The most touching and lovable movie ever.

Rating: 10/10 (16 January 1999)

Today I watched the original version for the first time, not having seen the German-dubbed version for some time. And I was really amazed how I couldn't hold back my tears. This movie is a masterpiece! I remembered that I had also cried the previous times I had watched that movie. But I wasn't really driven to tears by any movie during the last months and so I thought I might have grown kind of too tough to be really touched. And then I watched Forrest Gump again and at least five times a stream of water broke off in my eyes. Scenes like Jenny's return, Forrest naming his shrimps-boat "Jenny", the last conversation with his mother or the final scene by Jenny's grave - oh, and when he meets his son... Oh boy! I even started to cry before I saw these scenes because I already knew what happens and that sole expectation was enough to make me cry. I haven't experienced so MUCH and so TRUE and so INEVITABLE emotion in a movie for a very long time. I would go on enumerating all the scenes where I cried, because I love Forrest's pure love for Jenny so much, I love his relationship with his mother, I love his loyalty against Bubba and I love his friendship with Lieutenant Dan... I just love the movie!
But of course a really good movie as it is, is not only built on water. It's also a very funny movie. You won't laugh half as loud as you will during movies like "The Naked Gun"(if you like them), but there is no less humour. The appearance of icons like JFK, Elvis and John Lennon and the - more or less honest - intention to chronicle American history from the 1950s to the 1980s belong to this humour. All these events are made ridiculous and dealt with as though they were rather unimportant, but they also make up the movie. Things look less disturbing, when you see them through the eyes of Forrest Gump! He doesn't understand what's going on and doesn't take it seriously. But would you hate him therefore? No. Do you think you'd have to pity him? No.
All the characters are fantastic. Forrest, the moron, who is so wonderfully naive that he would deserve and obtain all the happiness of the world. The proud and unconventional mother, misguided but through and through good-hearted Jenny, dedicatedly silly-stuff-talking Bubba and especially Lieutenant Dan, who is such an interesting and wonderfully created character. Gary Sinise plays him as such a jerk in terms, but always likeable and understandable. All other actors are no less fantastic, but I don't want to extend this to far. My rating, of course, is a clear 10!