Active Audiences Work

My media text is Forrest Gump which is a 1994 film that was released starring Tom Hanks and directed by Robert Zemeckis. The film was a huge blockbuster hit and as a result of this the film picked up 7 academy awards including awards for TomHanks as best actor and Robert Zemeckis as best director. Forrest Gump perfectly fits into the Youngs and Rubicoms style of Audience Classification as everyone went to watch this movie when it was released as Tom Hanks had previously reeled in the academy award for his role in Philadelphia. Therefore Forrest Gump would be for someone in the mainstream catorgory.

Encoders are the people who have designed the product so in this case the encoders are the people who helped create the film like the director, producers and writers etc..I believe the encoders are trying to convey a good story but also send out a message at the same time. The main character in the film has some sort of disability that is never actually specified in the film however the story telling fits perfectly with the fact Forrest has this disability. In the film forrest succeeds at many different tasks that includes American football, going in the army, saving lives, vent a ing pong champion and much much more. Forrest does all these amazing tasks even though he has a disability and this sends the message that no one has to be perfect to succeed in life. this is what i believe the encoders were trying to convey in the film.
Many different ideologies have been put into this film help convey the message and these have different meanings. one ideology in the film is about how the USA is the all powerful race and the heroes of the world. Forest Gump is a very patriotic film as it has Forrest Play American Football which isn't really played anywhere else hence the name. Forrest enters the army which is the ultimate portrayal of being a patriot and even when he plays ping pong he stay how he's playing for the American team and not just himself. The film is based around many different American cities and features plenty of Nostalgia like Elvis Presley learning his trademark hip swing, the Vietnam war and JFK being shot so its like the ultimate American Ideologies. The film could even be saw as one big propaganda stunt for America.
I believe the text celebrates how a truly emotional and an amazing story can be told through cinema and only through cinema. This is shown in the film through the way Forrest tells the story. The people that he sits next to on the bench for the majority of the film can only use their imagination to think about what Forrest's life was truly like whereas we as the audience are physically watching the events of his life unfold. An example of not being able to appreciate the story telling of cinema is done by a man himself who doesn't believe the story what forrest is telling. The creators of this film execute this task perfectly. Someone who doesn't appreciate the power of cinematic story telling truly will after watching Forrest Gump.
Forrest Gump has many underlying messages in the text such as the level of patriotism and how your childhood shapes the person you come out to be however the most important message in the film is how disability shouldn't stop you from doing what you want. This film is powerful message to people with disabilities as it tells them that they can do whatever they want with their life regardless of their condition. A job that the film makers will have had in mind when creating the film will have been to show how people with disabilities can still have an amazing life. The situation with Jenny also is very important in the film. In the film Jenny as a child clearly suffered from a damaged childhood due to a father who is very over affectionate and very paedoplhillic in a sense and the film puts this in a very light hearted manner. The film describes it through Forrest's point of view who sees everything literally and believes how Jenny's father is with her is out of love however in reality this is huge problem. Forests point of view allows the movie to still be light hearted however it also addresses one of the biggest issues in society today without really going into detail and people who pick up on this will walk away from the film thinking about this issue meaning the film creators have got this message across.
Forrest Gump teaches us that life is too short however life is also what you make of it at the same time. Forrest proves that nobody has to be perfect to have a successful life but that you only have to try hard enough. Forrest manages to achieve so much in life even with some form of disability so if Forrest can do that what can you do?. Forrest goes through life seeing the death of his mother and his wife Jenny. Jenny in particular dies really young leaving Forrest with Forrest Jnr to raise alone. Jenny dies at a young age in comparison to other people so the film itself teaches people to do as much as they possibly can in life. Her death is a reminder of how precious life truly is and that it can end at any point.

An Oppositional view of Forrest Gump is very valid to some people for a number of reasons. An example of this is how people from Southern USA are portrayed in the film. The area that Forrest is from is full of rednecks and people like Jenny's dad who abuse children and even stereotypically people who marry their brothers and sisters. This in some sense is true however it is portrayed to happen a lot more than  it actually does. A person who opposes this will understand that this type of thing does happen in that part of the USA however they will not agree with it and have their own view point. A second view point is that first important character that dies in the film is Bubba who comes from a black background and is raised in 1960's America which at the time was still very racist. The death of Sam Cook is a perfect example of this. An oppositional view would agree that at this time black men were sent to the front first to die however they still believe that his death is not a very good thing to have in the film as the first one.

Without doubting that Forrest Gump is a truly amazing film some people will dislike the film for reasons that are personal to them therefore having a negotiated view. A big feature of the film is how patriotic the film is. Everything in Forrest Gump has the special America twist to it. Some who had an opposed reading might not understand why everything so heavily revolves around America. For example why would someone from Vietnam be able to watch Forrest Gump being able to believe the story telling. Forrest Gump features a scene that shows Vietnamese soldiers completely massacring the America soldiers. We as the audience are positioned with the Americans as Forrest is our main character and is from Alabama. Someone from Vietnam might want to know why the film doesn't show all the horrifying and destructive acts the Americans did to them.