Forrest Gump Movie Review: Shrimp Is the Fruit of the Sea

Forrest Gump, from the novel by Winston Groom and directed by Robert Zemeckis, stars Tom Hanks in the title role as a young man with an IQ of about 75. The film won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture for 1994. In the opening of the film, Forrest is a child (Michael Conner Humphreys) with a crooked spine. He is given leg braces to help with the curvature. At school, the only student who will let him sit next to her on the bus is Jenny (Robin Wright). Forrest instantly falls in love with her and will never fall out of love with her for the rest of his life. Forrest’s mother (Sally Field) speaks almost solely in Southern aphorisms like, “Stupid is as stupid does,” and, “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” Mom runs a boarding home and it is among the guests that Forrest meets his first super star: a young Elvis Presley who incorporates Forrest’s herky-jerky dance moves that are a result of the leg braces.

And from there on out, Forrest is propelled from one unlikely meeting to another (with surgical precision, the filmmakers found astounding ways for Hanks to interact with the most famous people of the day – he even shakes hands with three different presidents, and you’d swear it was real). Forrest loses the leg braces and turns out to be an elite distance runner. He goes to Vietnam where he meets Bubba (Mykelti Williamson) and Lt. Dan (Gary Sinise). Bubba wants to get through the war and start a shrimping business with Forrest. Lt. Dan is shot and loses his legs, and holds a grudge for Forrest having saved him during a firefight that killed poor Bubba. During all of this, Jenny comes in and out of Forrest’s life having chosen a much different path to her life. While Forrest flits from adventure to adventure like a feather on the wind, Jenny makes bad choice after bad choice usually from her penchant for men who treat her poorly.

As a film that is nearly three decades old, it holds up very well. Most amazing is that the CGI work has in no way faded or lost its gloss. It still looks like Nixon is recommending the Watergate Hotel to Forrest. And there is a pleasant riff where Forrest makes it onto The Dick Cavett show with guest John Lennon who finds Forrest’s words to be quite similar to his future classic, “Imagine.” The de-aging and aging work, accomplished through traditional and atypical methods like make-up, prosthetics, and CGI, is not even remotely noticeable or cheapened through time. The use of practical effects whenever possible keeps the movie from getting bogged down in its own magic.

But does it hold up after 30 years? It does. Forrest Gump hasn’t improved with time, but it definitely holds its own. The acting, especially Hanks and Sinise, is always on point. While Sally Fields plays a bit of a caricature, she rises above the role with her constant love for her odd boy. Robin Wright’s character, Jenny, has gotten some bad press over the decades; mostly gripes that she is really a villain. For that complaint, it is recommended to watch the film again, and remember that almost nobody can look their best next to charming, silly, world-travelling Forrest Gump.