Friday
Aug052011
Cinema de Gym: Forrest Gump
Friday, August 5, 2011 at 3:40PM 
Kurt here. On the day Forrest Gump was playing at my gym, it seemed only right that I swap out the elliptical for the treadmill: Run, cinephile! RUN!! In truth, part of me wanted to run right out of the building (this is a behemoth of a movie to chip away at with my modest column). But, I stuck it out, and I tip my hat to the gym's programmers, as I've never been so inspired to burn off as many calories as possible.Forrest Gump tends to have that effect on people, ever since it ran away with every trophy in sight at the end of 1994. It's a you-can-do-it movie, through and through, with Forrest boasting Oprah-level propulsion – too busy to look back for more than a brief glance. The film itself doesn't wow so greatly the smaller it gets in the rearview, no matter how large it looms on the marquee and no matter how well it urges one to keep up with its star runner. Such is the plight of the overhyped phenomenon.
I like Forrest Gump just fine, but I think it works better as a capsule of Americana than as a movie. And, of course, to be a capsule of Americana is a big part of its aim. It's essentially 141 minutes of milestones and iconography, landmark moments and famous faces. Its underdog-rewrites-history conceit is a good one, always teetering on the edge of magical realism but too awash in actual events to truly show it. That vicious, wonderful – and very viral – review of Transformers: Dark of the Moon stuck it to Gump for being the evil initiator of archival footage manipulation, but it's hard not to find charm in the film's grainy tour of suddenly resurrected legends (JFK, John Lennon), however buffoonish the tour guide may be. I think my personal favorite thing about the film – if I may be so broad – is its sociopolitical Vietnam-era backdrop, which multiple films have since tried and failed to depict with the same buzzing cultural potency (ahem, Across the Universe, ahem). It's what pumps awesome power into Forrest and Jenny's Washington Monument reunion, surely one of the most iconic hugs in contemporary cinema. It's not strength of narrative, but strength of context that gives you butterflies – a movement and an era defined in an embrace.
Hug it OutAnd that's just one moment.
In its tireless forward motion, Forrest Gump, covers an awful lot of ground, each episode another page in the history book. So nimble is its pace that to tell you what I saw during my quick workout is to offer you a clip reel: the rise of the ping pong master, the boiling resentment of a legless Lieutenant Dan, the newsreel mooning of LBJ, the breaking up of the Black Panther “party” and, of course, that lovely aforementioned hug. All scenes that, appropriately, have now found their own places in the pages of history. However you feel about Forrest Gump, few films have so firmly cemented themselves into popular conversation, achieved such immortal quotability, and made themselves known to what seems like every adult media consumer. As I write this, I'm in a house with a ping pong table in the basement. Is it possible to play the game without thinking of a rubber-limbed Tom Hanks? Is it possible to open a box of chocolates without envisioning Sally Field, or a white bench in Savannah, Georgia?
It was nice to revisit this movie after the major Hanks misfire of Larry Crowne, which won't put a dent in the smiley star's career, but surely bruised his credibility as a filmmaker. There will be no higher peak for Hanks than Forrest Gump, no better instance of his massively, uniquely beloved everyman/leading man persona. I wonder if he knew this when he was making the press rounds with Robert Zemeckis and Robin Wright, or when he collected his Oscar – that this was it, the summit, the key page in his history. I wonder if he wanted to stop and freeze instead of just keep running. Conclusions?
- See above.
- Movies about running are even better motivators than Matthew McConnaughey's abs. (Should I recommend Prefontaine to the gym programmers?)
- Admittedly, the whole “box of chocolates” thing is pretty counterproductive here.
- Qualms aside, Forrest Gump is something of treasure.
What do you think of the film? Despite everything, it's surprisingly divisive, especially given the whole Pulp Fiction / Shawshank Redemption Best Pic defeat.
Reader Comments (16)
Never mind Shawshank and Pulp. Quiz Show was ROBBED that year!
Hated the movie... Hanks should never have won his 2nd Oscar for tthis
Dieter -- i believe this is the first time i've read that sentence! And yet no one speaks of 4 WEDDINGS which i think is better than all of them (save Pulp Fiction)
Rick -- i hated the movie too so it's interesting to me that Kurt, who is generally of good taste, does not. I mean I REALLY hate this movie. Easily makes my list of the bottom 10% of Oscar's Best Picture winners.
Ok, when did everyone start hating Forrest Gump? When I first saw it, everybody at least liked it (most people I know still do), and now everyone I read comments of online hates it? Seriously? I still love it for many reasons, but mostly because I appreciate the satire in this movie. It's a satire about America's obsession to apply importance to just about everything. The scene that basically makes the movie for me is the scene when Forrest is running and a bunch of reporters are asking him questions to which he responds "I just felt like running". That's the movie for me. Thenagain, I am a sentimental fellow, and I am someone who finds Pulp Fiction overrated (good, but overrated). Funny though, Shawshank appears to be more popular around these boards, and yet it is also very sentimental. I wonder why.
@Richter Scale: That happens all the time to me. It's like, when did this become hot to hate. I recently realized this with Garden State. These movies that almost everyone seems to at least like, with many loving near and for months after their release, suddenly turn toxic on internet film sites.
