Hollywood- Forrest Gump

In an Oscar year that beat out Shawshank Redemption and Pulp Fiction for Best Picture, the audience should expect this film has to be nothing less than epic.  Forrest Gump with Tom Hanks as the leading role is one of my favorite movies of all time, and represents the epitome of American Hollywood film and what it is all about.  The 1994 movie reeled in a whopping six Oscars that night (including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, and Best Visual Effects), and was nominated for 13.  Normally I don't buy much into Academy Award winners and losers, as they are typically rigged and involve upsets just to make for an entertaining and suspenseful night.  Yet I think the 67th Academy Awards got it right that year.  Forrest Gump simply deserved the acclaim.  The plotline of the movie is genius- a drama with romance, comedy, and action about a simple, below average intelligence man whose life randomly crosses with major events in the second half of the 20th century, including an encounter with Elvis Presley and John Lennon, meeting two presidents, the WaterGate scandal, the Vietnam War, the tumultuous  and drug ridden 60s and 70s, and an early investment in Apple, to name a few.  My favorite part about the film is the symbolic feather that floats around in the sky through the beginning and ending scenes: a feather blowing in the breeze to represent the randomness of life, but somehow the destiny of it landing on the particular man, Forrest Gump.  As if all parts of the film are not impeccably created, the music is worth mentioning as, being a distinctly American film, the producers chose only to use only American music in their soundtrack that covers fifty years of fantastic music and famous artists.  The soundtrack to the movie, a two-disk set, was one of the top grossing albums of all time, selling 4.42 million copies.  Additionally, many lines in the film have made their way into pop culture and modern slang, including "Stupid is as stupid does," "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get," and "Run, Forrest, Run!"  Overall, the film as a whole is just heartwarming because of its simplicity.  The fact that one man's life could involve so many epic events of the time is quite unbelievable but does not at all seem so while watching.  Forrest Gump the movie makes a statement about destiny and honesty of life.  I feel as though film critic Roger Ebert summed up the movie best with his statement, "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...The screenplay by Eric Roth has the complexity of modern fiction...[Hanks'] performance is a breathtaking balancing act between comedy and sadness, in a story rich in big laughs and quiet truths....what a magical movie."  I highly recommend it.