Paramount Pictures released the classic Academy Award-winning Forrest Gump on June 12, 2018 for the first time on 4K UHD Blu-ray – Here is my review:
Experience FORREST GUMP in stunning high definition, accompanied by over two hours of dynamic bonus features. Tom Hanks gives an astonishing performance as Forrest, an everyman whose simple innocence comes to embody a generation. Alongside his mamma (Sally Field), his best friend Bubba (Mykelti Williamson), and his favorite girl Jenny (Robin Wright), Forrest has a ringside seat for the most memorable events of the second half of the 20th century. Winner of six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director (Robert Zemeckis), and Best Actor (Tom Hanks), FORREST GUMP remains one of the great movie triumphs of all time.
Review
I haven’t seen Forrest Gump in its entirety in well over a decade and I know the film gets a lot of heat for “trying too hard” to be this epic Oscar bait, but that’s bullshit. Forrest Gump is and always has been a masterpiece. It’s hilarious. It’s moving. It’s beautiful and thought-provoking. What I didn’t pay attention to the first time I saw it in theaters back in 1994 was the gorgeous cinematography by Don Burgess (he won an Oscar for it though, so at least the Academy was paying attention). In this new 4K Blu-ray, the shots looked stunning. From the quiet moments of Forrest and Jenny sitting in a tree while the sun sets, to the jaw-dropping sequence when Forrest is saving his fellow soldiers and running out of the jungle while bombs drop behind him – this movie easily has some of the most stunning set pieces and camera work of any film ever made.
Tom Hanks has never been better – ever and supporting performances by Robin Wright, Sally Field, Mykelti Williamson and especially Gary Sinise who also delivers the acting tour de force of his career, are all spectacular and dare I say even better than you probably remember. Forrest Gump came out the same year as my favourite movie of all time – Pulp Fiction. It swiped up all the awards and attention, but even I can’t deny that it deserved whatever it got and still does. I don’t understand the haters of Robert Zemeckis’ film. Forrest Gump still stands up, especially now in such a hard political climate. Whenever a 4K Blu-ray comes out of a classic film we all should stop and pay attention because these are the best representations of those movies outside the theater and this is no different.
Special Features
There’s an entire regular blu-ray of special features included here, meaning you get a ton of bang for your buck. When you think of Forrest Gump you probably don’t consider just how important the visual effects were in the movie, but they had some groundbreaking shots in the film. From removing Gary Sinise’s legs and editing Tom Hanks into these historical shots using actual footage from the era, there’s a lot of fascinating insight into how they pulled that off in an early 90’s film.
- Commentary with Robert Zemeckis, Steve Starkey and Rick Carter
- Commentary with Wendy Finerman
- Musical Signposts to History
- Greenbow Diary
- The Art of Screenplay Adaptation
- Getting Past Impossible – Forrest Gump And The Visual Effects Revolution
- Little Forrest
- An Evening With Forrest Gump
- The Magic of Makeup
- Through The Ears of Forrest Gump – Sound Design
- Building The World Of Gump-Production Design
- Seeing Is Believing – The Visual Effects Of Forrest Gump
- Screen Tests
Rating: [star rating=”5″]