← Back to Reviews
in
Forrest Gump (Robert Zemeckis, 1994)
In my original 100, I placed it at 49. It's very entertaining, an impressive technical achievement and well acted by Hanks and Sinise. As far as some other themes it touches (women's lib, AIDS), it's not particularly successful but at least it addresses them. I prefer it as an offbeat comedy more than a serious drama or a weepie. I've said before that it's basically a Cliffs Notes version of the second half of 20th century American history. You should study the real thing rather than take it from Forrest Gump.
Forrest certainly does experience many things which are important to our life, but he's not responsible for them. They would have all happened and been discovered without him. In other words, Hunt and Liddy would still have been discovered without Forrest, and honest to God, they were! The point of Forrest Gump and what makes it an important stepping stone for many people who have no concept or desire to learn about the history of the United States during the last 50 years is that movies can actually teach them something about reality which is totally separate from vampire love, torture, wizards, werewolves, paranormal bull****e, bogus witches, etc. When I used to teach at my school, more teenagers probably learn about the concepts of the reality of rock and roll, civil rights, modern U.S. political assassinations, the Vietnam War, AIDs, etc., from Forrest Gump. However, the key is that it makes most of them want to learn the OTHER truth about all those subjects after watching it.
On the other hand, if they had a woebegone teacher such as I, they also learned about cinematic history as well as that of other important concepts which hopefully lasted them the rest of their lives, but Forrest Gump can only be considered something hellacious if you think that it's specifically responsible for the [Current] Downfall of Western Civilization.
It's so ancient at this point that I find that difficult to believe. Besides, Forrest Gump probably has more reality in it than most films do because there are just so many films made nowadays which have NO reality whatsoever.
In my original 100, I placed it at 49. It's very entertaining, an impressive technical achievement and well acted by Hanks and Sinise. As far as some other themes it touches (women's lib, AIDS), it's not particularly successful but at least it addresses them. I prefer it as an offbeat comedy more than a serious drama or a weepie. I've said before that it's basically a Cliffs Notes version of the second half of 20th century American history. You should study the real thing rather than take it from Forrest Gump.
Forrest certainly does experience many things which are important to our life, but he's not responsible for them. They would have all happened and been discovered without him. In other words, Hunt and Liddy would still have been discovered without Forrest, and honest to God, they were! The point of Forrest Gump and what makes it an important stepping stone for many people who have no concept or desire to learn about the history of the United States during the last 50 years is that movies can actually teach them something about reality which is totally separate from vampire love, torture, wizards, werewolves, paranormal bull****e, bogus witches, etc. When I used to teach at my school, more teenagers probably learn about the concepts of the reality of rock and roll, civil rights, modern U.S. political assassinations, the Vietnam War, AIDs, etc., from Forrest Gump. However, the key is that it makes most of them want to learn the OTHER truth about all those subjects after watching it.
On the other hand, if they had a woebegone teacher such as I, they also learned about cinematic history as well as that of other important concepts which hopefully lasted them the rest of their lives, but Forrest Gump can only be considered something hellacious if you think that it's specifically responsible for the [Current] Downfall of Western Civilization.
It's so ancient at this point that I find that difficult to believe. Besides, Forrest Gump probably has more reality in it than most films do because there are just so many films made nowadays which have NO reality whatsoever.