"Being an idiot is no box of chocolates" (the original line from the novel)

Rating: 1/10 (14 January 2007)

A movie with this many comments obviously has great resonance. On the one hand, the movie is technically skillful, well-acted, and used then-advanced special effects to great advantage. As demonstrated by the comments here, it has charmed many viewers. On the other, the movie's values and message are clearly right wing: as many other reviewers point out, the plot rewards ignorance, unquestioning obedience, and laissez-faire corporatization (the marks of a good heart, apparently!), while it trivializes retardation to charm viewers with a saccharine vision of idiocy as goodness. It provides a right-wing allegory of recent US history by punishing the free-thinking Jenny and rewarding the mindless Forrest, named after Nathan Bedford Forrest, a founder of the Ku Klux Klan. Charming!
I share the view of those who not entertained by the movie's right-wing allegory of Reagan-Bush era know-nothingism and historical blindness. As another commenter put it, "this is a movie for people who voted for Reagan" or for the Bushes. Overall, it's a remarkable document of Reagan-Bush era dominant thinking.
So the basic situation with this movie is not too difficult to grasp: the movie is skillfully made and acted, and the wide success of its right-wing plot and message demonstrates that the American movie-going public largely shares these right-wing views.