Tom Hanks has defended Forrest Gump against claims that the 1994 film is a throwback to a bygone era that didn't deserve to win an Oscar over Pulp Fiction.
Tom Hanks defends Forrest Gump against claims that Pulp Fiction should have won Best Picture.
When Tom Hanks starred in a passionate picture about a man's journey through American history, it became an unexpected hit, collecting $678 million in 1994.
In addition, it won the Academy Award for Best Picture, edging out Quentin Tarantino's seminal crime drama Pulp Fiction.
Before the Academy Awards, Tarantino's picture had already won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1994.
It was Hanks' rousing and poignant drama, not Tarantino's edgy and post-modern hit-man flick, that received the major prize at the Oscars.
In addition to being contentious at the time, moviegoers still dispute fiercely to this day that Tarantino's groundbreaking film deserved to win over the popular and perhaps even blatantly deceptive film Forrest Gump..
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Actor Hanks, on the other hand, is well aware of the criticisms leveled against Forrest Gump and in support of Pulp Fiction.
A recent New York Times article revealed that Tom Hanks went out of his way to defend the film against Tarantino fans who reject it as "boomer nostalgia".
According to the performer:
" The problem with “Forrest Gump” is it made a billion dollars. If we’d just made a successful movie, Bob and I would have been geniuses. But because we made a wildly successful movie, we were diabolical geniuses. Is it a bad problem to have? No, but there’s books of the greatest movies of all time, and “Forrest Gump” doesn’t appear because, oh, it’s this sappy nostalgia fest. Every year there’s an article that goes, “The Movie That Should Have Won Best Picture” and it’s always “Pulp Fiction.” “Pulp Fiction” is a masterpiece without a doubt. Look, I don’t know, but there is a moment of undeniable heartbreaking humanity in “Forrest Gump” when Gary Sinise — he’s playing Lieutenant Dan — and his Asian wife walk up to our house on the day that Forrest and Jenny get married. "
That iconic "magic legs" moment, where Forrest, who had a twisted spine and had to wear "magic legs," meets his amputee buddy Lieutenant Dan (Gary Sinise) with prosthetic limbs and can't control his joy, is what Hanks is referring to here.
By uttering "magic legs" and "Lieutenant Dan," Forrest's utterance reveals "everything that they had gone through and makes the spectator grateful for every ounce of agony and tragedy that they endured."
It's "intangible s—t," he argues, and "is not simply jogging along to Duane Eddy's 'Rebel Rouser,'" he continues.
Despite what the phrase "boomer nostalgia" implies, Tom Hanks is right when he says Forrest Gump has the power to impact an audience on a deeper level.
Nevertheless, his argument is unlikely to dissuade admirers of Pulp Fiction, who feel that it is considerably more inventive and hip, and ultimately had a far bigger effect on the art of filmmaking.
Even if Pulp Fiction is likely to have had a bigger impact on other directors, Forrest Gump is undeniably a cultural classic that continues to affect mainstream culture.
While Forrest Gump was universally adored, Pulp Fiction attracted cinephiles and admirers of all things hip and indie at the time (1994).
And, of course, the Oscars nearly always favor films that appeal to a broad audience over those that are more specialized.
In the previous 30 years, one thing hasn't changed:
