FORREST GUMP
A film review by Eugene R. Ahn
Copyright 1994 Eugene R. Ahn
Starring: Tom Hanks (Forrest), Robin Wright (Jenny), Gary Sinise (Lieut), Sally Field (Forrest's mother), Mykelti Williamson (Bubba) Directed by: Robert Zemeckis
It has been a long while since I felt motivated to write a movie review. Frankly, the ones I've seen in that long span have been either awful or only superficially entertaining. For example, take SPEED--a claustrophobic action flick led by a hollow scarecrow of a protagonist whose only charm is his lucky survival instincts (in real life, better known as just "luck"). Eventually the soul-less movie blows itself up by stretching our suspension of of belief like silly putty with ludicrous scenes, such as "bus leaps over a hundred-foot gap on a highway." All in all, SPEED was nothing but a cheap thrill, and quickly forgettable.
What makes SPEED forgotten summer fodder and FORREST GUMP (directed by Robert Zemeckis of WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? and BACK TO THE FUTURE fame) one of the best movies of 1994 is the difference in devotion to characterization. GUMP has its own stretches of the imagination, and one could say that they were equally as non-plausible as a bus leaping a hundred feet across a broken highway, but when GUMP lands you cheer, because the story is about Forrest always.
The story begins simply enough. Forrest is at a bus stop and tells his life story to a previously unknown bystander. His southern accent is thick and his speech is slow. The woman sitting beside him ignores him, probably thinking he lacks something upstairs, and reads a People magazine instead (oh, the irony, eh?). But while Forrest lacks intelligence, he slowly wins the audience over with his simplicity, honesty, and innocence.
His story begins in Alabama, his home town, and we immediately see that he is scorned for various handicaps--leg braces for a bad back and an IQ of 75. We see that his widowed mother (played by Sally Fields) is, shall we say, determined to see that he gets a fair education despite his handicap. Finally, on his first bus trip to school, he finds his first friend in Jenny Curran (Robin Wright) who offers the seat beside her. We later learn that Jenny is abused by her father, but Forrest lacks the intelligence to understand the problem exactly. He only knows he loves her companionship, and as he would repeat throughout the film, "We was like peas and carrots together." Forrest's relationship with Jenny has echoes of Faulkner's Benjy and Caddy.
Then in a hilarious plot turnaround, Jenny indirectly helps Forrest realize that he can run without his leg braces and just like that, the audience is suddenly taken for a ride through the highs and lows of American history. Forrest's newfound speed leads to his recruitment onto a college football team. He graduates and enlists in the army to fight in Vietnam. Eventually he meets Kennedy and Nixon in the White House, he plays ping pong against the Chinese and attends a peace rally in DC.
Throughout the movie, Robert Zemeckis almost flawlessly interweaves Tom Hanks into actual footage of past US presidents and prominent historical moments. The result is impressive. The adventures that Forrest endures become hauntingly familiar and make our empathy with Forrest stronger. A musical score highlighted by a healthy diversity of popular tunes from their respective decades also helps ground Forrest's experience into our own.
One of the great attributes of GUMP is how well the script holds together as it jumps from historical moment to the next. Forrest's three friends--Jenny, Lieutenant Dan Taylor, and Bubba (the latter two he befriends in Vietnam), his lack of intelligence, and his ability to run all hold the narrative into a well-developed, progressive plot. It would be almost corny in another script, but Zemeckis gets away with it because Forrest has been clearly characterized as innocent and simple- minded. Instead of grunting in disbelief, we laugh because it is Forrest we are laughing at, not the script.
While Forrest seems almost destined to survive every American crisis thrown his way, his sweetheart remains, as ever, constantly just out of his reach as she rides a more dark and radical path. She mingles with hippies and the Black Panthers. She is abused by her boyfriends, performs in nude bars and she eventually ponders suicide. There even seems to be a vague reference to AIDS. But Forrest loves her no less.
I don't know what the "social" significance of FORREST GUMP is. I have a few ideas, but I know any answer I might offer would be incomplete because GUMP works too well as a character movie to reduce it into an idea. There are great melodramatic moments when Forrest suddenly hears Jenny call to him at the peace rally in DC and they run to each other and hug in the pool. When Jenny revisits her father's home, collapses and throws rocks at the house in rage, Forrest comments: "I guess sometimes ... there aren't enough rocks."
I think GUMP is about healing the wounds of our past--finding a reason to stop throwing rocks and to make a peace. If you leave watching FORREST GUMP feeling better about yourself, then I think FORREST GUMP as a movie has succeeded and deserves....
****1/2 (out of *****)
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