A travesty

Rating: 1/10 (14 March 2014)

There are many ways that this movie turned my stomach. The idea that a mentally challenged man can achieve such successes in life pushed me way beyond my ability to suspend disbelief. Just one example among many: was I supposed to believe that Gump could be a successful football player on the University of Alabama team? How did he even get into the university? Given the tone of the movie I doubt that this was meant as a sarcastic comment on the intelligence of college football players, but that is how I saw it. It's an insult to real players who have worked hard to get on a team.
All right, so I should just view this as some feel-good fantasy, yes? But there were some scenes that were played for real: Gump's buddy in the Vietnam war being fatally shot in the guts, his girl friend dying of AIDS, his mother dying of cancer. Such mixtures of realism and fantasy have never worked for me.
Putting the above matters aside, there are more serious concerns. The message of this movie, that being mentally challenged is only a minor impediment to achieving great successes in life, is objectionable. How are parents dealing with the real problems that mentally challenged children have in this world supposed to react to this message? Or the mentally challenged themselves? Or everybody else for that matter.
I was highly offended by this movie.