Retrospective Film Review

Forrest Gump (1994) • 30 Years Later — a heartbreaking, unconventional love story spanning decades

The history of the US from the 1950s to the ’70s unfolds from the perspective of an Alabama man with an IQ of 75, who yearns to be reunited with his childhood sweetheart.

Robert Zemeckis’s Forrest Gump is bookended by a shot of a white feather. It descends in the opening sequence and soars into the sky at the close. Even for someone who hasn’t seen Forrest Gump, it’s easy to guess that this is a hopeful metaphor. Specifically, it’s an important symbol of who Forrest (Tom Hanks) is and the characteristics that allow him to succeed despite the odds stacked against him.

Following an intellectually impaired man and the adventurous life he leads in the mid-20th-century, Forrest succeeds in his many ventures and vocations because he embraces the opportunities that life throws his way. In the film’s elegant opening sequence, the feather drifts past various people from different social backgrounds before finally…