In the eyes of a 16 year old girl

Rating: 8/10 (12 October 2015)

Forrest Gump Film Review by Ivy Smith
In the movie Forrest Gump, Tom Hanks portrays the main character Forrest, a simple man that is not very intelligent but has good intentions toward his mother (Sally Field) and best friend Jenny (Robin Wright). Throughout the movie Forrest tells the story of his life but since he doesn't know any better he was put into the middle of some major historical events that have happened from the 1950s - 1980s. This movie is like no other of the time of its release in 1994, still now in 2015 this movie is a favorite of many.
We first see Hanks' character Forrest on a bus bench in Savannah, Georgia telling his story to a stranger that sat next to him. He begins his story at the beginning, him as a boy having to get braces for his legs. His story goes on and he meets Jenny on the bus when no one else would let him sit down. From that moment on Jenny and Forrest are the best of friends. One day bullies were chasing Forrest and Jenny said "Run Forrest! Run!" and then he started running and his leg braces broke off and he is a very fast child. After a while Forrest finds himself running away from bullies again and he runs straight across a football field and he gets a free ride into college.
He goes to tell that he goes through many big historical events and some of those were school integration, he gets to meet President John F. Kennedy, The Vietnam War, he was on a TV show and met John Lennon a few months or so before he died, he inadvertently helps expose the Watergate scandal and many more events. He tells them through his mind and it seems all too innocent because of his low IQ. His relationship with Jenny continues and he keeps trying to save her but she keeps running away. Through Jenny's eyes you see the hippie movement, drug and alcohol abuse, her sleeping around, and a failed suicide attempt. Jenny cleans up and decided to go back to Forrest and stays with him and soon after she runs away again.
Forrest Gump is based off of a book called Forrest Gump by Winston Groom in 1986. The book was more harsh than the movie so the film writers took off some of the edge and made it into a more lovable movie. They took out some of the adventures Forrest had because they were a little ridiculous. The movie took great special effects in how they put the actor Tom Hanks into different scenarios in time, such as being put into a video with John F. Kennedy and using special effects to take off Lt. Dan's (Gary Sinise) legs after the Vietnam war scenes.
The movie won six Academy awards for Best Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Director, Best Visual Effects, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Film Editing. The movie was nominated for seven Golden Globe Awards. The film won three of them Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama, Best Director - Motion Picture, and Best Motion Picture - Drama. Forrest Gump was also nominated for six Saturn Awards and won two of them, Best Fantasy Film, and Best Supporting Actor. The movie is also on many lists and it mad #240 on the Greatest Movies of All Time list.
I find the movie deserving of all the awards it got and being on all the lists it's on. The acting was great and i could really tell the actors were into the roles they were cast for. Tom Hanks does a wonderful job of playing a disabled man and getting the voice and actions right. I give this movie an 8 out of 10 stars only because it does jump around a tad bit but it works well in the terms how fast you have to go through his whole life. The movie is wonderful and i have watched it so many times with my family and friends. I always find something new when i watch it over again, just those little things you don't notice when you first watch it. I have always found that fascinating.