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The Fandom Portals Podcast
Forrest Gump (1994) Staying True to Yourself When the World Shifts | Becoming your True Self
Summary
In our 50th episode, Aaron and Brash explore the themes of authenticity and personal values through the lens of the film 'Forrest Gump.' They discuss how staying true to oneself amidst life's challenges can lead to personal growth and meaningful relationships. This conversation delves into the complex relationship dynamics between Forrest and Jenny in 'Forrest Gump', exploring themes of trauma, love, and emotional intelligence.
Theme Arc: Becoming your True Self
Takeaways
- Authenticity is crucial in navigating life's challenges.
- Forrest Gump exemplifies the importance of core values.
- Friendship and loyalty are central themes in the film.
- Character development is influenced by personal experiences.
- Facing adversity can lead to personal growth.
- The influence of parental guidance shapes values.
- Love can be complex and multifaceted.
- Resilience is key to overcoming obstacles.
- Understanding others' struggles fosters compassion.
- Jenny's acceptance of love is often tied to her past experiences with abuse.
- Forrest's simplicity contrasts with Jenny's complex emotional struggles.
- Jenny's fear of genuine love leads her to reject Forrest repeatedly.
- The film illustrates the patterns of trauma in relationships.
- Forrest's emotional intelligence is evident in his interactions with Jenny.
- Jenny's journey reflects the struggle to overcome past trauma.
Chapters
00:00 The Power of Authenticity
04:31 Forrest Gump: A Journey of Values
08:18 Lessons from Forrest's Relationships
12:32 Navigating Life's Challenges
16:45 The Impact of Core Values
21:16 Lieutenant Dan's Transformation
26:54 Humor and Connection in 'Forrest Gump'
28:58 Facing Grief and Trauma
30:58 The Power of Authenticity and Values
32:27 Listening and Empathy in Relationships
35:22 Friendship and Loyalty
38:25 Understanding Jenny's Struggles
42:07 The Complexity of Love and Protection
51:51 The Complexity of Love and Truth
52:18 Running as a Metaphor for Healing
53:20 Facing the Past to Move Forward
55:26 The Journey of Self-Discovery
57:16 The Dichotomy of Jenny and Forrest
01:00:04 The Impact of Choices on Relationships
01:03:06 The Power of Unconditional Love
01:06:48 Celebrating Milestones and Gratitude
Apple Tags
Forrest Gump, authenticity, values, character development, friendship, life lessons, resilience, love, adversity, personal growth, Forrest Gump, Jenny, emotional intelligence, trauma, relationships, love, protective instincts, f
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What if the best thing that you can be, no matter how much the world changes around you, is yourself? Do we forget the power of our values in a world that begs us to compromise? And is authenticity the best thing to carry us through life's darkest moments? In this episode, you'll learn how Forrest Gump from 1994 shows us that staying true to your values in a changing world is worth more than fitting in as someone that you're not. Welcome to the Phantom Portals Podcast, the podcast that explores how fandoms and film can help us learn and grow. I'm Aaron, a teacher, and a lifelong film fan, and each week on the podcast we explore the stories we love to learn more about ourselves and the world that shapes us. Today I'm joined, as always, by my co-host Brash. Ah, Bubba. He calls me that because I'm his best friend. But this episode, as you heard, we are definitely doing Forest Gump made in 1994. But before we dive into anything like that, this is our 50th episode. Of 50 episodes, man, I'm like, that's a long milestone to get to 50 episodes as a podcaster. Statistically speaking, some podcasters don't get to like past the 10 episode mark, and then even less it gets to the 25. So happy to be on this journey with you, man. And 50 episodes strong. Here we go.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, well, hopefully 50 plus more.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, 50 plus more. With that being said, as well, this 50th episode, I want to dedicate this one to my mum because, you know, Forrest Gump loves his mum. But also, this movie, Forrest Gump, was recommended to me and shown to me by my mum. And I said, Mum, what do you want us to do for our 50th episode? Because she watches everything that we put in YouTube and also listens on the podcast. She's a big supporter. So I thought, we'll do this one for you, Mum. And she picked Forest Gump. And I don't, I think this is like one of her second favorite movies or something like that, but I am 100% certain that this is one of my favorite movies of all time. So there's a little glimpse into like some bias that you might hear through this episode, ladies and gentlemen that are listening, because I'm definitely a big fan of this movie. It holds a special place in my heart. So just keep that in your brain as you're listening to me talk about this one too. So this one is indeed Forrest Gump made in 1994. Brash, do you want to tell us what happens in this amazing and awesome movie?
SPEAKER_00:Sure, I can do that. Lovely. So Forrest Gump is the story of a kind-hearted but simple man whose life, though marked by chance and circumstance, becomes a journey of quiet personal growth and integrity. Born in Alabama with a low IQ and leg braces. Forrest faces mockery and hardship early in his life, yet his mother teaches him there is no difference from anyone else. Planting the seeds of his lifelong optimism and perseverance. As he grows, Forrest earnestness leads him into extraordinary experiences, becoming a football star, serving bravely in Vietnam, starting successful shrimp business, and inadvertently influencing major historical moments. Throughout it all, Forrest's defining trait is that unwavering sincerity. He approaches life with the across cynicism or calculation, following his heart and doing what he feels right. His growth isn't intellectual or strategic, it's emotional and moral. He learns about love, loss, and purpose through his devotion to his mother. His friendships with Lieutenant Dan Bubba and his lifelong love for Jenny. By the end, Forrest has transformed from a boy who simply runs through life to a man who understands its complexities, accepting both joy and sorrow with grace. His story illustrates that true wisdom often lies not in intellect, but in kindness, resilience, and the courage to keep going.
SPEAKER_01:That was the best summary of Forest Gump that I've ever heard. Well done, Brash. Thank you. With that, ladies and gentlemen listening, we are doing this movie because one, Mama recommended it. But two, this is our last movie that we're doing in the theme arc that we've been investigating so far on becoming your true self. And our sort of most valuable takeaway that we're looking at, or the lesson we're looking at for this one, is that staying true to your core values in a changing world is worth more than fitting in as someone that you're not. So I think that's rife through this Forest Gump movie, and it's very much exemplified by the synopsis that you just gave, Brad. But before we dive into anything to do with our MVT and some of the scenes and amazing moments of this movie that teach us that lesson, let's give us your opening thoughts. What's your your go-to thoughts when it comes to Forest Gump? Extremely quota. Absolutely. Funnily enough, I find myself quoting Forrest Gump like when it first came out and I first saw it, and probably more frequently after every rewatch, but I probably quote Forrest Gump at least once a week. Maybe more. Easily.
SPEAKER_00:I see someone running and I'm like, run, Forest, run. Like every time without fail. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01:I say like peas and carrots. We're like peas and carrots. I say that all the time. The way that I say I love you to Kalia is I love you. Like I'll say in that sort of accent. Also, everybody, during this episode, you probably will hear some bad Forest Gump accents. We're not saying sorry for those.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:You'll just have to deal with it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's that's true. Because you can't, you can't quote Forrest Gump without trying to sound like Forrest Gump.
