- Film Review
- Reviewed By Adrian Turner
-
4 out of 5
Winner of six Oscars, including best picture, actor and director, this comedy drama was a box-office blockbuster in America, though its simple-minded patriotism was greeted with a certain cynicism in Europe. Gump, played by Tom Hanks, is a chump: a semi-literate everyman who drifts through recent American history (Vietnam, the civil rights movement, assassinations, Watergate) and emerges triumphant. He's an athlete, war hero and hokey southern savant, a one-man palliative for a nation's political and moral bankruptcy. His personal credo is "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get", and that's as profound as the movie gets. But Hanks's performance is truly remarkable and, this being a Robert Zemeckis film, the effects are stunning: Gump meeting people such as JFK and Nixon is amazingly believable, and Gary Sinise as an amputee combines brilliant acting with state-of-the-art technology. One can sneer at it, but one can't ignore it.
Plot Summary
Oscar-winning comedy drama starring Tom Hanks, Gary Sinise and Robin Wright. Slow-witted Forrest Gump is encouraged by his mother to realise his full potential. He attends college on a sports scholarship, meeting President Kennedy in the process, joins the army and is sent to Vietnam. As the years pass and his life changes, he maintains contact with his childhood friend Jenny Curran.
Cast and crew
Cast
- Forrest Gump
- Tom Hanks
- Lieutenant Dan Taylor
- Gary Sinise
- Jenny Curran
- Robin Wright Penn
- Mrs Gump
- Sally Field
- Benjamin Buford "Bubba" Blue
- Mykelti Williamson
- Nurse at park bench
- Rebecca Williams
- Young Forrest
- Michael Conner Humphreys
- Doctor
- Harold Herthum
- Barber
- George Kelly
- Crony
- Bob Penny
- Crony
- John Randall
- Principal
- Sam Anderson
- Louise
- Margo Moorer
- Elderly woman
- Ione M Telech
- Elderly woman's daughter
- Christine Seabrook
- Southern gentleman
- John Worsham
- Young Elvis Presley
- Peter Dobson
- School bus driver
- Siobhan Fallon
Crew
- Director
- Robert Zemeckis
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