Forrest Gump

1994 was a contentious year at the Academy Awards for quite a few people. On the one hand, Forrest Gump was a beloved film that was sweeping through the awards and winning virtually everything major, and on the other hand, two great films that deserved more got overshadowed by it. Some, myself included, would argue that Pulp Fiction and The Shawshank Redemption are better films that have stood the test of time and that Forrest Gump, no slouch in its own right, is the lesser of the three. That argument is just as contentious as the one for Saving Private Ryan over Shakespeare in Love; it’s an opinion and matters little in the end. In 1995, during the Oscars ceremony, Forrest Gump won it all and thus it is considered by the Academy to be the best picture of the year.

I saw all three of those films in the theaters that year; Quiz Show and Four Weddings and a Funeral I didn’t see until much later. Nothing about those films cried out to my eighteen-year-old self that I needed to see them back in 1994. Going into the Oscars in 1995, I was rooting for The Shawshank Redemption, both out of my sheer love for that film and my blind adoration for all things Stephen King at the time. I got angry every single time Forrest Gump beat Shawshank, which made for a frustrating evening. Still, even back then, I didn’t hate Forrest Gump; I did pay to see it after all. I just wasn’t as enamored by it as everyone else seemed to be. In the years since, I have seen it a dozen times more, and my opinion hasn’t really changed in either direction. I even read the novel and the sequel novel, vastly different experiences from that film. My thoughts remain consistent: it’s a good film but not a great one. It’s Robert Zemeckis testing new technology that will allow him to put actors into real historical footage realistically. This footage looked good at the time but is horribly dated these days.

Forrest Gump was a film made for the Baby Boomer generation. It spoke to those people and pandered to them, too. It drowned them in a sea of their generation’s music, too. Most of the time, that music came across as cliché, such as the use of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Fortunate Son while helicopters flew over Vietnam or Blowing in the Wind to symbolize a character’s descent into the hippie counterculture. It permeates the film once it enters the 1960s, but it doesn’t quite set the mood the way the soundtrack for American Graffiti does. Still, it made for a great double-disc soundtrack that sold millions of copies. One important thing of note for this soundtrack is that all tracks are from American artists, something that Robert Zemeckis insisted on, stating that he felt the soundtrack represented what the character Forrest would have bought at the time. Apparently, Forrest didn’t care much for the British Invasion.

A major characteristic of the book is the title character finding himself in the midst of major historical events and interacting with some of the important public figures of the times. Reading the book, in fact, it feels like much of it is just cherry-picking those moments and dropping Forrest into them. This would get even worse in the sequel book, Gump & Co. where the character enters the nineties and Desert Storm. Winston Groom, author of the two books, spent more time emphasizing this than crafting a legitimate narrative, especially in the second book. When Forrest Gump was translated to the big screen, it was heavily altered to make it more cinematic and to better support a narrative. It’s rare when I consider a film better than the book, but that is the case here.

The story follows Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks) from grade school in the 1950s to the early 1980s. As a young boy, he is teased by the local bullies, in danger of being sent away to a special needs school because his I.Q. is below the minimum for standard schooling, and has a crush on Jenny (Robin Wright), a local girl living with her abusive father. Forrest also has leg braces to correct his walk. These make his walking awkward but inspire a young musician staying at his mother’s boarding house, Elvis Presley. Fleeing from the bullies, Forrest breaks free of the leg braces and discovers a talent for running very fast, a talent that eventually lands him on the college football team where his speed and ability to dodge make him an ideal receiver. 

From college, he is drafted into the army and shipped off to Vietnam. Meanwhile, Jenny is going down a different path that includes sex and drugs, traveling the country, and protesting the war. Through a series of circumstances and Forrest’s friendship with a fellow soldier, Bubba Blue (Mykelti Williamson), Forrest is awarded the Medal of Honor and the Purple Heart awards, while Bubba dies on the battlefield, and their commanding officer, Lieutenant Dan Taylor (Gary Sinise), loses his legs. After returning home, Forrest goes through a series of ventures, including using Bubba’s idea for a shrimping company and turning it into a multi-million dollar business, investing in Apple stock, and occasionally running into Jenny. Where the film finally lands is somewhat predictable but is also emotionally draining. 

