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The year that Tom Hanks took home his second (and consecutive) Best Actor Oscar, Hollywood had perhaps seen the greatest travesty of a snub offered by the Academy. In truth, any of the nominees winning the Best Picture that year would be considered a snub toward the rest, considering how the 1995 roster included such greats asThe Shawshank RedemptionandPulp Fiction.
The latter two losing out againstForrest Gumpthen became a subject of constant debate, enough to set one’s blood boiling at the beautiful productions of the year, each uniquely different than the rest, and yet only one Oscar meant to pluck out the best among the five.
Also read:Tom Hanks Dropped Out of $73M Oscar Nominated Movie After Tom Cruise Refused to Work With ‘Inexperienced’ Director to Save Reputation
Tom Hanks AddressesForrest GumpWinning Against QT
If there was ever a tussle to discover the industry’s crème de la crème, it was befitting for the battle to pitTom Hanks’Forrest GumpagainstQuentin Tarantino-directed ensemble film,Pulp Fiction. But while Gump stands out as an inextricable beacon of heartbreaking simplicity intermingling with some of the most impactful events in America’s socio-political history, QT delivers a whiplash of crime and gore set against the backdrop of eccentric, expletive-ridden, goose chase of a drama.
In the aftermath ofForrest Gumpsweeping the Oscars floor with 6 Academy Award wins, the backlash received by the film and its partisans over the years for being considered superior to the QT crime caper was enough to rile even the ever-complacent Tom Hanks out of his polite silence. The actor, although claiming thatPulp Fictionwas“a masterpiece without a doubt,”also pointed out:
“There is a moment of undeniable heartbreaking humanity in ‘Forrest Gump’ when Gary Sinise — he’s playing Lieutenant Dan — and his Asian wife walk up to our house on the day that Forrest and Jenny get married.
[…] I might get weepy thinking about it now. Forrest and Lieutenant Dan in those four words — “magic legs” and “Lieutenant Dan” — understand all they had been through and feel gratitude for every ounce of pain and tragedy that they survived. That’s some intangible sh*t right there.”
Also read:“We were diabolical geniuses”: Tom Hanks DefendsForrest Gump‘s Success asPulp FictionFans Goad Him
While it is difficult to refute Hanks’ theory about the simple aspects tying together the larger theme of the film, it also does not diminish the sting of rebuttal felt due to the sidelining of Frank Darabont’s debut masterpiece or Quentin Tarantino’s slasher-esque drama. The neo-noir black comedy film from QT did however take home an Oscar for Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.
Forrest GumpExplores Life in All Its Tragi-comic Beauty
Also read:“Is anybody going to care about this movie?”: Tom Hanks was Afraid His $679 Million Movie Forrest Gump was Going to Be a Huge Disaster
To be an ever-complicated mystery is the one true nature of life and that is the philosophy that solidifies the inexplicable beauty ofForrest Gump. The film, in one simple sentence, unraveled what humanity has struggled to demystify for centuries – that“life was like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get.”
Forrest Gump’s sweeping, monumental run that is a forefather and a precursor to the tragic and underrated life-defining journeys of people like Alexander Supertramp and Cheryl Strayed will forever remain iconic and no amount of gun-toting, expletive-smashing dialogue from Samuel L. Jackson can top the underlying message of the Tom Hanks drama.
Forrest Gumpis available for streaming on Paramount Plus.
Source:The New York Times
Diya Majumdar
Senior Writer
Articles Published :2410
Diya Majumdar is a Senior Content Writer at FandomWire with over 2000 published articles on the website. Since 2022, she has been working as an entertainment journalist with a special focus on films and pop culture.Among the countless genres and themes of Hollywood, the ones that particularly favor Diya’s tastes include Game of Thrones, DC, and well-aged thrillers and classics.
