"Run, Forrest, Run"

Rating: 8/10 (27 February 2006)

The film follows the life of low-IQ Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks), as he falls in love with Jenny (Robin Wright), makes two friends while in the army in Lieutenant Dan and Bubba (Gary Sinise and Mykelti Williamson), attends college, fights in Vietnam, and seemingly by happenstance meets up with Elvis Presley, John F Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Governor George Wallace. Forrest goes on to become a very wealthy and extremely successful businessman. Though the scenery changes, there is one thing that remains the same through the entire movie: Forrest will always fight for his Jenny and try to save her from whatever trouble she is currently in.
In this comedy/drama, Forrest keeps his good sense about him, using his mother's sayings and advice as cornerstones of his ethics. When asked if he is stupid, Forrest will always reply with: "Momma always says stupid is as stupid does." Although his IQ is only 75, which we are told is five points below the public school systems' definition of "normal," he makes very intelligent decisions throughout the film. Director Robert Zemeckis gives viewers a glimpse at the most important events of the 1950s through the 1980s through Gump's eyes, where we must take things as he sees them. Gump's simple talent of running quickly takes him to many different places and makes him an icon to many American people.
Zemeckis does an excellent job with the special effects. Although the video clips are not seamless, they do a great job of putting Gump into the history which viewers already know. Forrest is at the door of the schoolhouse when Governor George Wallace tries to stop desegregation, and actually gives a young black woman a book that she has dropped. The viewer can actually see Gump meet and greet three American presidents, one of which he shows a bullet wound to his "butt-ocks." Although Gump is too good a man to dabble in drugs and rock and roll, we still visualize what is going on in the counterculture, where Jenny is at home at the rallies and through the disco era. And, because Forrest and Jenny are complete opposites, we get to see every aspect of culture from the 1950s through the 1980s. No matter what viewers are looking for in a movie, "Forrest Gump" promises a good show.