SPEAKER_01:The thing that I quote the most from Forrest Gump is like, that's all I have to say about that. I say that all the time when a conversation reached a natural end. It's just like the funniest thing to say. Well, it's unintentional now. It just comes as like a brain thing that you remember. But you know, there's also I may not be a smart man, but I don't know what that is. Or I yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, well, another one of mine's when he's in Vietnam, and I do it all the time, especially like when I used to work on the tools, and like if I ever got like hurt myself, like got like if I cut my leg or something like that, or if I got like I'm grinding something a bit of metal like sticks in my arm or something like that, I'll always be like, I'd I'd say two one of two things. I'd be like, I hurt myself, or or I'd be like, ow, something bit me. That's the two I use all the time. I just I just love that like that's like probably like one of my favourite scenes in that whole time movie, purely because as he narrates what happens, it then cuts to the scene and he just says the exact same thing he just says he's like oh it felt like it was just a thing, he's like because he had like bubble on his no, you had Lieutenant Dan dang on his shoulders, yeah, yeah. Like the narrator, which is him, he's like, and then um, and then it felt like something just jumped up and bit me, and then it cuts to this like and you watch it, and then it comes back to like the sound of that, and then he hears she getting shot in the arse. He's like, Oh, something bit me. Like, oh, that just stands me every time.
SPEAKER_01:That's a thing which happens throughout the movie. They've done that like intentionally, even like the way Forrest is narrating, he he does it when his mum says stuff too. So when he comes back to home after his ping pong adventure, he goes, While I was away, mama had lots of visitors, and then it cuts over and says, Forrest, while you're away, we had lots of visitors. Like it just it does that the whole time.
SPEAKER_00:So yeah, it's like, yeah, because he's so simple, yeah. So simple, and just like just he he's so because he's just so literal with everything. Yeah, yeah. So like if someone literally tells him something, the way he describes it is literally how they told him.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly. And even like some of the advice that his mum gives him all the time, like you know, stupid is as stupid does, that comes out very often. It's almost like he is so true, as our theme marker is talking about now, he's so true to his core values and the lessons that he's learnt and the wisdom that's been imparted to his mother that he carries that through every single episode or season of his life, which is why we kind of picked this movie because our previous ones have been talking about characters that are in development and they're trying to get to and reach their true self or their true potential, like Walter Middle was. Whereas Forrest Gump, he developed his core values at a very young age and he carried them through almost every aspect of his life. Not like he was locked in like a childhood state, but he did change and grow over time. But his core values of like loyalty and kindness and love stuck the whole time throughout his whole life.
SPEAKER_00:It's just just same values for the whole like nothing, even though there was things there that tried to tempt him away from his normal core values, he always stuck with them.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and turn and like reframed himself or his situation to go back to those core values as well, or reframe the situation around him so he could exemplify those core values that he had. So one thing that initial thought for me as well when I watched this movie Young was that it was one of my favorites to start with, insanely quotable, but it was also one that sort of made me feel like it was a heartfelt movie, that it was warm. It always makes me cry. I've seen it like more than 10 times and I've cried every time, sometimes at the same places, sometimes at different points. But also, a rewatch when you were young to now, it sort of hits me different in terms of the way I view characters, and I think we'll get into it a little bit more later, but just to touch on it, for example, there is a large community out there of people that watch Forrest Gum that really don't like the character of Jenny because of how much he she like is seen to take advantage of Forrest, for example. And I know that you're one of them. But I love you, Jenny. Yeah. So I think when I first watched it, and definitely through my teenage years, I was like, what an absolute horrid person. But watching it like for the last few times as an adult, you kind of get to see, and I think everybody does as well, the reasoning behind a lot of Jenny's actions. So one of my initial thoughts was that it's it ages well, but there's more that you can see through it when you re-watch it a second, third, fourth, or fifth time at different points in your life.
SPEAKER_00:Like for him, Jenny was the one. There was no other one, like there may be other girls between outside when Jenny wasn't there. But for Forrest, there was only one person in this world that he loved probably more than as much as his mother. Yeah. More than my and that was Jenny. And I think that's one of the things that has stuck with me with my life. Yeah. I think like there's one person for everyone else, that's the one for me. There have been others because we were never together or anything like that, but there's always just been the one, and that's that's it. It's like that moment where you like, I think the same moment with Forrest is moment like the first time she steps on the bus, and you just bang in love, and it's just uh the same thing for me. Like, seeing bang, that was it. That was it for me.
SPEAKER_01:I was done, cooked, toast. Exactly. It's it's a really good scene in that moment, too, because it's sort of you can hear in Tom Hanks's narration how enamored he is by that situation. Like he says, I remember the bus ride the first day of school very well, and he goes, you know, it's funny what a man can recollect. He doesn't remember his first Christmas or when he was born, but or his outdoor first outdoor picnic, but I do remember the first time I heard the sweetest voice in the whole wide world, and that was obviously Jenny. And I think that the reason that he liked her and attached to her so much was because as she sort of chose him and saw him after everyone else sort of rejected him, he sort of sat down on that bus next to Jenny, and she would ask him questions and he would answer the questions like that. And nobody he's even said, you know, nobody ever asked me questions or was interested in my life before that, except for mum. And just through that human connection that he had, he realized that she had like a beautiful soul from just from seeing her in that way. Like people can look at somebody and feel particular connection, but he he felt that and then went even further and just investigated her as a person as who she was, not who she, like not what her background was or anything like that, but they sort of connected on that very human level. So I think that that was a really sort of well-played out scene. And I also think it's synonymous with things that happen in the rest of this movie because in lots of different social situations, Forrest is like shunned from lots of different parts of society, but he kind of finds the people and the places where his core values loved for one, but also where his strengths and his skills can allow him to flourish. So that's sort of like the start of this movie where he meets her on the bus. But I think it's also an allegory for the rest of his life. But one thing I will say before we move on from this is this movie when I watched it when I was like 10 or 11 years old when I first saw it, it actually taught me like the chronology to some American history things that I didn't even know about before. Like whenever I think about something that happened in American history now, I think back to the order that it happened in Forest Gump because I'm like, when did that happen? Was that before or after the VM Vietnam War or and just sort of presidential runs as well? So I'm like, who came before or who came after? I remember that through remembering Forrest Gump and you know, the order in which for no particular reason somebody shot that nice man. Yeah. So I think the biggest question this one raised for me when I watched it this time is the question of like everybody is calling like Forrest an idiot or stupid, but he always sort of comes out on top. So it raises the question for me like, what is an idiot really when you're looking at it? And especially during those times in America where everything was kind of changing and everybody was attaching themselves to various different sort of facets and lots of information was coming at people, and there was extremists on either side of it. It's like who like what is what is an idiot here? Are we talking about somebody that sort of follows a coup or a crowd, or are we talking about someone that sort of stands true to their values and makes their way through these tumultuous seas? So I think it's very philosophical, this movie for one, but also I think it's very thought-provoking as well.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, because it's hard to define, like it makes it hard to define what an idiot is after watching Forrest Gump.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. Because, you know, you can call him an idiot all you want, but he's like, he's got more money than David Crockett. So he's he's happy on his lawmower. And you know, he's he's stuck to those core values all his life, and that's what sort of got him into this space. Right. So our MVT for this week is obviously that staying true to your values in a changing world is worth more than fitting in as someone that you're not. And through this movie, we're reminded that Forrest used his integrity and his authenticity as an anchor when everything else around him is shifting and changing, especially through like American history between the 50s and the 70s when this movie is set. So his success, his love, his relationships, it's all followed by meaning and it's like blended into all of these historical events that happen. But he kind of learns that standing firm in who he is is the biggest key in his happiness for one. And that doesn't mean like bad things don't happen to him, but as they do, he's able to navigate his way through them by leaning on who he knows that he is. So life's changes are inevitable, but his values and how he fits into this world and how he sees himself in this world is a fixed sort of point. And when the world bends, it's sort of and everybody around him does bend to meet his sincerity as well, which is one of the things that I loved about this movie too, is that every character that Forrest is introduced to is sort of changed through meeting him.
