阿甘正传影评

　　And yet this is not a heartwarming story about a mentally retarded man. That cubbyhole is much too small and limiting for Forrest Gump. The movie is more of a meditation on our times, as seen through the eyes of a man who lacks cynicism and takes

　　things for exactly what they are. Watch him carefully and you will understand why some people are criticized for being too clever by half. Forrest is clever by just exactly enough.

　　Tom Hanks may be the only actor who could have played the role.

　　That's how he gets a college football scholarship, in a life story that eventually becomes a running gag about his good luck. Gump the football hero becomes Gump the Medal of Honor winner in Vietnam, and then Gump the Ping-Pong champion, Gump the shrimp boat captain, Gump the millionaire stockholder (he gets shares in a new fruit company named Apple Computer), and Gump the man who runs across America and then retraces his steps.

　　It could be argued that with his IQ of 75 Forrest does not quite understand everything that happens to him. Not so. He

　　understands everything he needs to know, and the rest, the movie

　　Wallace, he teaches Elvis how to swivel his hips, he visits the White House three times, he's on the Dick Cavett show with John Lennon, and in a sequence that will have you rubbing your eyes with its realism, he addresses a Vietnam-era peace rally on the Mall in Washington. Special effects are also used in creating the character of Forrest's Vietnam friend Lt. Dan (Gary Sinise), aRon Kovictype who quite convincingly loses his legs.

　　Using carefully selected TV clips and dubbed voices, Zemeckis is able to create some hilarious moments, as when LBJ examines the wound in what Forrest describes as my butt-ox. And the biggest laugh in the movie comes after Nixon inquires where

　　Forrest is staying in Washington, and then recommends the

　　Watergate. (That's not the laugh, just the setup.) As Forrest's life becomes a guided tour of straight-arrow America, Jenny (played byRobin Wright) goes on a parallel tour of the counterculture. She goes to California, of course, and drops out, tunes in, and turns on. She's into psychedelics and flower power, antiwar rallies and love-ins, drugs and needles. Eventually it becomes clear that

　　between them Forrest and Jenny have covered all of the landmarks of our recent cultural history, and the accommodation they arrive at in the end is like a dream of reconciliation for our society.

　　What a magical movie! If you did not like it, give it a try again and hopefully you will see it for the great story it is!