Beautifully imperfect commentary on America

Rating: Null/10 (24 September 2002)

Hailed as a classic when it first came out, "Forrest Gump" now appears to be looked upon as a travesty, a shallow celebration of America's innocence. Yet this retrospective view is somewhat missing the point. For while the character of Forrest Gump is portrayed as being genuinely innocent, the American "innocence" he represents is not, nor is it ever intended to be.
In this, the film works well both as life story and as unique commentary on the last 30 years of American history. As played by Micheal Connor Humphreys and then Tom Hanks, Forrest Gump is a slow-witted but good hearted young man raised in Greenbow, Alabama by his feisty housekeeping mother(Sally Field). Forrest's good intentions, his ability to run at great speeds, as well as his love for his abused and misguided best friend Jenny (who grows up to be Robin Wright) drive and define his life. Forrest goes to college, enlists for the US Army and survives a posting to Vietnam and his various encounters with prominent historical figures, including JFK. Forrest recounts all of this to others whilst sitting on park bench awaiting a bus.
This is far from a perfect film. The many numerous spottable gaffes and mistakes put the Academy to shame for naming it Best Film of 1994. The digital effects have dated, as has the tinkering of the various real video footage. Yet this is largely superficial when considering the film's graces.
The film's direction and use of music for scenes are very good in places, particularly for the scenes in Washington D.C with Forrest's triumphant reunion with Jenny after returning from Vietnam.
Yet the film's defining point has to be it's acting. Sally Field and Robin Wright give solid support; Field always the supportive and caring mother (who isn't above boffing the headmaster to get Forrest entry into a 'normal' school) and Wright as his loving, but self-destructive soulmate. Gary Sinise also turns in a fine performance as Leiutenant Dan, who is crippled in Vietnam but whom, with Forrest's help, finds redemption and regains a sense of self.
But this is Tom Hank's film. However gushed his Oscar acceptance may have been, he did deserve the award for a performance that is alot more complex than first appears. On the surface and to the core, Forrest is naive but essentially good individual. Yet his park bench recollections continually undermine the idea of American innocence, rather than celebrating it.
Forrest wistfully recalls his absent father being a member of the Klu Klux Clan. Anyone with even a smattering of knowledge of American history will know the Clan were a gang of vicious white supremacists, rather than "people who dressed up ghosts, or spooks or something". Forrest continually comments on the history he encounters in a very simplistic way that invites to both laugh at Forrest, as well as with him.
This irony is repeated throughout the movie, even in throwaway moments. One such moment is Forrest and Leiutenant Dan's encounter with two whores in a bar just as New Year dawns on 1972. One of the whores says with sadness in her voice "Don't you just love New Years? You can start all over. Everybody gets a second chance..........."
Hank's triumph is to combine the ironic aspects of Forrest Gump with the genuine warmth and sentimentality that is a part of the character. With his much-quoted lines and awkward body language, he evokes sympathy from the audience. His best moments in this come when he tells Jenny "I'm not a smart man. But I know what love is", meeting his five year old son for the first time, and his final graveside speech to Jenny.
Whilst "Pulp Fiction", released at the same time and contrasted with this film, may be a witty and irreverent take on the grimy realities of American life, it cannot compare with the grand combination of irony and warm sentiment in "Forrest Gump".