Forrest Gump Movie Review

Forrest Gump Movie Review

             Although I’ve heard thousands of favorable comments about the movie Forrest Gump, I didn’t watch the movie until I took comparative film class this semester. When I first read the book, I couldn’t get what people call ‘dazzling impact’ of the plot. Maybe it was because the English book version was quite hard to read – a common phenomenon for those who hate reading books including me. Thus I didn’t expect much about the movie, as the plot I grasped through the book didn’t bring out much a particular empathy. (I’m not criticizing the book though. The plot itself was quite interesting in itself.)

However, as soon as I started watching the intro scene of the movie, I could feel the gravitating power of the prestigious movie of the century, and it became one of the most favorite movies of my life.

First of all, the plot of the movie itself was so captivating and empathetic. It was what people call a ‘human drama’ of life of a typical person going through a typical life story. Although some would argue that Forrest Gump was some kind of a genius as he was talented at athletics and military service skills, basically the social relationships and events around him don’t deviate from what we, real people, experience. Falling loyally in a love with a girl whom you had the first crush upon, finding out an unveiled talent of you by incident, having breakups and cracks with friends or girlfriend – all constitutes a life of a typical human. That was the core reason why this movie was able to approach the audience more deeply and sensationally, as we can breathe and feel the life of Forrest Gump as if we’re living in the movie – a maximization of substitute satisfaction that a movie can render to audience. For example, in the last scene Forrest say goodbye to his old girl friend Jenny, and talks how he had seen a lot of sunsets and wonderful sceneries in his life-long journey. Jenny says the last word, I love you, and she dies. It was the most tearful and impressive scene in the movie, as it deals with the deep meaning of life and the virtue of love between male and female, which basically are the two most important components of human life.

Secondly, it’s undeniable that Tom Hanks, who acted the Forrest Gump character, was indeed a genius. Loyal, sturdy, and persistence – these three words can best describe Forrest Gump, or Tom Hanks in the movie. Forrest Gump, can be characterized as a slow, dumb idiot but a loyal, athletically talented bulky person. Usually the movie critics and critique society comment how it’s a torturous and burdensome role for an actor to play a handicapped or intellectually problematic human being. However Hank’s interpretation and portrait of the Forrest Gump character was ingenious. His voice tone, slow pronunciation, walking style, facial expressions – all were just right and just impressive to render an image of the character fully to the audience. I especially liked the scene when Forrest felt as if a bee had bitten his butt in the life-threatening war scene at Vietnam, which was actually a bullet that stabbed through his flesh. In the last scene when Gump buries Jenny under the tree where their memory lie and tell her about the letter that his son wrote, Hanks allows the audience to sympathize with him through both the control and spurt of emotion with his tears. Frankly speaking, I cried too. Tom was a master of carrying out both humorous and emotional empathy to the audience. He was ‘the best’, ‘the most appropriate’ actor to play the role of Forrest Gump.

The movie was able to render me a sensation, emotion, sympathy, tear, and finally the inerasable impression in my mind forever. I still can’t forget the piano rendition of the theme music in the introduction and conclusion of the movie while I’m writing this review. A perfect harmony. All was perfect.

What is life? Forrest told me the answer – life is empathy, life is love, life is loyalty, life is faith. And, life is indeed, a drama, a movie that everyone becomes a protagonist.

Shawshank Redemption Film – Review & Comparison Analysis

In the previous blog post, I expressed how I was totally impressed by the image of hope that the book rendered – hope is the most ‘responsible’ action that a person can take. But I was already ready for a failing, mind-breaking quality a movie would depict right before I started watching the movie,. How many times have I found myself grinding my teeth and telling myself “The book was great, but the movie sucked” after watching a movie? Although movie is supposed to be more powerfully influential to us for its fantastic visual aid, there aren’t many gorgeous plots out there that have surpassed in excellence by their film versions.

             The movie “Shawshank Redemption” was different. It was what people label as an ‘exception’. When painted across a canvas of celluloid, the story as played out in the movie was even more powerful.

