CLASSIC MOVIES: FORREST GUMP (1994)

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Brief Movie Synopsis [courtesy of Turner Classic Movies]:

Six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, went to
"Forrest Gump", about a mentally challenged man who
stumbles through many formative events in U.S. history.

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REVIEWS:

"[Director] Robert Zemeckis is bound to leave viewers marveling at the sheer wizardry behind [this film's special] effects. .... The opening credit sequence, featuring a feather that drifts along a perfectly choreographed trajectory until it reaches its precise destination -- a fine visual embodiment of Forrest's own path through life -- is cause for astonishment. .... You are sure to watch this story chiefly for its digressions, especially those expressed with Forrest's comically oblivious powers of description: 'Now the really good thing about meetin' the President of the United States is the food.' Forrest says this when...he visits the Kennedy White House and winds up drinking too much Dr. Pepper. Typical of the film's magic is a brief glimpse of Forrest writhing uncomfortably and telling the President that he has to go to the bathroom, with a naivete that makes Mr. Kennedy chuckle. The President's voice sounds authentic, his mouth movements match his movie dialogue, and he and Mr. Hanks appear to be on precisely the same film stock, in the same frame. Special kudos for this go to Ken Ralston, the film's special-effects supervisor, and to Industrial Light and Magic, pushing the technical envelope further than ever. .... Luckily, 'Forrest Gump' has Tom Hanks, the only major American movie star who could have played Forrest without condescension and without succumbing to the film's Pollyanna-ish tone."

-- Excerpt from The New York Times; July 6, 1994

"I've never met anyone like Forrest Gump in a movie before, and for that matter I've never seen a movie quite like 'Forrest Gump.' Any attempt to describe him will risk making the movie seem more conventional than it is, but let me try. It's a comedy, I guess. Or maybe a drama. Or a dream. .... Tom Hanks may be the only actor who could have played the role. I can't think of anyone else as Gump, after seeing how Hanks makes him into a person so dignified, so straight-ahead. The performance is a breathtaking balancing act between comedy and sadness, in a story rich in big laughs and quiet truths. .... What a magical movie."

-- Roger Ebert; July 6, 1994