Editing Forrest Gump (section)

=== Critical reception ===
{{Rotten Tomatoes prose|score=75|count=158|average=7.80|consensus=Tom Hanks' rigorously earnest performance keeps ''Forrest Gump'' sincere even when it gets glib with American history, making for a whimsical odyssey of debatable wisdom but undeniable heart.|ref=yes |access-date=February 4, 2025}} At the website [[Metacritic]], the film earned a rating of 82 out of 100 based on 21 reviews by mainstream critics, indicating "universal acclaim".<ref name="Metacritic">{{cite web|url=http://www.metacritic.com/movie/forrest-gump|title=''Forrest Gump'' Reviews|publisher=[[CBS Interactive]]|work=[[Metacritic]]|access-date=March 1, 2018|archive-date=May 14, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210514054429/https://www.metacritic.com/movie/forrest-gump|url-status=live}}</ref> Audiences polled by [[CinemaScore]] gave the film a rare "A+" grade.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://hollywoodreporter.com/news/why-cinemascore-matters-box-office-225563|title=Why CinemaScore Matters for Box Office|author=Pamela McClintock|work=[[The Hollywood Reporter]]|date=August 19, 2011|access-date=September 14, 2016|archive-date=April 26, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140426043610/http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/why-cinemascore-matters-box-office-225563|url-status=live}}</ref>

The story was commended by several critics. [[Roger Ebert]] of the ''[[Chicago Sun-Times]]'' wrote, "I've never met anyone like Forrest Gump in a movie before, and for that matter I've never seen a movie quite like 'Forrest Gump.' Any attempt to describe him will risk making the movie seem more conventional than it is, but let me try. It's a comedy, I guess. Or maybe a drama. Or a dream. The screenplay by [[Eric Roth]] has the complexity of modern fiction...The performance is a breathtaking balancing act between comedy and sadness, in a story rich in big laughs and quiet truths...What a magical movie."<ref name="EbertReview">{{cite news |last=Ebert |first=Roger |author-link=Roger Ebert |title=Forrest Gump |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/forrest-gump-1994 |work=[[Chicago Sun-Times]] |date=July 6, 1994 |access-date=March 31, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100620132326/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F19940706%2FREVIEWS%2F407060301%2F1023 |archive-date=June 20, 2010 |url-status=live }}</ref> Todd McCarthy of ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' wrote that the film "has been very well worked out on all levels, and manages the difficult feat of being an intimate, even delicate tale played with an appealingly light touch against an epic backdrop."<ref name="VarietyReview">{{cite news |last=McCarthy |first=Todd |title=Forrest Gump |url=https://variety.com/review/VE1117487968/ |work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |date=July 10, 1994 |access-date=October 20, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110729083909/http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=Variety100&reviewid=VE1117487968&content=jump&jump=review&category=1935&cs=1 |archive-date=July 29, 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref> In contrast, [[Anthony Lane]] of ''[[The New Yorker]]'' called the film "Warm, wise, and wearisome as hell."<ref name="NYorkerReview">{{cite news |last=Lane |first=Anthony |author-link=Anthony Lane |title=Forrest Gump |url=http://www.newyorker.com/arts/reviews/film/forrest_gump_zemeckis |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |access-date=October 20, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081218211414/http://www.newyorker.com/arts/reviews/film/forrest_gump_zemeckis |archive-date=December 18, 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Owen Gleiberman]] of ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' said that the film was "glib, shallow, and monotonous" and "reduces the tumult of the last few decades to a virtual-reality theme park: a baby-boomer version of [[Disney's America]]."<ref name="EWReviewC">{{cite magazine |last=Gleiberman |first=Owen |title=Forrest Gump (1994) |url=https://ew.com/article/1994/07/15/forrest-gump/ |magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]] |date=July 15, 1994 |access-date=October 20, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101104074440/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,302943,00.html |archive-date=November 4, 2010 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Gump garnered comparisons to fictional character [[Huckleberry Finn]], as well as U.S. politicians [[Ronald Reagan]], [[Pat Buchanan]] and [[Bill Clinton]].