I’m almost certain that when Jon Ronson was a film critic he included Forrest Gump on his list of both the top 10 best and worst movies of 1994, saying something along the lines of “its crapness is its charm and its charm is its crapness.”
The movie is fiction but has touches of spirituality, especially Christianity. The central character faces many adversities, but due to his condition of being autistic and his personal faith, he does not waver in his journey; he perseveres until the end, whether he believes in God or not. In contrast, Jenny degrades with every stronger drug, which ultimately leads to her death from HIV—a great lesson for the youth who do not consider consequences. It’s each person’s problem what they do with their life, but it seems that people who enjoy what is dark and degrading irritate those who obey the law or behave well. That’s why many people prefer Batman over Superman, or even worse, they prefer the villain over the hero. I congratulate you; at least you acknowledged that your opinion is biased by influencers and friends in your circle.
To your point about letterboxd hipsters, Forrest Gump appears on the IMDb top 250 (#11!) but isn’t anywhere to be found on the letterboxd top 250 list: https://boxd.it/8HjM
Interesting. And although not in my top 10, Forrest Gump is more than OK. On the other hand, I hated “Everything, everywhere…”. Michelle Yeoh should have received a proper accolade long before that piece of s…
I loved “Everything Everywhere All at Once” with a passion undreamed of. I’d put it in my personal top 5 ever movies. But I admit that it’s the sort of weird offbeat movie that should by rights be a movie a few weirdos like me love and normal people find it utterly perplexing. It should be a cult classic, not an Academy Award winner. But I totally disagree with you because it’s awesome.
Agreed with your last sentiment about how we used to be able to just enjoy whatever movies were available, but now we are relentlessly scrutinizing, which can sort of dilute the innocent experience of a decent film.
However, I will say that that type of scrutiny is necessary today because there is so much more volume of movies. And also of every form of entertainment. If we just settled for the low hanging fruit (which many people do when the mindlessly scroll, say, Netflix), then we would be cheating ourselves out of stuff that is SO much better!
I also think it’s important to judge a movie by its contemporaries. Does Forrest Gump compare to a movie from today? Not exactly, but that’s because every filmmaker today has seen Gump, and hundreds of other movies that have built upon its legacy in the last 25 years.
To drive home the point, is the Odyssey a good piece of literature? No, it sucks. It’s tedious as hell. But it was also written around 600 BC. Every other piece of literature has it to thank. We should hope things get better over time…
At the end of the day we should be allowed to matter-of-factly like or dislike things without having to worry too much about the current state of the zeitgeist. Haters are still going to hate, passionately and without any sense of objectivity. A case in point would be the foaming at the mouth hatred that's been heaped upon this year's Here; also made by Zemeckis/Roth and also starring Hanks/Wright. For my money it's better than Gump.
I really liked this analysis. I really hated Forrest Gump. It mawkishly celebrated stupidity.
But it wasn't the angriest I've been at a theatrical release. Don't even get me started on the English Patient. So long and boring. When that turned into a Seinfeld episode, I felt seen.
The angriest I've ever been in a theater was when I Am Legend ended. I was so sure that by using the novel's title after all those other adaptations, they HAD to use its ending! It wouldn't make sense otherwise! But The Last Man on Earth is still the closest, only having the tone completely wrong (which is what the deleted original ending of I Am Legend gets right).
Though the last fifty years have been fueled by great social progress (which America just undid a month ago, thanks guys), the nineties were an especially active time for misogyny in pop culture. So it's instructive to learn how we watched and celebrated Forrest Gump back then without one sympathetic thought for the narrative torture and degradation of Jenny.
If you take the movie at face value, it's about not questioning authority and "doing the right thing" so that you may be rewarded via capitalism and the patriarchy. And if you attack those institutions, as Jenny did, you will die young, beautiful and tragically.
I don't think it's about how we soured on the movie. I think it's about who our culture thought was a "slut" and what we thought of them.
Gump demonstrates that great filmmakers can make a a horrible, awful, stupid, story entertaining. They do it all the time. Gump might be the best film of the worst story ever made. That’s a remarkable achievement.
A journey to self awareness
Entertaining & interesting article. Which I wouldn’t say of the movie. I saw it once and that was one time too many.
I’m almost certain that when Jon Ronson was a film critic he included Forrest Gump on his list of both the top 10 best and worst movies of 1994, saying something along the lines of “its crapness is its charm and its charm is its crapness.”
