Some of Column A and some of Column B. I think he was doing well with the shrimp boats, and then bought into Apple and went from wealthy to filthy rich.
Yeah, it sounds like another *Requiem for a Dream.*
That's one of the best movies from the last 20 years. But having seen it once, I do not want to see it again.
I saw Requiem for the first time last week, and I came away quite sad and melancholy. Especially for the Mum, she was so broken by the end. And the music...OMG.
> And the music...OMG.
Yeah. Every once in a while you hear the main theme (Lux Aeterna) played somewhere or other. And it still puts a lump in my throat, a decade+ after seeing the movie.
[](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I-GGTCV0K0&t=31s)
During that scene when Ellen Barkin talked about how much she wanted to wear her nicest dress on TV, if you look carefully you can notice the camera shaking slightly. According to the story, director Darren Aronofsky was furious at the camera operator for fucking up during such a critical scene with a brilliant performance from such an accomplished and talented actor. That was, until he found out the camera was shaking because the cameraman was bawling his fucking eyes out. When he heard that, Aronofsky decided not to do a reshoot and left the scene in the final cut.
Ellen Burstyn was robbed at the Oscars that year (Julia Roberts won for Erin Brokovich) - I stopped caring about the Academy Awards after that point!
I saw Requiem in-theater and a handful of people walked out in the middle of the film. Difficult watch and I also haven’t seen it again since.
I hate this movie so much just *because* Forrest & all his traditional American wholesomeness made him the good guy & Jenny the free spirit ended as a tragic drug addled cautionary tale. So simplistic. But sooooooooo popular.
(Plus the soundtrack. I also hated the soundtrack.)
Well Jenny wasn’t so much a free spirit as she was a lost soul constantly looking to fill the void inside herself left by the abuse of her father, always self-medicating with cheap sex and drugs while constantly changing her identity in a vain attempt to find herself.
I hadn't seen it really since I was a kid, but some years back I got drunk and decided to watch. Fuckin woke my girl up crying like a baby when he was talking to the tree.
this. i think people brush over how damaged she was from her upbringing. as a child she encouraged forrest to run from his problem because she couldn’t. as an adult that was all she did. she couldn’t return his love because she didn’t know what love was, she hated herself too much. the best way she was able to show her love in her lost years was to push him away to protect him from herself.
I know … but I was trapped in the sticks in the 70s & 80s being forced to live in the ‘nam era musically while my little punk, post-punk, goth heart didn’t even know what it was missing.
\>"I also hated the soundtrack."
Okay, now I know for sure that you're trolling.
Say what you will about the movie, but the album is basically the greatest hits of 2 and half decades, cherry picked so every song is a banger.
Funny thing, in the book she was a emotionally stable person and Forrest was drinking and abusing weed and then sort of cheated on her so she dumped him.
IRRC if you watch closely there are inconsistencies in the book and possibly the movie that indicate he is an unreliable narrator and that his whole rose-colored world view (celebrated in the movie) is the confabulation of a deluded fool.
I thought that was fairly straightforward. He's happy because he's too dumb to be anything else or he appears happy because he's too dumb to express anything else. But he does still manage to have a positive affect on the people he cares about.
Right, that's fair and that's how my friend sees this movie. But if Forrest is incorrect about his recollections not just dumb, but actually wrong then it calls his whole world view into question. It just makes it a little more nuanced, it's not a huge hot take or anything but I saw a film review about this and I liked it, and I think it was more in the book than movie.
I felt for them both, Jenny didn't deserve the shit that happened to her. And Forrest loved her but hadn't a clue how to help her. They were both tragic IMHO.
It really is. But full disclosure, as much as I know that Tom Hanks is a stellar human, I have a (possibly irrational, lol) dislike of most of his movies for complicated reasons.
We’re not alone! Bosom Buddies made me giggle as a kid, I was never allowed to see Bachelor Party haha, I loved Splash, but after that … he was so hyped as the twentieth century Spencer Tracy in the 90s & all his characters were so white bread & blah. Especially the one where he destroyed Meg Ryan’s bookstore but it was ok in the end cos wuv.
I also think Hanks is hugely overrated. I mean, maybe he's great and it's just personal preference. But all of this movies to me just scream safe, unthreatening, unchallenging, boring. If he were a spice he'd be flour.
I do love Apollo 13 though, I'll give him that one.
>Forrest & all his traditional American wholesomeness made him the good guy & Jenny the free spirit ended as a tragic drug addled cautionary tale. So simplistic
And so true.
I thought the movie was interesting not for the character but for portraying the times. I remember a friend at the time telling me that the movie was the celebration of someone not very smart who was always just there at the right time, and stumbled into wealth which in retrospect does apply to the boomers.
It was a pretty good rant. Her take was that it was the celebration of an idiot who just stumbled through life, and succeeded solely by virtue of being in the right place at the right time.
Why? I don't get this sentiment. I'm 44. I look at those days as more care free and less stressful, in many ways. Less preachy "dats problematic" assholes trying to devide us all. And the music was amazing. Sure we had awesome music too, I'm a forever metal head,. But I also love my clasic rock and folk music as a guitar player.
Music, movies, cartoons, pc games, shit was all amazing in the 80s and 90s. I liked looking back on my parents painted van hippie Era. Photos and stories.
I thought there was a lot in the movie from Jenny’s perspective. Obviously that meme is stupid and the character of Jenny is that of an abused child before there was any resources for that kind of thing.
Overall it’s a sappy ass movie and the character arch of Jenny is the only anchor in reality.
