Forrest Gump (1994)

"And then, for no particular reason, I decided to go for a run." That line. Every single time. I don't care how many times I've seen this film, that moment gets me. There's something about the sheer simplicity of it, the way it captures something true about how people actually make decisions, or don't make them, that just lands perfectly. It's a line that could only belong to Forrest Gump, and that's exactly the point.

Look, I'll be straight with you: Forrest Gump is a great film. No hedging, no qualifications, no "well, it's a product of its time." It's just great. Robert Zemeckis takes this extraordinary, slightly absurd premise, an ordinary man wandering through the defining moments of modern American history, and makes it feel completely, warmly human. It shouldn't work as well as it does. And yet here we are.

What it is, really, is alternate history dressed up as a feel-good yarn. Forrest shaking hands with presidents, teaching Elvis how to move his hips, stumbling into Watergate, running across the country for no particular reason. It plays fast and loose with facts and chronology, and I think that's entirely the right call. This isn't a history lesson. It's a fable. And fables need a certain kind of freedom. The film earns that freedom because it never loses sight of the emotional truth underneath all the spectacle and the clever visual trickery.

Tom Hanks is extraordinary here. I know that's not a controversial opinion, but it bears saying plainly. He could have played Forrest as a caricature, a punchline, a vehicle for the film's set pieces. Instead he plays him as a fully realised person, generous, loyal, guileless, and utterly without self-pity. It's a performance that lives in the details, the way Forrest listens, the way he sits, the slight pause before he says something that turns out to be unexpectedly wise. And Sally Field matches him completely. Every scene she's in carries real weight.

The soundtrack is an absolute pleasure from start to finish. It does a lot of heavy lifting in terms of pinning each era to the right feeling, and it does it without being smug about it. You're toe-tapping one minute and getting something lodged in your throat the next. That's a difficult balance to strike.

Now, is it my absolute favourite film? No. My best mate would go that far, and I understand it completely, I can see exactly why this one grabs people and doesn't let go. But for me it sits just below that top tier of personal all-timers. What I will say is that among 90s films, it's right up there. It's the kind of film that reminds you why cinema can be genuinely joyful. Interestingly, Tom Hanks in Cast Away is almost the mirror image of this performance, another stripped-back, physically committed portrayal of a man confronting what life has handed him, and the two films make a fascinating double bill if you've got the stamina for back-to-back Hanks.

There are moments in Forrest Gump that I think are genuinely among the best in American popular filmmaking. The feather at the beginning and end. The reflection in the still water during the run. Forrest at Jenny's grave. These aren't subtle images, but they're earned, and that matters more. Sentiment is only a problem when it hasn't been worked for. This film works for every drop of it.

Four and a half stars. If you've somehow never seen it, fix that. And if you have seen it and it's been a while, I'd wager it's held up better than you think.

Rating: ★★★★½  | Year: 1994  | Watched: 2025-04-13

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Where to watch

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Related on Movies With Macca

More from Robert Zemeckis: Cast Away (2000)
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More comedy: The Eagle (1925) · The General (1926) · Americana (2023) · The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
More drama: Viy (1967) · Wonder (2017) · A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Beautiful Boy (2018)