Forest Gump: Opening scene analysis

Forrest Gump film poster.

Forest Gump is a movie directed by Robert Zemeckis, starring Tom Hanks. A fade in takes us into the scene showing us a blue sky, the titles are in a plain, white, round and almost swirly font that sets the genre of the film, which is a drama/comedy/romance. The use of non-diegetic sound starts off quiet and delicate, which may be representing the feather as we follow its journey. The journey of the feather starts off high up in the sky. The camera begins to tilt down and follow the feather as it blows in different directions to eventually land somewhere. We are shown buildings at first, then as the feather continues we see trees, cars, people and roads. The feather finally lands next to a man's shoes, this is shown to us by a close-up. He picks up the feather and takes a look at it before opening his briefcase/suitcase and placing it inside a book. At this point we are completely drawn to this character, because of the items in his case, such as clothes. This already sets the story for us and leads us into the story wanting to know who this character is and what his story is about. Overall it is a fantastic opening scene, which is very simply done.  


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7voy1vit6Y   -(Forrest Gump- Opening Scene)