Starring: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Sally Foelds
Rating: **
IN THE US, Forrest Gump has pulled in US$250 million at the box office and apparently it's still going strong. It is easy to see why, but it is also fairly clear that the tactical button-pushing that has worked on the American public will probably not go over nearly so well here in a country which has less on its conscience.
On the surface, Forrest Gump seems a universal enough tale about a very simple man and his attitude towards life. Gump's IQ is sub-standard, but his supportive mum and his incredible athletic talents put him on the road that leads him through three decades of American history, actively (and often accidentally) taking part in important events - from teaching Elvis to dance to initiating the Watergate arrests - and winning hearts along his journey due to the purity of his character.
Technically the film is brilliant - the team from Industrial Light and Magic have inserted Forrest's character into actual footage of important political and social events in an unprecedented act of video wizardry that borders on the miraculous.
That much of the film rides on the historical references is not so much the problem with Forrest Gump; in fact, many of the re-enactments of the '60s and '70s are wonderfully done and evocative enough to make those who took part in the events of those times get a bit nostalgic, if a touch squirmy over the idealism and the fashions of the times. Many of the Gump-insertions are hilarious as well, such as Gump's involvement in the first protest over the busing of the blacks in Georgia and his encounter with Lyndon Johnson.
The fatal flaw in Forrest Gump is that it is far too relentless in its sugary approach to some very ugly parts of American history, which is most likely why it has appealed to so many Americans - in making the audience identify so strongly with Gump and his innocence, the responsibility for those troubled times is transferred from the shoulders of the American people and viewed from a distance through a maudlin haze.
Tom Hanks' performance is as good as it can be (considering his character has the intelligence equivalent to that of a bright German shepherd), and he does indeed evoke sympathy with his wide-eyed journey through the Vietnam war, the cold war, the assassinations of the Kennedys, and the violence and drug experimentation of the '60s and '70s. It is the recurring theme of his innocence providing salvation for the rest of the characters, notably that of his life-long love Jenny (notably played with skilled poignancy by Robin Wright) and his embittered, legless ex-platoon leader, Lieutenant Dan (Gary Sinise), that mires the film down in a quagmire of sentimentality, shuffling the responsibility away from the sociological forces that shaped the times and placing them squarely in the hands of a nebulous force beyond the ken of the American populace.