Movie Music Monday – Forrest Gump

It was 32 years ago today that we were introduced to Forrest Gump. The movie opened in the US on this day in 1994.

In a 1994 article from the Gainesville Sun, the film’s music producer Joel Sill talked about the soundtrack. He stated “We wanted to have very recognizable material that would pinpoint time periods, yet we didn’t want to interfere with what was happening cinematically.” According to Sill, director Robert Zemeckis requested all the music in the film to be from American artists because he thought that was the only kind of music that the main character, the titular Forrest Gump, would buy, further stating “All the material in there is American. Bob (Zemeckis) felt strongly about it. He felt that Forrest wouldn’t buy anything but American.”

The soundtrack features songs from Elvis Presley, Wilson Picket, Aretha Franklin, The Doors, The Byrds, Three Dog Night, Fleetwood Mac, The Supremes and more. It really becomes apparent that the soundtrack does exactly what Zemeckis wanted – the songs are snapshots of American time periods.

One of the songs on the soundtrack is often thought of as being a patriotic song, while it is really more of a protest song. Fortunate Sun was one of three political songs on CCR’s Willie and The Poor Boys album. The song plays as Forrest Gump is on his way to Vietnam in the film.

From songfacts.com: When interviewed by Rolling Stone magazine, John Fogerty was asked what inspired this song. His response: “Julie Nixon was hanging around with David Eisenhower, and you just had the feeling that none of these people were going to be involved with the war. In 1969, the majority of the country thought morale was great among the troops, and like 80% of them were in favor of the war. But to some of us who were watching closely, we just knew we were headed for trouble.”

“The song speaks more to the unfairness of class than war itself,” Fogerty said. “It’s the old saying about rich men making war and poor men having to fight them.”

This song spoke out against the war in Vietnam but was supportive of the soldiers fighting there. Like many CCR fans, most of the soldiers came from the working class and were there because they didn’t have connections that could get them out. The song is sung from the perspective of one of these men, who ends up fighting because he is not a “senator’s son.”

The song has been covered by many artists including U2, Bruce Springsteen, Kid Rock, and Bob Seger.