Finding Forrester & Forrest Gump, iconic films about teachers

MANILA, Philippines - May has two special celebrations, Teacher Appreciation that falls on the first week and Mother’s Day, coinciding with the second Sunday. The latter tends to eclipse the former, because in our lives, we have a parade of teachers but of course, only one mother. But two films stand out in our memory because they resonate what teachers and mothers do best for their protégés — develop their fullest potential.

Finding Forrester is a drama directed by Gus Van Sant in 2000, from the screenplay by Mike Rich, starting off with the annoying encounter which led to a life-changing bond between a black American teenager, Jamal Wallace (Rob Brown) and a reclusive writer, William Forrester (Sean Connery), said to have won the Pulitzer prize in 1954 (in reality, there was no award for this category that year) for his great American novel, Avalon Landing. The boy at first disturbed the hermit, but later gained a mentor in the craft he wanted so much to pursue — writing.

Connery makes his mark in the film, as with age, he registers even better on screen and should be best remembered for his dramatic moments, not for the action thriller series James Bond of the roguish British Agent 007 of his prime. Some critics find the Forrester character theologically allegorical, seeing omnipotence in the misanthrope looking down on a chaotic world, cooped up in his NY apartment that was a challenge to production designer Jane Musky who had to crowd it with the stuff he had accumulated for the last 40 years. 

The title of Forrester’s last work brings up the theme of the master passing the torch to his apprentice, as Avalon is the legendary island where King Arthur’s magical sword, the Excalibur, was forged and where he lay wounded, at death’s door. This is the essence of a true mentor, grooming his ward to take his place with time a-flying. This is what another unforgettable teacher, Morrie Schwartz, did in the memoire which topped the New York Times Non-Fiction Bestsellers of 2000 and was later made into a tele-movie with the same title, Tuesdays with Morrie in 1999 with Jack Lemon in the role which bagged him an Emmy. The 78-year-old Sociology professor at Brandeis University, stricken with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), tutored his former student Mitch Albom, now a sports writer, everything he knew about living, when he knew he was dying.

Forrest Gump is a dramedy based on the 1986 novel of the same title by Winston Groom. The film, directed by Robert Zemeckis in 1994 with location in Georgia, North and South Carolina, chronicles the life of dim-witted but athletically gifted Forrest Gump (the role refused by John Travolta and passed on to Tom Hanks) from Alabama, with the defining events of American History in the latter half of the 20th century as milieu (with digitally inserted archived footage), in particular, the period between his birth in 1944 and maturity in 1982. It received critical acclaim, earning over $677M worldwide, winning the 67th Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director for Robert Zemeckis, Best Actor for Tom Hanks, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Visual Effects and Best Film Editing. It also reaped other awards and nominations, including the Golden Globe, People’s Choice and Young Artist, among others.

In 2010, my husband and I, with our Calumpiteña bossom buddy, Leoni, a registered nurse in Florida as our host, sat in the very bench where the iconic feather landed on Gump’s feet in Chippewa Square, historic Savannah, Georgia, trying to imagine the simpleton Forrest lost in reverie. In his narrative, we came to know the woman who stood by him and made him believe that he could do anything despite his below average intellect — his mother, ably played by Sally Field. There were other scenes filmed in and around the Savannah area as well which we tried to visit, including the Richard V. Woods Memorial Bridge in Beaufort where Forrest had a running shot while he was being interviewed by the press, and on West Bay Street.

Gump’s recollection while sitting here, waiting for a bus: “Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get” was ranked 40th on 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes because movie goers loved the homespun philosophy of Mrs. Gump, a simple woman who ran a rooming house. She epitomized all mothers whose sole dream in life is to help her children get ahead in the world. Sally herself compared the feather to fate, saying: “It blows in the wind and just touches down here or there. Was it planned or was it just perchance?” But like every mother, who is her child’s first teacher, she knew she had to twist the hand of fate and lead her child to a place that would yield the most joy.

Such is the magic woven by teachers in the lives of their students that the national organization of teachers, Kapisanan ng mga Guro sa Pilipinas (KaGuro), Inc., chose to hold its first national convention the day before Mother’s Day at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, with celebrities who are now teachers: Prima Ballerina Lisa Macuja-Elizalde, writer-host RJ Ledesma and media specialist and broadcaster Bernard Factor Cañaberal.

These extraordinary teachers validated in their sharing what this writer surfaced in a dissertation research on the most memorable teachers in a premiere university — the portrait of a teacher of HOPE (Heart-felt caring, Obligation to truth and core values of the Catholic faith, Passion for excellence and discipline and Elegance in decorum and eloquence in speech). 

KaGuro National president and former Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) Innotech specialist, Dr. Ophelia Veniegas, chose a very apt tagline, “Teachers Helping Teachers” for this gathering of mentors who are banding together with the core purpose of promoting professional standards of practice in education. The exceptional teachers are leaving behind a legacy of faith and fortitude to their students, rebuking them, like Forrester: “We walk away from our dreams afraid that we may fail, or worse yet, afraid we may succeed” and exhorting them, as Mrs. Gump: “You have to do the best with what God gave you.”

William Forrester and Forrest Gump’s mama knew what the teacher of HOPE learned from Jesus, the best teacher of all time: No matter the color of our skin or the acuity of our intellect, we are God’s own and He is calling us out of darkness into His wonderful light.