Forrest Gump

In continuation of Tom Hanks week (because this is the week of his birthday), I'll be writing about another one of his movies. I decided to go with Forrest Gump for a couple of reasons. First, it's one of his critically acclaimed movies, and a successful one at that as well. Second, I think this was the movie that really showcased the range of Tom Hanks as an actor. 

Forrest Gump was one of the biggest movies in 1994. In reality, it still is a big movie up until now with people watching or re-watching it until today. Even schools use the movie, or at least clips of it, for their class discussions. The movie was written by Eric Roth and was directed by Robert Zemeckis. It starred Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Mykelti Williamson, Sally Fields and more. It won several awards, including 6 out of the 13 Academy Awards nominations. That's pretty impressive if you think about it. 

It's a story about Forrest Gump but I read that it deviated from the novel it was based on, so we really could not take anything in the movie as fact. However, they probably still kept the spirit of Forrest Gump's life in the movie. Maybe they just changed the details for its cinematography. I must admit that I got really involved in it that I was a bit disappointing to find out it really wasn't as loyal as it could have been. Then I just didn't care because the movie was really powerful that nothing can taint it. I think it's because the structure of the movie and the narration of the story was really great, I just focused on the movie itself. 

I've always been vocal that out of the three 1994 movies in the AFI 100, Forrest Gump will only be my second, after The Shawshank Redemption. But as I always say, I do not intend to take anything away from Forrest Gump because it really was a great movie. It was one of the most soothing movies I've seen. I meant that in a way that in a sense that there's a breath in the movie. Nothing too extravagant, but it definitely had impact. I knew that it had a great impact on me because I had to re-watch almost the entire movie as soon as I finished it. 

Watching it, the most insane part of it for me was how rich and eventful Gump's life was. From the war to starting his business to searching for the woman he loves to running across America. It's that kind of movie that made me wonder what I'm doing with my life. He achieved a lot, and made a whole lot of something out of his early hardships. It was carefully then narrated on the big screen. Although the movie featured several stages of his life, they kept a sense of continuity. From childhood to adulthood and every thing in between. It just flowed. 

The movie showed the range of Tom Hanks in that he was able to embody and effectively portray the character. The character was not the most intellectual person and Tom Hanks delivered that on screen. He captured the essence of a great success story in the form of Forrest Gump. He was flawless, basically. I've seen the movie quite a few times, and still can't pinpoint anything wrong with his performance. He did the movie justice and maximized its potential by delivery a fine performance. The screenplay itself was great, but I thought the actors escalated it. 

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