Although far from our favourite film, Forrest Gump (1994) arrived on the movie scene when we were eight years old. It introduced us to a lot of worldly concepts we knew nothing about until then.

We found out about the Vietnam War, ’60s music, Elvis, relationships (romantic and otherwise), and all sorts of other American history stuff. Even though we’re British, it resonated.

Back in 1994 we remember everyone was talking about it. The film was a huge hit, all over the news, and spawned many cultural-iconic moments. Let’s remember it all here, y’all!

The Fate, Friendship, and Aphorisms of Forrest Gump

Okay, you know the drill. Life is like a box of chocolates… delivered in that drawling Mississippi accent.

30 years later it’s possible to see through the limitations of this film. Such as the historical readjustments to jam Forrest in as if he was unwittingly influencing history, which feel a bit awkward and silly now (in our opinion, anyway).

From teaching Elvis his hip strutting moves to inspiring John Lennon to write Imagine—the thing was, back in 1994 the special effects to include Tom Hanks in with these now passed major celebrities was very impressive.

But it’s this sort of stuff that taught us about recent history. Being just eight years old when we saw the film, we didn’t know what Vietnam was, who John Lennon was, or what to make of Forrest’s tumultuous relationship with Jenny (Robin Wright).

Although often only hinted at, the troubled life of Jenny reappears throughout.

She’s abused by her father as a child, but is a friend of Forrest. He fancies the pants off her, but doesn’t fully understand how to make romantic inroads on her. Or that she’s  troubled and his simple take on life doesn’t align with what she’s going through.

Jenny also kind of treats him like crap a lot of the time.

She ends up joining a ’60s hippy commune, ends up on drugs, contemplates suicide, and in the film ends in 1981 whilst implying she dies from HIV/AIDS.

Forrest Gump’s disability is a constant in the narrative, with his bumbling lack of intellect more endearing than anything else. The film doesn’t mock him, more sure the challenges he overcomes.

His fighting in Vietnam leads to a lasting friendship with Lieutenant Dan (Gary Sinise). The Lt. is injured in battle, but saved by Gump, although ultimately has his legs amputated.

This creates one of the more touching moments of the film, where Lt. Dan’s initial anger at his disability eventually gives way to gratitude.

The film really is like a snapshot of the troubled ’60s and ’70s, with all sorts of political strife documented. Race riots are touched upon, the general activity of several Presidents (Nixon etc.), the loss of Gump’s friend Bubba also leads to Gump running a shrimping business.

He ends up wealthy and has a son with Jenny, whom he marries shortly before she dies.

Despite its flaws, the film is still very affecting. You can’t help but be swept along with it all. The performances are all terrific, too, and just to note it bagged Best Film at the Oscars—fending off competition from Pulp Fiction and the ever-popular Shawshank Redemption.

We don’t mean this in a “back in my day” kind of way, but Hollywood really doesn’t make films like this anymore. It’s very much of its era and we think that’s where it belongs.

And contrary to what we’ve seen some people claim online, this isn’t the best film ever—not even close. But It’s still an effective piece of storytelling with a grandeur and sweep that marked the 1990s as an intriguing, if overly sentimental, cinematic decade.

Forrest Gump and the American Dream?

As it’s the 30th anniversary of the film (it hit cinemas in July 1994) there’s been a lot of debate going around about Forrest Gump again.

Sarah Marshall from the You’re Wrong About podcast has weighed in on that for the You Are Good film podcast above.

They’re very positive about the film still. Like us, we saw it at a certain age and so have a kind of nostalgia for the thing.

But some modern commentary on Forrest Gump (particularly from new generations) suggests it mythologises the baby boomer generation. Particularly for Americans—there are regular demonstrations of getting out there, working hard, defeating commies, getting rich etc.

With generational frictions running high at the moment (THOSE WORKSHY MILLENNIAL SNOWFLAKES! etc.), we’ve seen some younger critics happily digging at Forrest Gump’s often kitsch sensibilities.

We don’t like throwing around the whole “boomer” word to bracket all older people in with that, but there is a particularly cantankerous sect of 50+ people who can be very obnoxious to deal with. They tend to be Conservative types sold on the concepts of working hard and then success follows (apparently).

Numerous left-leaning journalists have been critical of Forrest Gump, flagging it as the ultimate boomer film.

It’s all there. Relative rags to riches, working hard, getting stuck in, overcoming obstacles, and landing the fairy-tale ending of being loaded—that’s how you do it, you lefty snowflake woke Millennials!

You can also just view the film as one bloke with a low intellect, who’s actually quite the progressively minded and welcoming type, drifting through life and taking things in his stride.

Gump often doesn’t understand the world around him. But it doesn’t stop him from living and getting stuck in, even if his behaviour often baffles everyone around him.

He is more tolerated by other people than anything else, plus he’s manipulated and treated quite poorly. But this is often water off a duck’s back for Gump—he just doesn’t understand.

It’s actually quite charming. He’s content and happy in his dim-witted obliviousness.

A curious film, then, and one adapted from Winston Groom’s 1986 eponymous novel. The book wasn’t a big hit at all and is quite a slight 228 pages. But the film adaptation was a monster hit, taking its $55 million budget to $678.2 million in profits and spawning many iconic moments that have passed into cultural lore.

Boxes of chocolates, stupid is as stupid does, shrimps, ping pong, Run Forrest Run, that’s all I have to say about that…

Whatever you now think of Forrest Gump, very few films ever make this sort of lasting cultural impact.