Didn't like or get the message

Rating: 1/10 (28 August 2006)

This movie suffers from a bad case of "schizophrenia". The movie starts out as a story about a boy who overcomes a handicap with a strong single mother (played by Sally Field). The movie could have been then a "low key" version of Radio and made a statement about the obstacles one has to overcome. Instead, Zemeckis wanted to make a statement about American history from the 60s to the 80s. The result was a judgmental indictment without regard for the "complexities" involved. For example, we are supposed to think that Forrest Gump is so "dimwitted" that he doesn't care about civil rights, when a young black woman is trying to attend class. Is Zemeckis mocking civil rights? Then there is something about having to pee while shaking hands with LBJ. I guess some people find this funny, but it just appeared childish to me. Then, Gump goes off to Vietnam, leaving his "flaky", "irresponsible" girlfriend behind. You get tired easily of his girlfriend being portrayed as an irresponsible child. When he returns from 'Nam, he gets in a fight with some pretentious hippy, who is supposed to represent the entire anti-War movement. This really irritated me seeing all the complex issues of the 60s being used to subjectively attack the anti-war movement. After this slight, the movie moves on to a new story. Now Forrest is running for no reason. In the movie "Convoy", where this idea was borrowed from (switching from truckers to runners), there seemed to be a little bit of a political message. Forrest is just running for no rhyme or reason. By the end of the movie, I am just annoyed by his talk about a box of chocolate. This movie was extremely annoying, patronizing, and ignorant. Forrest Gump might of been a better, more honest movie, if Zemeckis stuck to the storyline, instead of pursuing a right-wing political agenda.