1994 was a great year for movies, this is one of the best

Rating: 10/10 (9 July 1999)

There are certain films that people should just enjoy. Forrest Gump is one of them. It makes you feel good. It makes you feel happy and it makes you appreciate what excellent film making is all about. Simply put, this movie is pretty much flawless and it is a movie for the ages.
Pulp Fiction was deserving of best picture and so was Shawshank Redemption, but only one of these fine three films could have won that year. It is like watching the two best hockey teams playing in the Stanley Cup Finals. It is the seventh game and we are now in triple overtime and the score is tied at 2. One team will win the cup, and not necessarily because they are better than the other, but because someone has to win. That was the case in 1994. I loved Pulp, and I loved Shawshank, but I loved Gump too and when it won I cheered out loud. Good for Robert Zemekis.
What is so great about Forrest Gump is that it makes life a little more pure, a little more innocent. Forrest never really quite understands what is going on around him and for that reason he lives life in the dark in some ways but in other ways, he sees so much more light than the rest of us. And his antics and the way he lives that life is an inspiration to the rest of us, or at least it should be. And how can you not like the guy. Is there a more likable character in the history of cinema? I doubt it!
Robert Zemekis took me completely by storm when I first saw this film. Back To The Future was a great film and he has always shown that he has a propensity for box office gold, but to make a picture that was not only phenomenally successful at the box office but is this sweet and fun and heart warming, was not what I expected from him. Then again, he is a Spielberg cronie, so that must mean something.
Zemekis is one of the strengths of this film, but the tour de force is really Hanks. His adaptation of the character is remarkable. He is ever so convincing and even though his work in Philedelphia was completely Oscar worthy, this is even a step above that. I love him here and I will see anything that he is in from here on out.
I love movies. I love what they do to me. I love that they can make me feel a plethora of emotions. Even when I despise a film, I can still look back and say that if anything it made me feel something. But Forrest Gump is a microcosm of why I like movies. My world is little better after I watch this movie and for that I am so glad that this film was made. And for the people that can't enjoy this movie, I certainly hope that in the years to come you can. Because you just don't know what you're missing.