As Flannery O'Connor wrote, "a good man is hard to find." Even harder to find is a politician who actually gets the job done, and most of us have finally given up on locating our infinite, merciful God up there in the hazy ether. But lately no one's had any trouble finding Forrest Gump; an all-American moron with the unshakable rectitude of Christ, the existential complexity of Bhudda and a big, fat bank account. So just when it looked like God was dead, government was impotent and we might have to start taking responsibility for ourselves, Hollywood answers our prayers (and made a half a billion dollars in the bargain).
For a blockbuster that represents the "best" of 1994, "Gump" isn't worth much beyond its special effects. Like The Lion King, the other top grossing movie of the year, Gump is another frustrating example of the decrease in the quality of art with the increase of the consumer. It's saccharin and homogenous and wall-to-wall with songs that instruct you how and when to emote (this trend in constant soundtrack music is not just grotesque marketing, but an obvious sign that filmmakers are failing in their jobs). What's worth examining about this year's adult winner is the recurrence of characters like Gump.
The cultural fascination with innocent, benevolent idiots is nothing new, but it almost always reflects a longing to escape from the rigors of being human: exercising our will, sorting out our psychological baggage, and surviving within power structures. These intrinsically human elements are an unavoidable part of life which we love to resist. And Hollywood loves to take our money by presenting us with "pure", childlike simpletons who live free of societal stress and lead us to righteousness. On a certain level, we deserve to be played like suckers. If there's one thing society should have learned by now; no god, government or gimp is going to deliver us from pain and evil. It's every man for himself. And faced with the reality of getting off our ass and getting personally involved, we'd much rather watch Being There...or Gump...or Rainman...or Nell...ad infinitum, and Oscars all around.
The theme of these pictures is always the same: "A child-like existence, free from opinion, complex desires and society is bliss." It's a ridiculous notion even if you ignore that it's coming from an industry riddled with guilt for its excess and avarice. In order to pass off this crap, Hollywood is forced to construct stories wherein all the "normal" folk are absurdly one-dimensional: greedy, fucked-up, over-ambitious, etc. Then they drag out the doofus, thoughtlessly gushing with pure, unconditional love, who offers our victims security without them either having to account for themselves or make an effort. If that's Utopia, I'm happy here in hell. In many cases (and in Gump's) the doofus also happens to stumble onto a wad of cash which has the two-fold benefit of preventing him from starving in the street while making him more attractive to his helplessly parasitic sympathizers. Sometimes an honest portrayal of "the innocent in society" will sneak out. Look at the tragic, lonely and totally predictable fate of the characters in The Elephant Man and Vincent & Theo. These are rare, daringly honest films, and neither director has made anything since with as much power because these stories are damn hard to get made. But they're about the real world. Gump, in particular, can't be excused because it's a "Romantic Comedy." Many comic fables, like Nathaniel West's hilarious story A Cool Million, have followed the fate of the simpleton to a more honest conclusion. Even Dumb and Dumber is more honest. While Jim Carrey's movies are often gratingly pandering and obvious, his pathos is drawn solely from pratfalls and spastic facial expressions. We laugh AT him, not with him, and unlike Gump, his dialogue will never be quoted in needlepoint. Carrey's huge success represents a timeless attraction to the"fool" and the "trickster"; simple characters as old as comedia del arte. What makes Gump the top Oscar contender and the most successful non-science-fiction film of all time is something more complex and insidious.
Gump lies to its audience in the same way the audience is lying to itself. No one wants to take personal action so we long for the placating freedom of the simpleton. The fact is that Gump is full of it. In the movie, Forrest's motto is slyly relativistic: "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get." In the book, however, his motto is markedly different: "Bein' an idiot is no box of chocolates." No vague relativism there. Life's tough, and being "child-like" in this world is hopeless. The theme of The Lion King is the absolute axiom that the world has no place for innocence; to be human you must face life and be personally responsible. It's dismally cynical that we can tell that to our kids when we're too frightened and lazy to accept it ourselves.