The movie is fiction but has touches of spirituality, especially Christianity. The central character faces many adversities, but due to his condition of being autistic and his personal faith, he does not waver in his journey; he perseveres until the end, whether he believes in God or not. In contrast, Jenny degrades with every stronger drug, which ultimately leads to her death from HIV—a great lesson for the youth who do not consider consequences. It’s each person’s problem what they do with their life, but it seems that people who enjoy what is dark and degrading irritate those who obey the law or behave well. That’s why many people prefer Batman over Superman, or even worse, they prefer the villain over the hero. I congratulate you; at least you acknowledged that your opinion is biased by influencers and friends in your circle.
To your point about letterboxd hipsters, Forrest Gump appears on the IMDb top 250 (#11!) but isn’t anywhere to be found on the letterboxd top 250 list: https://boxd.it/8HjM
Interesting. And although not in my top 10, Forrest Gump is more than OK. On the other hand, I hated “Everything, everywhere…”. Michelle Yeoh should have received a proper accolade long before that piece of s…
I loved “Everything Everywhere All at Once” with a passion undreamed of. I’d put it in my personal top 5 ever movies. But I admit that it’s the sort of weird offbeat movie that should by rights be a movie a few weirdos like me love and normal people find it utterly perplexing. It should be a cult classic, not an Academy Award winner. But I totally disagree with you because it’s awesome.
Agreed with your last sentiment about how we used to be able to just enjoy whatever movies were available, but now we are relentlessly scrutinizing, which can sort of dilute the innocent experience of a decent film.
However, I will say that that type of scrutiny is necessary today because there is so much more volume of movies. And also of every form of entertainment. If we just settled for the low hanging fruit (which many people do when the mindlessly scroll, say, Netflix), then we would be cheating ourselves out of stuff that is SO much better!
I also think it’s important to judge a movie by its contemporaries. Does Forrest Gump compare to a movie from today? Not exactly, but that’s because every filmmaker today has seen Gump, and hundreds of other movies that have built upon its legacy in the last 25 years.
To drive home the point, is the Odyssey a good piece of literature? No, it sucks. It’s tedious as hell. But it was also written around 600 BC. Every other piece of literature has it to thank. We should hope things get better over time…
At the end of the day we should be allowed to matter-of-factly like or dislike things without having to worry too much about the current state of the zeitgeist. Haters are still going to hate, passionately and without any sense of objectivity. A case in point would be the foaming at the mouth hatred that's been heaped upon this year's Here; also made by Zemeckis/Roth and also starring Hanks/Wright. For my money it's better than Gump.
I really liked this analysis. I really hated Forrest Gump. It mawkishly celebrated stupidity.
But it wasn't the angriest I've been at a theatrical release. Don't even get me started on the English Patient. So long and boring. When that turned into a Seinfeld episode, I felt seen.
The angriest I've ever been in a theater was when I Am Legend ended. I was so sure that by using the novel's title after all those other adaptations, they HAD to use its ending! It wouldn't make sense otherwise! But The Last Man on Earth is still the closest, only having the tone completely wrong (which is what the deleted original ending of I Am Legend gets right).
Genuinely surprising results.
His voice gets on my last nerve, and it seems like one of those depressingly hopeful stories one used to find in Reader's Digest
The article's "voice" or Forrest Gump's voice? Just curious 😊
The voice used by Tom Hanks.
Forrest Gump is a good but overrated movie. Titanic and Avatar are both awful movies.
Somewhere along the line, film nerds convinced us that they thought Forrest Gump was bad because it offensively portrays a disabled man.
They’re lying! These people love Being There.
They dislike it because it’s smooth and sentimental. But it’s a charming movie and most people are won over.
Though the last fifty years have been fueled by great social progress (which America just undid a month ago, thanks guys), the nineties were an especially active time for misogyny in pop culture. So it's instructive to learn how we watched and celebrated Forrest Gump back then without one sympathetic thought for the narrative torture and degradation of Jenny.
If you take the movie at face value, it's about not questioning authority and "doing the right thing" so that you may be rewarded via capitalism and the patriarchy. And if you attack those institutions, as Jenny did, you will die young, beautiful and tragically.
I don't think it's about how we soured on the movie. I think it's about who our culture thought was a "slut" and what we thought of them.
Fromtheyardtothearthouse.substack.com
I’d leave a comment, but I vowed never to start one with the word ‘I’.
Gump demonstrates that great filmmakers can make a a horrible, awful, stupid, story entertaining. They do it all the time. Gump might be the best film of the worst story ever made. That’s a remarkable achievement.