Historical Analysis of Forest Gump | Teen Ink

Historical Analysis of Forest Gump

June 17, 2022
By tianagao SILVER, Irvine, California
tianagao SILVER, Irvine, California
6 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Physical disability and low intelligence often limit one’s ability to reach their full potential and prevent one from earning act as obstacles for one to achieve social respect. But what happens when someone overcomes these struggles? Slow-witted Forrest Gump had has never thought of himself as disadvantaged and lived lives his life unrestrictedly by through becoming a college football star, fighting in Vietnam, captaining a shrimp boat, and becoming one of the greatest Ping Pong players in the world.  The movie Forrest Gump takes the form of a memoir narrated by the namesake character main character Forrest Gump. The stories he tell depicted span from the 1960s to 1970s. It addresses topics such as the Vietnam War, Hippie Movement, Conservatism, and foreign diplomacy.

Some critics believed that the movie successfully dramatizes the cultural mood both at home in America and abroad in Vietnam, as because it contains a lot of historical accuracy such as like the Cultural Diplomacy and Hippie Movement. For example, through a comparison between Bubba and Gump in the military drafting process, the movie reveals how during the 1960s, Black people were drafted into the war by force, whereas White people like Gump could choose to join the military on their own. In addition, the movie accurately portrays Gump’s Ping Pong career in the heights of the Ping Pong Diplomacy, which was a part of Cultural Diplomacy that America adopted to fight communist countries. Further, small details such as calling Vietcong “Charlie” and showing moon landing on TV also constitute historical accuracy in the movie.

However, other historical critics believed that Forrest Gump was a mix of gooey sentiment and ridiculous fantasy flights of fancy because actual soldiers experienced more much trauma than it was portrayed in the movie. For example, the movie shows a clear anti Vietnam War vietnam war sentiment by playing an anti-war song in the military base and having Gump speak to anti-war protesters in front of the Lincoln Memorial in DC. However, during the 1960s, the debates about the war were not weren’t one sided.

Historical inaccuracies persist in the entertainment form of historical narratives, since  because everyone possesses their own has biases based on their own heritage and and/or experience. This makes the story simplistic one-sided and often incomplete because it emphasizes by emphasizing some stories more than others. Such pervasive bias could have a tremendous impact on the audience's point of view, which brings more historical inaccuracies into our society. In order to address this disparity, movie producers should conduct comparative analysis on historical events. This means looking at one story from different cultures, countries, and civilizations. Movie producers and creators They should make sure to depict prioritize more truth and accuracy and accuracy, and leave no room for ambiguity the audience with their own interpretations of an event.



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