Forrest GumpDirected by Robert ZemeckisStarring: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Mykelti Williamson, Sally FieldForrest Gump: Movie B-, DVD A- I really want to like this movie, but in good conscious I cannot wholeheartedly embrace it. The only way to fully embrace Forrest Gump is to watch it with the same mentality as the title character. Watching the movie is kind of like watching bits and pieces of the last 50 years through the eyes of a child that never grows up. The message of Forrest Gump is that ignorance is bliss. Wouldn't life be good if everyone was too stupid to know any better? I have always been told the rules of good storytelling are to have the protagonist face obstacles and adversity on his way to reaching some sort of goal, while learning something about himself and growing as a character. Now it is true that those rules can be broken and the story still be good, but I do find it interesting that Forrest Gump abandons those rules completely. Forrest Gump has no goals, he faces no adversity, and in the end he is exactly the same as he always was. Forrest never learns anything about himself or anyone else for that matter. There is one character of real substance in the movie. Lt. Dan, played Gary Sinise, is a character that experiences real emotional turmoil and goes through many changes. Lt. Dan, however, is only peripheral to the movie as a whole. Since the audience only gets to see everything through the eyes of Forrest Gump, the Lt. Dan character is never developed as much as it could have been. It is unfortunate that more time is spent on Forrest's relationship with his childhood love, Jenny. It is this relationship that is the real downfall of the movie. Forrest's love for Jenny is unaltering, no matter what she does or says, his feelings for her remain unchanged. In the meantime Jenny is out making just about every mistake a person can make. She continually takes advantage of Forrest's feelings and uses him only for her own gain up until the end. To me the tone of the movie implies we are supposed to be sympathetic to Jenny at the end, and happy she has finally come back to Forrest. Personally I could not feel sympathy for her at all. I felt she only turned to Forrest because she had run out of everything else. The only sad part was that Forrest still never knew any better. I cannot take Forrest Gump seriously because to do so is to celebrate ignorance. The implication is that his inability to comprehend anything bad in the world somehow makes him better off. I have tried to enjoy the movie as just a whimiscal tale, and in some ways this is possible. It is fun to see Forrest meet past presidents and celebrities, if you can forget the revisionist slant. Gary Sinise and Mykelti Williamson are both very enjoyable in their roles. I guess the best way to view this film is same way Forrest Gump would, don't give it a second thought. The two disc DVD contain a mildly interesting making of documentary called, "Through The Eyes of Forrest Gump." It is only about a half an hour so just when it is getting interesting it just kind of ends, but there is some nice behind the scenes footage. There are also several short featurettes on the visual effects (with two deleted scenes), the sound, and several other technical aspects. There are two commentary tracks, one with the director and a couple crew members and the other is with the producer. It did not listen to either all the way through, but what I did hear of the director was pretty dry, although there were a few intersting tidbits. My favorite feature was the audition footage. This contains footage of the young Forrest and Jenny, a five year old Haley Joel Osment as Forrest Jr. and Robin Wright as Jenny. Tom Hanks is in both the Osment and Wright scenes, both taking place before the "Gump voice" was created. I had to wonder if Hanks would have still won the Oscar had it not been for the casting of as the young Forrest. Review by Sherry |
More Reviews Links DVD picks of the month Email Me Back to homepage |