Movie Moments: Forrest Gump hits the Jackpot

(mage courtesy of wingclips.com)

Forrest Gump (1994) is a very sentimental and sensationalistic film with most moments taking on a dramatic or comedic touch for the sake of portraying the protagonist, Forrest Gump, as a harmonious type of individual. In order to be as harmonious as Forrest Gump you have to be pretty stupid or sentimental. The film brings this out in a very stark way and by the end it is a moving experience at its best or one could simply dismiss the overwhelming sentiment on display. Despite all of this sentimentalism the film does have a certain materialistic structure that is necessary to bring across this point. This materialistic element also acts as a certain grounding element that makes the overwhelming sentiment on display tolerable. This materialistic element is brought out in a very dramatic way in the film when Forrest Gump and Lt. Dan hit the jackpot in the shrimp industry. This jackpot is the surplus profit that allows Forrest to become his own man or be representative of something from a materialist as opposed to an idealistic basis.  This moment is just as dramatic as any other episode in the film but it is bound by a materialist element that suggests that a man still has to accumulate property in a meaningful way before he can engage in certain leisurely or romantic activities.  This moment, when Forrest is able to acquire this surplus profit, also represents a decisive shift in the story of the film. It highlights that for ideals to be realized they must  be realized from a materialistic perspective.

Prior to his jackpot we see Forrest Gump blowing like a leaf in the wind. His running ability lands him a football scholarship in college. Following college he joins the army and there he meets Bubba, an expert in shrimp culinary recipes and a black man, who makes an offer, that Forrest accepts, to form a partnership and enter the shrimp business. The aspect of the shrimp business that is featured seems to be shrimp farming or fishing and does not seem tied into the culinary aspect although it would have been possible for such an extension or linkage if Bubba survived his time in time in Vietnam. Due to his great skill and success as a table tennis/ping pong player Forrest receives US$25, 000 from a sponsor  and uses the majority of it to purchase a boat in order to fulfill his promise to Bubba and become a shrimp boat captain. He is motivated, primarily, by sentiment because he is not in it for the money. He seems to be blowing with the wind and takes things as it goes. In his first few attempts he catches only a few  shrimp or just enough to make a cocktail. It seems like a fool hardy decision which is typical of Forrest until he is joined by Lt. Dan, his former platoon commander in Vietnam, who became  a bitter,  double leg amputee seeking for some sort of positive emotional release. Forrest already informed Lt. Dan of his plans to fish for shrimp when they met in New York. Lt. Dan scoffed at the idea but he clearly has a soft spot for Forrest and goes out to support him once he is informed of Forrest’s expedition by letter.  Even with Lt. Dan on board they still are not catching any shrimp and as if by chance a hurricane strikes and so turns the tide. This hurricane is seen, typically, as an act of god particularly in response to Lt. Dan’s continued scepticism ‘Where’s this god of yours?’ It does seem like a duel with god because during the storm Lt. Dan screams hysterically ‘You won’t sink this boat’. It seems to be two forces at odds. As fate would have it  the boat, or the Jenny,  was not sunk but the boats of their competitors were either sunken or destroyed by the hurricane. With Forrest’s boat being the only one to survive it’s no surprise that Forrest hit the jackpot because he now commanded the entire production sphere that would sell the product in the market. He controlled the market because he eventually  bought 12 more Jennies. 

It was a typical element in the film’s story line because Forrest could only make in roads through a favourable act of by god. It is clear that before the storm that there was no mention of his competitors that were catching all the shrimp. It just seemed like Forrest was unlucky at the time. The film is eventually compromised because it has to mention the material forces at play; material forces that could not be reducible to god but to the labour of other men. Forrest never had the business acumen to compete with them especially as he was just fulfilling a promise to Bubba. His only competitive acts, before the storm, were the enlistment of Lt. Dan and his singing and praying in the church.  All of which brought no success. If he was to beat out his competitors on a literal basis he would have had to find some way to reduce his production price in comparison to his competitors while still selling at the same market price.  This would have given him a surplus profit. If he reduced the production price then he would use this benefit to catch more shrimp. If that is not the case then, in agriculture, as the film rightly points out favourable natural acts can put you in a position to achieve surplus profit. I am sure he caught all the shrimp that all of his competitors did before but the only difference is that all of this surplus product went to him with the same labour and the same boat. Of course after he uses that surplus product to buy more boats then he would not be receiving a surplus profit he would simply be replacing his competitors for the same total product. He dominated the market to the point where he could invest in APPLE inc. Gump would be a rich man today. He also gave Bubba’s share to  Bubba’s mother which allowed her to live good as well.  The main reason why it was not just a jackpot or a stroke of luck was that Forrest and Lt. Dan were there to put in the work and to benefit from the calamity suffered by their competitors.

