Forrest Gump on the Surface,

Forrest Gump On the surface, Robert Zemeckis's 1994 film Forrest Gump is simply a tale of a simple man who lives an extraordinary American life. The story is heart-warming and at times heart-wrenching but does not appear to have any overt political overtones. A closer examination reveals patterns of ideology that suggest that the filmmakers may have consciously imbued Forrest Gump with subtle propaganda. After all, the political events and time period covered by Forrest Gump are ideologically charged.

We view the Kennedy presidency, the Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam War, the counterculture hippie movement, American family values, American xenophobia, and the degeneration of American youth culture through the eyes of the title character. Because the title character is, moreover, a developmentally disabled man he avoids the type of critical analysis that more complex characters would enable. Forrest Gump is like a child; h is innocence precludes moral judgement and therefore viewers are asked to suspend any political projections on the screen.

If Forrest is a-political then so, too, should the viewer be. The portrayal of Forrest Gump's mental or developmental disabilities with such force is the most important vehicles for the delivery of a propaganda message. If Forrest Gump were not developmentally disabled, the audience would likely not even believe his story. As it is, Gump's life comes across as a grand American fairy tale. He even gets the girl in the end.

Forrest Gump's relationship with Jenny brings up some key gender issues that, although not central to the movie, are nonetheless important in its delivery of a political message. Jenny experiments with drugs and counterculture ideology. She, unlike Forrest, opposes the war and takes a decisive stance on the issues extant in the 1960s. Yet Jenny's dabbling in the counterculture movement is portrayed as being counterproductive.

Not only does her boyfriend turn out to be physically abusive (thus suggesting that hippies are not as peaceful as they seem), but Jenny comes down with some kind of virus that is implied to be sexually transmitted. Thus, the subjugation of women is perpetuated in the film. Jenny's sexual liberation experiment failed.

She tried to be independent and cultivate a life free of societal expectations but in the end she is conscripted to being a domestic servant and mother who is punished for her "sins" and divergence from American family values by dying. Forrest Gump is the ultimate family values guy. He has no political consciousness. He blindly follows what authority figures say, evidenced by his amazing successes in the United States Army. Gump's bravery in battle emphasizes the idealized American hero -- he is G.I. Gump.

The moral issues of the Vietnam War are never seriously called into.