My all-time fave!!!

Rating: 10/10 (25 January 2003)

(10 out of 10) When I was 15, I saw 'Star Wars' on the big screen for the first time. I saw it many times that summer, and as a 15 year-old boy, it had a tremendous influence on me. No movie came close to supplanting Star Wars as my all-time favorite movie until 'Forrest Gump.'

I saw 'Forrest Gump' on the big-screen six times, and many times on video since then. It is the most life-affirming movie I've ever seen.
I don't give 10's to movies very often. A great movie should get a 9. The difference between a 9 and a 10 is feeling. How does the movie make you feel after you've seen it? How long do the images stick with you?
There is not a single scene in 'Forrest Gump' that is without thought and feeling. The movie is hilarious and tragic. It is soulful and charming. It is incredibly sad and emotionally uplifting. A true rollercoaster of genuine feelings. Set against the backdrop of the 50's through 80's, it has that nostalgic and true ring to it. It has to, since what happens to Forrest, Forrest Gump, is incredible.
The movie is audacious to say the least. Any other film that puts its no-name central character with people ranging from Elvis to Nixon will seem like a copycat of this one.
Hanks is absolutely superb. The previous year he won an Oscar for his most sincere work, 'Philadelphia'. He won THIS Oscar for his most seminal work. It will probably be the movie he will most be remembered by, even though he has decades of movies ahead of him.
The team that put this together, most notably Robert Zemeckis, did a great job with everything from characters to celebrity appearances to classic music setting the mood (listen to "Camelot" playing in the background as Forrest is in the JFK White House).
The weakest parts of the film are Robin Wright Penn, who is a good actress, but not great, and the running scenes. But since Robin is not in the film that much, it's okay. And the running towards the end actually give a bit of a breather, I feel, so I'm not bothered by it.
With all of the ups and downs in the film, how can I say this is the most life-affirming movie I've ever seen? Because at the end of the day, Forrest Gump is a man who has been to hell and back, who has lost loved ones, who has struggled with his place in the world, and managed to come through it all with sweetness and love. The world changed, and in some ways Forrest changed with it, but he is not jaded by it, as you and I are. If we could be as simple as Forrest, mightn't we be happier?