In Defense of Robert Zemeckis: Why Forest Gump is the Strangest Piece of Modern American Cinema

Introduction 

When we consider the prominent American Avant Guard film makers of the last few decades names like David Lynch, Charlie Kaufman, and Terry Gilliam often come up, in my view this list is overlooking the most weird and subversive director in modem cinema: Robert Zemeckis. His name has become so sinuous with sincerity, Kaufman used his name in the fake credits of the insipid fake film the janitor from I'm Thinking of Ending Things watches. In my view, this association is extraordinarily wrong when you look at his films at face value. Back to the Future is about a teen who is unexplainably friends with a mad scientist who trades plutonium for a bomb with a group of terrorists so he can power his time machine that he built in a famously terrible car. As the teen is testing the machine with the scientist the terrorists shoot the scientist, and while trying to drive away from the terrorists the teen accidently goes back in time thirty years. In the 50s his mom falls in love with him, so he starts slowly fading from existence. The main plot of the film from this point on is the teen and younger version of the scientist attempting to get back to the future as the teen tries to get his parents to fall in love so he can exist. Throughout the film he is challenged by a cartoonishly insecure bully character, who seemingly exclusively driven by the desire to sexually assault the teens mother. Just to make things clear, every performance choice is this movie is completely wild. From this plot summery the movie sounds like a weird oedipal Charlie Kaufman movie, yet it is considered a classic kids movie. Zemeckis regularly takes absolutely insane ideas for films and produces movies that seem childishly sincere. This ability to make the absurd ordinary is what makes Zemeckis one of the most technically talented directors. In this study I am going to focus on the strangest film people call "a classic": Forest Gump. With the possible competition of Being John Malkovich, Forest Gump is the strangest mainstream piece of American cinema, despite this it has been considered the representation of sincere mid-90s movie. In understanding why I regard Forest Gump in such high regard, you will be able to see the reasoning behind my admiration for Robert Zemeckis. 

Part 1: The Cultural Perception of Forest Gump 

Do you want a character to seem simple/nice or cynical/shrewd? Have them say their position on Forest Gump in the dialogue. This trick is done over and over again from The Big Sick to This is the End. This film is often thought through the lens of the 90s. The boomer movie above all boomer movies. With the cold war over film went into two directions, the ultra-cynical as seen in movies like Fight Club and the ultra-sincere. In the early and mid-90s the sincere won out, whereas the cynical returned in the later part of the decade. The easy representation of this can be seen in Spielberg and then Zemeckis winning best director back to back.    

Beyond this broader placement in the cultural ethos this movie has two scenes which have been infinitely reproduced, the feather and the box of chocolate. These two scenes have been reproduced ad nauseum throughout popular culture. 

Oh, yeah, and there's a chain restaurant based on this movie. 

Part 2: What happens in this movie?

After having a long nice shot of a feather and sitting on a park bench with a box of chocolates, we see Tom Hanks put on a KKK hood as the protagonist explains he was named after the first grand wizard and see his mother have sex with the principle so Forest could be let into school despite his bellow average IQ. This is a deeply strange film. Roger Ebert put it best when he said, "I've never met anyone like Forrest Gump in a movie before, and for that matter I've never seen a movie quite like "Forrest Gump." Any attempt to describe him will risk making the movie seem more conventional than it is, but let me try. It's a comedy, I guess. Or maybe a drama. Or a dream." At its core Gump revolves around a mental disabled man who happened to be responsible for every great political and artistic advancement of the latter half of the 20th century. Along his journey he encounters four major characters: mama who represents constant wisdom, Bubu who represents the best friend source of 'practical' wisdom, Dan who is the soldier that believes in America that slowly becomes cynical through the events of the movie and regains hope again through forest, and Jennie a person who is constantly supporting the right movements and abused for it. The complete plot of this movie cannot be explained without describing every scene. 

Part 3: My Analysis of Forest Gump 

Forest Gump in a very literal sense is a movie about how a person could only love America if they were mentally disable (not a PC message these days, but still the message of the film). The film is deeply  postmodern in the way it comments on American history. Jennie who is constantly supporting just movements is abused throughout the movie. The film shows the deep racism in America. It shows how we only support our veterans when those veterans serve political value. It comments on how all our leaders have assassination attempts against them. The film is full of deeply cynical messages on American history. Despite this people choose to view it as sincere. That is why this film is brilliant, it provides a blank canvas for us to put our opinions about American culture onto. I will view this movie and say its about America being a bad country, a conservative will see it and say look how great America is. The two scenes above illustrate the mission of the film perfectly. Just as the crowd of anti-Vietnam protesters will view what forest said as being on their side, we view this movie as being on our side. Beyond being a interesting piece of art, this film is an example of how to make a solid movie out of weird material. Any individual scene from this movie is insane to hear, yet it works. Furthermore, the technical effects in this movie are spectacular. 

Even in my cynical world-view this scene always gets me, it's difficult to make me well up, but this scene always does it. There is a special skill in having genuine emotion in such a strange film. 

Conclusion 

At the risk of any film school admissions councilor reading this: I genuinely love Forest Gump. Furthermore, it deserved Best Picture. The strangeness of the film is covered by some extraordinarily solid direction. The absurdity of this film shows in the fact Terry Gilliam was originally attached to direct this movie. Robert Zemeckis should be placed on similar lists as an experimental filmmaker. 

Work Log 

Monday: Prop Design

Tuesday: Location Scouting 

Wednesday: Looked at audio effects 

Thursday: Prop Design/script punch up 

Friday: Begun writing new artist statement for the blog