This hugely successful, Oscar-winning American epic continues to
polarise opinion: is it a wonderfully quirky nostalgic comic drama? Or
a malign manipulation and revisionist take on modern American
history? Whimsical or reactionary? Either way, Zemeckis skilfully
tells the story of the naive, stupid Gump (an Oscar-winning Tom Hanks)
as he stumbles into historic events and famous figures, seemingly by
chance alone. The longer it runs the more patronising and simplifying
it becomes, but the first 45 minutes are light, clever and very
entertaining. Stupid is as stupid does, and love it or loathe it,
Forrest Gump definitely hit a nerve.
