He Said/She Said - "Forrest Gump" (1994)

Mat and I are usually in fairly close agreement on a lot of these movies - not this time though!

The only fair thing to do seems to be to include both our views on this one, so, Mat's review is up first in blue and mine follows in purple (I know it looks pink, but it's purple!)

"Stupid is as stupid does"

This is the first time our project has felt like hard work. We watched this travesty with our friends Jen and Adam, an act that is bound to test the friendship. Jen, Adam and I agree that this is probably the worst movie to win the Best Picture Oscar (although Titanic might be a close second).

Despite being a terrible movie, there were some things Forrest Gump scored well on. Well, two things. First, the soundtrack was excellent with really great music from the 1960's and 1970's. And the visuals, always Robert Zemeckis' strength, were also impressive with nice long shots, stunning landscapes and cutting-edge special effects (Lt. Dan's legs, inserting Gump into old footage etc).

Pity it was all stuck inside such a shallow and manipulative piece of manufactured Hollywood schmaltz-shlock.

In order to win Best Picture, it was judged to be more entertaining than Four Weddings and Funeral, more interesting than Quiz Show and superior to The Shawshank Redemption, which to me is insanity.

I scored it 44/100 and I was being generous.

And that's all I have to say about that.


"I'm not a smart man, but I know what love is"

When we first started compiling lists of Best Picture winners, I will admit this was not on the top of my ‘can’t wait to see’ list, but no way it’s worse than Titanic! (Of course the scores aren’t in yet).

I will admit that it’s manipulative and not particularly subtle about it.

I will also admit that I can’t see why it beat out “The Shawshank Redemption” which was an incredible movie.

But I can’t say it’s the least deserving ever. What’s wrong with a little schmaltz?!

All we’ve been watching for the last several months has been war and crime, blown up, shot up or skinned up bodies and psychopaths eating people’s livers! So again, what’s wrong with some schmaltz!?!?

It was a visually beautiful movie – there’s a shot (ok, in the war scenes) where a helicopter comes into frame just as another takes off behind it and the composition of that logistically difficult shoot was perfect.

Gary Sinese puts in one of the most moving portrayals of a man trying to reconcile himself with a new destiny that I have ever seen and Tom Hanks spends the entire movie mimicking the kid who played Forrest as a child. And doing it well!

Apparently the original book was intended as (or at least has been interpreted as)an attempt to portray the baby boomer generation’s blindness to what was going on around them through a man too stupid to realise what he was involved in.

I took a different message away from the film, which I actually enjoyed watching (despite the odd derisive laugh at clumsy attempts to jerk the heart strings) and scored it 74/100.

I saw it as an example of living up to expectations. It would have been easy (and more hygienic) for his ‘mama’ to give up on him and let him go to special school and let his back stay crooked; she never expected below average for him and he never delivered below average. And finally, despite all the money, fame and success in the world, love is the hardest but most precious asset you can ever attain.

And that’s all I have to say about that.