SPEAKER_00:And and I think one of my favorite parts of him just just sort of going with the flow and just being a part of it is when he first joins the army.
SPEAKER_01:Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Like the Jewel Sarge is yelling at everyone, and then he goes to Gump and he's like, uh, what's your sole reason of being in? He's like, to listen to what you have to tell me, and he's like, Yeah, goddamn that's the best answer I've ever heard. You must have an IQ of 160.
SPEAKER_01:It's like I think that's that's a really good point because that's that goes back to him having like that core value of knowing what his strengths are, and he knows that he's really good, or he finds out that he's really good at doing things where there's one goal and one operation. So, because he even says, you know, when he joins the army, I I really like joining the army. It was like a like a round peg fitting in a round hole. All you have to do all the time is, you know, keep your make your bed, keep your place clean. And every time somebody asks you a question, you always answer it with yes, drill sergeant, and then other times he cuts to when he's when he says yes, drill sergeant. But yeah, and it's like is that clear, yes, drill sergeant. Absolutely. So I think that in this sort of instance as well, it plays to his strengths where he doesn't really get social context, like Forrest doesn't really get social context when it comes to all of the things that are happening around him, because when he tells Jenny he's going to Vietnam, he's like, it's his whole other country, like he doesn't understand why the war is happening, he just knows he has to go there. But if he has like a one-track mind and one job, he does it to almost perfection. And again, it occurs when he goes and plays ping pong, because when he gets taught ping pong, the guy that teaches him says, All you have to do, the most important thing of ping pong is you never take your eyes off the ball, and you watch as he moves the ball, Forrest like locks in and he moves and watches the ball as well, and then he's literally a genius and an amazing person at ping pong too. And then again, when he starts mowing the lawn, he cuts that grass so perfectly because it's literally one item, one job, one thing to do that he's just really good at. He finds himself that he's got tactile intelligence, he's good with his hands. If it's got a simple operation, like he plays towards his strengths and he doesn't try to be anything that he's not in that space to. So ping pong. We have to do is return the ball, hit it once it's got hit back.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and like and the fact that he's so nonchalant or like he's uh when um Lieutenant Dang's like, um Lieutenant Dang got me invested in some kind of fruit company. I was full of Apple because Apple and so he's like, so um, I got a call from him saying we don't have to worry about money no more.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think that simplicity of him and and you know what actually pointed it out to me the most was when he was talking about all of the people that kind of got shot, and he'd say, you know, for no particular reason at all at all, somebody shot that nice man. And that tells me that like he doesn't he doesn't base people's value on who they are, like there was a president or uh Elvis Presley had a heart attack in in the movie as well. Like he doesn't base people's value on what they are or what they do. He looks at who they were as a person, and that's sort of one of the defining values of Forrest as well. Like he doesn't get that social context, but at the same time, he's got this simple view of people instead of broader society, which also seems to cause a lot of conflict in the movie and in human history, because you'll notice that Forrest does navigate his way through lots of different conflicts, like bullying at school, and then obviously in the army through America's involvement with Vietnam. And then when he comes back from Vietnam, he's even in conflicts there where there's protesting happening. Like he's happy to be home, but there's even a fight on the homeland in terms of America where there's lots of protesting, and then he interrupts the Black Panther Party, and then there's that sort of racial war that's occurring. So he's always in these spaces of conflict, but he's kind of oblivious to it because he's just seeing people as people, and he's just sort of working through different sort of social situations as best he can by leaning on his values of like honesty and integrity and personal recognition of people where he can and love as well that was instilled by his mum. I think that was definitely very important in terms of Forrest's navigation through America. I think it's like his values definitely came from his mum at an early age.
SPEAKER_00:I was just thinking, like, one of the values that his mum taught him that probably made like made him such a great person and not a selfish or and a generous person was when he does get all that money and he quotes something that his mom said, and he's like, Mama said there was only so much fortune a man really needs, and the rest is just showing off. And then he gives like all the money to the hospital, to the um church, and to Bubba's mum. And it's like, I mean, I gave some money to Bubba's mum and now she doesn't have to work in someone's kitchen anymore. Yeah, so it just like just shows like and all of all of all of his mum's words of wisdom were always just just simple like simple things that realistically everyone should just easily be able to follow. Yeah, exactly. Just be nice to people.
SPEAKER_01:It definitely shows that he's he's like a very charitable person, too. Because I think even he said in that narration, you know, even though Lieutenant Dan said that I was crazy to give uh Bubba's mum his half, he still did it. And that also goes to show like it that that simple scene shows a lot about his character because it shows that you know he made a promise, and he says a promise is a promise when he's talking to Lieutenant Dan about how he's gonna start a shrimping boat business, like he said to Bubba, he'd go 50-50. But then that also rubs off on Lieutenant Dan, who's a very cynical man as well. But he eventually says, you know, if you become a shrimp boating captain, then I will be your first mate and I'll be an astronaut. Like he's so disbelieving of him, but then because he spends lots and lots of time with Forrest, his values start to rub off on Lieutenant Dan, and you do see that he follows through with that word as well. One of the biggest transformations in the movie, and one of my favorite characters is Lieutenant Dan. We might hit him up a little bit later, but before we do, I wanted to jump back onto some of his mum's sort of values that he introduces early, because one of the first scenes that you see, he's obviously got those leg braces on when we're talking about young Forrest here, and he gets his legs sort of caught in that drain. And once he sort of is assisted out of the drain when lots of people are looking onto him, like laughing at him, his mum walks him down the street and says, Don't let anybody ever tell you that they're better than you, Forrest. If God intended everyone to be the same, he'd have put braces on everybody's legs. And then, you know, that sort of illustrates his mum's like sort of value that everybody needs to treat each other nicely, whether they're different or not. And you can see Forrest carries that through when he treats like Dan with no legs the same as he did with Dan when he had legs, but also the way that he treats Bubba and any other sort of normal-looking person as Bubba had like he was born with big gums. So physical difference or even like Jenny and her horrible background, he'll treat them just as nicely as he treats anybody else. And that's the value that his mum sort of instilled on him. And I think there's no truer line in the movie when Forrest's mum gets sick and she's got cancer, and she says, I just wanted to be a good, good mum to you, Forrest. And he says something like, Oh, you were a good mum. I think that's absolutely true. I think she's really good at instilling those values in. Because even in that scene when she's trying to get him into the school, and the principal says, Your son's different, and then she says something back to him in the in the something along the lines of well, what's normal mean anyway? Yeah. So that's a big philosophical question too, when you're talking about people. It's like what's normal and who are you to determine what normal is.
SPEAKER_00:So one of the other lines that go along with the legs, she was saying, uh, she was talking to for instance, she says you have to do the best with what get God gave you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like she's saying, like everyone's gonna everyone has everyone in the world at some point they're extremely lucky, which I doubt most people are, like will have some sort of adversity at some point in their lives, and you just have to do the best with what you got.
