Run, Forest, Run!

I watched Forest Gump for the first time the other night. (I loved it!) But, ever since we did that role-playing activity last week in class, when I watch movies, I find myself thinking about the movie before it was a movie... What did the story sound like when the idea was first presented to a director or producer? (*If you haven't seen this movie and you plan on seeing it, just go aheah and skip to the last paragraph*) The storyline of Forest's life is pretty ridiculous. I think if someone came to me and said, "We're going to tell the story of a man who has a severly low IQ, but is a super fast runner, plays college football, gets a degree (how?), fights in Vietnam, gets a medal of honor, becomes a world class ping-pong player, captains a shrimp boat and becomes a millionaire, runs nonstop for 3 years, and then marries his childhood sweetheart (who dies of aids) and has an adorable son (not exactly in that order)--and the entire story will be narrated by him, as he is sitting at a bus stop, talking to random strangers."

... I don't know, I just don't think I would go for it!

(Of course, that's not all the movie is about--it's about love and perserverance and other things like that--so I guess anyone trying to convince a producer to make this movie would probably not tell the story in the way I told it above!)

Now, despite the ridiculous plotline, Forest Gump is, in my humble opinion, a wonderful movie. So I find myself asking: What makes a good movie? How does one decide whether or not a story is worth telling? Does the storyline even matter, or is it the way a story is told that makes it a hit? It's fascinating to me to think about everything that comes together to make a movie--to think about the existence of the idea before anything was ever filmed, before the cast was chosen, before anyone knew whether or not this story or this idea would ever be tranferred to the big screen.