Customer Reviews

Forrest Gump (Sapphire Series) [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(483)
4 star:		(50)
3 star:		(40)
2 star:		(36)
1 star:		(53)

 

 

Forrest Gump is a rare movie that succeeded on all levels. It was a box office smash ranking among the top five highest grossing movies of all time. But it was also a critical darling, garnering across the board praise and a truckload of awards. The movie became a cultural phenomenon, spawning cook books, quote books, a top ten soundtrack album and lines like "stupid is as stupid does" and "life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get" have permeated our dialect. The movie has a nostalgic, feel good vibe thanks to the dimwitted Forrest's trek through 60's and 70's touchstone events. Underneath all those warm feelings lies a darkness. Bad things happen to just about everyone Forrest comes in contact with. His best friend Bubba is killed in Vietnam, his other friend Lt. Dan loses both his legs, his mother dies of cancer and his beloved Jenny dies of AIDS. Even the famous people Forrest comes across meet with disaster, President Kennedy & John Lennon are assassinated, George Wallace is shot and Elvis Presley dies young. There are superb performances all around. Sally Field is feisty as Forrest's mama, Mykelti Williamson is funny as Bubba, Gary Sinese as Lt. Dan is a perfect rough edged foil to Forrest and Robin Wright as Jenny portrays the confusion that young people of the times felt perfectly. While all those performances are of high quality, Forrest Gump is Tom Hanks' tour de force. He is utterly brilliant as Forrest. He is in virtually every scene of the movie and never once does he fail to astound. He becomes Forrest and makes you care what happens to him. Mr. Hanks deservedly won his second consecutive Best Actor Oscar for the role and cemented himself as the best actor of his generation and one of the best of all time.

1994 featured the two most interesting central characters to ever grace the silver screen. They were Andy Dufresne (The Shawshank Redemption) and Forrest Gump, played respectively by Tim Robbins and Tom Hanks. Both films from which the characters originate I consider to be in the top five best movies of all time and it's the actors that makes the characters come to life that makes the films so magnificent.

Forrest Gump is a drama and a comedy. It tells the tale of a mildly retarded man who becomes involved accidentally in the biggest events of the sixties, seventies, and eighties. All throughout his life since he was a child, Forrest has been in love with a girl named Jenny (Robin Wright Penn). However, she refuses him only because she loves him too much and doesn't want to hurt him.

Underrated by audiences, Forrest Gump is simply an amazing film. I was surprised by how hilarious and moving it was. The film generates many big laughs that involve how Forrest initiated and inspired many events in recent history such as how he was the one who taught Elvis Presley to dance and the time he unknowingly ratted on the Plumbers of Watergate.

The performances are what make this film memorable. Tom Hanks gives one of the best leading performances of the decade (and possibly of all time). Coming in almost as good is Gary Sinise as the misanthropic lieutenant whose life is changed after becoming involved with Forrest in the shrimp business. The supporting cast which consists of Wright Penn, Sally Field, Mykelti Williamson, and Haley Joel Osment (of Sixth Sense fame) also deliver good performances.

Forrest Gump is a great film that has to be seen to be believed. Cynics might find some problems with this film but they would just be missing the entire point. This is essentially a film about how the most innocent and kind person on Earth has a low IQ and how he views the world. His journey is simply breathtaking.

Forrest Gump is one of the best film of all time. Definitely the best Zemeckis's work so far and he has put so much soul and depth to this 1994 Academy Award winning Best Picture. This movie portrays the life of a slow-witted character who gets embroiled in various ridiculous situations. He was a Vietnam war hero, received a congressional medal of honour, shook hands with many US Presidents and was a successful owner of a shrimp company. We get to see many world events through the eyes of a supposedly "dumb" character. The flow and pace of the movie was perfect as we ride through various historical events like the Vietnam War, assasination of JFK and the Watergate Scandal. Tom Hanks gave an undeniably wonderful performance as Forrest and truly deserves the Oscar that he earned. Gary Sinise gave a superb performance as Lieutenant Dan in the movie. Even though he was only nominated and did not win anything, I felt he really deserves the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. The scene where he pulled Forrest down from the bed and cursed him for saving his life, just simply blew me away. Sally Field is also wonderful as Forrest's mother and deserves the Oscar as well. The line "Forrest, you have to do your best what God has given you. Be brave Forrest, be brave in everything you do. Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you gonna get." really moved me and brought me tears. No movie had bring such emotion in me. Robin Wright did her role well as Forrest's love interest and complements well to Forrest's life. The actors truly brings the characters to life and I must salute Zemeckis for choosing the perfect cast. The technical aspect of the film is just excellent. The visual effects is unlike anything we have seen before. Many movies have not fully utilised the CGI effects to complement it. Nowadays, filmmakers just want to show what special effects they can do rather than what the special effects can do for the film. In Forrest Gump, visual effects are utilised to their best to create unbelievable scenes. Scenes like the flying feather, Lieutenant Dans' missing legs, Vietnam War, meeting of the president is just incredible. This is what visual effects is all about. To create impossible scenes to the big screen. Alan Silvestri's film score is one of the best scores I have ever heard. From the touching piano piece at the beginning feather scene to the uplifting tune of Forrest hugging Jenny at the Washington square scene, Alan's award-winning score truly brings the perfect mood and emotion to the film. Every aspect of this movie is simply excellent from the eye-popping special effects, film editing, wonderful score, sound, to the theme of the movie. This movie makes us realised that we all have a purpose in life and that we all have the ability to do the impossible. Forrest Gump tells us that we all should have strong principles and beliefs to succeed in life. Forrest only believes in 3 person. He believes in God, his momma and Jenny. Nothing can go past them. Just look at what Forrest has achieved. He is the President of a shrimp company, a war hero, a Ping-Pong champion, and a happy father. Forrest Gump simply tells us that we can achieve anything in life as long as we put our best effort and believe in everything that we do. Forrest Gump is no doubt one the best films I have ever seen. It changes my perception of life and makes me realised that we all have a purpose in this world. We probably won't be seeing anything like this forever. A true masterpiece.