SPEAKER_01:And that's all you can do. And Forrest does carry that through as well, and he sort of questions it a little bit too because he's got like Lieutenant Dan in one of his ears talking to him about his destiny, and he's a staunch believer that he has this purpose, this mission, this path in life that has been led out towards him, and that is what his value is placed upon. It's the fact that his family and his ancestors, for as long as anybody can remember, have fought and died in every American war, and that's what he is going to do. And I want to talk about one of my favorite scenes of the movie now is when he's obviously lost his legs, like Dan's lost his legs, and they're in the hospital bed after the fact, and he's very depressed, like Dan is very depressed at the fact that he's no longer who he thought he was going to be. Like his ambition and his aspiration hadn't come to pass, and he feels like initially blames Forrest for stealing that from him. And there's that scene where he sort of rips Forrest out of the bed and he complains to him and says to him, like, what am I supposed to do now? There's that scene where he says, You cheated me, I had a destiny, I was supposed to die in the field with honor, and you cheated me out of it. He says, Do you understand what I'm saying, Gump? And he goes, This was not supposed to happen to me, I had a destiny. He said, I was supposed to be Lieutenant Dan Taylor. And then Forrest Gump hits him back with a very simple answer. He goes, You're still Lieutenant Dan. And on the surface, that seems like a really sort of simple response said by a very simple man, like, you're still Lieutenant Dan. And Forrest is like not intelligent enough to grasp the fact that, you know, he's wrestling with this ambiguous concept of destiny. But in actual fact, he said exactly what he needed at the time. Like, your value isn't in the fact that you don't have legs, it's the fact like that you're still the same person that you were, and you can move past this. He goes, So even without legs, it's like it can be played as like a really dumb retort and a lack of understanding, but I think there's a deeper meaning there that Forrest truly sees who he is as a person because his mother placed that value in him, or he had that value of being kind and seeing people's nature as opposed to what they can do. So I think that he places that value more on who he is and who he spends time with and what he loves about people. And I think Lieutenant Dan has one of the best arcs from a character in this story because he grows immensely from knowing Forrest.
SPEAKER_00:So whenever when I watched as a young kid, he was always like he was always my favorite because he was always fine. He was like, Yeah, yeah. But always got Gump's interactions with Lieutenant Dang, but always just so because Lieutenant Dang would try and go on some tangent, and Forrest Gump just always hits him and just like one-the liners just all the time and just completely shuts him down.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, yeah. All the time But I think another another quote that sort of Forrest is using very simple responses to to sort of fix Lieutenant Dan's situation is sort of during the time when they're spending the celebration and the holidays with each other in New York, Dan says to to Forrest Gump, you know, have you found Jesus yet, Gump? And then Forrest Gump replies with, I didn't know I was supposed to look at the game.
SPEAKER_02:No, I was supposed to look for him.
SPEAKER_01:And that's like it's so simple, and you think, oh, he doesn't really understand the question, but really like Forrest has always had a relationship with with God and Jesus, like he's a very faithful man, and so and his mother was too. So he's like, I'm not looking for Jesus because like I I I know where Jesus is, I I have a relationship with him all the time because he's very sure in the fact because he says later on in that same conversation, I'm going to heaven, Lieutenant Dan. And then Lieutenant Dan says back to him, Well, before you go there, get down to the store and get us another bottle of and he's just like, Yes, sir. And he goes and because he's in that old habit, you know, that he's he's his lieutenant. But I think that that's another example of the fact that Forrest is exactly what Lieutenant Dan needed in that point. He's almost like a grounding point and anchor to return Dan to his core values within himself and not worry about the external that is impressing its destiny, if you will, onto him. Like he had this expectation of what his life was going to be. And Dan obviously isn't going to live up to that, but Forrest was a good grounding tool to sort of help him realize what he could become now. And to finish off our arc on Lieutenant Dan, when they finally get onto the shrimping boat and they're in that storm, I think that whole shrimping boat sequence is you could look at it as an allegory for grief, really, because you know, at the start, they're Forrest is on his own. He's not really catching any sort of shrimp, but he's still persevering, which is another value that he has, is like perseverance and religion and resilience through tough times. And then Lieutenant Dan comes on with him, but eventually they go through that storm. And the storm can be synonymous with like any sort of trauma or any kind of bad thing that a character is going through. In this case, I think it's definitely the demons that Lieutenant Dan is facing, because before that, definitely very cynical, very much living off the government's tit, as he says, and just without a purpose and without a direction. He goes on this shrimping boat and he says, you know, Forrest says, we always used to follow Lieutenant Dan's feelings. He had a feeling that the shrimp would be over in the easterly direction, so that's where we went. But that's sort of how Dan was navigating his grief. He was just like, I feel like I should be doing this, so that's what I'm doing. But then he sort of consciously went ahead and sort of weathered the storm, faced it head on, like faced his his trauma and his grievance head on. And then in the end of it, it sort of says, you know, he what does Forrest say? No, Lieutenant Dan actually says in that moment, Forrest, I never actually thanked you for saving my life. Yeah. And then he jumps in the sea, which you could look at as him like letting go, and he starts floating as in ta letting nature take its course, or almost like the feather at the start of the movie, floating on the breeze. It's almost like he's let go of destiny and he's taking on that ideal that sometimes we're just a feather on the breeze, floating peacefully. And he said, you know, he never actually said so, but I think he made his peace with God at that moment. And from that point on, Dan's life kind of gets a bit better, you know. At the end of the movie, you see him walking again, which is something that he never thought he would do, and he's got his magic legs, and Forrester's extremely proud of him, and he's got a you know, a wife to be, and they get that. Sort of smug little look to each other. But I think that he he's he's very much a character that is influenced by Forrest's authenticity. And I think that Forrest is exactly what Dan needed is that reminder that, you know, leaning on those core values, who you are is what matters, not what you are. And it's good to have an ambition about what you want to be and what you want to do. But sometimes you also need to sort of let go and make the most of the opportunities that come your way.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And in his in that moment you talk about earlier, when his grief, when he first lost the use of his leg or lost his legs, in that tangent, he goes on with Forrest. I think uh it's probably a note to point out that one point of what he says is, do you know what it's like to live without legs? Yeah, yeah. And and so like Forrest doesn't bite back with anything, but like he kind of does. He had to wear their leg braces to stand to walk. But I think uh in that moment, I think Forrest, I think this is how brilliant he actually is. I think in that moment Forrest knew to be quiet and just listen and not sort of bite back or say anything or all that, he's just being sympathetic.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. He actually does that a lot through this movie because if you notice at the start of the movie, when Forrest is young, Jenny does all of the talking. Like they just and she just yammers and yammers, and he says, you know, I could listen to her all day, and he listens more than he speaks. And that's a really good value and trait to have when people are going through something as well. Sometimes they don't need you to fix it, sometimes they need you to listen to it. It's something that I'm definitely working on in my life because I'm a fixer. So if my partner comes to me with something that she's sort of worried about, I'll try to fix it. And sometimes she just doesn't need that, she just needs me to listen to her, and I've got to get better at sort of verbalizing what that is. But I I actually think that he he is really good at being a person who does listen to people's troubles and helps through the action of just like being himself and and being there for the people that he loves and showing them that genuine care and showing them that love as well. Because eventually, if you want to say it in a sort of crass way, that's how he sort of breaks sort of Jenny down and gets him to be in a relationship with Jenny, is he just keeps showing up for her. He keeps showing up for her in these moments, and he does the same thing to Lieutenant Dan, you know, gives him a job when he needs one, shows up for him in the holidays when he's down and out. And and Dan actually reciprocates that on occasion too, because if you remember the time when they were with the two ladies in the New Year's party, and he says, you know, sorry, I ruined your New Year's party, Lieutenant Dan, she tastes like cigarettes. But Dan Dan says, you know, don't call him stupid, don't ever call him stupid. And then Dan's called a loser and a freak for that by these ladies, and then which is his biggest fear, and then they leave. But Dan sort of stands up for Forrest in that moment, which is something he really don't expect him to do because Well, I think I think it's also because it's something he used to do as Forrest. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:There's a moment when he gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, and Lusan is like, they gave you a Congressional Medal of Honor, and he's like, They gave you an imbecile, a moron who goes on television and makes a fool of himself in front of the whole damn country, a Congressional Medal of Honor. And Forrest is just like, Yes, sir. Yeah, that's it. But then I think it's sort of like him, and then when the women like the women call him that, I think, and at that stage they've become really good friends. It's sort of I think it's sort of him trying to make amends for how he used to treat Forrest by sticking up for him and being there for him when people try and call him stupid. Same with like Jenny when Jenny does it too.
