Forrest Gump

Rating: 5/10 (7 March 2016)

I'm prepared to take some heat for this one. For my entire adult life, and most of my childhood and young adult life as well. I've been urged to see Forrest Gump. Never really being that into film until I started college, I had managed to consistently refrain from seeing the film. Then, of course, I begin a love affair with motion pictures that led my attempt to see every Best Picture Oscar ever crowned. I obviously could no longer avoid Forrest Gump, but now it was worse. I had never set out to purposely avoid Robert Zemeckis 1994 epic, I simply wasn't interested in it. After my evaluation of 1994 (once my affair with film started), I became upset that Forrest Gump could possibly win Best Picture over Pulp Fiction. As mentioned before, I am a huge fan of Quentin Tarantino and I greatly appreciate what he does cinematically. Pulp Fiction is a classic with so many wonderful devices used; a true tour-de-force of Tarantino's incredible directing chops. I was then dumbfounded to learn that Quentin's masterpiece didn't lose to Robert Redford's Quiz Show, another movie I thought was in a class of its own. I might add that many people would insert Shawshank Redemption in this list of notable snubs I've provided, however, that film did for me all Forrest Gump did and left me unimpressed. Of course, I could only attest to whether or not the best film one if I see the winner, so it was time to see Forrest Gump.
Forrest Gump is a mentally handicapped man living in Alabama, dependent on his mother (Sally Field) and growing up with his only friend Jenny (Robin Wright). Somehow, for various reasons, Forrest is present at every seminal moment of the second half of the 20th century. Forrest is present for so many historical moments, but unable to be present for the one thing he wants most; to share a life with Jenny. Through all the trials and tribulations that accompany Forrest's life, Jenny always manages back into the picture. Jenny is damaged herself, however, after enduring a broken home and molestation as a child, Jenny has a hard time coming into her own life. Forrest Gump tells proves even the most ordinary person can have an extraordinary life.
The acting was fine, I'm by no means a fan of Tom Hanks, but I can recognize his commitment and success in this role. Robin Wright was more of a standout for me as the troubled loner, however. Sally Field played the role of a positivity laced protective mother, that would stop at nothing to provide for her son flawlessly. I also give credit to Zemeckis for shooting a great movie, as it was full of historical imagery and well-suited for the screen. What the film lacks, for me, far outweighs its strengths. I found the almost plot less adventures of one person quite boring, eventually becoming redundant. How many times can you be a part of something so historical by with hardly any resources and by complete happenstance? An audience certainly exists for Forrest Gump; Oscar crowned the feel-good story in 1994, over the best cinematic achievement which they are no strangers too. Needless to say, I'd take my non-linear favorite Pulp Fiction, or the gripping and socially important Quiz Show over another viewing of Forrest Gump any day.