DIRECTOR
Robert Zemeckis
SCREENWRITER
Eric Roth
based
on the book by
Winston Groom
PRODUCERS
Wendy Finerman
Steve Starkey
Steve Tisch
CINEMATOGRAPHER
Don Burgess
MUSIC
Alan Silvestri
EDITOR
Arthur Schmidt
CAST
Tom Hanks (Forrest Gump)
Robin Wright (Jenny Curran)
Gary Sinise (Lieutenant Dan)
Mykelti Williamson (Bubba)
Sally Field (Mrs. Gump)
Michael Conner Humphreys (Young Forrest)
Siobhan Fallon (School Bus Driver)
Hanna R. Hall (Young Jenny Curran)
Haley Joel Osment (Forrest Gump Junior)
MPAA rating: PG-13
Running
time: 142m
U.S. release: July 6, 1994
Video availability: VHS - DVD
Other Robert
Zemeckis movies
reviewed on this site:
- Cast
Away
- Contact
- What
Lies Beneath
|
The
commercials for Forrest Gump make it look like the sort
of movie described as "wonderful" and "heartwarming";
fortunately, it's better than that. I had read the book, by Winston
Groom, and hoped the movie wouldn't lose the engaging voice of
the novel -- the voice of Forrest Gump (IQ 75), a simple-minded,
good-hearted Southern boy whose life is a series of whimsical,
mildly satirical episodes. As it happens, Tom Hanks, as Gump,
narrates the movie from a bus-stop bench and delivers many of
Groom's best lines. The script isn't as funny as the novel --
the film's Gump isn't as much of a screw-up as the book's Gump
-- but it's funny enough, and sometimes it hits daring notes.
When Gump tells us that his childhood sweetheart Jenny is lucky
to have a father who kisses and touches her and her sisters all
the time, the line is funny because it's exactly what the innocent
Gump would assume. But it's also not funny. It's these examples
of Gump's trusting nature being utterly inaccurate that save
Forrest Gump from being mush.
The movie, directed by Robert Zemeckis (Who Framed Roger Rabbit),
isn't meant to be taken literally; like many enchanting films,
it falls apart under close scrutiny. Most people, though, won't
have the heart to scrutinize it, and, aside from a few minor
complaints, I see no need to, either. Its flaws don't do it any
great harm; it's as comforting as an afternoon nap, but also
as refreshing, and it's going to be a big hit. Forrest Gump
creates its own floating reality, and the problem many critics
have with this is that it deals, in large part, with actual historical
events (much of the film addresses Vietnam and the peace movement).
The movie is meant to be American history as seen through the
eyes of a man who understands very little of what he sees. And
he speaks for people who can't make any more sense of the last
three decades than he can.
In other words, Forrest Gump -- America considered through
a folksy, satirical lens -- will annoy those who prefer their
satire with a harder edge (i.e., satire that punctures the "correct"
targets). The movie has drawn fire for being reactionary, and
it may well become a favorite of conservatives, but I think that
has more to do with what didn't survive the transition from book
to movie (Groom's satire was more even-handed) because of time
limitations. For example, the radical hippies of the peace movement
are presented as slimy, predatory womanizers who slap their girlfriends
around (one guy even does this and then blames it on "that
goddamn Johnson"). But talk to some women who remember those
days and they'll tell you this isn't far from the truth: The
"sexual revolution" turned out to be a new, hip variation
on the time-honored male ploy to get women to spread their legs,
and we're still paying for it. The critics who want to be intellectually
one up on the large, stupid wad of Americans who embrace this
film are attacking the wrong movie for the wrong reasons. Forrest
Gump, a proudly square fantasia, has much more to offer than
a likable but coldly hip critics' darling like Four Weddings
and a Funeral, and certainly more than the recent crop of
hip movies that don't ask you to feel anything -- The
Shadow, Wyatt Earp, The
Crow, The
Flintstones, and on and on.
