FORREST GUMP
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1994 Scott Renshaw
Starring: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Mykelti Williamson,
Sally Field.
Screenplay: Eric Roth.
Director: Robert Zemeckis.
Since I began reviewing films, no film has left me as stumped as FORREST GUMP. While I was watching, I was carried away, delighted by an original and stunningly executed experience. But almost as soon as the closing credits started to roll, I began to feel that something just wasn't working. FORREST GUMP is, by turns, hilarious, overly precious, touching and disturbingly simplistic. So the question becomes, which FORREST GUMP do I review: the in-the-theater experience, or the in-the-car experience? The undeniably entertaining crowd-pleaser or the pre-digested primer in pop philosophy? Naturally, I found my answer somewhere in the middle.
Tom Hanks plays the title character, an Alabama naif with an IQ of 75 but a heart of gold. His mother (Sally Field) makes sure he maintains his dignity by going to school with the other kids, but it is soon clear that Forrest is not like everyone else in more ways than one. His amazing speed lands him a scholarship at the University of Alabama, where he is an All-American kick returner. He joins the Army, befriends a fellow enlisted man (Mykelti Williamson), and becomes a war hero in Vietnam for saving his platoon leader (Gary Sinise). And just to top things off, he becomes an international ping-pong sensation. Yet through all Forrest's experiences, one thing remains foremost in his mind: his love for childhood sweetheart Jenny Curran (Robin Wright).
There is little question that the craft of FORREST GUMP is a wonder to behold. The digital wizards at ILM have triumphed again with the sequences placing Forrest in footage with Presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon, as well as George Wallace and John Lennon. Perhaps even more impressive are the shots in which Gary Sinise is made to appear a double amputee. Yet for all the notice- grabbing visuals, it was the sound that blew me away. One Vietnam battle scene will shock you out of your seat, and the sound of a hurricane is equally stunning. This is not say that director Robert Zemeckis rests on his technical support. Several of his shots are truly beautiful: a wedding overlooking water; a mountain reflected in a lake; and my favorite, a subtle moment when Jenny tells Forrest "You don't know what love is," as the neon sign of a strip club called "Love's" appears slightly out-of-focus in the background. FORREST GUMP never fails to be a feast for the senses.
It's also frequently a feast for the funny bone, but unfortunately Zemeckis succumbs to the same tendency that sometimes hampered WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT?, namely a desire to throw in too many winking cultural asides. The biggest laughs are purely character moments, such as Forrest discovering his speed while blowing apart his leg braces, or the rambling shrimp-based menu delivered by Forrest's Army buddy Bubba. But Zemeckis and scripter Eric Roth feel the need to make Forrest responsible for Elvis Presley's pelvic gyrations, the Watergate bust and the "Have a Nice Day" smiley face. At a certain point, it's just overkill, and it detracts from the whimsical tone with its heavy-elbowed nudges.
Tom Hanks' performance as Forrest is problematic. While he avoids most of the one-note traps of Dustin Hoffman in RAIN MAN, he is still far too mannered, particularly when compared to the dynamic naturalistic performances of co-stars Robin Wright and Gary Sinise. Wright delivers a wrenching performance worthy of high praise, and Sinise may have found the role which makes him a household name (if THE STAND didn't already do so). Hanks may garner yet another Academy Award nomination, but he was better in a comparable role in BIG, and for my money even better in his much criticized performance in PHILADELPHIA.
My biggest problem with FORREST GUMP is that in its attempt to re-construct America's turbulent last thirty years, it has created a philosphical monster. GUMP has most often been compared to 1979's BEING THERE, but there is a critical difference. Jerzy Kozinski created a biting satire of how the platitudes of a dim-witted man became wisdom in a sound-bite society. There is no such distance in FORREST GUMP; Forrest's bon mots *are* the film's philosophy, and as such they seem like Truth McNuggets. GUMP may be a paean to an innocence lost, but it is also troublingly anti-intellectual, history filtered through Robert Fulghum. These will not be the concerns of the average movie-goer, I'm certain. They will be more interested in the pure entertainment value of Forrest Gump's picaresque journey through life, and the film's emotion. GUMP will be many things to many people. To me, it was just another good but flawed movie.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 enchanted Forrests: 7.
-- Scott Renshaw Stanford University Office of the General Counsel
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