Modern Classic

Rating: 9/10 (28 February 2004)

Normally, I detest over use of voice-over narration. I often think to myself that directors use narration only because they can't think of a better way to tell the story through the actions of the characters. Why tell the story when you could show it?
'Forrest Gump,' however, is an exception to that personal belief. The story has to be told through narration because the narrator is in every way the center of the story. Forrest's innocence, his inability to see the evil in human beings, carries the movie because he can never lose that innocence. Forrest is only a step above Raymond from Levinson's 'Rain Man,' and like Raymond, he cannot change the way he is. And because we see everything from Forrest's perspective, we witness the world through a child's eyes and laugh at the irony.
The director, Robert Zemekis, uses that laughter to probe our evolution. Sometimes only through a child's perspective can we look back at how we failed, how we succeeded, and why. In a world that stresses reason and practicality, sometimes it's necessary that we reexamine our humanity by stripping away our cynicism and societal inhibitions, and just take things for what they are. Realistically, we live in a world that would destroy a person like Forrest Gump. But by watching this fairy tale we understand why it shouldn't, and it fills our hearts when it doesn't.

What a wonderful movie.