Forrest Gump: A Critical Film Review
...ys they “were like peas and carrots, Jenny and I.” Over the duration of the movie Forrest and Jenny get split up and put back together, and every time they are back together, Forrest uses the same way to describe themselves. Another motif in the movie is Jenny’s old house. This is where she grew up and in truth, this is where her life went down hill from. The only times you see her house, is when a lot of anger is coming out. The first time is when they are hiding from her dad, the second time is when she comes back and starts to throw rocks at the house, and the third time is when Forrest bulldozes the house. The house represents sadness and anger, and in the end gets what it deserves, as Forrest says “Sometimes, there just aren't enough rocks.” However, during the movie, difference and variations, pop-up in the same places as the similarities, for example, every time when Forrest and Jenny meet up, although Forrest thinks that they are like peas and carrots, in reality they have grown further and further apart. They become very different people, and it’s not until the end, that they finally reconcile and almost become the same people again. It’s also the same every time Forrest meets Lt. Dan (Gary Sinise). Although, like with Jenny, Lt. Dan keeps popping up in Forrest’s life, he is also a completely different person each time. First time he is a respectable Lt. in the army, next time he is a “crippled” alcoholic, but with help from Forrest, he turns his life around and once again becomes a respectable member of society. As mentioned above, the development of the film is really a history of the world, starting from the late fifties. However, instead of making it a documentary, the writers based it around one guy, and so the plot of the movie really is about Forrest Gump, with the sub-plot being the world developing itself into the one we know today. To go along with the sub-plot, is the development of Jenny’s character, Jenny becomes the stereotype of the time, becoming a hippy, using the drugs, through to the anti-war protests. The process of the film though isn’t to teach you about the history, it’s to remind you, as the film includes a lot of inside jokes, where, unless you know the history of the world, you wouldn’t understand them all. It allows the older viewer to relive their past, from a neutral view. The film has both unity and disunity. There is unity in the sub-plot, as it has already all happened, and being a true account of the world...