- Published: November 14, 2021
- Updated: November 14, 2021
- University / College: OCAD University
- Level: Undergraduate
- Language: English
- Downloads: 25
Corse Forrest Gump “ Now, it used to be. I ran to get where I was goin’. I never thought it would take me anywhere” (Roth, 20). These words depict special way of life represented by Forrest Gump to our ferine world. He is like a light feather which flies where the wind blows. Robert Zemeckis the director of this film have depicted to us an incredible story what forces everyone to think of who we are and what we are today. Deep inner feelings together with the outward events of ordinary life of USA represent in this movie.
These issues will exist until humanity is alive because they take root deep under the surface, in the heart of a human being. The personality will always be complex, ambivalent, argued; everyone will always have his/her flip sides. Thus, so innocent, magnanimous, and sincere man is considered to be mentally sick. However, his disability may occur to be something different, not the mistake of the nature, but the only opportunity to combine such important traits. Forrest is no longer an invalid, but open to the world child, child who does not look for meaning of life, benefit and gain, just except it all, living for the day, enjoying it.
Forrest is pretended to be a normal boy. His mother has told him that he is a typical person, and he has been like others since his childhood. But his doctor, his peers and even he personally understand that it is not so. Gump perceives that he is different and lives with the realization of his insufficiency. And if someone asks him if he is stupid or else he say his mother’s words “ Stupid is as stupid does” (Roth, 12). He is so special, and that happens because of his mental problems, but people mostly waive from communication with him. Although he lives a decent life and his mother, his beloved and even all the country are proud of him.
In spite of his big appreciation to life, he does not look for a sense of it. Undoubtedly he has some values, but first of all he follows his instincts and desires. A striking example of it is when he has run for more than two years through America. Forrest just wants to run without any goal. People start to look up for some high reasons. They suspect he wants to save homeless children or to help animals or nature, but his aim was just to run, and that is all. Jenny hurts him by her elopement, but he even does not understand that it is inner pain. His preventive instinct is to run, and he cuts away from pain in this manner. His mental abilities do not permit him to comprehend for what he occupies that affair, but it is just an initial instinct of sublimation.
As his way of thinking is a childish, Gump devotes himself only to such things that interested him. That is why he fulfills all his inceptions easily, without recognizing it. When success is achieved, Forrest is not corrupted. Fame, money, societies admission are not estimated in his own world. And never stops he became an incarnation of thousands of Americans. Famous critic Richard Gilliam argues “ Forrest Gump is the Baby Boom generations tribute to itself, a panorama of American culture from the sleepy South of the 1950s to the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s” (Gilliam, n. p.)
But what is the thing inspired Forrest Gump? The answer is obvious: “ I’m not a smart man, but I know what love is” (Roth, 101) – he replies Jenny, the only woman who is inaccessible and the most desired for him. That is love that guides him during all his life. He does not realize however name Jenny abides him all the time.
Robert Zemeckis shows a kind of utopia thorough a character Forrest Gump. The man, who physically cannot be spoiled by consuming culture, enriches prosperous good features and is able to do altruistic conducts. It is a complex of ideal utopian values which cannot exist in real life.
The importance of this film is impossible to overestimate. That eternal values which are raised by the author and director will always be relevant. Society considers Forrest to be stupid but who determined this edge, “ clever” but miserable society is even more stupid.
Reference List:
Roth, Eric. “ Forrest Gump”. Screenplay based on a novel by Winston Groom. Retrieved From: http://www. dailyscript. com/scripts/forrest_gump. html
Gilliam, Richard, review to the film “ Forrest Gump” Web.