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Tom Hanks unleashes some cloying charm in Forrest Gump |
You surely know the plot. Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks, who to do
him credit plays this one note character with real charm) is a good-hearted man
with developmental difficulties (IQ below the 75 mark) who lives through some
of the most turbulent times in American history. From racial violence in the
1950s, to Vietnam, the Cold War, the political turmoil of the 1970s, Forrest
lives through it all. And largely lets it wash over him, never letting it intrude
on his simple, folksy, homespun gentleness. Although that might mostly be because
he also doesn’t really understand most of the things happening around him. He’s
quite a contrast with the girl he’s loved since their childhood, Jenny (Robin
Wright) who embraces everything the modern world brings (protest, politics,
drugs) but of course finds her life much less rewarding and happy than
Forrest’s “go-with-the-flow” acceptance.
Just writing it down I can feel my stomach turning again. At
the time the filmmakers were very keen to promote the film as stridently
apolitical. Yeah sure the film never praises, say Kennedy or Nixon, just as it
goes out of its way not to state an opinion on either George Wallace or the
Black Panthers. But the film is, at its heart, a large, beating, reassuring
lump of rank conservatism.
It looks back at America’s past with rose-tinted glasses, portraying
a world which would have all better if they had taken a leaf out of Forrest’s
book. If we had all been just as uninvolved, decent, kind and stayed at home
where we were happy rather than getting engaged in major social and political
issues, everything would have been better. Forrest is a celebration of all-American
virtues of honesty, bravery and loyalty – but the film is also an implicit
criticism of other all-American virtues like curiosity, scepticism and challenging
the status quo. Basically, the film celebrates the cosy attitudes conservatives
adore and has nothing good to say about more liberal values. Sure, it doesn’t
roll out a banner for Nixon – but you can also see this playing well at a Trump
rally, with people saying we would be a happier country if we could all be a
bit like Forrest.
That’s really tough on the film – and I imagine Zemeckis and
co would be rightly horrified about that very idea – but it’s a film that
doesn’t once challenge the audience at all. I was reminded throughout of Being
There which took a similar concept: a man with low IQ finds himself at the
centre of major events. But while that film was a satire – where the characters
invest Chance’s gnomic utterings with profound wisdom – this film is a serious
drama which encourages the audience to see a “deeper wisdom” in Forrest, to
effectively treat him as a sort of prophet. There is a reason bland nonsense
like “life is like a box of chocolates” caught on.
The original book was far more of a satire on the
shallowness of modern culture. This instead plays like a sort of holy fool
pilgrimage, with Forrest’s interaction with historical figures played for laughs.
From showing Elvis how to dance, to (in the film’s most cringing moment)
inspiring John Lennon with the lyrics of Imagine (another reason to hate
Forrest), the film is crammed with gags like this. While the insertion of Tom
Hanks into newsreel footage with Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon is impressive
(although it has not aged quite so well), it’s not made with any point. This is
because Forrest has no real appreciation of what’s happening around him. He’s
merely moving from one event from the next – but this lack of engagement and
understanding is held up as a virtue. And the very fact that it is, speaks to
the film’s underlying conservatism and love for simple, small-town American
ideals that shouldn’t be sacrificed to all that uncomfortable social and
political change.
The film is particularly harsh on Jenny, decently played by
Robin Wright, who is portrayed as someone succumbing to every trend and popular
movement of the era. And whom the film consistently punishes for this by
showing her emptiness, shallowness and unhappiness, until it finally consigns
her to death from AIDS. Just in case we’ve missed the point, Forrest repeatedly
urges her to come home – to stop engaging with the wider world and the problems
in it and bury her head back into the sands of home, where everything is
simple, safe and nothing changes.
The world of Forrest Gump is one where corruption and war
mongering don’t matter because it happened a long time ago. A world where racial
politics are too distasteful to mention (although since Forrest’s Granddaddy
was a leading member of the KKK – a flashback played for laughs – that clearly
wasn’t the case). Where the only black people Forrest encounters are the
outsider soldier Bubba (who of course dies in ‘Nam – even in serious films, the
Black Guy dies first) and his servile family whose names don’t even merit a mention,
but who become the grateful beneficiaries of Forrest’s oblivious generosity. But
there is no sense here of the dangers and violence of America (bar some nasty
jocks at Forrest’s college) – which considering the film has a cameo from
George Wallace of all people is really striking.
But then the problems of the world I guess don’t seem that
bad if you just don’t think about them and instead go through life with a smile
on your face, blissfully unaware of what’s happening around you. The closest
the film gets to giving Forrest an opinion on something is when he is asked to
speak at a rally against Vietnam – and even then the sound cuts out meaning we
can’t hear him (though it seems to have been profound). A wittier film, like Being
There, would have made this a moment for satire. Here it seems more like the
magic of Forrest’s simplicity mustn’t be shattered for the audience by daring
to suggest he actually has a view on something.
The film is a warm and comforting hug, that tells people the
past wasn’t that bad and would have been better still if we’d just been nice to
each other. That wanting to change the world is dangerous and greater rewards
can come from going with the flow. For all Forrest is bereft by Jenny’s death,
the film still rewards him with family, home and friends. It’s sentimental,
empty, depressing crap. Well made, but simply dreadful. You may not know what’s
in a box of chocolates, but you sure as shit will remember after you’ve vomited
them all back up after watching this.
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