Forrest Gump

Forrest Gump

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TOM AT HIS BEST

Reviewed by MARY O'DAY, 2010-03-06

I HAVE ALWAYS LOVED TOM HANKS IN ANYTHING HE DOES. FORREST GUMP IS ONE OF MY FAVORITES. WOULD BE NICE TO FIND A SIMPLE MAN LIKE FORREST. GREAT MOVIE.

An American Icon

Reviewed by John F. Rooney, 2010-02-26

"Forrest Gump" (1994) is a classic, iconic American movie I think will live on. It's about a generation (about 30 years) from John F. Kennedy through the L.B.J. and Nixon administrations and beyond. Much of the early movie is comic. At the beginning and end of the movie we see Forest waiting and a feather floating through the air: life goes on, the circle of life persists and endures. Forrest, mentally challenged, learns to run like a house afire to get away from his enemies and his demons.
Through a groundbreaking process we see Forrest's image merged with the real images on newsreel footage of the American presidents he meets. He isn't greatly impressed by famous people, fame for himself or money. He's loving, extremely loyal, kind, gentle, naïve, trusting, courageous, and a lot smarter about life than most of the people around him.
Tom Hanks, the quintessential American movie star of the last thirty years, does a fantastic job as Forrest. The movie is full of adages and sayings (like "stupid is as stupid does") that Forrest repeats and lives by. He and his mother (Sally Fields) have a deep connection, and he has one love in his life, his childhood sweetheart, Jennie. She's a sixties love child who deeply disappoints Forrest by becoming part of the 60's and 70's drug culture, but their love triumphs.
Because of his ability to outrun everybody, Forest Gump becomes a football star and an accidental hero in the Vietnam War saving Bubba Blue, the shrimp fisherman he's befriended. He also saves Lieutenant Dan Taylor (Gary Sinise) who eventually becomes his business partner and life-long friend. He goes into Bubba's shrimp business after the Vietnam War, and he becomes successful along with Lieutenant Dan.
The movie reaches into pathos, but it can be excused for those excesses. It's a classic. Life just happens to Forrest, everything is accidental, not due to his planning, but he endures as an American icon.




A different and honest point of view of a movie beloved by some and loathed by others

Reviewed by Jon Jonz, 2010-02-23

Robert Zemickis is no stranger to making films that go back in time. Whether it be through time travel in "Back To The Future" or through the accounts of a simple yet intellectual challenged man named Forrest Gump. In Forrest Gump Tom Hanks takes on the title role of a Alabama man who overcomes odds only to face more as he grows older. While many will give this movie 5 stars and critics and movie goers alike loved this movie, I will give you an honest opinion that differs. This movie will take you on an emotional rollercoaster with some laughs thrown in otherwise it would be unbearable.The visual effects are excellent and were state of the art at the time of the films release in 1994. This movie is very far from being a comedy though. It has some comedic elements but they are there only to neutralize the impending doom that comes to most of the characters throughout the movie. Forrest Gump also unabashfully reeks of a conservative message that the person who obeys and belives in God first and foremost, believes in his country no matter what and has morals no matter how unintelligent he might be will survive over everything and everyone else. At what price though one must ask?, When this movie and the main character must deal with abdonment from just about every character. Anyone who has experienced abdonment issues should be warned this movie will definetly bring these issues to a head. It is anything but a feel good movie. While the character Forrest Gump must be looked at as commendable and a good person you cant help but feel sorry for him ( not because he has a low IQ but rather because of all the people that leave his life). You simply walk away from this movie feeling bad overall yourself. I'm still confused as to how this movie could ever be labeled a feel good movie. It's tragedy is what it is. Here is a man of humble means and intelligence who goes on to experience the 50's through the 1980's in America, helps shape popular culture by pure accident, has run ins with president and celebrites, by pure chance, becomes successful in the shrimp industry with the help of a hurricane, by pure chance becomes finacially stable for life because he invest in Apple Computers, but what does any of this success mean when all the people he cares about leave him or die? This movie sends the message the opposite of what's really important. Forrest becomes rich in materialism and noteriety but is he really rich in spirit and personal life when everyone he cares about is gone? The movie winds down and concludes by trying to soften this blow with the revelation that Jenny who now lives in Savannah Georgia after years of promiscuness and drug use now has a son who is actually Forrest's very own biological child. This even comes off sad and confusing. And for me was the final straw for this movie having any redeeming qualities. Did Jenny really get pregnant by Forrest that faithful night she decided to hop into bed with him? Only to leave the next morning abdoning Forrest once more? The movie only hints that Jenny and Forrest had sex together. Yet by having a scene where Forrest and Jenny's son both tilt their heads the same way while watching tv we are to believe without a doubt he is Forrest son.Based on Jenny's track record for sleeping around the odds are pretty high that other guys she was with could had passed a gene on to the kid that makes him tilt his head. Titling ones head is not uncommon at all and most certainly doesnt give proof positive evidence that Forrest is the father. If Jenny found out she was pregnant soon after in her transient travel assuming she hadnt slept with anyone else how did she know for sure Forrest was the father? Regardless of Jenny's troubled past I would think if she cared at all about Forrest she would had contacted him before the baby was born to tell him it was his child. If she was sleeping around as the movie hints at throught out her adult life, then the story and movie leaves an unexplanied gap. How did Jenny known Forrest fathered the baby? The second scenerio which i'm afraid is even sadder, Is Jenny got pregnant sometime after she left Forrest's house by some other guy, and when she found out 6 years later she was dying she decided she could call upon good old dependable Forrest and use his lack of intelligence and good naturedness against him and tell him the kid is his knowing he would raise the child and would do anything for Jenny. Either way the motives of Jenny which go unaddressed is heartbreaking none the less. and in my opinion leaves her character with no redeeming qualites whatsoever. Afterall she could never give her love to Forrest his entire life, even though he offered unconditional love to her, but only when she is dying and needs her son to be raised by someone she knows is dependable does she give her love and self to Forrest. As the movie ends and Forrest is sending his "son" off to school just like his momma had done for him you get the sense of sadness. Not because things have come full circle, but because the movie leaves many things untied as to whether or not Jenny lied to Forrest about him being the daddy. And if she didnt lie then she selfishly prevented Forrest from knowing his only child until she was close to death.And robbed the boy of his first 5 or 6 years of life knowing his daddy. After watching this movie you will feel you invested 2 1/2 hours of your life only to feel cynical, angry and empty all at the same time. This is no American Classic it is an American Tragedy at best. For some reasons many years ago I opted not to go see this movie as a teenager even though my entire family and some friends all went into the theatre together for the same showing on opening weekend. As I went several rooms over to watch "Wolf" starring Jack Nicholson to a near empty theatre and thought I was missing out on pop culture history perhaps.. Years later I watched Forrest Gump numerous times on tv, cable and video, and realized I was glad I never saw it on the big screen. In closing for this review then I'll give some advice based on my experience. If your thinking about buying this movie, go buy Wolf on dvd instead. Trust me you'll be a hell of lot happier and not depressed afterwards.