             The most important success that the movie did was its choice of its protagonist. Andy Dufryene, as I explained previously, was a stone-like person characterized by immeasurable persistence that nobody can possess. An actor who plays his role had to carry a warm but somewhat minutely ominous smile, a distant and cold but mature speaking tone, and an unveiled but consistent passion. Timothy Robbins played this character swiftly. I was most impressed by the way he firmly promised to Red to meet each other when they get out with sullen but determined eyes right before his prison escape.             
             Furthermore, both the casual and important dialogues in the movie were very powerful. Of course most of the dialogues in the movie are included as the fundamental scripts in the novella. But the movie succeeded in delivering the powerful but somewhat easily ignorable messages from the dialogues in the novella. For example, the impact of the conversation between Norton and Andy, one of the most important turning points in the movie, was effectively amplified by the movie through somewhat obscene but powerful comments of Norton. Other than that scene, Andy’s conversations with Red and Brooks were all very strong, leaving the inerasable impressions in the spectators.

             The backgrounds casted in the movie are also very wonderful. The movie possesses some of the most impressive sets and scenery I’ve seen for a prison movie. (Including drama Prison Break) The lighting has just the right shadows and shafts of lights and darkness, the cell blocks are grungy, grimy and oppressive to the right degree, and the people have taken on a cast like walls and rocky fields that contain them. Vivid images of the backgrounds allow spectators to focus on the movie without any lousy humdrums or setting changes.

But most of all, the lessons of the prison ambience in the mid 1950’s in the movie still applies true for today’s wards – how is it that a prison is supposed to reform what is considered a dangerous criminal? What does it mean to be reformed, not institutionalized? Is it enough just to put certain people alone and just wait for them to grind each other up to the point when they lose all hope and spirit? Is it the hope and spirit in these people that’s considered dangerous? The book deals with a word “institutionalized” only mildly by the narrator. However, the movie emphasizes it as much as possible through the characters Red and Brooks. In the book, the part where Brooks gets out of the prison and commits suicide is minutely depicted. But the movie amplifies the effect in showing the way how Brooks is seriously institutionalized to the prison by narrating the letter that Brooks writes to Andy and Red. The suicide scene is also described in a controlled but mind-shaking way. I was also impressed by the scene when Red confides to the consulting janitors how he doesn’t care a shit about the way prison is hold, and how he became just an old, useless black man after years of institutionalization, not a decent, reformed citizen of the society. It was indeed, the most impressive scene that showed the impact of institutionalization of the prison, a drawback of the prison society and education still rampant in current system.

            

             “…Andy crawled to freedome through 500 yards of shit-smelling fowl I can't even imagine. Or maybe I just don't want to. 500 yards. That's the length of five football fields. Just almost half a mile.”

             I still can’t forget the last scene when Andy finally succeeds in escape. Both novella and movie would be one of the most favorite stories of my entire life, absolutely.

Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption

Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption

             Life consists of numerous failures and unexpected incidents. Why? We don’t know. Perhaps as suggested from the principle of uncertainty by Heisenberg in the early twentieth century, the world is simply consisted of a myriad of unpredictable nature that deters the life of every creature on earth. Surrounded by such inexorable opportunities and different backgrounds, a human, a creature of ‘sense and sensibility,’ exhibits various types of feelings, such as anger, ecstasy, fear, nervousness, and finally a hope.

Then what is a hope? In a strictly accurate sense, hope is just a fancy, imaginary concept that never exists, a hazy and mysterious but lovable and dependable object similar to a god in religion. Our minds seek out a place where we can rest upon to deviate from a reality we dwell in, a space-time filled with indefinite opportunities and irregularities. In that perspective, relying upon a hope seems so irresponsible, as one can never predict the eventual truth of reality by believing a hope unless he or she is an omnipotent god. That viewpoint is exactly what I’ve been keeping so far – hope is futile, but not after I read Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. (I read the book first before I watched the movie.)

