Evan D. As a project this year we are taking a trip through time to revisit all of the Best Picture winners in history, Wings to Anora. Forrest Gump is the sixty-seventh film in that series, to see all the other Best Picture reviews, click here. Industry affection for sweeping historical epics dates back to the very early days of the Oscars when films like Cimarron and Cavalcade wowed Academy voters. Theres an ambition inherent to a film that tries to cover decades of events and distill their emotional impact down to roughly two hours. Invariably that task is unwieldy and the attempt often comes off clumsy and ridiculous. Unlike the historical epics that preceded it, Forrest Gump leans hard into earnestness to bridge the gap between reality and movie magic. Forrest Gump — played as an adult by Tom Hanks with a comically exaggerated southern drawl — is a dimwitted Alabaman who has lived through and directly impacted nearly every significant event of the 60s through the 80s. He was an All American running back, won a Medal of Freedom for his service in Vietnam and met three U.S. presidents. He sparked the downfall of Nixon and was an early investor in Apple. Nothing in his intellect or ambition would explain such success but somehow Forrest bumbled his way into the history altering moments of his lifetime. The one thing that eluded him for most of his life was reciprocation of his love for childhood best friend Jenny (Robin Wright.) Directed by frequent Hanks collaborator Robert Zemeckis, Forrest Gump is pretty plainly ridiculous. The titular Gump is essentially a void of a guy. A mentally slow young man who does what he’s told, loves his country and his friends and tries his best who falls into unfathomable wealth and influence. If Forrest can alter the course of the world, why can’t any of us? Its an arc that has been seized on by ultra-conservative viewers — famously good understanders of film and satire — to praise a bygone America that provided opportunity. Similarly Jenny’s descent into drugs and disease has been viewed by some as the film punishing her for moral failings. As plausible a read as “Forrest Gump: Conservative Icon” is, the film is altogether too earnest to root it in anything firmer than sand. Forrest is concept more than a person, his journey is closer to a fairytale than any sort of grounded journey. Zemeckis’ uses this empty vessel to see the wonder and precariousness of the world and let viewers fill in their own color. Of course a conservative view will see Jenny’s plight as punishment for her failings, but an equally valid view would be that its her country that failed her. Wright’s empathetic performance of the character certainly gives some validity to that idea. And so it is that much of the depth of Forrest Gump is in the periphery of Forrest’s view, just outside his grasp. As easy as it is to roll eyes at Gump uncovering Watergate because he was disturbed by flashlights across the hall, it is also painful to see the anguish of Lieutenant Dan (Gary Sinise)— in a bizarre Midnight Cowboy homage — at the depths of his post-Vietnam PTSD. If Forrest’s rise to fame and riches says anything, its mostly that whatever life throws your way can be met with kindness and empathy. Its a bit childish but so is the film and there is something endearing about that. An interesting addendum to the appeal of Forrest Gump is the way that it spearheaded a number of technological advances. Zemeckis’ crowning achievement also marks the beginning of an obsession with digital editing techniques that would drive the director into some of his strangest, most uncanny films. Here the effects mostly work well, notably the digital inserting of Hanks into archival footage. Forrest Gump is not a film that overwhelms you with emotion — although there are moments! — or wows with its singular vision. It has endured and will continue to because its earnestness will always make the film accessible. Even when it tips into the absurd, it does so with such sincere enthusiasm it is tough not to be won over. 8/10
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