Review of Forrest Gump (1994) by Yorkman — 19 May 2016

Ah, a look back over 30 years of American history through the eyes of a somewhat retarded individual is so overtly romanticised and with so much 'apple pie' about it, that I've never understood why it's regarded as some kind of masterpiece.

The entire movie is just one unbelievable set-piece followed by another, as we watch young Forrest grow into adulthood, attend college, fight in Vietnam, become a world class ping-pong player, create THE dominant shrimp catching business in the US, become an international news story (in of himself) as he spends 3 years running back and forth across America, before he finally gets to marry the love of his life.... Before she dies of AIDS and dumps her kid (Forrest's son, who she kept away from him right up until she knew she was dying) in his lap and just expects him to carry on his life.

Therein lies the film's biggest problems.... For all that is good, in how it uses Forrest's life experiences to form a narrative that includes a large number of important cultural moments in American history through the early 1950's to the early 1980's, there is a something fundamentally bad.

In order for the film to work you have to believe that Forrest can merrily walk through life, getting involved in all the major incidents around him, and not query how on Earth it would ever happen.

I just couldn't do that, so watched the film more as a parody, than a drama.

The other fundamental problem with the film and, as an audience, one we just have to accept.... Is that Forrest is in love with a woman who is incredibly self-centred and borderline sociopathic. All the way through the film she just treats Forrest like crap, and although she eventually gets her own comeuppance (dying of AIDS in her late 30's) it doesn't make up for everything she did to Forrest.... Plus, as mentioned, her dying act is to foist a small child on him, a child that will remind him every day about the woman he lost (well, never really had.... But whom he loved!!).

The only good part of the film is the soundtrack... It is crammed with excellent songs from the 50's through to the early 80's, the 'Vietnam' era part having (obviously) the best.

I suspect my aversion to the movie could well be because I'm English, so I'm a spectator watching the game, rather than someone living in America who might latch onto the sentimentality a little more easily!

Ultimately this is a film which has good intentions, but is so utterly unbelievable that I couldn't get involved on any level.