I think the merits of Forrest Gump as a movie have been debated enough by now. If you're reading this, you probably already have a pretty good idea if the movie's digitally enhanced nostalgia and praise to the virtues of simplicity will appeal to you or not. So I'm just going to talk about what I thought of the DVD. The film enthusiast and the Gump fan will find a fair amount of interesting stuff to peruse, but the bonus feature are unfortunately kind of hit or miss. It's neat seeing exactly how all of the special effects were done or how sound and makeup were used to enhance mood in particular scenes. The screen test are nice enough, if only because you get to see Tom Hanks playing Forrest before he had worked out the accent. And the Zemeckis/Starket/Carter commentary, while lacking the fun and spontanaity of some I've heard, provides enough good tidbits and insights to keep you interested. But these pretty good features run alongside some really poor ones. The Finerman commentary runs out of steam very early and lapses into the producer repeating herself (apparently there are at least TWO seperate scenes where Forrest first becomes a man) and talking about what she thinks the audience is feeling or thinking at that point in the movie. (I don't need to know what the audience is thinking. I AM the audience.) Add a photo gallery that is half stills from the movie and a pretty bland documentary and you pretty much have the disc in a nutshell. I guess if you really love Gump or absolutely need to know more about the effects, you'll really enjoy the disc. But the rest of us are left a little unsatisfied and wondering why a movie that supposedly relied more on a great script than visual effects has a disc of extras which touch so little on the former and so much on the latter.

Forrest Gump is a tale of America's culture from the 50s through almost the present day, and it is brilliantly done. Tom Hanks' performance as Forrest Gump is quite simply flawless as an idiot savant who comes into contact with most of the significant events and people of his day. I have always liked Hanks as an actor, and here he puts in an unusual and yes, a brilliant performance.

But the real star of the movie is America of the 50s through the early 80s. The portion of the film that dealt with the Vietnam conflict was unforgettable, as we see large numbers of ordinary American boys swept into a conflict that they little understood. Gary Sinise puts in a very creditable performance as Lt. Dan, Forrest's platoon leader in Vietnam for whom the war is a personal tragedy.

The film hilariously shows Forrest Gump navigate through many of the key events in history during the periods. He meets Elvis and influences his style. He meets President Kennedy. He has a ringside seat in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. He is caught up in the Vietnam War. He meets President Nixon and inadvertantly triggers the Watergate scandal (this part is really a hoot). The film's portrayal of the hippies and radicals of the 60s is particularly funny and in fact rings true.

This is a film that almost everyone will like, and which will touch even the most hard-boiled viewer. The DVD is a terrific value, and most viewers will enjoy watching this one many times.

Forrest Gump is a very hard movie to watch since I am an autistic physically disabled black dude who grew up in the racially charged 1960's. I had always heard so much about Forrest Gump that made me not think it was the kind of movie I'd like watching so I usually avoided it with a passion. Suddenly this Christmas friends of mine roped in into sitting through Forrest Gump and I was shocked by how much I absolutely loved this movie.

The movie is vivid fictionalized but oddly realistic life seen through (disabled kid) Forrest Gump's eyes. Forrest Gump's perspective on life was weird but strange as he was the movie felt real in the oddest ways I could imagine. It is true watching life unfold through Forrest Gump's eyes offers a perspective that leaves you altered for the better if you have any heart and soul at all. I owe this movie a huge appology because for years I just knew in my heart I'd hate Forrest Gump yet I ended up loving that it was so much like my own life experience growing up disabled in the 1960's when you got very little encouragement and help as a special needs kid.

