MUBI

The movie is a cheap easy dodge, a piece of feel-good easy self-congratulation that panders to its audience. FORREST GUMP’s rewriting of history is be nauseating and dishonest and disrespectful, and the sentimentality is absolutely revolting.

There’s something dishonest about the movie, best shown during the scene at the Vietnam rally. Forrest stands up at the Vietnam rally to deliver his “thoughts” on Vietnam. Of course, the sound system is sabotaged and we never hear what he says, but the film goes out of its way to have Abbie Hoffman embrace Forrest and say something like “Great man, you’ve said it all better than I could.”

Getting the implied endorsement of Abbie Hoffman without giving me Forrest’s thoughts about Vietnam is a deliberate and over-elaborate dodge away from having to come up with a real position. Think about it. Since FORREST GUMP is narrated by Forrest, why does the sabotage of the sound system matter? Why didn’t they just let us, the audience, hear what Forrest has to say?

God knows the movie goes out of its way to show us other things that Forrest doesn’t participate in, like Jenny’s suicide attempt. Why does it dodge Forrest’s thoughts on Vietnam, the very ideas that earn him an embrace from Abbie Hoffman?

I stand by what I wrote, I really hated FORREST GUMP and the whole Zemeckis thing of re-assigning historic acts to his heroes gets a bit irritating, like having Chuck Berry get the idea for JOHNNY B. GOODE by listening to Michael J. Fox. Ha ha ha.

I can appreciate a lot of the acting in GUMP. There’s part of me that always grins when Hanks says, “My name’s Forrest Gump. Folks call me Forrest Gump.” And Gary Sinise is remarkable as Capt. Dan. Their considerable talents almost manage to make the film watchable.