1. New sound script (Purpose, audience, style):

            My new sound script for the Forrest Gump clip will maintain the majority of the original voice-over narration, but I will add profanity and change some of the phraseology to typical Vietnam War movie slang as seen in Full Metal Jacket, Platoon and Apocalypse Now. Changing it alters its target audience to male war movie fans.

 

2. Research question:

How does the voice-over narration in Forrest Gump, in conjunction with other classic Vietnam War movies, illuminate the development, over time, of the artistic portrayal of the Vietnam War? In other words, how does the American Vietnam War film genre from the late nineteen-eighties to present-day trace the history and conventions of Vietnam movies? In order to explore the question of genealogy, I will focus on three classic movies of the genre: Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket and Apocalypse Now, and Platoon by Oliver Stone. I will compare and contrast these movies with Forrest Gump. To gain a better scope of all four films I must ask for each: What was the general political climate when the film was released? And more specifically, the climate surrounding the Vietnam War at the release date? What was the socio-political profile of the audience? What was the agenda of the film? What other Vietnam narratives already existed at the time of release? What were audiences expecting? Ready for? Tired of? What cinematic devices had already been exhausted? How was the film received? What success/ acclaim/critique did it receive? These questions, when seen against the overall evolution of the Vietnam genre, are of interest to filmmakers, audiences, anthropologists and comparative literature scholars. My work may stimulate conjecture as to whether Vietnam narratives will be produced in the future.

 

3. Claim:

I propose a new sound-script for Forrest Gump that follows classic Vietnam War movie conventions. Rewriting the voice-over narration to fit the Nam genre conventions will highlight the ways in which the filming does follow the Vietnam generic guidelines closely. I suggest that by changing the narration style and, thus fully transforming the clip to a classic Nam scene, it will illuminate the deliberate choice by the filmmakers to knowingly skirt a fine line, through the visuals, with the genre. A comparison of the original clip and the newly created quintessential Nam clip draw attention to where the filmmakers deliberately diverged from the genre. I argue that by following a new war narration trajectory the filmmakers are responding to their audience’s desire for a reinvention of the Vietnam War story.

  

4. Stakes, why is claim and new script important?

The claim is important because it gestures toward how and why film genre react and evolve in relation to the socio-political realities of the audience.

 

5. How does script augment/critique/complement film?

My proposed script complements the film by showing how hum-drum it would have been if the director had gone with a traditional war voice-over narration. It brings into sharp relief how effective the original narration is precisely because it does something different than all the preceding Nam movies.

 

6. Artifact:

Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, Platoon and Kozloff’s Introduction.

 

7. Doubts:

Is my question too big? Am I setting myself up for a novel, rather than a 5 page paper?