Robert Zemeckis (of Back to the Future fame) has collected another feather for his cap with his direction of this movie starring Tom Hanks as this childishly naive idiot savant. Though that description of Forrest Gump might be inadequate. Gump, gifted with a low IQ which lets him be adorably childlike even as he grows up, leads a very charmed life: a mother who loves him immensely and who sleeps with the school principal in order to make sure her child has the best education, a miraculous incident that eliminates the need for him to have braces for his legs, a childhood girlfriend who remains faithful to him till the end, surviving Vietnam with a medal, and, in general, a propensity for turning everything that happens to him into good. I wonder what the movie is trying to say.



From one perspective, it implies that intelligence (as measured by IQs and the general idea of what "smart" is) is a very unnecessary trait. But I think one can look beyond that and say that childlike innocence, which can be considered stupid, has its rewards. Throughout the movie, Gump is in situations where he is harassed by other people but he never takes offense (except, of course, when his girl Jenny is being abused) at any of the insults thrown at him. He is indeed not completely stupid, even though he is portrayed as such, since he can re-assemble guns at high speed, run like crazy, play ping-pong like a maniac, and so on. The fact that Gump doesn't take offense, I think, is what keeps him content.