
Wikipedia. 2009. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forrest_Gump
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