SPEAKER_01:And I think that it comes in that line that Forrest says during that scene where he goes, I guess Lieutenant Dan figured at that point there are just some things you can't change. Like he he didn't want to be called crippled and I didn't want to be called stupid. And and then after that, Lieutenant Dan sort of turns around to him and says, after the the party's dispersed and they're sort of sitting there alone in the room, he goes, you know, Happy New Year, Lieutenant, or Happy New Year Gump, or something, he says. And that to me symbolizes that Lieutenant Dan has started to then embrace a new beginning because that's what that's what the liners said earlier in the film. It's just like you can be anyone you want to be in New Year's, you can change anything you like. And I think that's that's the start of Lieutenant Dan's sort of shift and change because after that is when he he starts to show up for Forrest on the boat and he starts to actually base his demons and change in a good way as a result of the friendship that Forrest Gump has provided for him.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I think and Forrest is like the kind of friend that I think everyone really wants in a way. Like even looking at his relationship with Bubba before Bubba passed on, and how they're trying to sleep in the war, and they're sleeping back to back, and Mama's like, We should sleep back to back so we have to sleep with our head in the mud. And then he's like, you know what? I think we are like best friends, like brothers.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, he says that, doesn't he? He's like, Yeah, because we we always be looking out for each other, like brothers and stuff, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And then he's like, um, and then he goes on's like, Well, I'm gonna do a trip in business after this. You should join me. And then Foster's like, that sounds like a really good idea.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, he literally says, Okay. Yeah. I think that that's a really good point because he does sort of make that it seems to us, the audience, that he makes that decision really quickly because he just says, Okay, that sounds like a fine idea. Like you you should put more thought into business decisions like that, is what I thought when I watched it. But in the same respect, like he's spent a lot of time with Bubba, he's a very good judge of people's character as opposed to who they are and what they do. So I think that he knows that that's a really good decision, and it also shows again afterwards his loyalty and that sort of, you know, a promise is a promise, and he keeps those values carried forward through every aspect of Forrest's life. I think that it calls back as well when he's talking about Bubba being his brother. Remember when he's talking about how JFK was shot, and then a few years later, his brother was shot too in the hotel kitchen, and he says it must be hard being brothers. I don't know what that's like. So he's never had a brother, and then he finds one in Bubba and loses him. But then also at the start, he says, you know, he he didn't have a dad, like his dad took off on him, and he says he holds on to things too, because his mum says in the interview about the vacation, and then he asks his mum what's vacation, and his dad never sort of came back, and she says to him, you know, it's when you go away and you never come back. But in that respect, he kind of looks at Lieutenant Dan as like a father figure in that way, too. So he sees all these people that sort of feel this need for him, but he also feels a need for them as well, which I think is the important part that he carries what he has through this life to help these other people out, but he also finds people that fill the gaps in his as well to help them. I love it when Forrest says, after you know, that whole thing with Lieutenant Dan meeting him the first time, and you know, Lieutenant Dan says, Are you two twins? And he goes, No, we're not related. But he'll he says, you know, I sure hope I don't let him down. And that shows his compassion as well. Like Forrest Gump has this compassion that he's he's really looking to to help people out.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and well, I don't know if we want to move on, like sort of move towards this thing, but um uh speaking of helping people out. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Are we gonna talk about Jenny? Yeah. Okay, so before we talk about Jenny, let's just give a little disclosure to people. We're probably gonna talk about like different kinds of abuse, drug use, that kind of thing. So if that's a trigger for anybody, there's your your trigger warning. So yes, let's talk about Jenny now.
SPEAKER_00:So I know you've got some torts for people's admonishment for Jenny, and she's not one of my favourite characters, yes but I understand I understand Forest's view of it, but one of the ones that always and I know like that because I've I've seen this in my life as well, but the scene when Jenny's got that date and he and Foresting's just beats the shit out of him. Shit out of the Yeah, you mean the time in the car?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, and he sort of miscontrudes the situation, he's like, he had his hands on, you know, like that kind of thing. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And it's like, oh my he was hurting me if you say no, he wasn't. Yeah, yeah. Sort of ruins her sort of her date night, yeah, I guess you call it. But I think for Forrest is that he sort of always knew about her relationship with her dad. So seeing and he because it's simple and hasn't really experienced that kind of relationship or situation before, I think for him it sort of clicked in this protective protective because he's like, oh, there's a guy on top of Jenny, or like what her father had um done, what he she told him of her father, and sort of clicked in this fucking protective mode that he got misconstrued because Jenny was annoyed at first, but then sort of pretty much straight away forgives him.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. For I think that's a that's a good point because during that moment Jenny says, you know, he doesn't know any better. But I think Forrest does have a sort of history with knowing what Jenny has looked like in those sort of situations before, because they did spend a lot of time together in childhood. And he even says, you know, her father was a very loving man, but he's obviously misconstrued that in a sort of different manner. But I think protectiveness is one of his his core values as well, that he sort of he does that a lot in terms of that's why he runs back into the forest to save half of his platoon. That's why he always sort of goes after Jenny. And, you know, it's the same pattern with Jenny every single time. She'll be with a guy or some sort of relationship, and then they'll treat her like shit, and he'll come in and be protective of her. And Jenny will always sort of stand up for the other person and say, you know, he doesn't know any better, or she she will always kind of accept the abuser back in that way. And that's sort of her pattern of trauma where she she actually sees a genuine connection in Forest, and that scares her a lot because she's got this wound that says she's not really valuable, and in that way, she doesn't really want to accept any genuine and pure love that sort of Forrest is is giving her in that space. So she accepts the love she thinks she deserves from all these assholes, and in that way, she's sort of defending both herself, but she's also rejecting and retracting from from Forrest. But when they're in the in the door room, dorm room after that scene, it's another time where Forrest just completely disarms people with a very simple answer. Where Jenny's like, Do you ever dream about who you're gonna be, Forrest, you know, in the future? And then Forrest just says, Aren't I just gonna be me? And Jenny goes, No, no, no, you'll always be you, you'll just be like a different version of you. Like she's romanticising it, but Forrest is like, I'm just gonna be me. Yeah. But yeah, Jenny, Jenny wants to be that sort of famous and and seen on stage and all that kind of thing. But yeah, Forrest is.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And I think it's later on when when uh when he's like, I may not be a smart man, but I know what love is. I think that was him finally sort of sort of in a way standing, not so like I'd say standing up to Jenny's Yeah, he's sort of punching her idea that he's an idiot in space in in the space of like. Because in her Jenny's eyes, she probably sees that she's trying to protect him. But in reality, all she's doing is sort of putting him in a box and like and solidifying the fact that she also thinks that he's an idiot.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. And I think that's very apparent, yeah, through the movie.
