Forrest Gump American Culture

617 Words2 Pages

Every film has a story to it, but it takes some analyzing to really know the story behind it as well. Many societal functions and tensions come into play depending on the time period that correlates with some communities in order to be relatable. The interplay between film and American culture’s societal tensions are interesting to watch regarding the meaningful sense in which it may be conveying to the audience. One of the most iconic films throughout the course of history is “Forrest Gump” directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks. Along with this film came nostalgic 70’s music to benefit the relevance. Even though this 1994 film is showing the 70’s war time period, there are many reasons why it is exceptional at displaying American culture and societal tensions.
First of all, many excellent films like “Forrest Gump” may not be a true story but it is based on a 1986 novel. Not only were there social tensions in this film but there were many political ones as well. At the time, Vietnam War was taking place until 1975. It focuses on the chaotic time frame for American citizens that include many civil rights movements. Forrest himself while in Washington D.C. catches up with his childhood love, Jenny, and ends up in a …show more content…

This was a major change in American culture with the increase of drug use. The hippie movement came hand in hand with the war going on. Peacemaking was a major factor. The movie also showed some societal tensions of anti-war protests. Jenny was involved in this as well as the experimentation of hallucinate drugs which showed the outcome of almost taking her life off a building. One of the songs that played at that moment was “Free Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd. This increased the nostalgia during that scene. However, the legit violence and struggles by American citizens was not really mentioned in the movie it was still relevant to the events that were

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