Review of Forrest Gump (1994) by Ben L — 14 Jan 2015

Forrest Gump was one of those movies that controlled the nation in 1994. References were made in all forms of media, people were quoting the lines on a daily basis, even a restaurant chain was born from its fame. Coming back to view it now, separated from all the hysteria that surrounded it, I find myself significantly less impacted by the story. Suddenly I find inserting Tom Hanks into archived footage with presidents to be a little cheesy. Those lines that gained such fame start to grate on me because I've heard them so many times now. It's not a fault in the movie, I just can't mentally turn back time to recapture the wonder. That being said, clearly there was something special that touched the nation so significantly to get me to this point. Although it's worth mentioning that even when it was brand new I was never totally in love with this film.

Forrest Gump is still a nice story, so I don't want to totally criticize it. What works most for me now is the contrast of Forrest's top tier life with that of Jenny and Lieutenant Dan who continue to hit rock bottom. If you actually think about it the lesson of the movie is a bit strange. Don't think, do what you're told, and life will fall into place? But I'm not sure if Forrest's life was supposed to be any kind of moral lesson, and thankfully he never says anything to elevate himself above others. Despite the extremely detailed walk through history, in reality this movie becomes a love story. Every moment spent in that love story is excellent, and I kind of wish Forrest didn't go so many long stretches without coming into contact with Jenny. Perhaps my biggest complaint about Forrest Gump is the amount of little moments in history they try to shoehorn into his life. It's fine when he's competing as an all-american football player, but inventing t-shirts and bumper stickers? It gets ludicrous after awhile and continuously reminds me I'm just watching a movie. I can watch Forrest Gump if someone wants to, but I'm probably never going to choose it.