Forrest Gump
(1999)









Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 2 Hours and 22 Minutes

Reviewer: Dale
Grade: A+

When I first saw this film, I was utterly obsessed with it. I didn't expect much from it when it first came out, quite frankly. I didn't know what to make of it. I don't think anyone did. It's one of those great success stories where a movie doesn't have the shit marketed out of it in order to secure itself a boffo opening weekend and then falls shortly thereafter. No, this was one of those great cinematic moments like "The Sixth Sense" or "There's Something About Mary", when a movie comes out and no one really expects anything of it...and then it just catches the right chord with the country. Call it timing, if you will. But I think success stories like this speak to something else, something more substantial, something very simple. I think it just boils down to making a film that is really good, an excellent story with a great idea behind it.

The idea behind "Forrest Gump" is fairly ingenious. It's the not-so-simple tale of a very simple man making his way the best way he knows how through the treacherous events of the mid-twentieth century. It was a time of bitterness and strife, when the nation had a hard time just keeping itself from imploding. It was a time of crooked presidents, wars that no one understood, civil rights marches, political assassination, free love, massive drug use and much, much more. "Forrest Gump" shows us this confusing and dark period of American history through the eyes of a simple, optimistic man. We see the events that transpire to change the atmosphere and the minds of an entire nation through the eyes of a man who knows he does not understand them. Who really did understand them? No one, not really. Forrest at least knows this. He knows that he does not understand anything, and that makes him special. It also makes him the ideal narrator and focal point of the film. We see all these extraordinary and chaotic times through his eyes, and it is the best possible vantage point. It imbues the film both with a surprising immediacy and a satirical distance. It is the reason that the whole thing works, and works magnificently.

We see the degradation and loss of the nation's innocence during this period in the guise of his one true love: Jenny. Jenny makes all the wrong choices, as many of her generation did, and we see what happens to someone whose dreams die as she succumbs to the most dangerous choices available to her. We also see the cynicism and rage of this generation at what is happening around them in the character of Lt. Dan (Gary Sinise, in his finest hour): a lieutenant who loses his faith, his ideals and his legs in Vietnam.

And as for Forrest? He simply goes with the flow. He takes life as it comes. He takes it one step at a time. And he comes out better for it, though he does see more than his fair share of tragedy. He is touched by more tragic events than any of the other characters in the piece, but his homespun philosophy, his sunny optimism, and his dim perceptions (or are they really so dim after all? Take another look at him and tell me, exactly, what makes him stupid?) give him the right attitude so that he is not dragged into the abyss that all those around him are drawn into. And it is ultimately he who offers them redemption. When they learn to take life one step at a time as Forrest does, they do grow a bit wiser and adjust a bit better for it.

Do I love this movie? You're damn right I do. Not only does it contain all the marvelous social commentary that I mentioned above, it's structure is simply unimpeachable. The film may not even seem to have a structure, but take another look at it. Take another gander at this superb and magical film. What of the way that events keep re-occuring with fresh spins upon them? All the assassinations? Lt. Dan's family history? Bubba's? And the random nature of events that is very much like reality itself, the way that each event effects another event and so on and so forth, giving us the hint that life and even the most extraordinary and seemingly famous of events and people has a catalyst among the common man. The common man has an effect greater than he could ever guess, as I'm sure he does in reality. Each event, each life touches another and another and leads to something greater than the sum of its parts. Or does it? Some events, again, as in life, seem to have no point other than their own existence. Look at Forrest's trip across the country on foot, for example. Is there a greater goal? Is there some higher purpose to it? Or is it just there because it is exceptionally entertaining and utterly wonderful all by itself? Who can tell.

The performances are all excellent. Tom won the Oscar and he earned it whole-heartedly. He is the heart and soul of the film as well as its surprisingly sly brain, and he is phenomenal. Gary Sinise is awesome, intense and magnificent as Lt. Dan. Robin Wright is underrated and undervalued as Jenny. If she didn't convince, then nothing else in the movie would. Unless we can see why Forrest would be enchanted by her, then his single-minded quest to gain her love would not involve us as deeply as it does. Mykelti Williamson is a hoot as Bubba, but astoundingly soulful as well (and am I the only one who thinks he's basically the same character in "Con Air", with Nic Cage as Gump with long hair and tattoos? Notice his death in both films...but I digress). And Sally Field is as great as always as Forrest's sweet and remarkably wise mother.

The special effects are so great that we barely even notice them. The direction is pitch perfect. I've never seen a Best Picture that was this flat-out funny, yet with such a wealth of heart and soul and such a vital, throbbing brain behind it. I've never seen a film that entertains and enlightens with equal gusto, as this one does. It's nimbly paced, beautifully filmed, wonderfully scored, daringly and audaciously edited, whimsical, witty, wise, tragic, potent, powerful, subtle, beautiful and enchanting.

It has every right to be on the 100 Greatest Films of All Time list. It's an utterly original and unique epic with a personal slant to it. Forrest's journey is nothing less than a chronicle of the past thirty years and an effort to gather some sort of sense from them. If Mark Twain were working today, this is the sort of story he'd be telling: a warm, big-hearted story told from the seeming idiot's point of view that exposes human nature at its most basic while presenting us with a satiric view of the bigger picture.

I've never seen a film like "Forrest Gump", maybe that's why I've watched it so many times. And I doubt I will ever see a film like "Forrest Gump" again. Most films have pretensions that they are this intelligent, but fail miserably. "Forrest" makes no such pretensions, it would prefer to surprise you with its uncommon depth. To hell with "Pulp Fiction". "Forrest Gump" is, once and for all, the Best Picture of 1994. It's also one of the best films EVER.