Different Perspective: Forest Gump and the Simplification of History · 5:39pm Jul 6th, 2021
So, something interesting about growing up and maturing (though not necessarily in that order) is the change of perspective. We, as communicative people, are meant for taking not only new info, but also new perspectives, and change our own accordingly to what we learn and how do we feel about it.
For example, when I was a kid, I was pretty much a fan of action, not minding or outright rejecting politics and romance in fiction. And the empathize more on how much of a thing is perspective, two of my favorite shows were Gundam Wing and Cardcaptor Sakura. Nowadays, looking back at those works, I can appreciate better how the political element in Gundam and the romantic one in Sakura added to more complete narratives overall.
And on the other end of the spectrum, some things can loose their taste later in life. Though, this it's just a personal opinion; a matter of perspective. If you happen to enjoy the following tropes and narrative despite the reasons I point out, that's just as valid.
Anyhow, let's talk about simplification of history.
This it a trope that lost its luster the exact moment I got to read anything involving WWII that didn't try to glorify it. Surprisingly, it wasn't until my late teens, early twenties that I really grasped that kind of material, since western society tends to oversimplify history in general and war in particular. Which is a serious problem when talking about understanding modern society and trying to improve it (or just not screwing it up further).
Strangely, I was raised in an environment that does promote mystifying history, so it isn't a surprise I got the hang of its appeal. There's some sense of epic when looking back at events that shaped the world as if they were part of a narrative. Conquerors like Alexandro Magno or Julius Caesar bending the world to their wills. Colon braving the great unknown seas, discovering a new land untainted by civilization. The Allies fighting the evil of the Axis for the future of mankind and so on and so forth.
Then you realize the Magno and the Caesar were not exactly that much against slaving and torture. That Colon was pretty much a genocidal maniac who stumbled on an actual civilization, which he campaigned to exterminate. And while the Axis were definitely not the good guys on WWII, the Allies committed a considerable amount of war crimes too, specially the US who, despite presenting themselves as the heroes (in an act of erasure and simplification on itself), they got on board in dehumanizing the Japanese pretty quickly, setting up a prisoners camp for civilians, and deploying two weapons of mass destruction, also on civilian targets. The previous paragraph feels so empty in comparisons with this one.
So, when now a movie or a book starts portraying historical figures or events as an epic narrative, my first instinct has become to pause, research and see not only what are they telling, but what are they omitting. And under that metric, Forest Gump is the one that really changed under the new light.
Since this is not a review, I won't go into detail on the implications against women and people of color (and After Hours did first anyways), but bottom line, the movie's view on history, society and people in general is so simplified it borders in erasure. One could make an argument that it's fiction, so it really doesn't matter. But fiction doesn't exist apart from society, or outside its context. And a narrative that does indulge in erasing history is pretty much making a case for it.
So, yeah. While I did enjoy Forest Gump as a light movie back in the day, or at least got where the appeal is, now it's a hard movie to watch. Specially when one of the early scenes is this marvel of were-they-even-thinking:
To say this movie has aged poorly is an understatement.
I love pissing off liberals and centrists by telling them that Forrest Gump is conservative propaganda
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Isn't it, though? I mean, the whole movie is pretty much an ode to the conservative lifestyle; shut up and do as you're told better than anyone else.
Not to mention that, when it comes to themes that are still controversial, it glances over them to avoid letting conservatives look bad. Gump is thankfully unaware of the Jim Crow laws while living in the middle of Alabama during the 50's. And when the movie has to touch Vietnam, there's barely a mention of the dehumanization the US partake in against the Vietnamese.
And overall, the movie does all it can to caricature and demonize groups like the Hippy movement, the Black Panthers, sexual workers and even sexual assault victims. It's a very pro-conservative movie through also going out of their way to be a very anti-liberal one.