Beautiful, and executed to a tee

Rating: 9/10 (26 April 2019)

Forrest Gump is the defining motion picture of the latter half of the 20th century, in so many ways. It is a heart-warming, heartbreaking and beautifully constructed film that takes its audience on an emotional journey that will change hearts, minds and perspectives. The performance of Tom Hanks is utterly astounding. Hanks truly is what made this film a class above, and this is a sterling performance that stands out even in such an accomplished career. He brings heart, sincerity and empathy to a role that immediately captures the love and respect of the audience and leaves them in tears at the beauty and tragedy of Forrest's experiences.
The story itself is a genius concept executed to perfection. It is an exploration of the last fifty years of the 20th century through the eyes of a literal everyman. The innocent, unassuming perspective of Forrest Gump allows the audience to reflect on some of the highest and lowest points in America's history through a fresh set of eyes, seeing history from the point of view of someone without the prejudices and biases that come with educated thought and opinion. Forrest's mental handicap was necessary to create such a powerful everyman character, and yet Hanks manages to execute this without resorting to comical stupidity and dampening the credibility of the film's sincerity.
To emphasise the perfection of this film's writing even further, it is an exemplification of circular narrative, with incredible use of music and a variety of film types, camera angles and colour palettes to cover the roughly fifty-year period within its narrative reaches. Robert Zemeckis and his production team simply do everything right. This is a beautiful tale of love and hate, war and peace, comedy and tragedy that will be talked about for decades, and rightfully so. It is a testament to the writing of Winston Groom, and of course the directing of Zemeckis.
Hanks' performance is backed up by a supporting cast that executes their respective jobs perfectly, with special mention for Mykelti Williamson and Gary Sinise. Bubba and Lieutenant Dan are iconic characters that reflect tumultuous periods of American history, and their interactions with Forrest are beautifully executed to a tee.
Forrest Gump is unique in so many aspects. It is a wonderful exploration of the world through a fresh set of eyes, which is a concept so frequently attempted and so rarely achieved to such an impact as this. The world often needs to reflect on itself without its own prejudices, and there is no better film than Forrest Gump to show us all the state of affairs that we live in. This film should rightfully go down in history as one of the greats, and Hanks' performance should be hailed as perhaps the greatest leading performance in cinema. He captured our hearts from the moment that feather settled on his shoe and kept them neatly tucked in his suitcase until that feather drifted away yet again. Beautiful filmmaking at its finest.