“"Forrest Gump" is the story of a man who rose above his challenges, and who proved that determination, courage, and love are more important than ability.” That is how Mr. Lake (a movie reviewer for http://www.imdb.com/, imdb stands for internet movie database) describes one of my favorite cinematic adventures of all time “Forrest Gump”. That’s an accurate description of the film; it’s also eerily close to the description of the American dream which we’ve learned about in our classroom. Although I’ll never stop watching this swell flick, I really need to question why we love these kinds of movies (the kind that suggest and or reinforce American Dream stereotypes), as well as why Tom Hanks?
What stereotypes you might be wondering. The ones I’m referring actually surface from the vaunted Horatio Alger method that is the character (always male, white, and heterosexual) can and will rise to success if he works hard enough. Tom Hanks plays the main character. Whiteness? Check. Male? Check. Is he hetero? Check (or at least he’s playing it off smooth like Marvin Gaye’s voice). Why does any of this matter? Because all most all of our heroes on film are the same, they fight evil villains, not their skin color; sex, or sexuality. We’re obsessed this dusty ancient old paradigm, don’t believe me? The top two movies out at the moment are “Iron Man 2” starring Robert Downey Jr. and “Robin Hood” starring Russell Crowe, still not convinced? What about “Star Wars”, Lord of The Rings”, and “James Bond” franchises all cash in on the hetero, white, male working hard to get success thank you not very much Mr. Alger for brainwashing countless future generation’s minds. Although one could make the point that Forrest is both mentally and physically handicapped I say nay. Yes as a child he’s forced to wear braces on his legs, but just like the American Dream make believe magic strikes like say turning water into wine and he just simply runs out of them one day. Yes “Run Forrest run!” indeed, but consider this if his legs hadn’t become normal, he wouldn’t have played college football or been accepted into the army. Okay but isn’t Forrest retarded? First of all voice in my head the appropriate term is mentally handicapped and second of all no I don’t think Forrest was. I would say his IQ is awfully low, or in other words he’s that dumb jock in the cafeteria not the one eating glue. He’s called “dumb” and “stupid” in the film but never official slapped with any kind of disability. While the movie is very heartwarming, the Hollywood stereotypes it reinforces are heartbreaking.
In this blog I tried to focus on the American Dream but seeing as one theme this week was disability, I can’t help but ask if the character of Forrest Gump was supposed to be handicapped in some way why not have an equally handicapped person play the role? Sure it probably would’ve been more difficult to film and we all would’ve missed out on Hanks’ great job but imagine the authenticity! We’ve talked a lot about other’s struggles in the film industry but I fear disabled people still face the biggest mountain of all. I highly recommend this film (and a box of tissue) for viewing, as well as being a gold mine for your future blogs!
http://gooddeedaday.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/forrest_gump.jpg is where I got my picture.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109830/ was also used.
What stereotypes you might be wondering. The ones I’m referring actually surface from the vaunted Horatio Alger method that is the character (always male, white, and heterosexual) can and will rise to success if he works hard enough. Tom Hanks plays the main character. Whiteness? Check. Male? Check. Is he hetero? Check (or at least he’s playing it off smooth like Marvin Gaye’s voice). Why does any of this matter? Because all most all of our heroes on film are the same, they fight evil villains, not their skin color; sex, or sexuality. We’re obsessed this dusty ancient old paradigm, don’t believe me? The top two movies out at the moment are “Iron Man 2” starring Robert Downey Jr. and “Robin Hood” starring Russell Crowe, still not convinced? What about “Star Wars”, Lord of The Rings”, and “James Bond” franchises all cash in on the hetero, white, male working hard to get success thank you not very much Mr. Alger for brainwashing countless future generation’s minds. Although one could make the point that Forrest is both mentally and physically handicapped I say nay. Yes as a child he’s forced to wear braces on his legs, but just like the American Dream make believe magic strikes like say turning water into wine and he just simply runs out of them one day. Yes “Run Forrest run!” indeed, but consider this if his legs hadn’t become normal, he wouldn’t have played college football or been accepted into the army. Okay but isn’t Forrest retarded? First of all voice in my head the appropriate term is mentally handicapped and second of all no I don’t think Forrest was. I would say his IQ is awfully low, or in other words he’s that dumb jock in the cafeteria not the one eating glue. He’s called “dumb” and “stupid” in the film but never official slapped with any kind of disability. While the movie is very heartwarming, the Hollywood stereotypes it reinforces are heartbreaking.
In this blog I tried to focus on the American Dream but seeing as one theme this week was disability, I can’t help but ask if the character of Forrest Gump was supposed to be handicapped in some way why not have an equally handicapped person play the role? Sure it probably would’ve been more difficult to film and we all would’ve missed out on Hanks’ great job but imagine the authenticity! We’ve talked a lot about other’s struggles in the film industry but I fear disabled people still face the biggest mountain of all. I highly recommend this film (and a box of tissue) for viewing, as well as being a gold mine for your future blogs!
http://gooddeedaday.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/forrest_gump.jpg is where I got my picture.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109830/ was also used.
Gunner -
ReplyDeleteYou are going in an interesting direction, but I would have like to see more about the intersection of the American Dream and abelism - it is really interesting.
Also, don't forget to stay critical in your blogs. You can like movies and still be critical of them. The last section of your blog contradicts any sort of authenticity in your argument in the first part, because you say that the film is great and we should all just go watch it.
- Ruth