<ref name="GumpHuck">{{cite news |last=Hinson |first=Hal |title=Forrest Gump, Our National Folk Zero |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/review97/fforrestgump1.htm |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=August 14, 1994 |access-date=October 20, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140521095922/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/review97/fforrestgump1.htm |archive-date=May 21, 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="GumpClinton">{{cite news |last=Rich |first=Frank |title=The Gump From Hope |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/21/opinion/journal-the-gump-from-hope.html |work=The New York Times |date=July 21, 1994 |access-date=October 20, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110801011242/http://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/21/opinion/journal-the-gump-from-hope.html |archive-date=August 1, 2011 |url-status=live  }}</ref><ref name="WorldTime">{{cite news |last=Corliss |first=Richard |author2=Julie Grace |author3=Martha Smilgis |title=The World According to Gump |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,981196-2,00.html |magazine=Time |date=August 1, 1994 |access-date=October 20, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110731152338/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,981196-2,00.html |archive-date=July 31, 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Albert|first=Tim|title='The Ideas Made It, But I Didn't'|url=https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/04/22/pat-buchanan-trump-president-history-profile-215042|work=Politico|date=June 2017|access-date=November 26, 2018|archive-date=June 29, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210629191411/https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/04/22/pat-buchanan-trump-president-history-profile-215042/|url-status=live}}</ref> Peter Chomo writes that Gump acts as a "social mediator and as an agent of redemption in divided times".<ref name="WangStruggle">{{cite journal|last=Wang|first=Jennifer Hyland|title="A Struggle of Contending Stories": Race, Gender, and Political Memory in Forrest Gump|journal=Cinema Journal|pages=92–102|volume=39|issue=3|date=Spring 2000|doi=10.1353/cj.2000.0009|jstor=1225535|s2cid=144899487 |id={{ProQuest|222244908}}}}</ref> [[Peter Travers]] of ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' called Gump "everything we admire in the American character – honest, brave, and loyal with a heart of gold."<ref name="RollStone">{{cite news|last=Travers|first=Peter|author-link=Peter Travers|title=Forrest Gump|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/movie/5948073/review/5948074/forrest_gump|magazine=[[Rolling Stone]]|date=December 8, 2000|access-date=July 3, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080622125023/http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/movie/5948073/review/5948074/forrest_gump |archive-date=June 22, 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref> ''[[The New York Times]]'' reviewer Janet Maslin called Gump a "hollow man" who is "self-congratulatory in his blissful ignorance, warmly embraced as the embodiment of absolutely nothing."<ref name="MaslinGump">{{cite news |last=Burr |first=Ty |title=Loss of innocence: 'Forrest Gump' at 10 |url=http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2004/06/20/loss_of_innocence_forrest_gump_at_10/ |work=[[The Boston Globe]] |date=June 20, 1994 |access-date=October 20, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120113071954/http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2004/06/20/loss_of_innocence_forrest_gump_at_10/ |archive-date=January 13, 2012 |url-status=live |quote=Film critic Pauline Kael came out of retirement to bash the film on a book tour; by year's end, New York Times reviewer Janet Maslin had gone from mildly praising the film in her initial review to putting it on her worst of 1994 list, describing Forrest as a "hollow man" who's 'self-congratulatory in his blissful ignorance, warmly embraced as the embodiment of absolutely nothing.'  }}</ref> Marc Vincenti of ''[[Palo Alto Weekly]]'' called the character "a pitiful stooge taking the pie of life in the face, thoughtfully licking his fingers."<ref name="PaloAltoGump">{{cite news|last=Vincenti |first=Marc |title=Forrest Gump |url=http://www.paloaltoonline.com/movies/reviews/Forrest-Gump?review_id=655 |work=[[Palo Alto Weekly]] |date=August 1994 |access-date=October 20, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110616021948/http://www.paloaltoonline.com/movies/reviews/Forrest-Gump?review_id=655 |archive-date=June 16, 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Bruce Kawin and [[Gerald Mast]]'s textbook on film history notes that Forrest Gump's dimness was a metaphor for glamorized nostalgia in that he represented a blank slate onto which the [[Baby Boomer generation]] projected their memories of those events.<ref name="mastshort">{{cite book|last=Mast|first=Gerald|title=A Short History of the Movies: 10th Edition|year=2007|publisher=Longman|location=London}}</ref>