Almost 25 years ago, Pauline Kael wrote that the then-popular
movie Joe (another counter-counterculture hit, all but
forgotten today) could easily be turned into a Saturday-morning
cartoon, and the episodic, virtually plotless Forrest Gump
would also be ideal ("Gump Plays Football," "Gump
Goes to Vietnam," "Gump Starts a Shrimping Business").
At two hours and twenty-two minutes, the movie is an epic ramble,
with characters disappearing and reappearing as the story requires.
Gump is a safe guide through the tumult of the '60s, the absurdity
of the '70s, and the greed of the '80s. Jenny (played in adulthood
by Robin Wright), on the other hand, seems to experience everything
terrible about those decades: drugs, soulless sex, more abuse,
more drugs, and one final pitfall that isn't in the book. Letting
her pristine features collapse into numbness, Wright fleshes
out Jenny's self-disgust. This masochistic woman isn't ready
for Gump, who, in his infinite kindness, wants only to love her.
She embodies American disillusionment, and she will probably
make a lot of feminists foam at the mouth. I can't say I disagree;
the book's Jenny certainly wasn't this self-hating (she
was, in fact, more of a free spirit like Gump). Gump flies through
the decades with nary a scratch, but a vague, doomy cloud hangs
over poor Jenny, who always makes the worst choices. You may
fairly ask what this woman is being punished for.
The movie, however, continues to see through Gump's eyes, and
since he never judges or condemns Jenny, we clearly aren't meant
to. Even the aforementioned feminists may forgive much when they
see how tenderly Gump looks at Jenny (the camera agrees with
him). Here, Tom Hanks cements his status as the movies' great
modern romantic lead. Handsome (though not in a plastic cover-boy
way -- especially not with the dorky Gump buzz-cut he's been
given), non-threatening, emotionally direct, Hanks is the obvious
successor to James Stewart, who in his early thirties would have
done well by Gump. Hanks' Gump is as solemnly attentive as an
owl, absorbing information he can't add up. But he's also confident
enough in himself to be good-natured despite his low intelligence;
he remembers nothing so much as what his dear, tough mama (Sally
Field in a tart, restrained performance) told him: You're no
different than anyone else. One of the movie's ironies is that
only an idiot like Gump could have such terrific self-esteem.
Zemeckis makes Tom Hanks lovable, but Hanks resists being shameless
-- he has too much good humor for that. His beautifully modulated
work as a grieving man in Sleepless in Seattle seemed
too hefty for that piffly romantic comedy, yet he had a superb
moment parodying women's weepy connection to An Affair to
Remember -- he and a buddy sobbed while recalling choice
scenes in The Dirty Dozen. And in Philadelphia
he proved he wouldn't disgrace himself by shilling for easy tears.
Hanks doesn't make Forrest Gump a cutie-pie. He intensifies his
greatest resource as an actor -- that we can read him better
than any star since James Stewart -- so that Gump's feelings
come across with startling clarity. When Hanks has his big moment
near the end -- Gump talking to Jenny and fighting to keep his
composure -- the audience is his to lose, and he doesn't. He
also has the generosity to step aside and let his co-stars take
over: Mykelti Williamson as Bubba, who worships shrimp; Gary
Sinise as Lieutenant Dan, who is disabled in Vietnam and blames
Gump for saving his life, because he'd wanted to die heroically
in combat. These fine actors ground the movie in bitter reality.
A review of Forrest Gump wouldn't be complete without
a mention of the astounding computer-generated visual effects,
which enable Gump to interact (in actual newsreel footage) with
JFK, Nixon, John Lennon, and many others, and also give us small
pleasures that don't announce themselves as artificial: a ping-pong
ball, the feather during the opening credits, the peace rally
of thousands of people -- all computerized images, of course.
This shouldn't be surprising coming from Robert Zemeckis, the
toy-shop magician who seems to set himself a new technical challenge
with each movie (his last was Death Becomes Her). What
is surprising is that Zemeckis should have such assured control
of such potentially sugary material. Embracing sentiment while
avoiding the pitfalls of sentimentality is a special effect in
itself. |