Stephen King was indeed a shocking fiction writer. How can anyone think of a story about an innocent convict escaping a ward by poking the wall for more than twenty years? Andy, the protagonist of the story who succeeds in prison break, is definitely a stone-like figure with an almost abnormal consistency and persistence that a typical human being can never possess. Maybe, he was just ‘born’ with those characters that the writer fragmented for the story. Maybe, that was the sole reason why he could break out of the wall with his own will. But, what I found out from the story was that, whether he was a Christian who favored Bible or a geologist who knows every kind of rock in the prison baseball yard, he was a firm believer of the existence of ‘hope’ that nobody in the prison, including his best friend Red, ever did. Twenty years of long and lonely journey of staying inside the ward was truly a sufficient amount of time to carry out a mental breakdown. However, there was always a fierce coldness and passion inside his eyes, and inside the grandiose picture of Rita Hayworth that hided the nature of hope embodied in the reality.

Maybe, succeeding a miraculous escape in a strictly guided ward is quite a radical example about the power of hope. I still can’t firmly acknowledge that “hope is a good thing”, as Andy remarked in the book. But, I realized one thing’s quite true after all – believing a hope is never an irresponsible action that I could take, as belief exerts a will, a will exerts an action, an action exerts a change, and a change makes a life. Hope is the most responsible action that I could take for sure.

1st Assignment

Group: 3

Our Film: Kung Fu Panda

Why We Chose It: The fact that the protagonist does not have the hero's ordinary characters at first, but changes into a hero would make an interesting analysis of the movie. The almost incredible voice casting of Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoff, and Jackie Chan was also interesting.

ACT I

1. Ordinary World
Working under the noodle restaurant chef, Mr. Ping (a goose), Po, the panda protagonist, admires the "Furious Five" and yearns to become a kung fu master.

2. Call to Adventure
Po, wanting to watch the kung fu tournament match, straps himself to a set of fireworks and rockets into the sky, crashing into the middle of the arena. This is when Oogway the Grand Master points at the space where he has fallen to announce the Dragon Warrior who could defeat Tai Lung, so Po becomes the chosen one.

3. Refusal of the Call
Shifu dislikes Po because of his out-of-nowhere origin, and the Furious Five make fun of him. Po is frustrated, and has second thoughts about his training.

4. Meeting the Mentor
Oogway is right beside Po when he says that he will quit, and assures him that he is the chosen one.

5. Crossing the Threshold
The next day, Shifu finds Po stretching. He reluctantly accepts him, and begins his training.

ACT II

6. Tests, Allies, Enemies
Despite Po's willingness, the Furious Five and Shifu will still not truly accept him.

7. Approach to the Innermost Cave
As Shifu finds out that, if motivated by food, Po could be trained, soon Po becomes an adequate kung fu fighter.

8. Ordeal
When Po opens the Dragon Scroll, thought to contain ultimate way to defeat Tai Lung, he finds that the scroll is empty.

9. Reward
He is frustrated at first, but when his father says that the gossipped "secret ingredient" of his noodles do not actually exist, Po decides to confront Tai Lung.

ACT III

10. The Road Back
Po goes back to the Jade Palace to face Tai Lung. Meanwhile, Tai Lung has defeated all of the Furious Five and is fighting with Shifu.

11. Resurrection
Just when Shifu is defeated, Po fights Tai Lung and wins.

12. Return with the Elixir
With Tai Lung back in prison, Po has brought back peace, or metaphorically the elixir, in the world.

Ponts of contention
As simple as the plot is, there was a controversy in what parts belong to numbers four through eleven. As "resurrection" is the part where a protagonist defeats his enemy, Tai Lung in this case, and it was not clear who the "enemies" would be. It was a difficult decision to make the "good guys" Po's enemies. Also, "reward" was another problem upon which we stumbled, as it could be interpreted as "meeting the mentor." Nonetheless, a good talk brought a point of consent.