The Forrest Gump Morality Massacre by Gregory P. Dorr Never underestimate the entertainment value of retards. In real life, the mentally disabled are marginalized, rarely rising beyond the societal functions of enthusiastic fast food clerk or giddy grocery bagger. Throughout the works of Western man, from Dosteyevsky to Shakespeare, the simpleton is depicted as pure good, unfettered by the complications of knowledge, his moral sight unimpaired by ambiguity. At times the chucklehead is merely an unheralded seer, and at others he is used as an allegory for a Christ-like savior.
Cinema is no exception.
Never was there a more celebrated, beloved and idolized cretin than Forrest Gump. As this dunderhead unwittingly prospered while those around him perished, he became somehow exalted as a paragon of morality. While this speaks well of the shrewd marketing executives at Paramount Studios circa the early 1990s, it does not well compliment the moral compass of the American moviegoer. For it is not difficult to conjure another infamous filmic lummox of arguably superior moral character than the favored Gump. Regardless, in the cinematic retard continuum, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre's Leatherface is a more moral character than Forrest Gump.