I was introduced to this movie by my dad when I was super young (like maybe 7 years old). Apparently, it was really good but too inappropriate for me. I mean, that's fair and I'm happy I watched it now rather than then. This is because I liked that the "adult" stuff of the movie served a purpose, unlike other most other movies. In my opinion, the whole point of the movie is to highlight the evils of this world by contrasting it with Forrest's innocence. The movie is trying to say that you can navigate these evils by having a pure heart like Forrest. Therefore, the "adult" stuff was to show the evils which is necessary for the story. For example, Forrest's mom bribing the principal to let Forrest attend school shows the bad things one had to do for something as simple as equal education during that time. However, this isn't the case for most other movies. I feel like filmmakers just throw in a sex scene because they can and they know that that's what's going to artificially get their audience interested in what's on the screen. I feel like sex is not the only way to convey to characters deeply loving each other. For example, Forrest's love for Jenny is completely without sex but Jenny is the one that initiates this.
This makes sense since I feel like her character serves as the foil to Forrest. She highlights how innocent Forrest is by showing all the things Forrest could be doing but isn't. She becomes a prostitute, gets into abusive relationships, does drugs, etc. -- all of which Forrest doesn't participate in. This is why I believe, to some extent, Jenny is the antagonist of this movie since she is the primary way Forrest loses his innocence. This is the way I like to think about it: Forrest has some amount of pureness and innocence and he has to use it to solve his conflicts in this movie. For example, he loses some of his innocence after coming out of the Vietnam War because he sees many soldiers, including his best friend, die in front of him. In the same way, Forrest tries to use his innocence to win over Jenny but this doesn't really work until maybe the end of the movie. (I would even argue that Jenny only marries him since she's sick and not because she truly loves him). This is why I'm still confused if I should root or not root for Forrest's relationship with Jenny. On one hand, Jenny is Forrest's love of his life, but she is also clearly not right for him and he deserves someone better. All I do know is that I feel bad for his situation.
This leads me to what this movie does best: making you feel emotional. One of my favorite scenes from the movie is when Forrest talks to Jenny's grave. I don't usually cry in movies, and I still didn't here, but I was pretty close. One of the main things that contributed to this is Tom Hanks's acting. I feel like one of his strengths is removing himself from his roles. At least for me, when I saw Forrest Gump, I forgot I was seeing Tom Hanks -- like the same guy from Saving Private Ryan. I feel like this isn't the case for many other actors. For example, when I saw Robert Downey Jr. in Sherlock Holmes, I was like "that's Iron Man from the MCU." Tom Hanks is the best actor I have seen at creating the illusion of a character actually existing in real life. This is because he fully embodies the character and hides himself from the audience which is why this grave scene felt so authentic. It truly felt like a loving and innocent husband had lost the love of his life which made the scene very emotional. This leads me to what I think is best at getting an audience emotional -- unfairness. I feel like the saddest thing that can ever happen to humans is unfairness. For example, death is sad but the fundamental reason it's sad is because we feel like it was unfair to the person and their loved ones. One of the saddest scenes I have seen in a movie is during the famous piano sequence in Up and personally, what I was thinking through the whole sad part was "Carl doesn't deserve this" -- especially when he's sitting on the steps holding the balloon. In a similar manner, when Forrest talks to Jenny's grave, I was thinking that after all Forrest did for Jenny, he didn't deserve to lose her so fast after their marriage. The marriage was the one thing in life he, throughout the movie, wanted most so it simply felt unfair that he was losing it so quickly. This is probably the most a scene has impacted me, which is why this is my favorite scene of the movie.
My second and third favorite scenes have to be the feather scenes at the beginning and end of the movie. How did they do it? I'm still really confused. Apparently, some CGI was used but I still find it impressive. This is probably one of the top openings of a movie I've seen; although I do have to admit, it did get kind of get boring in the middle. I also liked all the historical references the movie had. It was super fun to see the excuses the writers came up with to prove that Forrest was the reason for all major historical events. I would say my favorite was the Elvis Presley reference since it kind of made sense that Forrest would dance in the same way as Elvis did.
Overall, I felt like this movie was pretty motivational. I feel like if you strip all the complicated behaviors of humans like lying, manipulation, etc. you get Forrest who is objectively a good person. I believe that the movie is trying to say that there is a Forrest in everyone and we just need to let this aspect of us shine through. I agree with this since sometimes, society makes it super complicated to interact with other people. You have to be subtle and sometimes lie, but maybe getting rid of all of this could make humans more efficient at making the world a better place -- just like Forrest.
