Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks) is born with physical disabilities in his legs and spine, and learning difficulties too. Following the determined advice of his mother (Sally Field), the heartfelt encouragement of his best friend and love of his life, Jenny (Robin Wright), and the friendship of his army superior (Gary Sinise) Forrest’s life takes some unexpected turns…
Doug says...
Forrest Gump is a bit of an odd film. I watched it back in 2010 and was, I remember, distinctly unimpressed. On a second watching I felt more charitable towards it, but I still find it odd that this won the Oscar and The Shawshank Redemption (far superior in my opinion) lost out.
But anyway, it’s a great Sunday evening film, gentle and sweet and with a story that purposefully puts its fictional hero at the heart of many American landmark moments, including Elvis’ rise to power, the Vietnam war and the Watergate scandal. It does so with its tongue firmly in cheek, the comedy of this everyman accidentally being involved in huge events is played very much up. I’m sure some people have found great meaning in every moment of the film but if I’m honest I think I’m missing these points. It feels like a fun story, with some comedy and a few moments of pathos, but not much else to it.
The moments of pathos are where this film piques the interest. Jenny has clearly been abused by her drunken father as a child, and an unrecognisable Robyn Wright plays this well, at one point returning to her now-abandoned childhood home and frantically throwing anything she can at it, her shoes, rocks, clods of earth. ‘I guess,’ intones Forrest wisely over the image, ‘sometimes there are never enough rocks’. It would be unbearably cloying, if it weren’t for Tom Hanks' delivery.
Tom Hanks is probably the most maligned in my original critique. Watching it again, with a lot more film knowledge, his performance is exceptional. He plays it sotto voce the whole film, with barely a flicker of emotion at the best of times. It’s a stoic outlook, which makes a scene at the end of the film where he actually cracks and weeps much more affecting than it really deserves to be. The script actually verges on the melodrama of the ‘80s, and is saved mainly by the vein of humour that runs throughout and the great performances (Hanks and Wright are matched evenly by Sally Fields’ determined mother and Gary Sinise as the really quite attractive Sergeant Dan Taylor).
I also enjoyed how intricately they’ve woven Hanks into original footage, writing a fictional man into real television reports, and overall I found it an easy, pleasant watch. Just not much real focus to it, in the end.
Highlight
The moment in a crowded bar when New Year strikes and everyone cheers, only for the camera to turn to Sergeant Taylor, now an amputee in a wheelchair. Gary Sinise sits, motionless as confetti falls around him, and his utter misery and listlessness is overwhelming. It’s the best moment of acting in the whole film.
Lowlight
I didn’t have much time for the script. With worse actors and less comedy it would have fitted right back into those tedious ‘80s melodramas.
Mark
6/10
Paul says...
1994 was a pretty competitive year for Best Picture. Forrest Gump beat Four Weddings and a Funeral, Pulp Fiction and The Shawshank Redemption to nab the trophy, all three of which are rivals not to be sneered at. Many people I have spoken to about this project are stunned to discover that Shawshank lost out. But that’s not to say that Forrest Gump is relegated to the list of “Undeserving Winners” at all. It remains today a very popular film, and I can see why.
It’s essentially a heavily symbolic discussion of American values. A bit of reading told me that most critics see the film as a glorification of old American values of steadfastness, honour, and good nature towards one’s fellow man no matter their social circle. Forrest embodies all of these qualities. His disabilities provide him with an unshakeably innocent and inflexible view of the world. He does Good Things because they are Good. He doesn’t do Bad Things because they are Bad. He rescues many members of his platoon from certain death in Vietnam, despite their desire to die with honour. He stands by his best friend Jenny even when she runs off for a more hedonistic and nomadic lifestyle. Much of the humour and the moments designed to be “inspirational” are derived from the fact that in the face of corruption, abuse or discrimination, Forrest remains good-hearted no matter what, and it is this attitude to life that the film very sweetly condones.
Perhaps this was more pertinent to early-'90s audiences. The world was still in the throes of the fall of communism and the aftermath of the Gulf War. Doing what is right as opposed to what is glamorous or advantageous must have been an appealing theme at the time, hence Forrest Gump’s triumph over equally enduring nominees.
However, like most films whose political values are closely tied with the news of their times, there’s an outdated quality to it, mostly through the presentation of Jenny. Jenny’s life takes the opposing path to Forrest’s. She engages with the hippie counterculture of the '60s, fights with the Black Panthers, becomes sexually promiscuous, takes drugs and has strong pacifist opinions when it comes to Vietnam. But her free-spirited lifestyle does not garner the advantages that Forrest’s does. Her’s spirals dramatically into drugs, abusive relationships, mental health problems and, eventually, death by a mysterious virus no doctor can cure (blatantly AIDS). This negative depiction of liberalism is a little unfair. Granted, many groups were violently left-wing and caused more chaos than good. But others developed feminism and civil rights in ways that have helped many social groups over the decades.
It would be unfair for me to condemn the film entirely for this. Admittedly it does provide some exploration into why Jenny ends up involved with such hedonistic and reactionary people. She was sexually abused as a child by her father and this has naturally screwed her up. The film deals with this quite powerfully, albeit too briefly (two small scenes is all we get). As a result, all liberal movements here are depicted unfairly as extremely and hysterically liberal, which is a bit one-dimensional in my view.
These questionable values make Forrest Gump a little less relevant now than its more timeless Best Picture nominees. But it does boast a funny script, sweet and warm-hearted moments, outstanding performances from Hanks and Wright (the latter is totally unrecognisable from her ice-cold role as Claire Underwood in House of Cards), and some astonishing visual effects that put Tom Hanks into conversations with real ex-US presidents and American icons.
Highlight
Jenny’s return to her childhood home, where memories of her father’s sexual abuse remain vivid. It’s a beautifully shot and acted moment where she throws whatever she can find at the already dilapidated shack. A lovely example of understatement and pathos.
Lowlight
Call me a bleeding-heart liberal but the one-dimensional depiction of countercultural revolutionaries as over-emotional and selfish is a little unfair.
Mark
7/10
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