uberalpha's Movie Review of Forrest Gump

Dumb and Dumber
uberalpha - wrote on 08/25/07

This is a one joke movie. Fact. Look it up on wikipedia, if you look up "one joke movie" you'll see pictures of Mr. Bean, Pauly Shore and Forrest Gump. Why Forrest Gump? Because practically ever scene ends with the unspoken clause, "it's because he's retarded". Ignore your prejudice and your heartstrings and do it. You may not even have to if you watch this with a group of high schoolers or stoners, because the timing of the laughter fits my premise precisely. When this film came out people were blown away like Lt. Dan's legs and then by how we could see the bottom of the wheel chair...even though Gary Sinise did not actually sacrifice even one limb to make this an Oscar winner. Yet these things alone do not make Forrest Gump a bad film, because it's not a bad film. Bad films don't win Best Picture Oscars--even Titanic was merely banal. What makes this film a waste is how it was presented to the audience; this film uses flashbacks to use preexisting emotional capital and our ability to laugh the handicapped to get us to a point where when Jenny is going to die from AIDs it all seems so topical and real. As a society handicaps are not openly permitted to be used as the basis of comedy, which is where Forrest Gump's genius lies: everything turns out alright for him. He doesn't know to stop running! Oh that's hilarious and I might start to feel bad about laughing at his lack of intelligence if it didn't...get him a successful college football career. Were this not but a tearjerking ruse the young man whom he beat the crap out of in that car with Jenny would've been shown in a hospital in a coma, because then Forrest would've been a character capable of true flaws, or true sin, not just easily glossed over moonings of archival footage versions of American presidents. In the end, there is no punchline which allows the audience to leave the theater feeling moved, despite their enjoyment and laughter at this Lloyd or Harry. The critical difference between this and the film I just alluded to, is that only one hides the depth of its depravity behind a veneer of class.