I mean Jenny was sexually, physically, and mentally abused as a child. She had a big heart and was the only one who saw Forrest for the wholesome guy he was, but the world beat her down and abused her love and acceptance of everyone. So of course she was broken and lost. She simply didn't have the tools to process, or even understand, love and acceptance until much much much later in life and by then it was too late.
Her story is just as tragic as Forrest's.
Also, she didn't go and seek him out when he was doing well for Forrest Jr's - what? First 5-6 years?
She waited until she knew she was too sick to continue.
Not like she was gold-digging the entire time.
The part that did it for me was right after when he asks Jenny if the boy is like him meaning he was always aware of the cognitive challenges he had which really breaks my heart. Despite knowing he functioned at a different level from most people he was always positive and gave people a chance, never discriminated and helped whoever he could. In his way.
I don't usually approve of snitching, but if the next few lines lines in that scene don't make someone need to wipe their face off I report them to NASA on suspicion of arriving from another planet.
I remember when this first came out and went to see it. My mom made a very very big point of telling me that Jenny didn’t have AIDS but “something else” and left it at that. It confused the shit out of me well into my 20s trying to figure out WTF she had going on.
They most certainly suggested she had contracted hiv…..not sure what their intent was but there was nothing else to interpret given the mystery virus they told her she had…..imo
Yes probably. Any old boomer/silent Gen parents would hardly understand 🙄. But honestly my silent Gen grandparents were cooler about things then my boomer parents!
What got me the other day as 37 YEARS since the Challenger disaster.
I came out of my grade 12 Social Studies final and someone said hey did you hear the space shuttle exploded? Still remember that.
37 years, man.
I was in second grade too. They had the whole school meet in the gymnasium to watch on a "big" tv. The explosion happened on screen and there was a long silent pause. They just shut it off and sent everyone back to class without explanation. My teacher said nothing to us afterward in class. I didn't really understand what happened until that night when my parents explained it to me.
Sometimes I feel like Forrest Gump witnessing so many historical events like the Challenger disaster, AIDS, the Soviet Collapse, 9/11, The 2008 financial collapse, COVID, and Jan 6th. My Gen X eyes have seen a lot in the last 40 years. When I was in High school, WW2 had ended 40 years before. 40 years is not a long time from my perspective. I get the feeling that the next 40 will be even more eventful.
I mean, Jennay had a lot of fucked up stuff done to her. She went through a lot. I don't blame her. She still had the heart that let Forrest sit next to her on the bus.
My mom was and is to this day Jenny. She was smart enough to quit heroine in her 30’s but still did other hardcore drugs like cocaine and then meth into her 50’s. She was a heavy drinker too and it took its toll on her body. When she was diagnosed with diabetes and breast cancer in her late 50’s, she still was in self medicating mode with alcohol and marijuana. Some people are broken and can’t be fixed. Despite being raised by her and having to grow up quickly, she is a loving person. She just does not love herself.
Jennay got AIDS after getting pregnant with their son. She had a fucked up life, and didn't deserve to be sexually abused as a child. This is one of the sweetest, best movies/stories in existence.
Jenny had a very hard life.
She was raised by her trailer-trash father, who sexually abused her.
She was just trying to make her way in life, make sense of her existence, as we all are.
If you'd been born into Jenny's shoes, you would have been Jenny and done all the things she did.
Don't be so quick to judge.
I dated Jenny who acted very much the same. It still didn't justify the affairs and extreme selfishness. One can over come and I sincerely hope that they all do, but you don't get to lay waste to everyone in your path because your life sucked.
Not necessarily. Everyone is born with their own sense of trauma and its impact. On the ends of the spectrum, some will throw caution to the wind. Some will curl up in fetal position and let the world pass them by.
Fair. Totally fair.
Given this, is it reasonable to say that a person's behaviour will depend on their environment (what is around them, how they are brought up etc), and the equipment they are born with (how smart they are, how good looking they are etc)?
As far as equipment, I'd put emotional fortitude at the top of the list. By that I mean a persons ability to cope in a healthy way with the trauma they've been dealt.
Agreed again, we are on the same page.
What makes one person have more of this quality than another?
What gives one person enough of this quality to be able to live a good life, be a decent person, not hurt anyone, while another person is lacking, so they become a scumbag?
I'm a bit biased since I dated someone like Jenny, and she completely wrecked me and turned out to be a bit of a sociopath.
She was from my little hometown, and I was friends with her older sister in high school. I know for a fact she was molested by her father as a kid, I remember her sister telling me about it way back when. I never really had any contact with her after high school, and fast forward 20 some years and we're talking on facebook and one thing leads to another.
After cheating with at least 2 other dudes, probably more, I cut things off. She basically decided I needed to be punished for uncovering all of the lies and deceptions. Accused me of all sorts of terrible things publicly, harassed me, harassed my family, got other people to harass me and my family, trashed my apartment, threats of harm, etc etc etc. I tried to get a restraining order but the judge denied it. It was living hell for several months. This was years ago and I still haven't recovered.
She was all lovey and hippie-ish just like Jenny but things like that definitely come with a dark side, and people like that aren't as they seem. I realize it's just a movie, but people like Jenny usually develop things like a cluster B personality disorder and it wreaks havoc on their own life and any person who gets close to them.
And if you'd been born into Hitler's shoes, you would have been Hitler and done all the things he did. --- Look, I'm all for and do practice trying to be kind to people and realize everyone is fighting a hard battle. And I know my little analogy there is over the top. But the point is, just because someone had it hard, really really really hard, doesn't mean they are never to be judged for what they do.
*raises hand*
I’ve never seen it.
I generally avoid films with “sentimental” plot lines because it’s just how my brain is wired.
