Forrest Gump is a fun movie. My wife and I were in Savannah, Georgia two summers ago and had our picture taken at the spot where Forrest Gump sat on the bench talking to the lady waiting for the bus. The bench itself had been moved.
(Actually a number of well known movies have been shot in Savannah or nearby. There is a special tour of locations where movie scenes were shot that we took and this is how we found the bench spot).
The movie Forrest Gump, directed by Robert Zemeckis came out in 1994. Tom Hanks who played the role of Gump won his second best actor Academy Award.
It is one of those movies that you can watch over and over and it’s a little hard to explain why. Yes, it is fanciful and some would consider ridiculous at points. Some reviews would point out flaws in the story line or the how convincing certain story plots are. But I think that misses the point of this movie.
To me there is a message. A fun movie with a message. The message is about what is most important in life. At one point in the movie Forrest says to the love of his life, Jenny, I’m not a smart man, but I do know what love is.
Gump wasn’t a smart a man by the world’s standards. He had an IQ of 75. Some would call him stupid and his famous retort was “Stupid is as stupid does.” While the world might call the Gump character stupid, he did know what love was.
He endangered his own life by saving Lieutenant Dan. When he learned that his mother lay on her death bed, he ran home. Literally, he ran home to be by her side. And he always loves Jenny no matter what and in the end finds a life with her.
Despite all his great achievements as the world defines them…becoming a football star, a war hero, a ping pong champ, a wealthy entrepreneur, and meeting John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, & Richard Nixon – in the end all that really mattered were his friends and loved ones.
I believe that is what has made this movie something of a classic that people will enjoy watching for a long time to come. It isn’t what Forrest Gump accomplished; it’s not the funny things that happen in the movie. It is that it reminds of what is most important in life – people.
We might consider ourselves successful, having achieved career success, wealth, or even fame. But do we know what love is?
