Forrest Gump [1994 film]

Acting: 4.5; Theme: 5.0; Content: 4.0; Language: 0.5; Overall: 5.0

Forrest Gump is based on the novel by William Groom, of a young man (Forrest Gump; Tom Hanks) who has a very low I.Q., but has a lot of wisdom to share. The film passes from the 50s-70s from the small town perspective of Gump. Highly recommend, with the following caution, and it's a big caution.

While I would rate this as a great movie, I would highly caution viewers that this film contains a lot of vulgarity and many uses of God's and Jesus Christ's name used in vain. This is very sad, because none of the vulgarity added anything to the movie. In my estimation, it took away from it. It also had some nudity scenes, but only from the back.

***August 23, 2025***

Despite some low-key humour and the satirical approach to the whole plot, it’s basically quite a sad story. There are no villains, there isn’t even really a storyline as such, yet it’s a wonderful film. Tom Hanks is superb as Forrest, as is Michael Conner Humphreys who plays him as a child. It’s a celebration of an ordinary person who is not good-looking or intelligent, yet achieves beyond most people’s wildest dreams. The ending is bittersweet but overall encouraging.

Highly recommended to adults and older teenagers.

This film is a modern fable, a brief fictitious story that teaches a moral, namely integrity plus simple goodness. Much of Gump's appeal is his downright sense of doing the right thing regardless of the people and situations around him and we see that. The movie has drama, comedy and it challenges societal norms as well.

The young life of an idiot who can run fast.

It's mostly entertaining, but it's so very dumb. If the movie had just been about Forrest, it could have been pretty good. Instead it's a sort of aimless nostalgia-fest for baby boomers, bathed in disgustingly bad philosophy.

Concept: D
Story: D
Characters: A
Dialog: B
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: A
Acting: A
Music: D

Enjoyment: C plus

GPA: 2.5/4

Substance: See the internet and other reviews.
Style: Ditto. The interjection of Forrest Gump into actual historical video footage was technically superb. Tom Hanks portrays the just-under-normal-intelligence hero superbly.
Diatribe: (spoiler alert) I know we are supposed to feel sorry for Jenny and understand that she is "messed up" and that's why she keeps kicking Forrest in the head, psychologically, but I did not like the way she trampled on his feelings out of her own selfishness. Maybe she didn't want to burden Forrest with her problems, or maybe she just didn't want the dummy to be really involved in her life because that would interfere with her self-expression. The movie does not make this clear. However, to keep Forrest's child show more away from his father and only bring him back when she got terminally ill shows that she never, ever, really understood Forrest. Not at all.
Worth watching for the ping-pong exhibitions. show less

Hard not to see it as saccharine allegory but affecting nevertheless.

Overall an enjoyable movie and I hear this version of Forrest Gump is much nicer than the book. Tom Hanks did the role well and there's some really fun scenes here despite the sadness and drama.