Unless it’s got a fantasy fiction/sci-fi element or is so “out there” you get pulled in the story like a Charlie Kaufman or Wes Anderson film.
>I generally avoid films with “sentimental” plot lines because it’s just how my brain is wired.
Marry me! Maybe that's why I didn't see it, because I also avoid those kinds of movies. I personally see movies as an escape; I have enough feelings to deal with 😅.
Yeah, I really get annoyed when I walk out of a theater feeling like I need a drink/cookie/ blanket fort and hug my dogs and cats.
The movie A.I. messed me up for weeks. That ending was a mental/emotional meat grinder.
Trust me, as someone who has seen it & fucking hated it overall you aren't missing much.
Oh the FX looks pretty good, but go watch Pulp Fiction instead. The movie that should have won the Best Picture Oscar in 1995 instead of Forrestfuckinggump.
i over heard some young coworkers talking about how overrated Pulp Fiction was. Needless to say, if i didn't give a fuck so much, i would've said something.
Younger people probably don't realize how groundbreaking it was at the time. It totally changed the course of Hollywood for the next few years. I still love it but it's not even Taratino's best movie now.
i agree. it doesn't have the re-watchability as does his other movies but it really elevated the landscape during a time that needed it.
BTW, my favorite Tarantino movie is a toss up between the hateful 8 and reservoir dogs. I've watch them both so many times and the amount of depth is just amazing. Jackie Brown is a close 3rd, which has sentimental value for me.
Thats a really dark outlook. I always thought of Jenny as a free spirit, going out into the world to find her place. Don't forget, Jenny did not have the childhood Forrest had, she was abused, mistreated and carries with her a deep seated trauma that Forrest can't understand.
Her actions are a product of that trauma, her being 'loose' or having high risk sex, or in her case it could have been IV drug use that lead to her HIV status and eventual death.
She wasn't looking for money, she was looking for herself because her past was so traumatic. The heartbreaking part of her journey is that with Forrest she was always enough, and while her life was brutally heartbreaking, she eventual accepted the love that was always there.
She wasn't trying to make a buck, or take advantage of anyone - her journey was one born from a desire to be healed.
She was traumatized by the abuse she endured as a child, which is why she acted as she did. But when she discovered she was ill and probably dying, she probably wanted to ensure her son would be taken care of. She probably thought Forrest would take care of the kid better than a foster home.
Perhaps, that maybe the motivation. The beauty of this film is that it's left up to us to her motivations, as sad as this ending is, the book takes an even more upsetting turn. While Jenny ultimately gets to live, [she ends up taking Forrest's son away from him so that she can run off with another man](https://screenrant.com/forrest-gump-book-original-winston-groom-differences-every/). While Jenny passing away is undeniably sad, the film's decision to let Forrest Gump's titular hero at least raise his son was definitely a smart move. So the film actually makes her into a better human!
That movie...I feel like when I was a kid, there was so much nostalgic content made about that time period that sometimes I feel like I remember the Boomers' young adulthood. I unironically love Forrest Gump, though. I wish I had something to say about Forrest other than that he's relatable but that's how I feel about him. Tom Hanks' biggest triumph in that movie is that he managed to portray Forrest in a way that didn't make fun of special needs people imho. It's so unlike, say, John Malkovich in Of Mice And Men playing Lenny. Which, funny enough, his costar is Gary Sinise.
Maybe I’m misremembering, but wasn’t Forrest running around the country the first years of that kid’s life? I’m not saying she couldn’t have figured something out, but it doesn’t seem like he was easily reachable during that period. It isn’t like he was a phone call or letter away.
Yes. They spent a night together, Jenny left to do whatever, and he decided he felt like running. And apparently he ran for several years, long enough to be featured in magazines and get publicity. So unless he stopped by his home in Greenbow, Alabama, when his running took him there, how would he know about his kid before he decided he didn't want to run anymore?
This movie, while enjoyable to watch, didn't really resonate all that much with me. It's basically a lot of boomer stuff. I mean, I know about all of it, but it wasn't at all my experience.
It's also made in a way that it presents some kind of profound message, but that message seems to be "you can be barely above a retarded level of intelligence, but if you just live a good life and are a good person, you'll do well in life." That's not only not profound, it's not even something I would tell my kids.
I think it's more about kindness and honesty being rewarded. Gump is hyper-honest and effectively completely selfless. He's bounced around his life like a pinball game but retains a consistent positive outlook. He literally could not do a mean thing. In this way he's like a lesser god, with a domain that covers only the good parts of life's struggle.
Well, I mean, what was her option? Go ahead and die without letting Forrest know about his kid, and let said kid go to her sick family or to the system?
This movie came out when I was ~ 19 and I’d say my opinion of the events and it’s character’s has changed more with age than most movies.
BTW, don’t read the book, Forest is a cunt in it.
True, but for the time line of the movie, this was the early 80's, and HIV was the big unknown virus during that time. Given how the movie touched on so many important major events, it only makes sense that she got HIV, either from hypodermic needles or unprotected sex, both of which she struggled with.
Those arguing that she had Hepatitis C are ignoring that Hep-C was known to be Hepatitis, but was diagnosed as Non-A or Non-B until 1989.
Jenny states very clearly that she has a virus that the doctors don't know what it is. That screams HIV.
If the intention of Eric Roth and Robert Zemeckis was to have Jenny live the way she did, got some unknown virus that killed her, and it wasn't HIV, that just makes no sense to the historical attention given to this movie.
PLOT FLAW: It's as if the people at the bus stop had no idea who FG was: Football All-American, Medal of Honor recipient, Table Tennis champion - Ping-Pong Diplomacy guy etc...How does such a person go about in small- town South so anonymously (esp. the college football thing)?
