Forrest Gump. A poignant tale of a simple man, who bounces his way through a generation of history, unconsciously affecting so many notorious historical American events. Forrest starts his life cocooned, protected and sheltered by his mum from the harsh realities of modern day society. His mother encourages him believe that he is no different from any other child of his age, just because of his unfortunate physical and learning disabilities. With an IQ no higher than 75, he has limited understanding of the world around him, but this doesn't hold him back.

Forrest makes it through his school days, with his childhood sweetheart, Jenny, who helps him during the tough times of bullying. After school graduation Jenny and Forrest take their separate routes in life, only for their lives to intertwine numerous times along the way. As Forrest is on his own journey, he encounters a sequence of life changing events. He becomes a college football hero, a medal of honour from the Vietnamese War recipient, a ping-pong champion, a shrimp boat captain, a cross-country runner and a millionaire with shares in The Apple Company.

All of these unprecedented achievements and materials are irrelevant to Forrest, who only wants to be with his childhood sweetheart, Jenny. After thrilling life, will he finally get the perfect ending he deserves, or will destiny change everything?

This famous film is set in the 1950s to the 1980s, but was released in 1994. After making a respectable $55,000,000 at the box office, Forrest Gump has become a renowned film, partly for its original storyline, but also because of our devotion to the character Forrest. From the first scene we automatically fall in love with the well-played character, feeling sorry for him, and seeing his good intentions we, as an audience, only want the best for him.

Forrest Gump is played by Tom Hanks, who perfectly portrays the role, capturing the full essence and nature of Forrest, ensuring that the accent and body language is always true to character. Robin Wright plays Jenny, Gary Sinise acts as Lieutenant Dan, Mykelti Williamson plays Bubba, and Sally Field acts the role of Forrest's mother. This all-star cast produces us with wonderful acting, allowing us to fully connect with the characters. Director, Robert Zemeckis, works well with the camera and actor to create various effects, proving his wonderful directing ability.

The film is based on the bildungsroman novel of the same name, written by Winston Groom. Although the film varies a little from the original book, we can still see the similarities and the main ideas are still there.

Forrest Gump is a thought provoking, captivating and heart wrenching film, featuring many social, political and historical messages throughout. The film covers lots of important issues, such as discrimination, bullying, war, peace rallies and racism. One thing the film does cleverly is to trivialize big American historical events, such as the way it skims over racism, almost belittling the importance of the issue.
This hybrid creation includes genres drama, romance, comedy and history, and all of these different aspects feature regularly throughout the film. Forrest Gump is a story rich in laughs, but similarly rich in quiet truths and moral lessons.

The only negative I have to say about the film is that it does run for over two hours, meaning that by the end the same themes can become tiresome and overused.

However, aside from that, I feel that this film is an American classic, which can be watched by all the family (rated 12). The movie is comical, but at the same time it underlines the ever growing the importance of certain issues. Forrest Gump is a must-see. Recommended.

You can currently buy Forrest Gump online or in various stores for less than £5.


Thanks for reading this review, I hope it was of some use to you. Also posted on Ciao under the username Georgia713.