Reflections On Gump
There’s been a thousand reviews, a thousand words typed about Forest Gump. These are mine. They are not for anyone else. It’s not a judgement or a critique to show off or print. It is just my thoughts, thrown out, as fast as I can after watching the film.
Disability, it might look like a laugh at a man that struggles. It is not that. Anyone who thinks that wasn’t watching. It might look like it makes light of Jenny’s troubles with sexual abuse. It is not that. It might seem like the film glosses over the racial tensions in the US. It does not.
The film is one man’s perspective. This single character is the best a person can be at times. Our hero has one and only one deficit… a low IQ. He has other problems that time and again he deals with. What this film is not is a bullying laugh track at his misunderstandings and mis-fortunates. Tom Hanks, is the man that made millions empathise with a volley ball in Cast Away. He’s portrayal of Forest Gump is a character that is impossible not to care about. He has a hard life, but also a brilliant one. He is endearing, self-less and captivating.
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The people around him are the story that he often misses. He either doesn’t mention it or doesn’t see it. What he misses is comic at times. Sometimes you can see more in the lives around him than you can in his life.
I was a bit of Gump and Jenny as a child. At times I was even the boys that through stones at him. I was a bit of everything and it brought back feelings and memories, deep and confusing to detail with.
This film’s It’s a lesson, a lesson in character, in trauma and in tragedy. Jenny suffers and struggles until she deals with her trauma far too late. Forest’s friend Bubba pays the price for being unlucky, that was his story. Lt. Dan is pulled out of his tragedy by Forest Gump.
What can we learn from Forest? He never looses respect for someone from the situation they are in. He never blames someone for their mistakes. At times however he dislikes peoples actions, although it’s rare and always warranted when he does hate someone. Many would have hated Jenny, been jealous and spiteful. Yet with Gump, any negative feelings seem to evaporate. He doesn’t hold onto them, he lets them go, as soon as he can. He moves on, in spite of any troubles he might have. He deals with his issues and he is always there to help others.
Lucky? More than once. The story goes longer than it should have. Constantly, Forest Gump gets a bit of luck that keeps his story going. That’s just Hollywood, their main character needs get to the end of the film.
In this film: there’s comedy and tragedy, there’s light and dark, there’s good and bad. There’s Forest Gump…
