The painting “Girl With a Black Eye” (also referred to as “The Shiner) by Norman Rockwell inspired the scene in which Forrest sat outside of the principal’s office waiting for his mother. The painting appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post published May 23, 1953.
It was Rockwell’s 277th overall out of 322 total paintings that were published on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post. Rockwell said of model Mary Whalen that she was the best model he ever had. She ended up appearing on three Saturday Evening Post covers.
A Long Day
During the scene in which Robin (as Jenny) performed in a nightclub, she was feeling very ill. She powered through the scene which took about 24 hours of filming. On the plus side? She was able to perform her own song. On the downside, she was naked and holding a guitar for hours on end.
The result? A heart-beaking moment showing how Jenny's career didn't quite turn out the way she wanted it to. Heckled by brutes in the audience, Gump steps up shows them who's boss. Jenny is sadly humiliated by the whole thing.
Running With A Cold
Sometimes you just have to call in sick. Not Tom Hanks though. The actor was suffering from a bout of flu when he shot the football running scene, but chose to pass on the bed rest. Well, we are sure he tried but unfortunately, due to scheduling issues, for Tom Hanks, this wasn't an option. He still managed to shoot this iconic scene like the professional he is.
Pity his brother wasn't available for this shot though. Guess it was too much of a full-on, seeing it all type of shot that Jim just couldn't help him this time. Let's hand it to Tom, he did a swell job.
The Bench That Got Benched
That Forrest Gump bench is probably just as iconic as the whole movie. While it is just a bench, it just perfectly makes up the character's whole image, so you can imagine how important it was to have the right one. In fact, the producers just ended up buying it. And as you can imagine, that "prop" gained some significant notoriety ever since.
People were prepared to dish out a lot of money for that thing, which is why that the bench that Tom Hanks sat on with his box of chocolates sold in an auction in 2013 for a whopping $25,000. As for the set, producers kept it really authentic. For the town square scenes, they filmed them in Savannah, Georgia. In many scenes, Gump sat on a bench at Chippewa Square in Savannah, Georgia.
Character Differences
There are some notable differences between the novel and the film. In the film, Forrest is seen as naive, impulsive, and more passive. This is seen in the chocolate scene. However, Gump’s character isn’t like this in the book. Groom’s Gump is more aware of his surroundings, saying about himself in the book’s opening that people treat him badly because he’s an idiot.
Groom’s Gump is also much bigger than Tom Hanks, being described as a man who is 6’6 and 240 pounds. Other things left out of the film include Forrest becoming an astronaut, running for the U.S Senate, and participating in a chess tournament.