Funny warm American classic

Rating: 9/10 (24 January 2010)

I can't believe the vitriol hurled at this movie. I have seen this movie a number of time since it was released, and it never fails to move me and make me laugh.
And by the way I am a liberal, Ivy-league educated guy who went to college in the 60's, protested the war (and still thinks it was one of the biggest mistakes in American history) and has never voted Republican in his life. And I never thought of this film as a secret right-wing propaganda movie until I read the reviews here. In fact, it pretty accurately depicts some of the characters during that time. For example, the abusive, self-important boyfriend of Jenny's during the march on Washington was all too common (and someone who Jenny, as an abused child, would have been drawn to, unfortunately). Some guys who were against (or just avoiding the war) apparently needed to prove their manhood. Hence the SDS-a lot of those guys were real dicks- I know, I was there.
These characters are individuals- not symbols. As for Forrest, he goes to Nam, yes, but he is color blind, unlike everyone else depicted in the movie (black and white) and stands up for a battered woman. Those seem like pretty liberal virtues to me.
His great qualities are his loyalty and non-judgmental and loving nature, which are independent of his IQ. There were plenty of very stupid people of Forrest's generation who behaved very differently toward blacks and women. Jenny's father is a perfect example.
So maybe its an American cultural or generational thing, because I notice a lot of the film's bashers are from Europe. Lighten up. Its a fantasy, a comedy and yes, has a large dose of nostalgia for the music of the sixties and seventies.