SPEAKER_00:And and and it's always a way, and then Jenny comes up with excuses saying that, oh, I mean you're too good for me, right? And the whole time he's saying, Well, how do you know if you haven't tried? Yeah. And I that I think that's one of the things that annoys me the most about Jenny is is she to try like in her defending Forrest is also putting him down. And like the fact that that's just it's just it's just Jenny. It's just Jenny.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. It's uh it happens so much through the movie, and as I said before, continuous pattern. It's like when she's singing on that stage with a guitar and he goes in and he beats those people away, and then they walk across that bridge, and she says, You've got to stop doing this, Forrest, and he goes, I can't help it, I love you. And then Forrest like he realizes in that moment that people can be kind and cruel at the same time, like you were saying. Like, Jenny rejects any kind of connection that he sort of goes and puts toward her, and she runs whenever whenever Forrest gets close. So he literally just said, I can't help it, I love you. And the next thing Jenny does is she threatens to jump off the bridge, and then she gets in a stranger's car. So she's got this reaction to anybody showing any kind of affection to her that is extremely like, no, no, no, get away. And, you know, she cares, but she's very frightened to open up in that space. And then it happens again when they meet in our nation's capital, when she's like really happy to see him. She's really, really happy to see him, and they have that awesome, like it's such an awesome scene when, you know, Forrest in his military uniform and Jenny in the hippie outfit sort of hug in front of the the Washington monument. Because I think that's like that's the value that a lot of people looking back in America sort of wanted. They wanted that peace and they wanted that togetherness and they wanted that harmony, and there was a lot of division between those two sort of parties. And that actual image is like it's one of my favorites in the whole movies. But I really liked in that scene where she's sort of with yet another idiot in that sort of Black Panther sequence, and he actually like beats her to the and then, you know, all other elements around Forrest then just sort of disappear. The sound swells to a point where literally the only thing in Forrest's view is getting that guy that just hurt Jenny. Yeah. And then, you know, he defends her again, defends her from the abuser, and he shows that view of kindness towards her again as he's confronting and defending her. And then she again says, you know, he doesn't mean it when he does things like this. He really doesn't. And then Forrest says to Jenny, you know, I would never hurt you, Jenny. And then Jenny says, I know you wouldn't, Forrest. Forrest says, You know, I wanted to be your boyfriend. And then Jenny's really silent. She changes the topic to how good he looks in his uniform and how handsome he looks. And then Forrest brings that connection back up and he goes, I'm glad we're together again in our nation's capital. So then the very next scene, that abuser comes back and he goes, You know, last night got out of hand. And then he says the exact same line Forrest said. He says, I would never hurt you, Jenny. He says the same thing that Forrest said, and he goes, You know that. And it's the same words Forrest says, but she believes it from him and not from Forrest because again, she's sort of rejecting that form of pure love that Forrest is trying to give her. And she says, you know, we live very different lives, Forrest. And she goes, This is my favorite line in the whole movie. She goes, Why are you so good to me all the time? And then Forrest says, Because you're my girl. And then she says, I'll always be your girl. And then that song Turn, Turn, Turn, plays. Because I think what the filmmakers are saying is that's when Jenny starts to realize and change her perspective as to the fact that maybe I do deserve something a little bit more. Because in the scenes after that, she's definitely still falling into old habits, but I think she's more she's more likely to leave those people. Like she'll go and leave people on her own now instead of Forrest coming and bailing her out of it. So you see her like leave that guy on New Year's, just walk out of the apartment, and she's sort of moving through life on her own. So she's sort of slowly getting better because Forrest keeps sort of showing up for her and showing her that she has value and giving her that unconditional love because he's got a really strong value of loyalty. So I think that Jenny is definitely a character who is a victim of her past, but I do think that I can attest that she does treat Forrest like not very good at times.
SPEAKER_00:Probably one of the biggest things that people criticize about the movie is the boy. Yeah. Yeah, the go there, Brash, go there. She's like, when talking about it, when Jenny tells him that that's his son, and she's like, hey Forrest, look at me, look at me. There's nothing you need to do, okay? You didn't do anything wrong. Isn't he beautiful? Forrest is a bit all over the joint. He's like, he's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. But and then just as to himself. And then and then Forest's like, is he is he smart or is he trying to try and say, like, is he's like, oh, he's very smart, he's one of the smartest in his class. But I I I still stand by the fact that that is not his son at all.
SPEAKER_01:Don't like no nah. Well, to play devil's advocate on that, I think that um it is very convenient that you know she goes away and then comes back and he like he he is rich now, he has lots of money, and she's in a very dire situation. Like there is that sort of skepticism that comes into to people's brains in that space, but I want to view the movie from a good-hearted place, Brash. And to me, when I watched that scene, it was probably one of the most beautiful moments from Forrest, whether it is his child or not, he's yeah, 100%.
SPEAKER_00:Forest is on 100% on the right on that side.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. So so for me when I watch that and Forrest his his immediate concern straight away was like, is he like me? Like his and that that's the moment that sort of clicks for a lot of people when they watch this the first time that, oh, wait a minute. Forrest actually has known this whole time that he has grown up in adversity. Like there are people that do not treat him nice at all because of his intelligence. Like he knows that. However, on the surface, and to the viewers, until that moment in the movie, it seems like it's just water off a duck's back for him. Like it he just travels through life without a care because he's too unintelligent to realize the impact of it. But in that moment, you see, he doesn't want his son to grow up with the same challenges that he had in terms of his intelligence, but also through society, because he knows that he wasn't treated so well. He knows it was hard for him to make friends, he knows what it feels like to get on a bus and have seven people be like, don't sit here, you're weird. And he didn't want that for his son. So that was the immediate thought that came to his brain. And I think that one shows his his actual emotional intelligence. And two, I think it also goes back to his core values of being so empathetic and caring that he then extended that to this boy who he didn't want to suffer through the same challenges he did. So, yes, there might be some some paternity questions between audience members there, but for me, I liked it because that's what it sort of showed me from Forrest's side. Oh, it makes Forest look it makes Forest look like a saint.
SPEAKER_00:And I'm like, that's the thing, like it's just something Forrest would do, like especially for Jenny, but he'd probably do that for anyone. Yeah. Really? I think so. Um, but I I know because Jenny is sick from her sketchy past and she is dying. Mm-hmm. So this is sort of um a way that she knows that at least her son, she knows her son is gonna get taken care of.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, by the best guy she knows too.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly. And and like once Forrest puts his mind to something, like that, like you said earlier, when like he's simple tasks. Like, his task now is to look after a kid, and that's what he'll do. But I think it's just such a shitty thing to do as a person, to like uh I know Forrest would have be happy to do it no matter what, but uh to put someone in that position and it even goes far as well. Like he wouldn't have said, No, even if she had said this isn't your son, he's my son, but I'm not gonna be around anymore. I need you to look after him for me. He would have been like, Yes. Yep. I'd do that, absolutely. But she's like, It's your son. I was like, do you really want to go out that way? And do you really want to go out that way? Like you're about to die, and you're the last thing you're gonna say to your man who's loved you for your almost entire life, you're gonna lie to him. I'm like, and that always just rolls me in the wrong way.
