Forrest Gump ***** (1994, Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Sally Field) – Classic Movie Review 285

‘Hello. My name’s Forrest, Forrest Gump. You want a chocolate?

Tom Hanks pleased a whole lot of people and won a Best Actor Oscar with his canny, triumphant performance as wise simpleton Forrest Gump, in this unique, incredibly popular 1994 movie, directed by Robert Zemeckis and based on the novel by Winston Groom.

Having won the previous year for Philadelphia, Hanks became the first actor since Spencer Tracy to win consecutive Best Actor awards. It was one of the film’s six Oscars that also included Best Picture, Director, film editing, visual effects and adapted screenplay (Eric Roth).

While as we’ve said, Gump is not intelligent, he nevertheless saves his best buddy, Lieutenant Dan Taylor (Gary Sinise), in the Vietnam War, fancies his true love, childhood sweetheart Jenny Curran (the lovely Robin Wright), who eludes him, starts a successful business and goes on to hobnob with US Presidents and Elvis (in superb, Oscar-winning trick photography) as it turns out he has accidentally been present at many historic moments.

I should also mention that Gump also wins medals, creates a famous shrimp fishing fleet, inspires people to jog, starts a ping-pong craze, creates the smiley face, writes bumper stickers and songs and donates cash to people. Simple he may be, but he’s an all-round heck of a good guy. That’s why we love him. It is, in many ways, the quintessential Hanks role.

Forrest Gump is a long, painstaking, but undeniably impressive and superbly crafted movie, whose power to charm and move is likely to be very much to particular taste. The Americans went wild for it as it hit a national nerve, but quite a lot of Brits found it too American and many people everywhere found it very schmaltzy and just plain too darned sweet. Hanks is remarkable, though, and, in many ways, so is the film.

No one else really gets a proper look in. Sally Field has a pretty thankless task as his mom Mrs Gump (it was hardly any time before this that they were co-starring as equals in Punchline in 1988), though she does it well of course. Wright’s role as childhood sweetheart Jenny Curran is merely as a gorgeous obscure object of desire for Gump, though she fits the bill well. And Sinise has only a couple of big scenes to score, though he does.

Hanks and Zemeckis reunited in 2000 for Cast Away and 2004 for The Polar Express.

© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Film Review 285 derekwinnert.com

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