FORREST GUMP


Directed By: Robert Zemeckis - Written By: Eric Roth - Starring: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Sally Field
Awards: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Effects, Best Editing, Best Director, Best Cinematography
Released: 1994

A retelling of Candide, Or All for the Best (1759) originally a polemic by Voltaire against unbridled optimism; this concept film turns that idea on its head by pleading against any form of pessimism; a Happy-Face: The Movie. Playing the Candide role is Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump. Forrest's been born with an IQ deficiency which makes him mentally about 8 years old, emotionally blunted, and incapable of irony, so that for the purposes of the film he's a reactor, not an actor. The way Hanks plays it, his emotional tone is about the same as a computer, but a computer with the charisma of Tom Hanks. Extreme loyalty is his only trait, and just as in real life, the people he’s loyal to always return that loyalty.

Most of the negativity that Candide ran into has been transmuted in this film into blessings in disguise. Nothing that happens to Forrest, even being sent to the front lines in Vietnam, is a washout. There he meets life-long friend Lieutenant Dan (Gary Sinese), who becomes the symbol and cheerleader for grim reality, having lost his legs in battle. We're asked to believe that Lt. Dan is so enamored of Forrest that he will throw cute girls out in the cold on New Year’s Eve just because one of them makes a rude remark about Forrest, and that an adult who drinks heavily and is depressed wants to be friends with an eight-year-old.

Another person in Forrest’s life is his life-long crush, Jenny (Robin Wright). They meet on Forrest's first day in school, thus Jenny wants to hang with Forrest periodically for a lifetime. She’s another example of everything that can go wrong, starting with being molested by a drunken father, the only sober moment in the film. She then proceeds on to any number of abusive relationships throughout life, apparently the counter-culture and Vietnam protest somehow are tied into this abuse. The film-makers knew their audience. I've known women who were Jenny, and my heart goes out to them. Unfortunately, Robin Wright is no Jenny, at least not the way her role is constructed and acted. She's a spunky movie heroine; i.e., not in need of any sympathy.

The sequence depicting Forrest as a football and ping-pong champ is put in perhaps to show that mental deficits are no barrier to playing sports. Computer-graphics puts him Zelig-like with various historical personages, turning American history into shtick, and proving once more that many filmmakers never grew-up (and that it could be done). But making him get rich quick was a false move, a revealing moment, because as rich man, he gets respect in America, and that kind of respect you don’t want. Why not show him winning the Presidency too?

Director Robert Zemeckis had a world-wide hit with this film, his other high-concept hits being Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Back to the Future. Writing anything negative about this film is like writing against motherhood. Tom Hanks is infused with so much charisma and warm-heartedness; the regular guy, decent, hard working, and no hang-ups or baggage of any kind; the only thing missing being a halo around his head. His alter ego is America itself, and he’s the only actor that could have carried it off. The feather at the end of the film is the symbol of the weight the story, the kind of storytelling that wins six Oscars. No European filmmaker could make a film this syrupy, it’s beyond'em. Alas, they still gear a lot of their films to adults. But if you need cheering-up, see the film. I'd be the first to admit I have the minority opinion. As a boomer-generation It's a Wonderful Life, it couldn't miss. Forrest Gump has no dead spots, it works within the context of its feel-good world-view, and all those Oscars must mean something.


©Features-on-Film.Inc. 2009