FILM REVIEW by Ximo

FORREST GUMP

It could be said that Forrest Gump is the definitive American movie. After all, it's historical, patriotic and it's got a dunce as the hero. A loving and friendly dumb, of course, played by Tom Hanks.

Nominated for 13 Oscars and winning six, including Best Picture, Best Director for Robert Zemeckis and Best Actor, "Gump" captured the imagination with its mix of comedy, drama, issues like AIDS and war, while managing to maintain a love story at its big budget core.

It charts the life of Forrest, a simple man who inadvertently finds himself in heroic situations. Devoted to his Mum, he does everything from teaching Elvis how to move his hips to running the length and breadth of America.

He meets some people along the way, like Captain Dan during Vietnam. Forrest does everything for his one true love, the experimental, sad, and ultimately broken Jenny (Wright-Penn).

Whether you like it or not really comes down to one thing: how much sentimentality can you take? Because despite the excellent performances and extravagant scale, Zemeckis has his finger on the nostalgia button. And then there's the affirmation of the American Dream: isn't it great that even a "stupid", as long as he's kind and loving, can make it in the fantastic USA?



Gump, gifted with a low IQ which lets him be adorably childlike even as he grows up, leads a very charmed life: a mother who loves him immensely and who sleeps with the school principal in order to make sure her child has the best education, a miraculous incident that eliminates the need for him to have braces for his legs, a childhood girlfriend who remains faithful to him till the end, surviving Vietnam with a medal, and, in general, a propensity for turning everything that happens to him into good.

I wonder what the movie is trying to say. From one perspective, it implies that intelligence (as measured by IQs and the general idea of what "smart" is) is a very unnecessary trait. But I think one can look beyond that and say that childlike innocence, which can be considered stupid, has its rewards. Throughout the movie, Gump is in situations where he is harassed by other people but he never takes offense (except, of course, when his girl Jenny is being abused) at any of the insults thrown at him. He is indeed not completely stupid, even though he is portrayed as such, since he can re-assemble guns at high speed, run like crazy, play ping-pong like a maniac, and so on.

The fact that Gump doesn't take offense, I think, is what keeps him content. He becomes a millionaire, but gives most of the money away. He is honest and open and this, along with his Alabama accent, endears him to the audience. But this gets tiresome after a while (especially after 2 hours). I thought the movie was overly long, but that's the only negative thing I have to say.

Gump rubs elbows with many famous personalities over the last half of the century including Elvis Presley and Nixon, thanks to computer technology (General Dan doesn't really lose his legs either---they are just erased and the background is then touched up by using computer graphics programs). The account of how Gump is responsible for the gyrations that is so characteristic of Presley is very telling of the motives of this movie. Gump is contrasted to the famous males, who are idols (in some cases) in today's society, and it appears as though he is better off in comparison: Gump's choices in life seem to determine his niceness (he goes to Vietnam, keeps his promises ("a promise is a promise"), harbours no ill-feelings or grudges, and is not greedy with fame or money) and successes. Contrast this to the choices his lifetime girl friend Jenny makes: she wants to be famous and rich, but ends up being a druggie. The people she is surrounded by are all of a dubious nature: a sexual-abusive father, a show audience more interested in her naked body than her folk-music playing, and an abusive hippie-boyfriend.

Gump is a new kind of a role-model; he's A Nice Boy and everyone knows they're hard to find.

Many people claimed it gets them in touch with their "inner child". Gump never grows up or matures in the movie. He never becomes a man and remains a boy. It is implied, at least, that his "stupidity" is what allows him to do this. This may or may not be true, but it is just a movie in the end. Most people in his position would not be so fortunate as he.

I think Zemeckis did a good job in showing that anyone can retain their inner child as long they never grow up or become mature.






"I'm tired now. I think I'm going home." --Forrest Gump

"Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're going to get." --Forrest Gump

"Stupid is as stupid does." --Forrest Gump

"I guess sometimes there just aren't enough rocks." --Forrest Gump

Ximo Català Chiva 5th F

listening: "Cry baby" Mariah Carey Ft. Snoop Dogg