I suspect I disliked Forrest Gump because it came way too uncomfortably close to being exactly like my own life growing up disabled labelled the dummy or my neighborhood retard by grown ups and peers alike. Like Forrest I had family members (grandparents mainly) who loved me and fought hard, long and tirelessly to be sure I had the same opportunities for advancement other kids had. I saw the park bench scene in the movie trailer and felt it was acted way too simplistically almost as if the movie was poking fun at or making light of the disabled so I never wanted to watch it. Forrest Gump threatened to reopen many painful memories from my own past growing up disabled and those sores were still sensitive in my heart so why watch it.

I am much stronger as a disabled person now than I have ever been before so I let myself be roped into watching Forrest Gump. I liked and understood myself now so I risked veiwing Forrest Gump this Christmas Eve surrounded by friends. Anyways this Christmas Eve friends wanted me to see the Forrest Gump DVD after hearing I had still never seen it so I saw the movie from beginning to end. Watching Forrest Gump was still very painful because, I experienced personally so much of the torment Forrest did going to regular school as a disabled kid in the mid 60's myself. More than a few times I wanted to leave the movie and just go sit in a corner, retreat into my own autistic world to cry tears of solidarity for Forrest Gump in a place where my heart was my only witness but I did not. I stayed the course and watched the whole Forrest Gump movie despite my own pains being vigorously stirred. I gave my word to friends I'd watch to all of Forrest Gump and a Wolf without honor is no Wolf at all.

Yes Forrest Gump stirred up some real painful experiences in my past but that said the movie answered some real unresolved questions I had leaving me much stronger, secure and prouder as a disabled man for my Forrest Gump experience. In my eyes a truly good movie uses fiction to teach truth in ways that leaves an audience stronger better and more enlightened and in all these measures Forrest Gump excels so completely as to have no equals in its job of putting 1960's life with disability in honest perspective. My grandparents used to insist I never see myself as disabled I was expected to do everything the normal folk did and for years I thought my grandparents were cruel almost to the point of being sadistic. I had started to know my grandparents loved me. Watching Forrest Gump showed me that expecting your disabled child to make his own way in normal society coping using tools he developed alone was the most difficult way to love a special needs child in the 1960's but it was the only way to encourage success back in those days when ignorant hostile cruelty about disabilities was rampant.

I am successful today exactly because my grandparents pushed me forcing me to cope in the world of normal people until I got it right. In my case it took me 41 years to get it right and it is still a daily struggle to live among normal folk but I do it. I had hated and avoided watching Forrest Gump for the same reasons I love and highly reccomend buying it from AMAZON.COM now. The Forrest Gump experience as wacky and off beat as it appears was really how it was to be cognitively and physically disabled in the 1960's. For a long time Forrest Gump was too real. Forrest Gump's message hit me way too close to home reminding me of things I'd rather forget and for those very same reasons I most highly recommend that you please buy Forrest Gump on DVD from Amazon.com because the story might be fiction but the 1960's disabled experince it shares is so REAL it can not honestly be deniedtake it from one who lived it! This I know.

Forrest Gump is a great movie and always will be. Everything in this movie is great. Especially Tom Hanks. No one could have played the role of Forrest better than he did. This movie may even be Tom Hank's best movie. Everything in this movie is fantastic. They just don't make movies like this anymore.

This film has so many little things going for it. Little things that add up to one big masterpiece. The story of the slow-witted man who triumphs works, of course, because of the performance of Tom Hanks. But there are a lot of other things that contributed.

First was the script. I have a big problem with books being altered for movies, especially when they change the physical appearance and essence of the character. They do that in this film, but I still make an exception because it took the character to new levels. The book was funny and somewhat farcical, but that character was basically still a Southern hick. This move adds a lot of dimension to this by showing the feelings this man has.

But what I like most about the movie is that Forrest ultimately triumphs, but not because of his physical skills, or the amazing coincidences of his life. He ultimately triumphs because of his basic decency. His determination to do the right thing, and stick with those he believes in gives him his ultimate rewards. A world full of Forrest Gumps would not produce super-computers, but it would be a world where people get along a lot better than they do in the current one.

This Sapphire edition comes with two discs. The first one is the movie and the second one are the special features.

There's nothing much to say about the film that already have been said, so I'll just put that Forrest Gump is one of my Top 5 all time favorite movies.

The special Features disc is completely amazing. I'm head over heels about how movies are made and the actual story of how it all came to be.
I was pretty surprised how different the novel and the movie are. The special effects, acting, anecdotes, etc.

For me this is a winning format. I'm happy because I got it and the price I paid is more than good.

Get this.

If you haven't, see it. It is worth your time. Tom Hanks gives an amazing performance and the movie consistently provides something to chew on. You would never think that a person like Forrest Gump could be involved with so many things in his life, but he is, perhaps oblivious to the significance of it all, but you love him nonetheless. There is hardship, but Forrest conquers all, and it ends nicely. You are probably going to want to see this movie again at some point, so buying it may be a good idea.