Civilization ends: Greatest film character of all time is … Forrest Gump

I think Alex Winter (actor who played Bill S. Preston, Esquire) hit the nail on the head in an essay 15 years ago or so:

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.

Alex_SF on March 24, 2011 at 9:15 PM