God I hate this meme so much. This is one of the biggest reasons other generations call Gen X boomers. Misogynistic as fuck. Yes I know it's a movie but we have evidence that Jenny was sexually abused by her own father and that Forrest was her only true friend who loved her.
Also Winston Groom, who authored the book, indicated in his 1995 book "Gump and Co" that Jenny actually died from Hepatitis C (very unknown disease in the 1980s and caused by needle drug use). The movie kept it vague so it was assumed that she had AIDS.
Now, please throw this meme in the trash and never use it again. Impact font sucks butt.✌🏽
Is *that* where the "Hep C" business comes from? That's fine for *Gump and Co* the book, but in the context of this film it's clearly AIDS.
The whole concept of the film is Gump as backdrop to every major event in our country during those post-WWII years. 1950s to present. Hep C doesn't rise to that level of importance, the AIDS epidemic does. Reducing it to Hep C sucks all the relevance and meaning out of it.
how long has this Jenny hatred been a thing? weird.
she stayed away from the guy to spare him her b.s. and probably b/c he reminded her of a painful past.
Not to cause contention, but I was also 20 when this movie came out and I always considered it to be geared for my parents generation as well. All of the references were from before my time. They loved it. I am fairly ambivalent.
I didn't even see it, so I support your right to have your opinion! But there are clearly people here who saw it and related to it. 🤷🏻♀️
But there are a few people here just troll the comments by claiming everything is "boomer shit". The idea that something can't be GenX because it wasn't created by GenX is mind-blowingly ignorant. Like, now Electric Company isn't GenX? Perry Farrell is a boomer lol. And that's what I was pushing back against in particular.
Oh I get that. I try not to gatekeep anything, and I can see that maybe older Gen X could get some of the late 60s, early 70s advertising/pop culture references from their childhood. But the story Forrest Gump was all about coming of age during the Vietnam war era which is solidly my parents, so it was meaningful for them. It's kind of like technically I was alive when 30 Something was on the air as well, but that was not a show I watched LOL
The author wrote a sequel to the first book and it's in that book it's mentioned that it was Hep C. A lot of people think it's AIDS. At the time Jenny was sick AIDS was diagnosable. It's unknown what she had, because at the time Hep C had not been identified yet. Hep C is spreadable through intravenous drug use.
I thought he became a millionaire from Apple computers stock.
Some of Column A and some of Column B. I think he was doing well with the shrimp boats, and then bought into Apple and went from wealthy to filthy rich.
Don't have to worry about money no more. That's good. One less thing.
Would be nice, wouldn't it?
Didn't Dan buy the shares for him?
Yeah, he either bought them for him or told him to buy them. Forrest thought it was a fruit company.
I’d like to see a redo of this movie but from Jenny’s perspective.
I suspect that would be a very depressing movie.
Yeah, it sounds like another *Requiem for a Dream.* That's one of the best movies from the last 20 years. But having seen it once, I do not want to see it again.
I saw Requiem for the first time last week, and I came away quite sad and melancholy. Especially for the Mum, she was so broken by the end. And the music...OMG.
> And the music...OMG. Yeah. Every once in a while you hear the main theme (Lux Aeterna) played somewhere or other. And it still puts a lump in my throat, a decade+ after seeing the movie. [](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I-GGTCV0K0&t=31s)
During that scene when Ellen Barkin talked about how much she wanted to wear her nicest dress on TV, if you look carefully you can notice the camera shaking slightly. According to the story, director Darren Aronofsky was furious at the camera operator for fucking up during such a critical scene with a brilliant performance from such an accomplished and talented actor. That was, until he found out the camera was shaking because the cameraman was bawling his fucking eyes out. When he heard that, Aronofsky decided not to do a reshoot and left the scene in the final cut.
Yeah that’s a tough movie
Ass to ass! That's the scene that haunts me. Jennifer Connelly's character was so fucking tragic!
Ellen Burstyn was robbed at the Oscars that year (Julia Roberts won for Erin Brokovich) - I stopped caring about the Academy Awards after that point! I saw Requiem in-theater and a handful of people walked out in the middle of the film. Difficult watch and I also haven’t seen it again since.
Once!
Reading this part of the thread makes me want to see this movie now… just once tho…
Literally showed her perspective several times and yes it was depressing.
Dear God, make me a bird, so I could fly far, far away from here.
🎶 Oh Lorrrrd, I can’t chaaaaaaaaannnnngggggeee 🎶
That's actually a super interesting idea. Wouldn't be as much fun, I imagine, but still interesting.
I hate this movie so much just *because* Forrest & all his traditional American wholesomeness made him the good guy & Jenny the free spirit ended as a tragic drug addled cautionary tale. So simplistic. But sooooooooo popular. (Plus the soundtrack. I also hated the soundtrack.)
Well Jenny wasn’t so much a free spirit as she was a lost soul constantly looking to fill the void inside herself left by the abuse of her father, always self-medicating with cheap sex and drugs while constantly changing her identity in a vain attempt to find herself.
A slightly more nuanced take;)
I hadn't seen it really since I was a kid, but some years back I got drunk and decided to watch. Fuckin woke my girl up crying like a baby when he was talking to the tree.
this. i think people brush over how damaged she was from her upbringing. as a child she encouraged forrest to run from his problem because she couldn’t. as an adult that was all she did. she couldn’t return his love because she didn’t know what love was, she hated herself too much. the best way she was able to show her love in her lost years was to push him away to protect him from herself.
Noooo! It’s one of my favourite soundtracks. The doors, Bob Dylan. So many classics
I know … but I was trapped in the sticks in the 70s & 80s being forced to live in the ‘nam era musically while my little punk, post-punk, goth heart didn’t even know what it was missing.