Top ten movies ever made

Reviewed by C. Porterfield, 2010-02-15

I can watch this movie a hundred times (probably have watched it at least 40 times). I love it. Every I know loves it. My husband imitates Forrest every now and then and gets people at ease and laughing. It is an American Icon!

..And that's all I have to say about Forrest Gump

Reviewed by Galina, 2010-02-15

I think of Forrest Gump (1994) directed by Robert Zemeckis as a fantasy or a fairy tale set in the real world, and what a marvelous tale it is.
It's been 15 years since I saw the film for the first time with my 13-years-old son. We were impressed, touched, and moved by it equally. We laughed, we could not contain tears, and we lived together with the hero, the childlike, naive, and innocent Forrest Gump, the most unusual lead character you can think of. FG was a big hit when it was released, and it went on to receive 6 Oscars including for The Best Picture, Director, Best Actor, Best Visual Effects, and Best Screen Play. The film's Oscar status has made it one of the controversial choices among the film viewers. Some completely agree that FG deserved all its awards and its love. The others, and quite few to that believe that the film is totally overrated, sickly sweet, and it is nothing more than the American propaganda of mediocrity. They believe that the film's main idea is, follow the orders, do what you are told, and even if your intellect is low or almost non-existent, with a little bit of luck, you would achieve the success in your life and even would change the history by simply being at the right place in the right time. How wrong I believe they are. You can't think of Forrest Gump as a real person. He is a fairy tale character, or rather the embodiment of a human with no cynicism whatsoever, the candid, pure, innocent man who is not quick or witty but who knows bad from good and right from wrong and through whose eyes we see the historical events in the live of this country for about thirty years of the last Century. Forrest may not be an intellectual prodigy but he was led through life's hardships, by the inner moral compass if you will and he knows the very simple truths that he never misses - love and loyalty to his mother, his friends, the girl he loves and his Country.

The movie covers the look at America not only from Forrest's point of view. Another look at alternative, rebellious, counterculture America was very well presented through Jenny's life. Between them two, I believe the film's creators were able to show the changing times and changing face of this country. Technically and visually, the film is a marvel. The best songs of the time that were used in the film soundtrack are great and I don't mind them sound almost all the time -the more the better. Tom Hanks had achieved the very difficult task. His Forrest is simple but not laughable. He is a decent and very good man. It is not easy to create such idealistic character and to make him alive and sympathetic. There is not a single false note in Hanks' performance, and he absolutely deserves the Oscar.

When I rewathed the film recently, it touched me as deeply now as it did 15 years ago, and this is for me the sign of not just good but a great movie. And that's all I have to say about Forrest Gump.