Forrest Gump after 30 years
Recently, I saw a clip from Forrest Gump, and this inspired me to watch the film again. I had these memories of Forrest Gump: he’s not very smart, and he’s best friends with a Black man who he later goes into a fishing business with in the South of the United States. The film holds up even after 30 years. I found it interesting that I had no memory of the love story that is at the center of the entire film.
In my first viewing, I also did not fully appreciate how the director was perhaps, on purpose, choosing a very low-IQ person to be the hero of his film when the U.S. had been moving towards a meritocracy for the previous 30 years. What makes this film comic is that Forrest Gump, despite his low IQ, is winning prizes right and left, and he happens to stumble into the middle of world affairs without understanding what is going on. It turns out my memory was wrong. Forrest Gump never went into the fishing business with his friend. The friend is killed in Vietnam. They had made plans to open up the fishing business after the war, but Forrest has to do it on his own. And what a business he makes of it. If you have never seen Forrest Gump, treat yourself to it.