Actors, Effects Make Movie Magic
I tend to side with the "love it"s. Sure, Forrest is an improbable character living an improbable life, but Hanks' sweetly matter-of-fact (not to mention Oscar-winning) portrayal of everyone's favorite "runnin' fool" is hard to resist. Forrest is what we all occasionally wish we could be — someone who goes through life without second-guessing himself and dwelling on what might have been; he just happens to do it while becoming an integral part of American history.

Of course, Hanks isn't the only good actor in the movie. Robin Wright Penn tackles the complex role of Forrest's life-long love Jenny with gusto, filling in some of the cultural gaps Forrest skips over. In the Winston Groom novel the film was based on, Forrest spends plenty of time experimenting with things besides Ping-Pong and cross-country running. But in the movie, it's Jenny who navigates the more rebellious, alternative side of America — folk music, drugs, war protests, AIDS. She's a damaged soul who ultimately finds redemption and, whether that's realistic or not, Wright Penn makes it believable. Gary Sinise also gives a typically strong performance as the war-maimed Lt. Dan Taylor, embodying the rage of Vietnam and providing the effects wizards at ILM with a chance to do some of their niftiest work on the movie. Sally Field and Mykelti Williamson round out the main supporting cast, both tugging at heartstrings with their sympathetic roles as Forrest's determined mother and shrimp-loving best friend, respectively.

It's impossible to talk about Forrest Gump without mentioning the still-impressive technical wizardry that made all of Forrest's forays into the history books possible. From presidents (Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon) to rock stars (Elvis Presley, John Lennon), Forrest's interactions with the past are pretty convincing. Don't look too closely at JFK or Lennon's lips, and you should be able to persuade yourself that, sure, it could have happened like that ...

Plot-wise, there's not much to say about Forrest Gump besides "it happens." The Forrest-Jenny relationship anchors the movie and is really the one thing, aside from history, that keeps changing — Forrest himself is a pretty static character. But his adventures — college, Vietnam, captaining a shrimp boat, running back and forth across the country, mowing the lawn — are more than enough to keep things moving along. After a few run-ins with greatness, it's impossible not to wonder what could possibly happen next, whether you're holding your breath in anticipation or scoffing at the unlikeliness of it all.

DVD Debut
Whether you like it or lump it, you can't deny that Forrest Gump has become part of what it examined — America's shared culture and experience. From catch phrases ("Life is like a box of chocolates," "Stupid is as stupid does") to restaurant franchises (Bubba Gump Shrimp Company), it's the Energizer Bunny of movies: It just keeps going and going. And now, amid much fanfare, it's made its way to DVD. Suitably, Paramount's two-disc special collector's edition is packed with special features and extras geared to please the Gump-o-philes out there.

The first disc in the set is devoted to the movie itself, which is presented in a crystal-clear 2.35:1 widescreen anamorphic transfer. Surprisingly for a splashy release, there are only two audio options — English Dolby Digital 5.1 (which sounds great) and French 2.0 Surround — and only one set of subtitles: English. Perhaps the studio saved its time and effort for the two full-length commentary tracks, one from Zemeckis, producer Steve Starkey, and production designer Rick Carter (though it sounds like Starkey and Carter recorded their part together and it was later spliced in with Zemeckis' observations), and the other from producer Wendy Finerman. As is the case with many multiple-commentary movies, the people doing the talking often repeat each other, telling some of the same anecdotes (Kurt Russell was Elvis' voice) and making similar observations. But what really stands out is how very seriously they take the film. "I imagine what the world would be like if everyone had come in contact with a man like Forrest," Finerman says, turning Forrest from a lucky dimwit into a paragon of honest, innocent idealism. Still, there's a lot here that fans of the movie will enjoy.

Lots of Extras
The second disc (titled "Behind the Magic of Forrest Gump") has the rest of the set's goodies (with English and French subtitles available for most). Starting things off is "Through the Eyes of Forrest Gump," a 30-minute making-of documentary from 1994 that offers the standard interviews with cast and crew, plenty of gushing about how great it was to work with everyone, and some nice behind-the-scenes footage (it's fun to see Hanks break character and goof around).

Following that is a series of five production featurettes. The first is "Screen Tests," which is actually a collection of seven try-outs: Three between Michael Humphreys (Young Forrest) and Hanna Hall (Young Jenny), two between Wright and Hanks, and two between Hanks and a very young Haley Joel Osment (Forrest Jr.). It's interesting to see Hanks playing Forrest before he'd decided to mimic Humphrey's slow-drawl delivery for the character; he doesn't sell the role nearly as well when he uses his regular voice. Next, the seven-minute "Building the World of Gump: Production Design" offers a pretty bland interview with production designer Rick Carter, but also shows how the crew created locations like the Gump house (built from scratch for the movie) and Vietnam. In "Seeing Is Believing: The Visual Effects of Forrest Gump," visual effects supervisor Ken Ralston breaks down 11 key effects sequences, including two that didn't end up in the final cut of the film — Forrest meeting Martin Luther King Jr., and Forrest playing Ping-Pong with George Bush Sr. (this is the only place on the DVD you'll find deleted scenes, so enjoy). "Through the Ears of Forrest Gump: Sound Design" takes a similar approach, with sound designer Randy Thom dissecting five scenes (Vietnam, Ping-Pong, etc.) that presented particular challenges for his department. Last but not least is "The Magic of Makeup," an eight-minute short that goes into the challenges of aging the cast.

Rounding out the extras list are two trailers and a 29-picture photo gallery, featuring movie stills, behind-the-scenes shots, and the poster. All in all, it's a pretty nice package for a film that has already become both cultural shorthand and a Hollywood classic.

— BETSY BOZDECH