The
movie, Forrest Gump, is celebrating
its 20th birthday this month!
That’s twenty years of horribly mimicking his Alabama accent and
mockingly yelling, “RUN, FORREST, RUN!” any time we saw anybody running. (Anybody else? Just me? I'm mean.)
I decided
to watch the movie (for the first time) in celebration of its anniversary and fell in love with
it (for the first time.) I know, I'm the worst - but I should mention that I have watched it in pieces, but I was young, it was long, I'm tired, etc. I did have the soundtrack though and it's still a favorite album. Plus, that Tom Hanks is a
really great actor, huh? He's going places!
While the
obvious lesson we’re expected to take away from the movie is what his mama, Sally Fields, always said, “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re
gonna get,” there were also quite a few nuggets of wisdom buried in that very long movie. (Have I mentioned that it was long? Cause it was long.)
1. Follow your instincts. When the clouds
parted and the rain stopped falling in Vietnam, Forrest looked up for a brief
moment of peace before the turmoil began and his life was changed forever. He followed Lt. Dan’s orders, as well as the
advice of Jenny, and ran. He ran so fast
that he beat everyone out of the danger zone and knew that he had to go back
and find Bubba. While finding Bubba, he
made it his mission to save everyone, including a very angry Lt. Dan. He put his own life in danger to save
everyone else, because that was what his instincts told him to do. Despite Jenny advising Forrest not to be
brave, he did just the opposite and saved several lives and received a
congressional medal of honor. In the
end, Bubba couldn’t be saved, but Forrest still picked him up and carried him
through the burning jungle so he could die in peace with his best friend by his
side. Forrest proved that the easiest
and safest choice isn’t always the right
choice. Sometimes, we should follow our
own personal instincts over the advice of others… or the choice that seems
smartest.
2. Best friends ain’t something you can find just around the corner.
Bubba was Forrest’s best good friend.
They were going to go into the shrimping business together. They loved and respected each other a whole
lot. And Forrest was one hundred percent
correct when he said, “best friends ain’t something you can find just around
the corner.” Best friends, truly great
friends, are few and far between. And
when you’ve got one, you should do whatever you can to hold on to that friendship. That may mean running through gunshots and
fire to save them or starting a shrimping business in their name. Damn, Forrest set the “best friend” bar
pretty damn high! I hope my friends are content with watching their animals and sometimes buying them a drink while at bars.
3. Don’t play the victim. This one is a
little less obvious than the others, but I found it to be a reoccurring theme
throughout the movie. This may be unpopular
opinion, but I hate Jenny. She didn’t
deserve Forrest! And I know that she was
his first friend and she stood up for him and legitimately cared about him, but
she used her miserable life as an excuse to cast Forrest aside and treat him
cruelly. Her childhood was awful, and I
feel bad for her about that, but I don’t think that’s an excuse to treat
Forrest the way she did. It taught me
that when we play the victim, we close doors on people that care about us. We hide behind our failed lives instead of
actively doing anything to make them better and when anyone bothers to try, we
get frustrated and sweep them under the rug and scream, “I can’t be saved!”
despite sort of, kind of actually needing help.
4. Persistence pays off. Forrest was out
of the hospital, but still injured in the butt-ocks when he took up ping-pong
because other people were playing it in the recreational room. Forrest spent HOURS playing it so he could
get better at it. He even slept with the
paddle! He may not have been great at it immediately, but eventually he was so
good that he was asked to join the Army’s ping-pong team. He also wasn’t very good at shrimping at
first, but then he built a pretty successful business! And, of course, he ultimately got Jenny in
the end. He showed her that he loved her
throughout her whole life… and it worked out in his favor. (Even if I feel Well, if you ignore
her tragic ending and stuff. Basically,
if you work really hard at something, even if you’re bad at it, you’ll eventually
get good at it. Persistence is the
key!
5. Do more for other people. Since he was a child, Forrest put other people’s needs
before him. It certainly paid off
because throughout his life, he remained consistently lucky. He always helped Jenny, he started a business
in memory of his friend and left it in the hands of Lt. Dan – a man who he
saved despite strong resistance, he left the business when his mom got sick, he
gave a lot of the money to Bubba’s family despite never having met them, he
mowed lawns for free – and he always did these things with a smile on his
face. Even while being yelled at by a
Black Panther, he apologized for ruining the party by beating Jenny’s boyfriend
up for hitting her. (That might have been my favorite part.) He was a good human
being who genuinely cared for other people and was always happy to help.
I guess what I'm saying is... we could all benefit from finding a little
Forrest Gump in our ugly, ugly hearts. And that's all I have to say about that.
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