AFI Top 100: #76
One would think that a film chronicling the life of a man with an IQ of 75 throughout the course of many critical, historical events would be much better crafted and for the longest time, I absolutely thought so. However, Robert Zemeckis' arguably most popular film Forrest Gump is frankly not as great as I remember since seeing it when I was a child. This movie does a fantastic job of intercutting history with this newfound character and providing its audience with a fresh perspective on what could be deemed truly important in life, accompanied by a fantastic performance from its lead. What I don't recall from my first viewing of this is how mundane I actually felt about the rest of the characters in this story. While this film might take a fresh new look at how people can see important events through the eyes of a different man, it forgets to actually make us care about what is happening to him and even though I still enjoy this film for multiple reasons, it has proven increasingly harder to defend its iconic status.
Living on the precipice of many world-altering, twentieth-century events, a simple man named Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks) tells his life story on a park bench to anyone willing to listen. Such stories include the multiple occasions on which he met the president, his life serving in Vietnam, and becoming a world-famous table tennis champion, all while trying to win back the love of his childhood best friend Jenny (Robin Wright). The best parts of this film are not its plot or its direction or even its cinematography. The strongest aspects come from its lead performance, supporting performances, and score. To have a film's most standout aspects all be technical is a bit rare to see and while I do not abhorrently dislike the rest of this film, I just think that these parts are actually what makes it genuinely memorable. Alan Silvestri's score is superb and the lighthearted charm that he brings along with it fits the tone of this story wonderfully. The lead performance from Hanks is also exceptional and along with most films that he is in, he becomes the utter star within moments. Although this depiction of a man with mental limitations might be a bit dated compared to today, Hanks does a great and touching job of making his character see the light in everything around him. His innocence towards the world is embodied very well and I loved the way that Hanks can shapeshift to any situation that his character is living through. The supporting performances from Wright, Mykelti Williamson as Gump's friend Bubba, and Gary Sinise as Lieutenant Dan were all just as memorable, however, and they help to make up some of the best parts of this film. More than anything though, I believe that one of the main reasons people hail this film as being such a treasure is because it does its job very well in making the audience feel good. It is difficult not to care about the character of Forrest Gump and it is even more difficult, if not impossible, to not adore Tom Hanks. His performance paired with Zemeckis' direction know how to appeal to their audience and despite its plot issues and major focus problems, the warm vibe that radiates from this movie throughout is not easy to ignore.
Unfortunately, this film has aged like milk and an abundance of its problems have become very evident over the past few decades since its release. The script itself, written by Eric Roth and adapted from the novel by Winston Groom, is very heartwarming and tries incredibly hard to be one of the best portrayals of neverending love despite the passage of time. Roth accomplishes that goal mildly well but I think the issue was showing this film through Gump's eyes. This seems strange, given that is the point of the movie in the first place but I simply think that the perspective should have been skewed more towards the supporting characters and how Gump's positivity affected them. Since Forrest Gump focuses on tragic and world-altering events through Gump's eyes, it makes said events feel comedic or even exuberant. This was a terrible choice for how to represent assassinations, war, and racism amongst other issues, and that tonal choice just did not sit right with me. Instead of me wanting to laugh at this protagonist's antics while JFK gets shot in the head, I should be feeling for Gump struggling to understand the severity of the world. This would have given the film a much more mature feel compared to the unnecessarily childish atmosphere that was created. For a film that does just that: making historical events appear almost benign, it also expects its audience to absorb the drama of Gump's personal plot and these two expectations just do not mix. It almost appears hypocritical because while this film definitely has its fair share of various genres, it never quite settles on one, which I feel like this story desperately needed. This also applies to my argument that the supporting characters do not get as much development as I would have liked to have seen. Bringing in the character of Gump to provide a spark of joy in the traumatic times that these supporting characters are living through instead of making their troubles seem belittled would have been a much smarter approach; it would have made characters such as Jenny, Bubba, and Dan much more dimensional instead of just little slices of plot that whisk by Forrest in a dismissive manner.
Forrest Gump contains one of the most lovable characters of the 1990s and one that audiences, regardless of varied opinion, will quite honestly never forget. The performance from Hanks and score from Silvestri are possibly one of the greatest combinations to ever work together on screen and I adored how tender they made this story. However, I could not get past how mismanaged and messy the actual plot of this film was and it made me question for the first time why it has become such a legendary film. This movie is not bad by any means (it's quite cheery and overly splendid!) but it simply disappointed me a bit upon an actual revisit.
My Rating: ★★½
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