Casting Tom Hanks in this film was a stroke of genius. This was during a time when that man couldn’t make a wrong move. He had just come off of his Oscar-winning performance in Philadelphia, and it wouldn’t be too many more years before he would be nominated again for Cast Away. The role of Forrest Gump was originally written for John Goodman, but for one reason or another, that never solidified. Also on the board was Chevy Chase and John Travolta. Neither of these would have worked nearly as well as Tom Hanks in that part. Hanks brings a level of likability that Travolta and Chase just don’t have. 

Gary Sinise turns in a star making performance as Lieutenant Dan, the career soldier whose father and grandfather had both dies on the battlefield. He sees his lot in life as curtailed when Forrest rescues him, leaving him to live but without his legs. Dan goes through many changes throughout the years before finally pulling his life together again and literally landing back on his feet. The same cannot be said for Robin Wright’s Jenny who drifts in and out of the narrative before ultimately paying the price for her life of excess and irresponsibility. We never learn what actually took her life but it was heavily implied that it was AIDS.

The film feels like a series of vignettes tied together by a single character. You can practically see a chapter card before each shift in direction. In this way, it is a lot like the novel on which it is based. But most of these sequences feel geared towards nostalgia and memories the Boomer generation could look at and get excited about. This was their history, and there is a certain level of excitement over seeing it replayed on screen. It didn’t play that well for my generation, nor did it for my grandparents’ generation. My grandfather, in particular, despised this film. My parents, though, ate it up like it was the greatest thing ever created.

For the Boomers, this is something they can latch on to and love. It’s definitely soaking in sixties and seventies-era nostalgia, something those who were entering middle age would long to relive. For the rest of us, it’s a film that has many good parts to it but just doesn’t speak to us on the same level. The further we get away from this time period, the less this film will speak to those who see it. By catering so much to that one demographic, it limits the film’s appeal. That’s not saying there isn’t anything other generations can find to enjoy from this film; it’s just that the level of excitement this film generated back in 1994 isn’t replicated with viewings in more recent years. 

Forrest Gump was a cultural phenomenon back in the 90s that those who didn’t live through it will have a hard time understanding. There are films that are just as powerful now as they were many decades ago, such as Casablanca or The Godfather. Forrest Gump just isn’t on that level. It spoke to the 40-year-olds back in 1994 who were just starting to feel their age. That drove it to an overwhelming positive reception at the 1995 Oscars. So much of your enjoyment depends on how you feel about this treacle; is it too steeped in nostalgia, sugar-coated for mass appeal, or is it going to hit home for you based solely on the performances, which are, to be fair, universally excellent? I can’t tell you how you will feel about it, only how I did, and I have found it to be merely good, not great. 

Academy Award Nominations:

Best Picture: Wendy Finerman, Steve Starkey, and Steve Tisch (won)

Best Director: Robert Zemeckis (won)

Best Actor: Tom Hanks (won)

Best Supporting Actor: Gary Sinise

Best Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published: Eric Roth (won)

Best Art Direction: Rick Carter and Nancy Haigh

Best Cinematography: Don Burgess

Best Film Editing: Arthur Schmidt (won)

Best Makeup: Daniel C. Striepeke, Judith A. Cory, and Hallie D’Amore

Best Original Score: Alan Silvestri

Best Sound: Randy Thom, Tom Johnson, Dennis S. Sands, and William B. Kaplan

Best Sound Effects Editing: Randy Thom and Gloria S. Borders

Best Visual Effects: Ken Ralston, George Murphy, Allen Hall, and Stephen Rosenbaum (won)

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Release Date: July 6, 1994

Running Time: 142 minutes

Rated PG-13

Starring: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Mykelti Williamson, and Sally Field

Directed by: Robert Zemeckis