Forrest Gump Movie Review Essay
Often, hardships such as war, separation from the ones you love, terrorism, and bullying can bring your self esteem, motivation, and even personality down to a lower level. It can be difficult to stay strong and keep progressing with the many misfortunes that can occur. Likewise, Robert Zemeckis’ Forrest Gump shows how the protagonist, Forrest Gump, deals with and reacts to all the adversity that happens in the society and in his family and friends as well. Forrest Gump is set in the 1950s-1980s in Forrest’s hometown, Greenbow, Alabama. Forrest Gump was a simple man who had an I.Q. of 75. He was always bullied by kids because he wore braces on his legs and was considered dumb. Fortunately, he was able to meet his best friend, Jenny, of whom they grew up together into adulthood. Forrest fell in love with Jenny and never stopped thinking about her even though she has taken many wrong turns in her life. Forrest decided to join the army to fight against Vietnam and along the way met a new friend called Bubba, who can’t stop talking about shrimp. Throughout his life, Forrest had achieved many medals, inspired people, and even got to meet the president several times, but in the end, his heart and mind always went to his childhood sweetheart, Jenny Curran. Despite lacking the true realities of life, Forrest Gump uses cutting-edge special effects in the plot with funny characters and its heroic protagonist to capture the viewers’ hearts.
To start off with, the true realities of some of the events that happened weren’t expressed clearly to show the viewers what the real experience should be. One example that demonstrates this is when Forrest goes to war in Vietnam to fight in the Vietnam War. During that...
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...tal disability, but in the end, he ran as fast as the wind to feel free. Like Forrest had said, “Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get” (imdb.com par.4). Forrest Gump is a movie that can make you laugh like a hyena and also have sorrow fall from your eyes. Overall, I definitely recommend this movie to the audience because of the many life lessons it can teach us and the funny moments that can have us all laughing.
Works Cited
Ebert, Roger. "Forrest Gump Movie Review & Film Summary (1994) | Roger Ebert." All Content. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 May 2014.
Hunter, Stephen. "Forrest Gump." - Rotten Tomatoes. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 May 2014.
Sterritt, David. "`Gump' Takes Optimism Too Far." The Christian Science Monitor. The Christian Science Monitor, 07 July 1994. Web. 04 May 2014.
"Quotes." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 04 May 2014.
The film Good Will Hunting starts by giving us a glimpse into a rather bleak moment in the life of Will Hunting, a college-aged janitor at the prestigious university called MIT. He lives the typical college life in many respects, from regularly meeting his friends at the bar to getting into a relationship built upon lies – with the glaring exception that he is not a college student whatsoever. In fact, he is portrayed as an undiscovered genius…at least until getting into trouble with the law leads to a bail out that eventually turns around his life for the better.
Forrest Gump. Dir. Robert Zemeckis. Screenplay by Eric Roth. Perf. Tom Hanks and Mykelti Williamson. Paramount, 1994. Film.
A Few Good Men. Dir. Rob Reiner. Perf. Jack Nicholson, Tom Cruise, and Demi Moore. Columbia Pictures, 1992. Film.
... of people. Due to Forrest’s naïve nature he doesn’t seem to have any repercussions of the war although the movie does show the atrocities that happened. The use of naïve characters seems to be affective in making the audience sympathise with the protagonist and then being able to use the protagonist to prove social commentaries.
From his role as a stubborn child who has to work for everything he gets, to a college athlete and then a soldier. Nothing seems to hold him back, especially his learning disability. There is certain calmness with Forrest as an individual. No matter what happens to him he always stays up beat and willing to work for what he believes in. he is often times at wits end due to his love for Jenny. He follows her all over the country, oblivious to her actions and what could happen to him. Seemingly an endless journey with many twists and turns. Forrest holds fast to his true love and makes every attempt possible to be with
Unlike the WWII era, the Vietnam War brought realism into literature and film. There were no heroic movies of men fighting in Vietnam. Men could no longer shoot fifty enemy combatants on top of a tank without being hurt. Instead, popular culture brought a realistic view of war, death, pain, and destruction. Author Tim O’Brien, like many war veterans, struggled with his Vietnam experience and expressed them through writing. Tim O’Brien exposed the truth behind war stories because he shows the difference between WWII romanticism and Vietnam realism.