I guess films go in and out of fashion, just like everything else. Still somewhat of a Forrest Gump fan. Fun and nostalgic even upon that initial viewing back in the day. Still hear well placed quotes from it. Do agree though (and this surely didn't help its rep) that Pulp Fiction, Four Weddings and a Funeral, and Shawshank Redemption were all more deserving of the Best Pic Oscar.
Never mind SHAWSHANK or PULP FICTION or QUIZ SHOW, BULLETS OVER BROADWAY was robbed. Umm, no, I could not resist.
In the larger spectrum of Oscar mishaps and whatnot, I hardly feel any loathing towards Forrest. It's nice and easy and I did love it when I was younger. I still feel a bit miffed when I see it, but not for any of those obvious reasons. It just pisses me off that Robin Wright despite being the beacon in this film (eat your heart out Sally *box of chocolate* fields) is hardly remembered from it and worse hasn't manage to latch on to a significant role post Gump. I mean, got it's almost two decades after and I'm still waiting for her to get her comeuppance.
Okay fine, she was great in THE PRIVATE LIVES OF PIPPA LEE, but that movie wasn't good enough for her, or any of the women for that matter.
I hate when movies get disliked by most people after winning underserved Oscars. It's like us hating The King's Speech all through last season when it actually is a pretty ok movie that we would've enjoyed if it hadn't gotten any attention. But after all the praise we judge them in relation to their oscar success and they disappoint us. It's not Forrest's fault.
Lucky, I actually agree with you there. After The King's Speech started winning all those awards, every post on this site turned sour whenever the film was mentioned, and I don't get why. Yes, there were better films, but The King's Speech is still a thouroughly enjoyable film with some great performances. To be fair, I think Nat hated Forrest Gump before it won all those awards, and I personally don't get why (I mean, maybe it's because I saw it for the first time when I was 13, but still, I think it's a very sweet film with some moments of brilliant satire and some iconic images, and I think Tom Hanks is actually quite moving in the lead role).
Cannot stand the nostalgia and sentimentality of FG and let's not even dive into the Oscar talk. Three Colors: Red, Four Weddings, Bullets Over Broadway, The Lion King and, yes, Pulp Fiction were way better and would've made an ideal (eclectic) top five for me.
And Hanks' best performance was Cast Away, I will still proclaim from the rooftops, 11 years later.
BTW I loved Tarantino's speech when he won at that year's MTV Movie Awards: "Pop quiz, hotshot: You're going to award ceremonies all year long. You keep losing to Forrest Gump! It's really annoying the hell out of you. WHAT DO YOU DO. You go to the MTV Movie Awards!"
i don't hate this film but it has some annoying things in it.
why show lots of moments in american history and make no comment on any of them? the only line of satire in the film is when forrest says he likes the army as he doesn't have to think for himself.
the structure of the film is strange too. it is told in real time with forrest telling his story in flashback to the visitors to the bench. he then leaves the bench to run to his love and suddenly we are jumping forward in time. the last portion of the film seems tacked on and none of it worked for me.
the feather that bookends the start and end of the movie makes little sense in terms of the narrative. as it doesn't mark the start and end of forrest's story as his story is told in flashback.
I agree with Richter Scale-- the absolute hate for Forrest Gump among cinephiles is baffilng to me. Flaws or not, if you can find a movie of the past twenty years that has as many iconic scenes and quotable quotes, then I'll give you a cookie...
Interestingly, I've noticed that my friends from the South tend to be the most pro-Gump (Note: I'm also from the South originally). I'd be curious to know if others have seen a North/South split in terms of peoples' opinions toward the film...
Really? Cast Away? Is that not confusing "good" with "solid drama"? (Also: The first 25 minutes are an ad for FedEx.) His best performance is Big and always will be Big. (Second place goes to Toy Story, which balances comedy and drama much better than Forrest, which I don't hate, yet don't obsessively love. Forrest Gump: A-.)
um...isn't a solid drama good?
The King's Speech is liike eating a cracker when you were told cookies! someone told me they had cookies and they were crackers. once my stomach has a target not much else can satisfy me much.
Good one Poppy!
It's such an iconic film and so pervasive in our culture, it's hard to feel one way or the other about it. I neither love not hate it. It simply exists. Much like the star of the film himself - I'd say he's a good actor, not great, but his star is so bright and he is so universally-beloved that it hardly matters what you or I think of his career. I'm reminded of the line in The Simpsons Movie, "Mr. Hanks, will you tussle my hair?" Everyone wants a hair tussle from Mr. Hanks.
I never saw it when it came out originally.
I saw part of it recently on TV and it really, really stretches the imagination. It's asking an awful lot of its viewers to suspend belief that far. It treats the sexual abuse of his childhood girlfriend so off-the-cuff. And all those historical things that Forrest is coincidentally shoehorned into - it's a feast for baby boomer eyes, and for everyone else, it has pretty much nothing.
At the time when it came out, who were the people paying to see movies and voting it to win the Oscar? Baby boomers! This movie doesn't hold up on its own as a story. It's not a story. It's inane fluff.
I loved that movie!!!!!! But i only seen it once. I cried after Forrest said her speech and he hugged Jenny, when Mrs Gump died, and lastly when Jenny died. I just don't get why Jenny only contacted Forrest once every three yrs, but knew he loved her and then finally let him marry her when she was terminally ill. Weird.