Tom Hanks has come forward to defend Forrest Gump from claims that it didn't deserve to win Best Picture over Pulp Fiction. Robert Zemeckis' endearing and touching film starred Hanks as the titular character, Forrest Gump.
The beloved Forrest Gump chronicles 30 years (from the 1950s through the early 1980s) of the life of an intellectually disabled man. However, while telling Gump's personal story, the film also manages to depict major American historical events and milestones throughout the decades. Forrest Gump went on to become an unlikely crowd favourite amongst audiences. The movie was also a huge hit at the box office upon its 1994 release, bringing in $678 million. The film went on to win Best Picture, unforgettably beating out Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, which has also gone on to be referred to as a classic. Tarantino's film had already received a surplus of praise and acclaim from both critics and audiences alike long before the Oscars even took place. Pulp Fiction took home the Palme d'Or award at the 1944 Cannes Film Festival. Many audiences watching the 1994 Oscars that night were shocked to see the emotionally churning, sentimental Forrest Gump had won over Tarantino's more edgy, fast-paced film.
At the time, the whole event drew major controversy, but still to this day fans argue and lobby that Tarantino's film should have definitely won over Forrest Gump. Hanks is very much aware of the seemingly never-ending arguments against his film and how many movie fans seem to be in favor of Pulp Fiction instead. Now, in a recent New York Times story, Hanks intentionally took the time to defend his movie winning against Tarantino fans once and for all. Many of the hard-core Tarantino fans claim that Forrest Gump is simply just paying homage to boomer nostalgia.
It seems Hanks believes Forrest Gump's success made it a prime target for critics. “The problem with Forrest Gump is it made a billion dollars. If we’d just made a successful movie, Bob and I would have been geniuses, but because we made a wildly successful movie, we were diabolical geniuses," Hanks said. "Is it a bad problem to have? No, but there are books of the greatest movies of all time, and Forrest Gump doesn’t appear because, oh, it’s this sappy nostalgia-fest."
"Every year there’s an article that goes, “The Movie That Should Have Won Best Picture” and it’s always Pulp Fiction. Pulp Fiction is a masterpiece without a doubt," Hanks continued. "Look, I don’t know, but there is a moment of undeniable heartbreaking humanity in Forrest Gump when Gary Sinise — he’s playing Lieutenant Dan — and his wife walks up to our house on the day that Forrest and Jenny get married." Hanks is referencing the iconic ‘magic legs’ scene in the film, where Forrest, who has been wearing ‘magic legs’ due to suffering from a crooked spine, finally sees his fellow soldier’s prosthetic limbs for the very first time and can barely contain his sense of excitement.
Hanks is right in that Forrest Gump offers such a pure, honest perspective of being human, one that isn’t found often in real life or in film. Forrest Gump winning over the gory and violent Pulp Fiction says something about society - perhaps people are more hungry for more tender, emotionally soothing and comforting films than expected.
Forrest Gump is available on Paramount Plus and Pulp Fiction can be streamed on Amazon Prime Video.
Source: The New York Times