SPEAKER_01:You don't have to Well, I'm in I'm in the camp that that boy is definitely Forrest's son just because I want to believe in love and magic. I want to believe in love and magic and fairies. Absolutely. But you know, I'll I'll give it to you this way. So I'll put I'll put Jenny's journey in a parallel with a small part of Forrest's journey. So because Forrest deals with a lot of loss, but he kind of travels like a feather on the breeze through a lot of it and gets through it based on his core values. But at some point it gets to the time where it's more than he can bear. So he loses his mum and then Jenny obviously leaves and he gets up and he starts running. So throughout this whole movie, you know, if whenever I was going somewhere, I was running. Like he he literally uses running as a tool to get from point A to B, but also as a means to sort of progress forward, and it gives him lots of opportunities in life. But in this case, it's it can be seen as a metaphor for like when sad things happen to you. Sometimes you just have to go into that survival mode, take that one step forward, and just do the things that you need to do. He says, you know, while he was running, I I thought a lot about mama, I thought a lot about Bubba, I thought a lot about Lieutenant Dan, but most of all I thought about Jenny. And then during that time, sort of Jenny gets herself together and she gets a job and she obviously has a son. But I think the key moment for this is previously when we'd seen Jenny leave Forest, she'd get in a car and she'd be obviously running away. But this time she gets into the cab and she says to the cab driver, who says to her, What are you running from? And she says, I'm not running. And I think that shows the audience that in this moment she still has some growing to do and some things to get past because it goes back to what Forrest's mum says. You have to put things in the past behind you before you can move forward. And I think that's why my run or what my run was all about. So Forrest had to do the run to get over the fact that, you know, he'd lost Bubba, he'd lost his mum, and Jenny'd walked out on him. But Jenny had to move forward in her life in a different way, too, to get over the things in her past as well. So, yes, that journey could have been done together. And I know a lot of people do go through that sort of aspect where they grow together and help each other. But I think in this particular story, in this instance, Jenny knew she had some things to get past in from her trauma from before. And I think she sort of needed to move and get through that before she felt like she could be deserving of of love from Forrest. That's my opinion of it, I think. And I think it's similar to the story that Forrest needed to go on that run for three years, 26 days, whatever it was, so he could get past the things that he needed to, so he could be the father that Forrest Jr. would need him to be, even though he didn't know about him at the time. But at the at the same point, that sort of run sequence was said to have given people hope. And he goes, I don't know about that. But he ended up getting a lot of company. And that goes back to the point where like he's just simply doing what he needs to do in an environment that is consistently in conflict and with people looking for various different sort of powers or ideas to attach themselves to. And he was just continuing to do what he needed to do in terms of his values, like he needed to sort of step forward, he needed to progress, he needed to lean back on those things of loyalty that he was talking about and determination and resilience that he's carried him so far as well. And everybody wanted there to be a meaning behind it, but he in the end he just goes, I'm pretty tired. I think I'll go home now. And it was sort of everyone was sort of like just starts to just like Yeah, and they literally couldn't believe because it was like, you know, are you are you running for world peace? Are you running for this? Are you running for that? He's like, No, I just felt like running. And then he's like, and then everyone's like, uh.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And he is he just walks off, and then everyone else is sort of just like Sasha's moving off as well.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. But then, you know, before and after that, they're talking, you can see see on the news broadcasts and things like that, there's still conflict going on in the world. So there's Forrest is still remaining that sort of true, ambiguous sort of person to himself. But I really do think that both Jenny and Forrest at that point in their life had some things that they needed to get past. And it goes back to that quote that his mum sort of said, you have to put the past behind you before you can move forward. It's like bringing old shit into a new relationship. Some people say that they need some time before they jump into something new. Like it's I think it's that sort of concept if I'm looking at it optimistically, but also you could you could look at it like Jenny was a bitch and she she took off.
SPEAKER_00:Well, yeah, like I mean, because it's for any every nearly every point when she rocks up into forest life, it's only when she needs something or needs money. Yeah. Like, at no point does even even when after the run she's like, Oh, how do you fix my life? The only time she goes to Forest is to palm off her son because she's dying. Like every time it's just to do something.
SPEAKER_01:In Jenny's defense in that one, she didn't come to Forest. She sent a letter to Forrest and it was his choice. But previous to that, absolutely, because even when she rocked up at Greenbow, Alabama, uh to live at Mama's house again, he he even said, you know, I think she came here because she had nowhere else to go. And she must have been tired because she slept a long time. Like, you know, she just slept and slept and slept. And I think there's something to say about the fact that Forrest always knew that he could come home because after his service in the military was done, he goes, and after my service in the military was done, I could finally come home. And then he goes up to his mama and he says, I'm home, mama. Like I think there's a lot of value in knowing him knowing that he had that safe place to sort of venture at and then come back home too. And he then offered and extended that to Jenny, who, you know, gave her that safe space, and she went out and she she took off and did what she needed to do, but then they both came back and they had their wedding and their marriage. So I I think that this, if nothing else, is a story of at least on Jenny and Lieutenant Dan's part, they're they're growing through some things that are very hard human-wise to deal with, and they're doing it through the help of somebody who sees things in the simplest form possible. And sometimes that's what's needed. You need to strip back all the layers and all the social expectation, and you need to think, okay, what's good for myself? And Forrest is the exemplification of that. Like he's he's loyal, he's steadfast, he's resilient, he's true, he's loving, he has faith in a higher power, he's kind to all his friends, and he he's also kind to you no matter what you look like or where you come from. And he sort of embraces the fact that his life is going to be what it is. It's almost like that proverb that goes around how the present's called the present because it's a gift for right now. Forrest is the embodiment of that because he doesn't think about the future. He literally like ping pong took him places, and then after that, after ping pong happened, he used his ping pong endorsement to get a shrimping boat. Like there was very little plan in how his life sort of unfolded. And I'm not telling two our listeners to just, you know, wait for things to show up on your doorstep like Forrest did, but I think there's something to be said about Well, see, he didn't he didn't he didn't even well, it wasn't about him really waiting and things were doing.
SPEAKER_00:It was him just doing things, and then as a consequence of those things, other things happened. It was just a yeah, opportunity. Like he was playing Win Kong's really good. Someone's like, Oh man, you're really good at Plim Pong, you should play professionally. He's like, Okay. Yeah. It's about the opportunity. Exactly. Like opportunity presented itself, he took the opportunity and it paid out. But for me, Lieutenant Dan and Jenny are two sides of a coin who in Lieutenant Dan's side, he sort of embraced Forrest and sort of Forrest's friendship and love and sort of came out the other side pretty well off. You could say healed, yeah. And sort of yeah, and he sort of went from his depressed suicidal state to getting his magic legs and getting his wife. And then Jenny until the very end She's the cautionary tale, isn't she? Kept rejecting that rejecting Forrest, and it sort of kept and she kept getting it which kept driving her down and further and further into a darker place. It's about so Forrest is sort of like the light, and Lieutenant Deng embraced that light and stopped herself from drowning, and Jenny rejected the light and ended up drowning further.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's a really great way to look at it too, because I can definitely agree, like Jenny definitely rejects any sort of attempt until it's too late, but then she's still it's too late.
SPEAKER_00:And then I think she realizes that it's too late for her, but it's not too late for her son. Yeah. And so that's and then sort of like pitches his wagon to Forest because she knows that if she does this, he's gonna have a good life.
SPEAKER_01:And in that way, you could say Jenny sort of stops the cycle of abuse because obviously her father imparted that to her, and Forest has all of these sort of values that embody self worth, that embody like a true sort of spirit that she obviously wants her son to replicate through his life as well. So through That she kind of does stop the the cycle, and that can be seen as the the win for Jenny in terms of her being that sort of motherly presence and fighting fighting that battle on her son's behalf. But I think the the ultimate thing that the storytellers did in this movie was that they gave Forrest the choice to go and see Jenny at the end. Like, and Jenny's growth being that she didn't just rock up to Forrest for him to rescue her again. She sent the letter and made it his choice if she came or not, if he came or not. So I think that's the growth for Jenny as well, that she's sort of moved past that point of really asking somebody else to save her and fix her problems. And she's moved into the point of if he wants to, that's his choice. There was no mention of a child in the letter. So I will not have you say that she lured him there. No. That being said, she knows him well enough.
SPEAKER_00:No, no, no, no, no, no. She did lure him there because she sent him a letter. What point would you ever think that Forrest would not go see her? He Absolutely. Again, he could do or say anything, drop of a hat, Forrest would be there. So her giving Latter. And her giving and saying, Oh, you don't have to come was bullshit. She knew he was gonna come. Always, every time, without fail, he will be there for her. Because that's because it's about unconditional love and the unconditional love that Forrest has for her. No matter what happens in their lives, she is gonna be his number one, his girl. P's and carrots.
