“BUT YOU AIN’T GOT NO LEGS, LIEUTENANT DAN.“

On today’s podcast, we talk about a movie so popular, it turned the novel it was based on into a best seller 8 years after it was published. So beloved, it swept the 67th Academy Awards, beating the Shawshank Redemption for Best Picture! A film so embedded into the American psyche, generations of girls named Jenny might actually hate this movie. Today we are talking about Forrest Gump from 1994, directed by Robert Zemeckis, starring America’s favorite everyman, Tom Hanks!

Even though we both loved this movie when we first saw it, thinking about it now there are some things that raise questions, both in the story telling and in how we feel watching it. How do we feel about seeing Tom Hanks, an able-bodied neurotypical actor play a character that is suggested to have some kind of intellectual disability? What’s the deal with Jenny? What is the theme of this movie? Is this a comedy or an inspirational drama? Wait…Forrest Gump is named after WHO??

To help us talk about this classic 90’s film is fellow UCI Alumni and Video Producer at Vice, Heather Hoang! You can find the video series she oversees HERE and the latest video she’s produced about the infamous Waco siege HERE.

Also, stay tuned to our social media for a special announcement!

Music is from Triune Digital and audio clips pulled from movies we will be reviewing in other episodes.

Artwork by @jannelle_o