Forrest Gump

Forest Gump is the second greatest movie of all time. Second only to Braveheart and beating out Monty Python’s Holy Grail by a small margin. Forest Gump is cinema’s anthem for America. The movie actually taught me more pertinent information than I learned from my American History in high school. That is what makes the movie, aside from Tom Hank’s best performance ever. Forest Gump tells the story of America. It takes us through the decades as we see Vietnam from a soldier’s point of view through Forest. We see the hippie free love movement as it was lived by Jenny, Forest’s childhood love. The casting for this movie was spot on. Tom Hanks plays a great determined lower IQ man who achieves so much in life and tells his amazing story to random people on a bench waiting for a bus. Sally Field plays the mother. Mykelti Williamson plays the perfect Pvt. Benjamin Buford 'Bubba' Blue(gum). Gary Sinise didn’t have to stretch too far to play the overzealous Army Lieutenant Dan Taylor who I believe plays Forest’s diametrical opposite. Lieutenant Dan is a willing force of the war whereas Forest simply follows directions like his mama taught him and runs from danger like Jenny told him. Lieutenant Dan is manic with strong wild emotions; from raging on the battlefield screaming that he wants to die with his men, to suicidal depression in the hospital, to becoming an alcoholic on welfare, to cleaning up and settling down with a nice woman. We never really see emotion from Forest. He doesn’t laugh or cry or really express any strong emotion making me think he might be autistic. We see him get mad at the guys that mess with Jenny, he drops everything to come be with his mama while she’s sick, and he jumps off his boat while its still driving when he sees Lieutenant Dan has come to work with him. Forest is happy simply living on God’s green earth and takes us through a video essay on American History. Like the movie’s tag line says, “The world will never be the same once you've seen it through the eyes of Forrest Gump.”