It's often nice to put on an old favourite and enjoy a film that doesn't take too much analysing to enjoy, but with 'Forrest Gump', you get a film which bears its depth rather superficially. Telling the ludicrous story of a sweet natured simpleton who continually manages to shine out as a superior American citizen, the film is able to document post-WWII American history, as Presidents come and go (and Forrest meets them all) and different opportunities, social movements and technologies arise Forrest to exploit unawares and become a celebrity and multi-millionaire.
Joining him in childhood, we see the hapless Forrest in leg braces and struggling to get accepted into a normal state school due to his low IQ. Befriending the sweet Jenny, he grows up to become a college football star, a hero of the Vietnam War, a tabletennis champion, a shrimp fishing magnate, a cross country running celebrity and a devoted father. He seems to move through life utterly unawares of his impact, or the impact of the times upon him. Jenny, in contrast, begins life abused by by her father, and takes the alternative road into drug abuse, attempted suicide, political activity and sexual liberation, at each point staying on the cutting edge of the latest social movement. The contrast between the two is rather explicit, as Forrest achieves a naive happiness and Jenny wallows in rootless self-destruction. Repeatedly, their paths cross, and everytime they look out for each other, but ultimately Jenny is drawn back to the liberal lifestyle she can't have with Forrest. It's quite an accomplishment to deal with this dark subject matter, and the regular heartbreak of Jenny reluctantly refusing Forrest, without the film ever getting too serious.
This is largely thanks to Tom Hanks' superb performance as Forrest, imbuing him with a sense of dignity and kindness we wouldn't find in the type of simpleton portrayed by, say, Adam Sandler. It's almost believable that Forrest could achieve all that he did, simply because he didn't comprehend that maybe he couldn't - typified most in his tireless ability to "just keep running". His naive singlemindedness is the driving force of the film that takes us across America and through the ages, and helps maintain the sanity of friends like Jenny (Robin Wright, before she added Penn) and Lieutenant Dan (Gary Sinise). The more ridiculous aspects of the plot are those little extras just thrown into the film, such as the child Forrest, legs rigid in braces, teaching the young Elvis Presley his distinctive pelvic-thrusting dance, innocently revealing the Watergate scandal, or inadvertantly inventing the "Shit Happens" bumper stickers and "Have a nice day", smiley face t-shirts, that represent the entrepeneurial spirit of the 1980s, as well as the desire for a guru-type figure that people were seeking. It was also planned for Forrest to go into space, but fortunately Hanks and Sinise had just made 'Apollo 13', so this was abandoned.
The most notable aspect of the film is the use of archive footage, or at the least the faking of archive footage featuring real figures such as the Kennedy brothers, Nixon, and John Lennon, which serves to almost verify the outlandish exploits of Forrest and remind us of the major figures of those times. The film was a great, entertaining way to reintroduce the defining moments of the forty or so years the film covers, but also it draws attention to the use of television in defining these moments and Forrest's appearances confirm him as an American of stature. Perhaps the most annoying aspect of the film is that his celebrity is never maintained and when a reporter does a piece on him running across America, she seems unaware that he is a national tabletennis champion, a decorated soldier and the owner of the nation's largest shrimp company - she really ought to do some research. But this use of media to build a hero, of a kind that could only happen in America, is a touch of genius that helps create a legend of its character.
It doesn't hurt that the film is so quotable, with "Life is like a box of chocolates" and "Run, Forrest! Run!" perhaps standing out the most, and also has a cracking soundtrack (with almost all of it used during the Vietnam segment). This is big budget Hollywood with a heart and soul, and something to say. A modern classic.
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