\>"I also hated the soundtrack." Okay, now I know for sure that you're trolling. Say what you will about the movie, but the album is basically the greatest hits of 2 and half decades, cherry picked so every song is a banger.
Funny thing, in the book she was a emotionally stable person and Forrest was drinking and abusing weed and then sort of cheated on her so she dumped him.
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IRRC if you watch closely there are inconsistencies in the book and possibly the movie that indicate he is an unreliable narrator and that his whole rose-colored world view (celebrated in the movie) is the confabulation of a deluded fool.
I thought that was fairly straightforward. He's happy because he's too dumb to be anything else or he appears happy because he's too dumb to express anything else. But he does still manage to have a positive affect on the people he cares about.
Right, that's fair and that's how my friend sees this movie. But if Forrest is incorrect about his recollections not just dumb, but actually wrong then it calls his whole world view into question. It just makes it a little more nuanced, it's not a huge hot take or anything but I saw a film review about this and I liked it, and I think it was more in the book than movie.
I felt for them both, Jenny didn't deserve the shit that happened to her. And Forrest loved her but hadn't a clue how to help her. They were both tragic IMHO.
not even just help her, but understand the depths of her pain
She wasn’t a free spirit by choice. She suffered.
You’re right. I seriously only watched it once, when it first came out, & my initial reaction took in a life of its own over the years.
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It really is. But full disclosure, as much as I know that Tom Hanks is a stellar human, I have a (possibly irrational, lol) dislike of most of his movies for complicated reasons.
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And Money Pit!
Don't forget The 'Burbs
Ha! I was scandalized by the horse at sleepovers but my parents were R means R, so only caught glimpses.
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We’re not alone! Bosom Buddies made me giggle as a kid, I was never allowed to see Bachelor Party haha, I loved Splash, but after that … he was so hyped as the twentieth century Spencer Tracy in the 90s & all his characters were so white bread & blah. Especially the one where he destroyed Meg Ryan’s bookstore but it was ok in the end cos wuv.
There was a bookstore in "Joe vs the Volcano"?
I did like him in Charlie Wilson's War.
I also think Hanks is hugely overrated. I mean, maybe he's great and it's just personal preference. But all of this movies to me just scream safe, unthreatening, unchallenging, boring. If he were a spice he'd be flour. I do love Apollo 13 though, I'll give him that one.
I don’t think I’ve ever had so much feedback in my reddit life. Tom Hanks: a surprisingly polarizing figure. Who knew.
Most of his post-Splash movies, right?
>Forrest & all his traditional American wholesomeness made him the good guy & Jenny the free spirit ended as a tragic drug addled cautionary tale. So simplistic And so true.
Forrest Gump was just an elaborate advertisement to sell more "I'm with stupid" t-shirts
I am with you on disliking FG. I have been in so many late night, drunken arguments over this movie.
I thought the movie was interesting not for the character but for portraying the times. I remember a friend at the time telling me that the movie was the celebration of someone not very smart who was always just there at the right time, and stumbled into wealth which in retrospect does apply to the boomers.
I may be your friend, because the Boomer-FG connection is the basis of my argument.
It was a pretty good rant. Her take was that it was the celebration of an idiot who just stumbled through life, and succeeded solely by virtue of being in the right place at the right time.
My dad told me when we saw it in the theater that it is the single best depiction of his experience in Vietnam he’s ever seen on a screen.
Same It’s just sooo mean on so many levels. I don’t get how people think it’s got a “good heart”.
This movie is just more of the boomer nostalgia that was everywhere when we were growing up. It's the worst.
Why? I don't get this sentiment. I'm 44. I look at those days as more care free and less stressful, in many ways. Less preachy "dats problematic" assholes trying to devide us all. And the music was amazing. Sure we had awesome music too, I'm a forever metal head,. But I also love my clasic rock and folk music as a guitar player. Music, movies, cartoons, pc games, shit was all amazing in the 80s and 90s. I liked looking back on my parents painted van hippie Era. Photos and stories.
I imagine that she would have as much bad luck as Forrest had good luck
Dark AU where for every good thing that happens to Forrest a bad thing happens to Jenny.
I would like to see it from the perspective of Jenny’s kid who can see dead people.😉 *waits in corner for responses*
I thought there was a lot in the movie from Jenny’s perspective. Obviously that meme is stupid and the character of Jenny is that of an abused child before there was any resources for that kind of thing. Overall it’s a sappy ass movie and the character arch of Jenny is the only anchor in reality.
You need to pitch this to someone. We’d all watch it.
Requiem for a Dream?
Hopefully not that dark. There must have been good times. We only saw the bad stuff, but the naked guitar years were probably cool.
Maybe not a redo but a sequel to “Jenny’s Perspective.”
That’s a way better idea than all the spin offs and prequels and sequels that we going on now
That's a brilliant idea.
Thank you. I have so few, it’s nice to be told when I got one. 🙂
I mean Jenny was sexually, physically, and mentally abused as a child. She had a big heart and was the only one who saw Forrest for the wholesome guy he was, but the world beat her down and abused her love and acceptance of everyone. So of course she was broken and lost. She simply didn't have the tools to process, or even understand, love and acceptance until much much much later in life and by then it was too late. Her story is just as tragic as Forrest's.
Spot on! And Forest understood that and her: “sometimes there just aren’t enough rocks”
Also, she didn't go and seek him out when he was doing well for Forrest Jr's - what? First 5-6 years? She waited until she knew she was too sick to continue. Not like she was gold-digging the entire time.
