Forest Gump is a film starring Tom Hanks and is directed by Robert Zemeckis. The film begins with a young Forest Gump who is developmentally disable as well as has braces on his legs that prevent him from being normal as everyone else. He is picked on as a kid, but from the care and guidance from his mother, he is able to stay in a regular school and have the self esteem he needs to survive in society. Then when Forest meets Jenny, a girl who is abused by her father, they become lifelong friends and Jenny is able to get away from her father and live with her grandparents. Forest is then able to get his leg braces off when he must run away from bullies, this is when he experiences complete freedom and is able to finally run. Later in his life, because of his incredible speed as a runner he is able to go to college to play football as a running back. After this he is enlisted in the army to fight in Vietnam and after seeing his whole platoon being shot down and his best friend, Bubba, die he is brought back to the US. Here he sees Jenny many times but dos not notice her downward spiral to drugs and an abusive relationship, where she tries to commit suicide. Forrest then becomes very wealthy from his luck in the shrimping business, so Jenny comes to live with him to get a hold of herself and her ability to function in normal society, but her love for Forrest becomes too much as she sleeps with him and then must run away. Forrest is really upset about this and the fact that his mother died, so he goes on a run around America, Jenny then writes him and he finds out that she was carrying his child and that Jenny is about to die from HIV. Forrest overcomes all obstacles and prejudice in his life to live a very successful and fulfilling life in the end.
The acting in this film is very believable as it is easy to tell that there is something “off” about Forrest from the way he talks and the way he is able to tell his life story to any random person. Tom Hanks portrays this character very well as he acts very oblivious to everything around him and he creates an accent for Forrest that makes him sound very slow. The use of weather in this film was very funny when he was talking about how in Vietnam, there was always rain and the different types of rainfall there was, this was a very funny way at poking fun at how obvious the use of weather for tone was. The use of the leg braces as props for when Forrest was running away from the bullies was very important as with this he was able to embark on his life of running, the breaking of the leg braces was the beginning of Forrest’s life of good. Also the film music was very effective as the film makers chose to use a lot of popular rock songs from the 60’s and 70’s, with this it was very effective as most people associate that time period with the music and this music added a sense of truth to the events.
Honestly, I didn’t want to like this movie at first because I thought it would be very crude and dumb, to watch a movie about a person who is developmentally handicapped as I thought it was just a film about making fun of people like that. But once I started watching it, Forrest grew on me as I started to see how pure of a character he was and how nothing seemed to bring him down. This sense of optimism was very refreshing to see in a movie covering such serious aspects of history; for once I think the “ignorance is bliss” attitude somehow brought things for the better for Forrest. This is true as without trying he was able to go to college, survive in the Vietnam War, grow a very successful shrimping business, become a ping pong all-star and have a son. By contrast I think the character of Jenny was very interesting as she was the complete opposite of Forrest, as she seemed to try to find trouble and had an abusive parent. Her constant feelings of wanting to be like a bird and flying away, made sense for being a person who was sexually abused and when she tries to kill herself, you wonder what could make her want to be away from her closest friend. Ultimately, I think she didn’t want to be around a person who was so perfect as it would discourage her as she is so damaged.
In conclusion, I think this is a very interesting and entertaining film that I think every should see. It is a very touching tale and I would give an 8.5/10.
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