How Aamir Khan nudges us to celebrate Forrest Gump
PremiumHere’s that rare character whose cinema version is better than it was in the novel that first gave him birth
We rarely hear people say, “The film was better than the book." The only time I have heard this, sadly, was in reference to one of my novels. What we do hear often is, “The book was way better." This is because people who say such things are an insufferable group called ‘book-lovers'. They are clearly people with a talent for reading, who think their ability is superior to more facile forms of entertainment. But another reason why not many rate a film above a book is more honourable. Almost always, a book precedes the film and there is something petty about rating a derivative above its source. However, there is a film that is so exquisite that it improves the novel it is based on in the very territory where a book is so formidable—in the writing.
A new film starring Aamir Khan, set for release on 11 August, gives me an opportunity to get your attention as I extol Forrest Gump, widely considered by filmmakers and ordinary people of two generations as one of the finest films ever. Written by Eric Roth and directed by Robert Zemeckis, it is based on a novel by Winston Groom.
The story is nothing, as stories usually are; merely a trick to lure people into ingesting the writer’s actual intention, which is almost never the story. A story is a delivery device, and what Forrest Gump delivers is the wisdom of the fool. It is a whole genre in storytelling—a slow person misunderstanding the sane, and in that way accidentally arriving at philosophical truths.
The novel, which was published in 1986, is on its surface the saga of a man who has a mental handicap as he fortuitously passes through big historical moments of America. It is told from the point of view of “an idiot", as the protagonist describes himself. He clarifies, very early, “I am closer to being an imbecile or maybe even a moron, but personally, I’d rather think of myself as like a half-wit…"
The novel acknowledges how phoney it is for a writer who is not diagnosed as an “idiot", especially not by himself, to pretend to understand the perspective of someone with such mental disabilities. Forrest himself has a list of famous “idiots" in literature who were unconvincing, and at one point says, “Mos of them writer fellers got it straight—cause their idiots always smarter than people give em credit for. Hell, I’d agree with that. Any idiot would. Hee hee."
The novel establishes a loveable accidental philosopher from its very first page, but it is the film that elevates him to an unforgettable character by rewriting his lines. For example, the novel begins with, “Let me say this: bein a idiot is no box of chocolates." In the film, Forrest seems to say something similar, but it is entirely different: “My momma always said, ‘Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.’"
In another moment, a young woman visits her abandoned childhood home with Forrest by her side. She flings a stone at her home. And we can immediately sense that she may have been abused by her father when she was a little girl. She picks stones from the mud path and flings them all at the ruins of her home. Then she collapses. Gump tells us, “Sometimes I guess there just aren’t enough rocks."
This is a plain fact from a fool’s point of view—that she ran out of stones to throw. But it is also a fact, in a heart-breaking way, about a person’s rage against a crime. There just aren’t enough rocks. Only one who does not think he is very clever can say this in such a powerful way.
Storytelling has the problem that science once had. Every remarkable truth has already been spoken. Every brilliant observation has already been made. There is nothing new left to say. There are only newer ways of saying old things. One way of speaking that modern storytelling uses well, which the world beyond fiction seems afraid to employ, is the endearing voice of the fool. In the real world, no one wants to be known as one. But this is actually an underestimation of the influence of a person who says wise things without being aware of his wisdom. The world is tired of people who think they are very smart. What the great fools of art, like Forrest Gump, suggest is that in many aspects of life, the world might be open to “an idiot" who bumbles into truths, making us congratulate ourselves for seeing the truth in the words of a simpleton.
The film creates new possibilities for the ‘philosopher fool’ beyond what the novel had envisaged. Forrest not only passes through US history, he also influences it. For instance, as a boy, when he had braces on his legs, he walks in a staggering way, which captivates one of the guests at his home—the young Elvis Presley, before he became a star. “Say, man, show me that crazy little walk you just did there. Slow it down some," Presley tells the boy. The boy staggers, and that would go on to become one of the most recognizable dance forms in the world. This is not in the novel; it is a leap the film makes.
Never in the film does Tom Hanks, who plays Gump, try to look like someone with a deficiency. He does not make exaggerated faces. He doesn’t have to. When you consider this carefully, any person can pass off as similarly disabled. Just stare at people imagining that they have a mental problem; and they would appear so. Acting is not about making faces; acting is almost entirely speaking. And it is all incandescence when what’s spoken is already art in its written form.
Jenny: Do you ever dream, Forrest, about who you’re gonna be?
Forrest: Who I’m gonna be?
Jenny: Yeah.
Forrest: Aren’t I going to be me?
Manu Joseph is a journalist, novelist, and the creator of the Netflix series, ‘Decoupled’
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