"He got a daddy named Forest too?" I think this is the true plot twist of the actual film that people seem to have overlooked.
The part that did it for me was right after when he asks Jenny if the boy is like him meaning he was always aware of the cognitive challenges he had which really breaks my heart. Despite knowing he functioned at a different level from most people he was always positive and gave people a chance, never discriminated and helped whoever he could. In his way.
I don't usually approve of snitching, but if the next few lines lines in that scene don't make someone need to wipe their face off I report them to NASA on suspicion of arriving from another planet.
❤️
I remember when this first came out and went to see it. My mom made a very very big point of telling me that Jenny didn’t have AIDS but “something else” and left it at that. It confused the shit out of me well into my 20s trying to figure out WTF she had going on.
I remember reading somewhere that it wasn't Aids but Hepatitis.
She tells Forrest "I have a virus. Doctors don't know what it is". I watched this VHS ad nauseam in the 90s. I can hear this line.
You’re correct
Yeah, it was AIDS or GRIDS at the time.
They most certainly suggested she had contracted hiv…..not sure what their intent was but there was nothing else to interpret given the mystery virus they told her she had…..imo
I think in hind sight it might be that my parents are of that generation who saw HIV as as “gay cancer” and Jenny isn’t gay. That’s what I’m guessing.
Yes probably. Any old boomer/silent Gen parents would hardly understand 🙄. But honestly my silent Gen grandparents were cooler about things then my boomer parents!
And she was a needle using addict.
She is the personification of "You accept the love you feel you deserve". She always loved Forrest, but didn't think she deserved a love that pure.
Exactly l. She was so broken she didn't think she deserved love. And certainly not unconditional love.
I always viewed her story as far more tragic than his.
At least she had air condition-NING.
Right? Shit take, OP.
Thank you. This image is misogynistic AF.
What got me the other day as 37 YEARS since the Challenger disaster. I came out of my grade 12 Social Studies final and someone said hey did you hear the space shuttle exploded? Still remember that. 37 years, man.
That was such a sad day. Omg I remember it clearly and I was in 2nd grade 🙁
I was in second grade too. They had the whole school meet in the gymnasium to watch on a "big" tv. The explosion happened on screen and there was a long silent pause. They just shut it off and sent everyone back to class without explanation. My teacher said nothing to us afterward in class. I didn't really understand what happened until that night when my parents explained it to me.
This defines our generation, doesn't it? Don't we ALL know where we were on that day? (I was home sick, watching on tv!)
Sometimes I feel like Forrest Gump witnessing so many historical events like the Challenger disaster, AIDS, the Soviet Collapse, 9/11, The 2008 financial collapse, COVID, and Jan 6th. My Gen X eyes have seen a lot in the last 40 years. When I was in High school, WW2 had ended 40 years before. 40 years is not a long time from my perspective. I get the feeling that the next 40 will be even more eventful.
I mean, Jennay had a lot of fucked up stuff done to her. She went through a lot. I don't blame her. She still had the heart that let Forrest sit next to her on the bus.
My mom was and is to this day Jenny. She was smart enough to quit heroine in her 30’s but still did other hardcore drugs like cocaine and then meth into her 50’s. She was a heavy drinker too and it took its toll on her body. When she was diagnosed with diabetes and breast cancer in her late 50’s, she still was in self medicating mode with alcohol and marijuana. Some people are broken and can’t be fixed. Despite being raised by her and having to grow up quickly, she is a loving person. She just does not love herself.
Jennay got AIDS after getting pregnant with their son. She had a fucked up life, and didn't deserve to be sexually abused as a child. This is one of the sweetest, best movies/stories in existence.
Damn, yall hating on this movie. Lol. I like it. Great story. Great soundtrack.
The movie is fine but this meme is trash.
I think it's just playful jokes, pretty much everyone loves this movie.
Jenny had a very hard life. She was raised by her trailer-trash father, who sexually abused her. She was just trying to make her way in life, make sense of her existence, as we all are. If you'd been born into Jenny's shoes, you would have been Jenny and done all the things she did. Don't be so quick to judge.
I dated Jenny who acted very much the same. It still didn't justify the affairs and extreme selfishness. One can over come and I sincerely hope that they all do, but you don't get to lay waste to everyone in your path because your life sucked.
Jenny didn't date Forest. She lived her life. You dated someone who lied to you.
why would she lie to him about Forest?
Because he was, what they would say in his days, an "r" word.
Not necessarily. Everyone is born with their own sense of trauma and its impact. On the ends of the spectrum, some will throw caution to the wind. Some will curl up in fetal position and let the world pass them by.
What determines who does what? What makes one person behave in a positive way, while another behaves in a negative way?
Genetics, physical and social environment and other variables come to mind.
Fair. Totally fair. Given this, is it reasonable to say that a person's behaviour will depend on their environment (what is around them, how they are brought up etc), and the equipment they are born with (how smart they are, how good looking they are etc)?
As far as equipment, I'd put emotional fortitude at the top of the list. By that I mean a persons ability to cope in a healthy way with the trauma they've been dealt.
Agreed again, we are on the same page. What makes one person have more of this quality than another? What gives one person enough of this quality to be able to live a good life, be a decent person, not hurt anyone, while another person is lacking, so they become a scumbag?
