BEST PICTURE
WINNER: Forrest Gump (Robert Zemeckis, 1994)
If you grew up during the
90’s, you could not escape Forrest Gump. It was inevitable. In my world, it was universally loved
and I confess I have been systematically predisposed to like this movie ever
since I saw it in the theater at age 11.
Maybe it is the desire to “get to my roots” through popular cinema
(boomer parents, small southern hometown), maybe its because the soundtrack was
on repeat for years in my room, maybe its because I related to Gump in a way I
related to few other movie characters.
Whatever the case, I have loved this film since childhood and when I
watch it today, I find I still love it and that it only deepens as I examine
the movie closer. Whatever the
major effect the film had on American culture at large, I see in the film a
unique skewering of American exceptionalism through the narrative of a
guileless individual who is shamelessly exploited by a variety of individuals
and social institutions yet maintains a loyalty to the handful of people who
have ever shown him interest, in spite of his low IQ and naïveté. The character of Forrest Gump is
essentially a blank slate that viewers project their own feelings and nostalgia
upon. To me, it is a glorious
picaresque that succeeds thanks to the charismatic humanism of Tom Hanks and the
over-arching relatability of Zemeckis’ cinematic techniques. Forrest is not without agency but he is
without cynicism. It is his
guileless loyalty and lack of cynicism that has made the film seem
sentimentalized when it fairly earns its emotional climaxes; likewise, Gump’s
accidental wealth and fame countered by Jenny’s failed endeavors have made
liberal critics spurn the movie for not being an ode to the 60’s
counterculture. It seems people
are still projecting their own objectives upon the life of Forrest Gump and the fact
that the film lets you do so is testament to its endearing greatness.