SPEAKER_01:So just to be clear, while we end this up right now, you are still in the camp that you don't like Jenny.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. I'm sorry, but yes. I I can't like I don't like I don't think she's a villain.
SPEAKER_01:I think she's a victim of circumstance, boy.
SPEAKER_00:She is 100% a victim of circumstance. She's a victim of her childhood. She endured things that I don't wish upon anyone. And it is unfortunate that she never she couldn't see the man Forrest truly was.
SPEAKER_01:I like that. Because that's absolutely exemplified in that ending scene where he says, you know, will you marry me? I'd make a good husband, Jenny. And then she says, you know, you would, Forrest, but and then Forrest goes, Oh, but you won't marry me. And he goes, Why don't you love me, Jenny? And he goes, I'm not a smart man, but I know what love is. And that it's at that point where Jenny's like, okay, maybe I've been misjudging this person because from everything that I know about this guy and from everything that he's been through and every time he's shown up for me and all the ways that he shows up for his friends and all the stories he's told me, it has shown that he has a deep, deep love for the people who he's connected with, a strong loyalty, he's resilient, and those sorts of characteristics, like you could call like how can you really call him unintelligent or stupid when he is that kind of person at heart? It just goes to show like it's what you place your value on when it comes to intelligence. Emotional intelligence, I think Forrest has that in some sort of way. In terms of like intelligence about world events and things like that, nah. Forrest doesn't know anything about what's going on right now, but he knows about the important people in his life, and he knows what connection is, and he knows how to be a good friend, and he knows how to be kind. And I think Jenny realizes that in that moment. And that's all we have to say about that. Yeah. Moving on, let's rate it. So for me, no-brainer. It's in my top four letterbox movies, it's five out of five, bro. Like it does have its flaws, but every time I watch it, it's different and it's new. It makes me cry. Not many films make me cry, honestly, and this one makes me cry every time. Love the character of Forrest Gump, loved it all my life. Five out of five. Brash, what about you?
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely spectacular movie. I I also really love this movie. It always touches and feels. And as much as the character of Jenny annoys me sometimes, she is vital to his growth and his journey. So I'll have to get it four out of four point five.
SPEAKER_01:Uh, ladies and gentlemen, with our ratings of five and four point five from myself and brash respectively, we officially have a new leader of our Phantom Portals on a board knocking off Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 that has been there for oh my gosh, since June or March. We did a Marvel month, yeah. It's been there for a while. We finally got a new number one, and it's Forrest Gump, and I'm really happy about it. So I think this is great. I think that it definitely solidifies and talks about it, it's a nice ending to our arc of becoming your true self because I think Forrest does go through the various different seasons of life, and it's not about being your true self in terms of I really love playing football, so that's who I am as a person. It's like core value kind of stuff, like he's loyal, he's resilient, that kind of core value that was instilled in him in his upbringing that really carry him through all these things. And I think that this is a really great way to end the arc because we've looked at characters pursuing that version of themselves, whereas Forrest had the fortune to know and be that. And it's good to see a character in a movie that exemplifies that as well.
SPEAKER_00:And it's not even the main it's not even really the main character who evolves and it's more so the main character who helps everyone else find their true selves and be better, like be it Elvis. Yeah, Elvis, Lieutenant Dan, Jenny, eventually.
SPEAKER_01:Richard Nixon and he forces him to be honest with the Watergate scandal. John Legend writing Imagine.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and yeah, like he brings out the best in others who accept that, who accept his wisdom.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, the Gumps are a very wise family. So, guys, small podcasters like us love it when you share amazing things with your friends. So if you got friends that love podcasts, if you've got friends that love Forest Gump, if you have heard a hot take from myself or Brash, or if you've heard something interesting, feel free to share that with your mate and direct them to our podcast, the Fandom Portals Podcast. We can be found at all podcasting places, and we're even on YouTube. So if you're listening to our voices and you're not seeing our faces, you can go and see our faces on YouTube. And if you're looking at our faces and hearing our voices and you think, I don't want to see these faces anymore, you can go and listen to us on Spotify and Apple and all those places as well. Next week on the pod, guys, we're going to do a thank you episode, which is going to include lots of messages from some of the guests that we've had on here and also a little bit of a chat between Brash and I about where this podcast has been and where it is now after 50 episodes, because again, we've hit a milestone, we've hit a birthday, so we're going to celebrate with our next episode being one of those. So if you've got a gratitude for us, or if you've got some feedback, definitely send it to our email, which is fandomportals at gmail.com, or hit us up on socials. We're everywhere at fandomportals, and we're absolutely thankful for everybody who's tuned in, whether this is your first episode with us or if you've stuck with us for all 50, we thank you so much. It is, it means the world to us because we love doing this. It's fun, it's a good little outlet for us, and to have some people join us on the ride, that is just awesome. I guess my gratitudes are twofold. One for hitting 50 episodes for this week. We've hit 50 episodes, that's definitely something I'm grateful for. I'm grateful for our community that has followed us along. I'm grateful for you, Brash, because you're flexible and you're an awesome friend and you're great to talk to about this kind of stuff, and we've gone through heaps together, and this has actually become a really great place for me to sort of share stuff. And I found I don't want to like put a cap on it or anything like that, but I think that talking through some stuff that we've talked about in this podcast has made me a bit of a better person. It's definitely made me think about some things in different ways, that's for sure. So thank you for that. And my second sort of gratitude is obviously for my mum who listens to all of the episodes, who watches us all on YouTube. Hi mum. Ah, thank you. Brash, gratitudes.
SPEAKER_00:Um, also gratitude, 50th episodes, and I'm grateful grateful for you for inviting me on this journey. Wouldn't have it any other way, mate. It's been I know, yeah. I I love our chats. Even like before we actually get on the podcast, we just talk about just stuff, and it's just just just always great. We've been thinking about hitting record and sending them out, but yeah. We don't know yet. I might do some editing on some of the class. Yeah, yeah. But uh, yes, grateful for this whole experience. It's been really great.
SPEAKER_01:I look forward to continuing. I started this like on my on my own, obviously, and then I have some guest stars, but then when you came on, it just it it changed and evolved the space into something that I kind of I really like it. Like it's you've done a lot for this this pod brash. So thank you. I just talk shit. Yeah, but we both do it together and it ends up sounding okay sometimes.
SPEAKER_00:I really appreciate you even yeah, thinking of me to bring me onto it. Yeah, I'm very grateful. Oh, I'm grateful for John Cena and AJ Styles. For those that I know, I'm a big wrestling fan. And Crown Jewel is here in Perth. And so far, we've had SmackDown here in Perth, and we've had the Crown Jewel and we've got Raw tomorrow. But so far, the SmackDown was an amazing show, and Crown Jewel was absolutely phenomenal. I say that because the phenomenal AJ Styles and John Cena had their just love letter match in the middle of Crown Jewel, and it was absolutely fantastic. And the crowd, for the most part, for us here, I'm really proud of us, our country who were there as a pivot because the crowd was just made that whole experience even better. All right.
SPEAKER_01:Keep learning, keep growing, and keep loving phantoms, guys. That's all I have to say about that. But is that gonna be a thing? It's gonna be I think so.
SPEAKER_00:It's gonna be a thing now, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, we'll stick it up.
SPEAKER_00:Also, also with another thing where we say, when we get off topic, I digress. Yeah, I digress.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I digress. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go get them on shirts. That's all I have to say about that. See everybody.
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