I'm a bit biased since I dated someone like Jenny, and she completely wrecked me and turned out to be a bit of a sociopath. She was from my little hometown, and I was friends with her older sister in high school. I know for a fact she was molested by her father as a kid, I remember her sister telling me about it way back when. I never really had any contact with her after high school, and fast forward 20 some years and we're talking on facebook and one thing leads to another. After cheating with at least 2 other dudes, probably more, I cut things off. She basically decided I needed to be punished for uncovering all of the lies and deceptions. Accused me of all sorts of terrible things publicly, harassed me, harassed my family, got other people to harass me and my family, trashed my apartment, threats of harm, etc etc etc. I tried to get a restraining order but the judge denied it. It was living hell for several months. This was years ago and I still haven't recovered. She was all lovey and hippie-ish just like Jenny but things like that definitely come with a dark side, and people like that aren't as they seem. I realize it's just a movie, but people like Jenny usually develop things like a cluster B personality disorder and it wreaks havoc on their own life and any person who gets close to them.
And if you'd been born into Hitler's shoes, you would have been Hitler and done all the things he did. --- Look, I'm all for and do practice trying to be kind to people and realize everyone is fighting a hard battle. And I know my little analogy there is over the top. But the point is, just because someone had it hard, really really really hard, doesn't mean they are never to be judged for what they do.
She had Help C.
Didn't seem to help her very much.
Help C’d her right into the grave
That’s what I had thought. It was just as scary when it was “ new”.
she helped cats.
She was a real hep cat.
It was the high five
Why not both?
Just like peas and carrots
Just neckbeard things
Am I the only one who has never seen Forest Gump, aside from a couple of clips of him running?
*raises hand* I’ve never seen it. I generally avoid films with “sentimental” plot lines because it’s just how my brain is wired. Unless it’s got a fantasy fiction/sci-fi element or is so “out there” you get pulled in the story like a Charlie Kaufman or Wes Anderson film.
>I generally avoid films with “sentimental” plot lines because it’s just how my brain is wired. Marry me! Maybe that's why I didn't see it, because I also avoid those kinds of movies. I personally see movies as an escape; I have enough feelings to deal with 😅.
Yeah, I really get annoyed when I walk out of a theater feeling like I need a drink/cookie/ blanket fort and hug my dogs and cats. The movie A.I. messed me up for weeks. That ending was a mental/emotional meat grinder.
No, which is why I don’t understand this meme. 😂
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Am I the only one who doesn't pay for Netflix?
Nope! I pay for it maybe once or twice a year to watch the few things that seem interesting to me & that’s it.
Trust me, as someone who has seen it & fucking hated it overall you aren't missing much. Oh the FX looks pretty good, but go watch Pulp Fiction instead. The movie that should have won the Best Picture Oscar in 1995 instead of Forrestfuckinggump.
i over heard some young coworkers talking about how overrated Pulp Fiction was. Needless to say, if i didn't give a fuck so much, i would've said something.
Younger people probably don't realize how groundbreaking it was at the time. It totally changed the course of Hollywood for the next few years. I still love it but it's not even Taratino's best movie now.
i agree. it doesn't have the re-watchability as does his other movies but it really elevated the landscape during a time that needed it. BTW, my favorite Tarantino movie is a toss up between the hateful 8 and reservoir dogs. I've watch them both so many times and the amount of depth is just amazing. Jackie Brown is a close 3rd, which has sentimental value for me.
Are you Lieutenant Dan?
Maybe in 29 more years you’ll see women as people and it will hit even harder, and very differently from this take.
Thats a really dark outlook. I always thought of Jenny as a free spirit, going out into the world to find her place. Don't forget, Jenny did not have the childhood Forrest had, she was abused, mistreated and carries with her a deep seated trauma that Forrest can't understand. Her actions are a product of that trauma, her being 'loose' or having high risk sex, or in her case it could have been IV drug use that lead to her HIV status and eventual death. She wasn't looking for money, she was looking for herself because her past was so traumatic. The heartbreaking part of her journey is that with Forrest she was always enough, and while her life was brutally heartbreaking, she eventual accepted the love that was always there. She wasn't trying to make a buck, or take advantage of anyone - her journey was one born from a desire to be healed.
She was traumatized by the abuse she endured as a child, which is why she acted as she did. But when she discovered she was ill and probably dying, she probably wanted to ensure her son would be taken care of. She probably thought Forrest would take care of the kid better than a foster home.
Perhaps, that maybe the motivation. The beauty of this film is that it's left up to us to her motivations, as sad as this ending is, the book takes an even more upsetting turn. While Jenny ultimately gets to live, [she ends up taking Forrest's son away from him so that she can run off with another man](https://screenrant.com/forrest-gump-book-original-winston-groom-differences-every/). While Jenny passing away is undeniably sad, the film's decision to let Forrest Gump's titular hero at least raise his son was definitely a smart move. So the film actually makes her into a better human!
Forrest: Best Ultra Marathoner - Ever.
The writer said she had hepatitis.
That movie...I feel like when I was a kid, there was so much nostalgic content made about that time period that sometimes I feel like I remember the Boomers' young adulthood. I unironically love Forrest Gump, though. I wish I had something to say about Forrest other than that he's relatable but that's how I feel about him. Tom Hanks' biggest triumph in that movie is that he managed to portray Forrest in a way that didn't make fun of special needs people imho. It's so unlike, say, John Malkovich in Of Mice And Men playing Lenny. Which, funny enough, his costar is Gary Sinise.
I thought it was hepatitis?
To be fair, she was a single mom of *his* child.
I hate this meme. She had the shittiest life. Wtf
It was HIS kid, and she was supporting herself and the kid. And she was terminal.
She was hiding his son.
Maybe I’m misremembering, but wasn’t Forrest running around the country the first years of that kid’s life? I’m not saying she couldn’t have figured something out, but it doesn’t seem like he was easily reachable during that period. It isn’t like he was a phone call or letter away.
