Forrest Gump and Vietnam: Another Perspective
The film Forrest Gump has become an American Classic. This film follows Forrest Gump, an intellectually challenged man from his childhood through his adult years as he inadvertently participates in some of the most notorious political and historical events of our recent American past. A good portion of the film takes place in, and is later affected by, the Vietnam War. While many of the common themes from that war are present in the movie, such as the carnage, the boredom, the suffering and loss of human life, one theme stood out to me; this theme is reestablishing personal purpose in life after bearing witness to a war.
Lieutenant Dan Taylor is the commanding officer at Fort Platoon, where Gump is stationed in Vietnam. His reason for being in the war is not congruent with a lot of the reasons we have seen presented so far in the texts of this class, such as being drafted, avoiding personal and familial disappointment, or to serve and protect America and its freedom. No, Lieutenant Dan was in the army for a much different purpose; to die. He had a long family history of men in his family serving and dying in every major American War. His intention was to carry on this family tradition. I think Gump stated it best when he said, “I guess you could say he had a lot to live up to (43:33).”
The first time I saw this movie, I did not understand this. He survived the war, he was alive. Yes, he was crippled. I knew there was stigma attached to being disabled, but I felt that this was more in his head than in reality. He thought more poorly about him being a cripple than most of the people he encountered thought of him. I didn’t understand why he couldn’t move on. After reading Sean Huze’s “The Sand Storm,” I gained a greater understanding of his train of thought. To go to war, to see the kind of things one sees, and then to lose your legs in the process, only to go back Home and be seen as a social outcast; that can be a bit of a slap in the face. To add insult to injury (no pun intended), Lieutenant Dan had planned on dying in the war. He had no plan for what he was going to do after he was sent home. Now not only did he have a future with no plans, he also has to make these new plans with no legs. He went from being a war hero forever supported by infamy, to being a crippled Veteran ever dependant on government assistance. This is a harsh descent.
So after this realization, Lieutenant Dan’s desire to die makes sense. So does his inability to move past this disappointment and move on. His bitterness is the last shred he has left after having his dreams taken from him only to have them replaced by a much harsher reality. His inability to move on keeps him attached to his dead dream; at the time it’s the only dream he has to hold on to. This mental block that is keeping him from moving on is his security blanket while he adjusts to life after the war.
Later in the movie, Lieutenant Dan joins Gump on his shrimping boat and they eventually become successful. After a fateful night on the sea battling a hurricane, Lieutenant Dan seems to accept his new life and his new body, and he lets his bitterness, his security blanket, drift away. Gump states that he thinks Lieutenant Dan finally made his peace with God (1:38:16) Personally, I think he actually made peace with himself.
This movie did deal with a lot of themes similar to those we have seen in other texts in this class. The film dealt with themes such as death, carnage, experiencing new and unusual lands, and coping with life after the war. But this film took a different spin on the last one. Instead of having to cope with what he had lost, Lieutenant Dan had to cope with what he hadn’t lost; his life. Had he lost his life, he would have served the purpose he felt he was destined to serve. When that was taken from him, he had to find a new purpose, and a new destiny, and a new, very different life. This journey took him a while.
The texts and films we have encountered during the course of this class have helped me gain new perspective on a film I have probably seen over 20 times. I have seen these same scenes time and time again, and yet I didn’t gain this insight until I had been given a better perspective of where the character was coming from. It’s truly amazing how one little grain of truth can eventually lead to a pearl of a revelation.