Well what did hitting the jackpot mean for the rest of the film and for Forrest in particular? Firstly, it certainly closed a certain chapter in the life of Forrest where he no longer had to work. The sentimental element becomes more pronounced after he becomes successful in the shrimp farming business. Before he landed it big the film was a bit quirky and more upbeat because Forrest may have been slow upstairs but instinctually he knew he had to make his own way as a man. Although he still has the love for Jenny they can never fully come together because neither of them feel settled. Even though the path Jenny takes is destructive in some regard it is still her own path to maturity. She does come into her own as a woman. Forrest Gump blows with the wind and he moves with little or no purpose of his own as he always seems to be directed by other individuals or organizations. It is, therefore, difficult to grasp what it is he represents as an individual apart from his buffoonery, simplicity and his eagerness to please. His actions make him into a harmonizer as he tries to reconcile several conflicting elements. His simplicity, therefore, makes him incapable of standing for something definitively. This might not be fair to the character because the good thing about his simple nature is that he tends to outstrip the conventionality of the other characters around him. Their conventionality makes them incapable of change or stuck in their ways and with every action Forrest does make some breakthrough that changes the individuals around him. After the bonanza, for instance, Lt. Dan, one day afterwards, is quick to thank Forrest for saving his life. He leaps from the boat and begins swimming, backstroke style, towards a beautiful horizon which Forrest claims was him making peace with god. His bitterness fades away and all his frustrations now seem hollow.   

The only thing Forrest has left is his love for Jenny and his mother. His mother passes away after he hits the jackpot but she cannot live to see him prosper. After that he returns home, particularly as he no longer needs to work on the boat. and he is well taken care of. All he has left are these deep, loving emotions. He becomes so idle after the jackpot that the film loses a bit of impetus as a result. There is even a moment where he cuts grass for free, simply because he loves doing it. The Forrest before the jackpot was always engaged in some meaningful activity that redounded to his benefit on a social level. Following the death of his mother he ends up cutting grass for free. His life definitely seems to be meandering but the narrative is pushed or extended when Jenny returns to him seeking solace from the cold world. The bonanza has finally put Forrest in a position where he can engage solely in romantic escapades or leisurely activities. After the grass cutting these romantic or leisurely activities are taken up by his relationship with Jenny. Forrest even reaches the point where he proposes to marry her even though he is rejected. He even makes the claim that he may not be a smart man but he knows what love is. It is pretty clear that he does because he literally runs on love. He and Jenny do have sex on the night of his rejected proposal and she has a son later. The day after they have sex Jenny leaves and this sends Forrest into another tailspin and with nothing to do he runs all over America which is mistaken by many as some sort of crusade. He even attracts a large following of runners that believe in his cause. In fact he is just running on pure emotion, pure sentiment and this is because he now has all the time in the world to reflect on these emotions he has for his loved ones. An episode like this contributes greatly to the overwhelming sentiment in the film. A sentiment that was not as pronounced when Forrest was engaged in more meaningful social activities such as playing college football or his military activities. The great run from Forrest is his last meaningful contribution to the social scene as he encounters several individuals that he helps along the way although it was motivated by pure sentiment and was not tied into any identifiable social reality. It is one of the more idealistic escapades in the film.

 After the jackpot it is a purely sentimental exercise and after his running he ends up on a bench telling his life story to strangers as he waits for a bus to go and meet jenny who sent him a letter.  He finally meets his son and all seems well but Jenny is sick and it is suspected that it’s HIV or Aids because she dies soon after. She does marry Forrest at last and at his wedding he meets a rejuvenated Lt. Dan outfitted with artificial legs made of a special kind of metal and a fiancée. All the sentiment comes full circle particularly after Jenny dies and Forrest and his son are left. By the end of the film the sentiment is overwhelming and most people will be moved to tears. The reason this sentiment is so overwhelming is because Forrest hit the jackpot and all he had left to deal with was love or his romantic and leisurely episodes. This is why the film does acknowledge its materialist basis. A materialist basis reflected in his shrimp bonanza that sets the tone for Forrest to engage in a quest for love or where he could simply run on love with no recourse to earning a living. The movie moment where Forrest hits the jackpot is quite important when assessing a film which many critics feel to be overblown from a sentimental point of view. The reason it is so sentimental is because this moment allows Forrest to spend a lot of time engaging only his deep, loving  emotions.