Forrest Gump

"Hello, My Name's Forrest, Forrest Gump"

Probably one of the most epic films I've ever seen to date. This film has everything in it. Love, heartbreak, war, violence, peace, and good times. I'm not joking, if you ever want to feel like you want to cry one moment and then laugh a moment later this will absolutely be the film for you.

It's one of the greats out there.

You see, Forrest is a young boy with problems. Back when I was a young man watching this film I'd have called him "slow" but after working in Mental Health for more than 20 years I'd probably say that he was high functioning autistic, like myself. That wasn't a good thing 40 years ago and beyond. Being born anywhere outside of the needle of normal and it's going to be a hard time.

That's why Forrest struggled at school. He was always getting chased and beat up by the local kids because he was different to the others. But luckily he had met a young girl named Jenny, who was his best friend in the entire world, and they protected each other. Her from the bullies, and him from her family.

You see Forrest had a lovely caring and graceful mother, but Jenny had an abusive and horrible father, so Jenny would sometimes come and hide in Forrests house when they were younger and sleep with him at night -- innocently of course.

And thus, as it always is in life, your early childhood shapes the way you will live out your life. So that's why in this film it's about Jenny and Forrest going their separate ways and the lives they lead and how at some points they intermingle. It's really quite interesting, heartbreaking, and sometimes downright sad - that how no matter how much Forrest tries to capture Jenny, she always remains just out of his reach.

There's quite a controversy surrounding how Jenny treated Forrest and how it was portrayed in the film, that Forrest got what he wanted, and in the end he was happy - but if you look at it from a different angle then there's no way if you were a man you'd allow one of your friends to get treated like he did by Jenny.

All that aside though there is a lot to be said about building and moving forward. If you notice in this film that Forrest was incredibly loyal to the people he knew and loved, building a network of really close friends around him. He also seen through what he started, building on his failures of the past. There's a lot to be said on how well he did in the world and how well he was admired by his friends because of his loyalty. And he reaped the rewards because of it.

One of my favourite films of all time.