Review of Forrest Gump (1994) by Brendanc — 11 Feb 2013

"My Momma always said that life was like a box of chocolates. You ever know what you are going to get." Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks).

Forrest Gump is an absolutely amazing film that was nominated for and won many academy awards. Tom Hanks won the Golden Glove for best actor, and Robert Zemeckis won the olden Globe for best director. Gary Sanise won a few awards for best supporting actor, and was nominated in the same category for a few other awards. It won so many prestigious awards besides Golden Globes too. It truly is one of the greatest and my highly praised films of all time, and it deserves all of it. The film is creative as it gets, and an absolute masterpiece. Part of it's brilliance is how historically accurate it is. Forrest Gump is a perfect mixture of an epic drama, romance, and a drama-comedy. Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks) is a slow-witted man that happens to witness and influence important parts of American history in the 2nd half of the 20th century. Forrest has influenced parts of American history such as teaching Elvis the "Elvis Pelvis" dance. His legs were in braces when he was a boy, and he couldn't move them. Elvis was playing a song for him, and he started dancing, but he could only move his pelvis because of the braces. Elvis liked the dance and started to use it. That is the first example of something he influenced in the story.

The most important part of the story was when he became a war hero. There were a few people that became part of his life that he would influence history with. His friend Bubba who died in the war, who was his best friend he named his shrimp company after. He started the shrimp company "Bubba Gump" with Lieutenant Dan (Gary Sinise).

Dan had a family member from every generation fight and die in a war, so he feels like that is his destiny. When Forrest saves him he feels like he was cheated out of his destiny. He wanted to die and be honored, but now he doesn't have any legs. He starts to live off of the government, and has lost all faith in God. There is a scene where he is telling Forrest that you cheated me out of my destiny. He was being irrational because it is impossible to be cheated out of a destiny, if God has an exact one planed for you. What Forrest should have said to him is that you are wrong you were destined to survive that war, and in the future you will learn why when all of your pain has passed. I for one don't believe everything is planned. I believe only some things happen for a reason. Certain things I think don't happen for a reason. There is a mix of both, and if everything was planned you wouldn't actually be in control of your life. That is one lesson that Forrest learned at the end.

The film is also a beautiful romance. Forrest has been in love with his childhood friend Jenny (Robin Wright) ever since he first saw her when he was little. Now that they are adults he wants to be with her, but she is really disturbed. She has become part of the hippy crowd, and she takes a lot of hallucinogens. She gets into many abusive relationships partly because of the damage done from the abusive relationship she had with her father. Her father ruined her life, and everything was sour because of him. She won't be with Forrest because she hates herself, and she loved Forrest too much to hurt him. He doesn't have the intelligence to see that she isn't perfect, or to even see that she is completely flawed. That is the really emotional part of the film, and the romantic part. I like romance in movies as long as it isn't really cheesy stuff, and it is actually deep and emotional. That type of stuff I think is really well acted, and hard to do.

The film is a hard one to make and to be in, and it is total genius. One of the most creative masterpieces of all time. A classic that will never die.