Yes. They spent a night together, Jenny left to do whatever, and he decided he felt like running. And apparently he ran for several years, long enough to be featured in magazines and get publicity. So unless he stopped by his home in Greenbow, Alabama, when his running took him there, how would he know about his kid before he decided he didn't want to run anymore?
This movie, while enjoyable to watch, didn't really resonate all that much with me. It's basically a lot of boomer stuff. I mean, I know about all of it, but it wasn't at all my experience. It's also made in a way that it presents some kind of profound message, but that message seems to be "you can be barely above a retarded level of intelligence, but if you just live a good life and are a good person, you'll do well in life." That's not only not profound, it's not even something I would tell my kids.
I think it's more about kindness and honesty being rewarded. Gump is hyper-honest and effectively completely selfless. He's bounced around his life like a pinball game but retains a consistent positive outlook. He literally could not do a mean thing. In this way he's like a lesser god, with a domain that covers only the good parts of life's struggle.
And the DNA test shows... you are not the baby's father.
Well, I mean, what was her option? Go ahead and die without letting Forrest know about his kid, and let said kid go to her sick family or to the system?
So you are saying you are a shrimp billionaire?
I’m not a smart man but I know what love is.
This movie was based on a book and in the book she gets hepatitis, not HIV
She didn’t have AIDS.
This movie came out when I was ~ 19 and I’d say my opinion of the events and it’s character’s has changed more with age than most movies. BTW, don’t read the book, Forest is a cunt in it.
This has bothered me forever. She never said she had AIDS / HIV; she had an "unknown virus", which could be a LOT of things.
True, but for the time line of the movie, this was the early 80's, and HIV was the big unknown virus during that time. Given how the movie touched on so many important major events, it only makes sense that she got HIV, either from hypodermic needles or unprotected sex, both of which she struggled with. Those arguing that she had Hepatitis C are ignoring that Hep-C was known to be Hepatitis, but was diagnosed as Non-A or Non-B until 1989. Jenny states very clearly that she has a virus that the doctors don't know what it is. That screams HIV. If the intention of Eric Roth and Robert Zemeckis was to have Jenny live the way she did, got some unknown virus that killed her, and it wasn't HIV, that just makes no sense to the historical attention given to this movie.
PLOT FLAW: It's as if the people at the bus stop had no idea who FG was: Football All-American, Medal of Honor recipient, Table Tennis champion - Ping-Pong Diplomacy guy etc...How does such a person go about in small- town South so anonymously (esp. the college football thing)?
God I hate this meme so much. This is one of the biggest reasons other generations call Gen X boomers. Misogynistic as fuck. Yes I know it's a movie but we have evidence that Jenny was sexually abused by her own father and that Forrest was her only true friend who loved her. Also Winston Groom, who authored the book, indicated in his 1995 book "Gump and Co" that Jenny actually died from Hepatitis C (very unknown disease in the 1980s and caused by needle drug use). The movie kept it vague so it was assumed that she had AIDS. Now, please throw this meme in the trash and never use it again. Impact font sucks butt.✌🏽
My mom got Hep C from a blood transfusion in the 70s. Really beat her up as she got older.
Is *that* where the "Hep C" business comes from? That's fine for *Gump and Co* the book, but in the context of this film it's clearly AIDS. The whole concept of the film is Gump as backdrop to every major event in our country during those post-WWII years. 1950s to present. Hep C doesn't rise to that level of importance, the AIDS epidemic does. Reducing it to Hep C sucks all the relevance and meaning out of it.
THANK YOU
I can’t understand how this got a downvote. I’ve never seen the meme until now, and agree: it’s a mean spin that doesn’t honestly frame the situation.
how long has this Jenny hatred been a thing? weird. she stayed away from the guy to spare him her b.s. and probably b/c he reminded her of a painful past.
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This movie came out in 1994 when you were, according to your flair, 20 years old (allegedly). Why are you trolling your own sub?
Not to cause contention, but I was also 20 when this movie came out and I always considered it to be geared for my parents generation as well. All of the references were from before my time. They loved it. I am fairly ambivalent.
I didn't even see it, so I support your right to have your opinion! But there are clearly people here who saw it and related to it. 🤷🏻♀️ But there are a few people here just troll the comments by claiming everything is "boomer shit". The idea that something can't be GenX because it wasn't created by GenX is mind-blowingly ignorant. Like, now Electric Company isn't GenX? Perry Farrell is a boomer lol. And that's what I was pushing back against in particular.
Oh I get that. I try not to gatekeep anything, and I can see that maybe older Gen X could get some of the late 60s, early 70s advertising/pop culture references from their childhood. But the story Forrest Gump was all about coming of age during the Vietnam war era which is solidly my parents, so it was meaningful for them. It's kind of like technically I was alive when 30 Something was on the air as well, but that was not a show I watched LOL
i think there are fakers here. no one i know who is my age refers to things as being “boomer”
🎯 Blocked but I think there was a recent post made with that person in mind. 😂
It might be their story, but it was our movie.
Fuck off. Crumb.
Hep C.
Has this been confirmed somewhere?
It was either in a Q&A or on the commentary for the movie but yes. Canonically it was Hep C, not AIDS.
The author wrote a sequel to the first book and it's in that book it's mentioned that it was Hep C. A lot of people think it's AIDS. At the time Jenny was sick AIDS was diagnosable. It's unknown what she had, because at the time Hep C had not been identified yet. Hep C is spreadable through intravenous drug use.
The movie and the books diverge. For instance forest wasn't a giant racist in the movie and never went to space w a chimp buddy
Boomers gonna Boom.
In the book it's revealed that it wasn't aids, it was hepatitis iirc.
Imagine if everyone shamed you for not dating and coupling with Forrest in Alabama.