【正文】 essage than the dominant, hegemonic message in a piece of media. Therefore, the viewer is not simply a dupe who is pletely impressionable, but rather part of an active audience. In this way, the representations in Forrest Gump are only a suggestion of American ideals, and may be interpreted differently by different audiences. Historical Culture in Forrest GumpThe antiintellectualism movie is rearranged from the story of the fictional Forrest Gump, who witnesses and experiences many important moments in the contemporary American history and many popular cultures. Forrest is unconscious of the historic occasion of his experiences because of his low intelligence.Almost as soon as it was screened, people started discussing reasons for the movie’s success. Many statements highlighted not only the film but the political affairs of the USA in the 1990s. Within the context of socalled culture wars, Forrest Gump was perceived as a political text that fit a conservative desire to exploit the nation’s past. As a result, Forrest Gump was regarded by many people as a media product that conveyed a certain political interpretation of history.The film opens with Forrest sitting at a bus stop in Savannah, Georgia, where he engages in a series of conversations with different people waiting for the bus. He recounts the episodes of his life, which are all closely linked to iconic moments in contemporary history. In the opening scene, Forrest shares the bench with a young AfricanAmerican nurse. He introduces himself with opening a box of chocolates and offers her one. The nurse declines. Tom Hanks then speaks the line that became one of the most popular movie quotes ever: I could eat about a million and a half of these. My momma always said, Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.The film presents history through the eyes of a single hero, and bees an example of Oral History. As Forrest witnesses many events, his story is told by linking autobiography to contemporary history, and thereby transmitting history via word of mouth. The life of Gump is influenced not only by indelible personalities and events, but also his early lover. Though Forrest and Jenny grow up in the same small Southern town, their paths diverge and lead them to very different life experiences. “While Forrest’s mental and physical disadvantages are ameliorated through the loving care of his single mother, we e to see how Jenny’s potential has been damaged by her abusive father”(Gong 87). After college, Forrest enlists in the Army and fights in Vietnam, while Jenny joins the American counterculture. One reason so much attention was paid to the movie at the time of its release was the using of a new puterbased technique. Through using this technique, the director was able to integrate real film clips into the story, and manipulate it in such a way that the main character appeared to be part of the historical footage. This can best be illustrated by discussing an important sequence of the film.This sequence is opened with 1963 footage showing a television report on the desegregation of the University of Alabama. First one person watches the newscaster, and then people listening in a barbershop, before the film crossfades to a reenactment of the famous scene at the entrance to the University of Alabama. We can see students, National Guardsmen, and a reporter, as well as George Wallace, governor of Alabama, who is trying to prevent the courtordered desegregation. Forrest joins a group to ask what’s going on. One student answers that “coons” are trying to go to college with them. Forrest misunderstands this racist epithet, and even after the student’s clarification, he doesn’t take in the significance of the situation. As he goes to the front of the crowd of protesters, one of the black students is acpanied by the National Guard drops her notebook. Forrest bends down, picks up the book, and hands it to the black student, politely addressing her as “Ma’am”.The historical setting of the film refers to the racial history of the civil rights movement. Other footage integrated into the story includes the Kennedy assassination, the shooting of Reagan, the moon landing, Watergate, etc. Zemeckis’ choices are representative of an American historical consciousness that is evident during the 1980s and 90s. If people were asked in 1985 to name the most significant events of the past fifty years, they would point to the Second World War, the Vietnam War, space exploration, the assassination of JFK, and the civil rights movement.Another sequence in the film Forrest is brought to Washington, DC to receive the Medal of Honor from President Johnson for heroism in Vietnam. Afterwards, he goes sightseeing and es upon a massive gathering at the Lincoln Memorial. Forrest’s uniform is shoved to the front of a group of protesters holding signs like “Veterans against the War in Vietnam”. At the podium antiwar activist Abbie Hoffman, dressed in stars and stripes, is speaking out against the Vietnam War. He invites Forrest to e up and report on the war himself.Forrest tells us that he is named for the Civil War hero and General Nathan Bedford Forrest who founds the Ku Klux Klan. As Gump narrates this background, we can understand the meaning of his name in the America’s racist history. By making him the redeemer of the nation, the film suggests that America itself, with the same racist roots, can transcend the ugly aspects of its past. Hippie Culture in Forrest GumpThe hippie subculture began its development as a youth movement in the United States during the early 1960s and then developed around the world. It came about as a reaction to the clouted lives of European and American living. Since then, it has evolved from a small following, to an enormous movement and now exists as part of mainstream America. The hippie culture influenced typical American beliefs in three specific subjects which are political