There are many times that Hollywood comes under fire for the way they take an amazing story and script, and completely ruin it when they bring it to the screen. Hollywood takes scripts describing past historical events, current events, autobiographies, folk tales, and puts them on movie screens to entertain the masses. When they do this, sometimes they have to change the story or point of view of the story to make it entertaining enough to make money. Sometimes, this can include scripts related to mental health. A director takes a very real psychiatric and medical condition, such as Alzheimer’s disease,and displays it on screen to evoke some sort of emotion from the audience. The movie, Still Alice, is one case where
Since 1968, there have been at least 25 films made that portray the events of the Vietnam War. Historians have to ask themselves when watching these films, "Did the fictional character represent historical figures accurately? Is this how a soldier would react in this situation?" The point of view of the director of the film can change with simple alterations in camera angles. For example, a view from the ground of a battle seen can show how the innocent people had the war in their own backyards. The view from a helicopter can show Viet Cong firing rounds at American troops and the troops can't tell the difference between the innocent and the enemy. The audience feels empathy and sympathy for the person from whose point of view the camera is showing. Historians compare the trueness of one film to the rest, and they have found that every film is at least somewhat fabricated, and at least somewhat true.
Fate is a very important theme in Forrest Gump. The major message of this movie that whatever life throws your way, you’ll be okay in the end. That’s a good lesson to take from it. Just take life one day at a time.
State three examples of how Forrest describes himself in the movie that demonstrates his self-understanding. (100
...adaptation of Ron Kovic’s best-selling autobiography. Both of these movies depict real-life accounts of how war can change people both physically and emotionally. America is approaching the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War. Today’s students are much too young to remember this time in society. While textbooks have plenty of information regarding this time period, they do not have the emotional impact that these movies convey. In a case of life imitating art, Stone’s movies are the voice of a generation.
Forrest’s IQ is significantly lower than the average person’s and as a kid, it restricts him from going to a normal school. Even though it is not him who creates the opportunity to have a proper education, when he is given the chance he makes the most out of it by graduating high school, and going further to attain a college degree. Academics are not the only part of school that pose a challenge to him; Forrest has to put up with exclusion as well as verbal and physical abuse. Even though it is not easy for Forrest to get along with others, he is able to get through his social hindrances by finding someone special named Jenny. She loves him, looks out for him, and through the bullying Forrest ends up finding great happiness with his one special girl. After school, Forrest joins the military, which is one of the best solutions for him. As a result of his IQ, finding a long lasting career would be very difficult. The army is a respected job that Forrest excels at far past the ordinary person. Thus, joining the army creates many opportunities for Forrest, changing his life for the better. He wins a medal of honor and discovers ping pong which he goes on to play in the Olympics. Something far better than honor and fame that he finds in the military is friendship, and out of the friendship Forrest finds riches. There are
Forrest Gump and the Blind Side both have strong characters, inspirational moments, and incredible hardships. The movies show two very smart people who are misunderstood by many.
In the beginning of the movie the audience knows that there is something wrong with Forrest Gump. He talks to strangers as if they were a friend, and had braces as a child. The audience also learns that he has an IQ
The character Jenny Curran from the movie Forrest Gump, had a tough life from the very beginning of the movie throughout to the end. During the movie, most parts were assumed and not actually said. For example, as a child she was physically abused as well as sexually abuse, however, it isn’t said, a scene of her with dirty ripped clothes and older Forrest narrating says “her father was always touching and kissing her and her sister” that implies that her father was sexually abusing her. Jenny’s father was not only abusive but an alcoholic and neglected the care of Jenny. Throughout the rest of the movie, Forrest is always there to support and love her, and the detrimental decisions she makes and the different paths she endeavors, inevitably catch up with her in the end. In this essay, one of the main points we see by Jenny’s character are all of the metaphors between what she says and the advice she gives to Forrest, for example, to run from danger and her own constant behavior to fun away from whatever she is afraid of. Jenny Curran will be the focus observation and personality study. Although the main character in this film is Forrest Gump, we are able to see the trials Jenny’s incurs and how it develops her personality. The main idea of this essay is to look at Jenny’s life and find the foundation for what her personality was build on and all of the influences of change throughout her life. Her various personality and life changes will be examined as well as the environmental and social influences.