THIS YEAR MARKS THE THIRTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE RELEASE OF FORREST GUMP, A FILM SOUTHERN IN ITS SETTING AND SENSIBILITY, AND GLOBAL IN ITS RESONANCE.
The movie sprang, of course, from the eponymous 1986 novel by the late Winston Groom, who was a Garden & Gun contributing editor. When asked how the film version affected his life, his favorite response became “I upgraded to a better brand of toilet paper.” ¶ That’s because upon its release on July 6, 1994, Forrest Gump—directed by Robert Zemeckis, and starring Tom Hanks, Gary Sinise, Robin Wright, Mykelti Williamson, and Sally Field, among others—took the world by storm, earning nearly $700 million at the box office and six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor, for Hanks. ¶ Three decades later,…
