I've seen quite a few movies in my life, so compiling a definitive list
of favorites would be an awfully tall order for me. However, I can
safely say that one of the movies that would appear on that list would
be Forrest Gump.
When it first came out, I didn't pay too much attention, since I
thought of it as an adult movie, and I was barely old enough to get in
to see it without my parents. Nearly a year later, I'd heard enough
about it that I finally went to see it; that it stayed in theaters that
long is evidence in itself of its staying power. I saw it. I loved it.
We bought it as soon as it came out on video. And shortly thereafter, I
was introduced to Weird Al Yankovic and heard his take on this brilliant
film.
Before I watched a special comparing the video for this song with the original, I had never heard of Lump, a song by the Presidents of the United States of America, perhaps best known for their catchy ditty Peaches.
I wasn't missing out on much. This is one case in which Al's parody
makes a great deal more sense than the original, which comes across as
pure hard-rocking gibberish.
By comparison, Weird Al's take on
the song isn't very weird at all. It's basically a straightforward
synopsis of the movie, a song that could be easily turned into a trailer
when paired with clips from the film. It touches on several key events
and characters without giving too much away. His encouraging mother;
"shrimp-lovin'" buddy Bubba; "friend with no legs," Lieutenant Dan;
promiscuous childhood sweetheart Jenny and two U.S. presidents all rate a
mention. Prominent quotes from the film include "My name is Forrest,"
"Life is like a box of chocolates," "Stupid is as stupid does" and "Run,
Forrest, run" and, the perfect song-stopper, "That's all I have to say
about that."
Once you've seen the video of a Weird Al parody,
you can't help seeing flashes of it in your head whenever you hear the
song. In this video, Al is part of a three-person band jammin’ with
percussion and electric guitars, banging their heads to the beat and
leaping up, down and every which way in front of a series of Forrest Gump-appropriate
backdrops in a frenzy of energy. Sometimes they’re on screen with the
confused Forrest look-alike, and sometimes the video intercuts between
them. There are brief recreations of some of Forrest’s climactic
meetings with historical figures and a deliciously cheesy sequence of
him running across a series of landscapes, including the moon. Mostly,
though, we see Forrest on the park bench, offering his chocolates to
various strangers, each time with disastrous results.
Familiarity with Lump isn’t at all essential to enjoyment of this song, though you’re much more likely to get the most out of it if you’ve seen Forrest Gump.
It’s a very fast-paced, hard-rocking song, and generally it wouldn’t be
too much to my taste, but it’s far too much fun for me to be turned off
by a little cacophony. Anyone who loves the movie as much as I do will
probably get a few laughs out of this somewhat skewered ode to one of
the sweetest film protagonists the world has ever seen.
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