There are many ways to express one's political ideology. Marches, speeches, essays, press releases, the spray-painting buildings, and movies. Just to list a few. Movies are frequently used as a catalyst, letting us know how a director looks at life, and politics—in a way that both holds our interest and is socially relevant. It's difficult to think of any movie that doesn't embrace at least one ideology, with only the scary movie series, which was largely an abortion of comedy, coming to mind.
Forrest Gump, despite what Tom Hanks has to say, is no exception. This film touches upon many political hot-topics, and questions the traditional way of life. The Film follows a semi-retarded character through history; from his humble beginnings of being treated poorly in school, to his becoming a very rich shrimper and investor, nothing terribly exciting happens. It does; however, take many side-shots at both popular culture and the United States government. Tom Hanks is wrong when he says "The film is non-political and thus non-judgmental," as will be evident shortly.
Forrest Gump is a very conservative film. It puts the traditional, simple life in the limelight and shows it triumph over the drug induced pop-culture. The traditional life is played and exemplified by Forrest Gump. The counter-Forrest character, Jenny, Is a drug-doing culture queen who lives life like the average liberal at the time. In the eyes of the director, Forrest is showing that it is so easy to live the conservative life and be happy that you could do it even with an IQ of seventy-five. Jenny, on the other hand, is popular, liberal, and miserable. To Juxtapose:
Forrest was born with a low IQ, and legs that didn't quite look right. The children he went to school with were unrelenting in their insults. Often chasing him home, throwing stones at him. Jenny on the other hand was cute, popular, and probably intelligent. Forrest grows up, plays football, then goes into the army and fights in the Vietnam War. Jenny grows up, gets into drugs, and protests the Vietnam War. Forrest is sent to China to play a diplomatic game of Ping Pong. Jenny becomes a stripper. Even though Forrest is borderline retarded, he lives a much better life and is much happier than the woman of his dreams. Why? Because he lived like a conservative and because of that, fate and luck were kind to him.
The director uses Jenny to exemplify the evils of liberalism. At the beginning of the movie, you quickly come to dislike Jenny. She is portrayed as a character filled with inner-conflict, unworthy of your trust, and we look down upon her for not dating Forrest. Then, she gets into drugs. From this point forward, anything she does is equated to something only an evil drug addict could do. So, he places her as a semi-major player in the Vietnam protests. Jenny only lives long enough to marry Forrest, as soon after doing so she dies of what was probably AIDs, to which the reaction is: Serves her right for being a slut who rejected Forrest for all of her life.
All of this points to one logical conclusion—if you live the conservative life, fate will take care of you. Forrest had next-to-no controll over what happened in his life, he simply wasn't intelligent enough. But good stuff happened to him anyway.
Forrest Gump does more than just play up the conservative life. It also depicts the American govern to be a clumsy, uncaring bureaucracy—that is often on the wrong side of issues.. Throughout the movie, Forrest stumbles into an overabundance of important historical events. Interestingly, almost all of them portray the American government in a negative light. Be it Watergate, Vietnam, or the protests of the desegregation of southern schools, Mr. Gump seems to land in some of the darker spots of American history. This was by no mistake of the director. He intends and succeeds in making the audience mistrust and dislike the American government. Showing these events from the point-of-view of a retarded person who thinks that they're silly highlights the hate that American's harbor for these events. Using these events, from the point of view of Forrest, the director painted the government to clumsy, awarding the slow gentleman with a Medal of Honor, on national T.V., while he stands there dumbfounded and drops his pants.
The release date for this film in 1994 puts it in an interesting point in history. It postdates the Americans with Disabilities Act, which Forrest would easily qualify for. Depicting Forrest to be retarded, yet functional shows the directors dislike for the Act. If Forrest can do it, why can't anyone else? Also, the film Predates the Republican Revolution of 1994, even if only slightly. It'd be hard to believe that a popular film with such subtle conservative values didn't combine with Gingrich's Contract with American to assist in the vast conservative power gains of that year. Interestingly, Entertainment Weekly had a similar take.
Both answers are the same; the fates of Newt Gingrich and Forrest Gump are inextricably linked. Just as few in Washington forecast the Grand Old Party's avalanche at the polls in November, few souls in Hollywood could have guessed the huge magnitude of Gump fever at ticket booths. In both cases, a heretofore taciturn slice of the American pie — call it a '90s take on Richard Nixon's silent majority — defied the pundits and cast a vote for a mixed message of candy-apple nostalgia and stern virtue. On screen, Forrest the soldier got into a scrape with a hippie. In real life, Newt declared war on ''counterculture McGoverniks.'' Coincidence? You decide. (Gordinier)
The film was very popular at its time of release; it was even the top grossing film of the year. People loved it then, and they still do today. "Pat Buchanan, the conservative columnist, describes Forrest as one "who always does the decent, honorable thing" -- a Hollywood surprise that sneaked though the politically correct screeners." (Fields) Today, Forrest Gump holds onto its spot of 17thtop grossing film of all times.
Forrest Gump, despite what Tom Hanks has to say, is no exception. This film touches upon many political hot-topics, and questions the traditional way of life. The Film follows a semi-retarded character through history; from his humble beginnings of being treated poorly in school, to his becoming a very rich shrimper and investor, nothing terribly exciting happens. It does; however, take many side-shots at both the American Government and popular culture. Tom Hanks is wrong when he says "The film is non-political and thus non-judgmental," as will be evident shortly.
As evident, Forrest Gump was anything but "non-political" as most movies are not. Once again, Tom Hanks is wrong.
There are many ways to express one's political ideology. Marches, speeches, essays, press releases, the spray-painting buildings, and movies. Just to list a few. Movies are frequently used as a catalyst, letting us know how a director looks at life, and politics—in a way that both holds our interest and is socially relevant. The director of Forrest Gump uses this catalyst to reach into our inner psyche, and instill conservative values.
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