In a film focusing on American history through history you can't skip Watergate and it was funny and easy way to mention it.
The film DID mention Watergate. It didn't skip it.
'Forest Gump' was in no way conservative, politically. It was
arguably conservative in the
values it portrays, because the main character faced all kinds of disadvantages in life, and yet managed to persevere. The main message of the film is that you can achieve remarkable things in life regardless of how you were born. It is inspirational, and hopeful in its message.
If modern Liberals are now calling it problematic and "conservative," it says way more about modern liberals than it does about the film. Modern liberals don't want disadvantaged people to believe that they can achieve anything, at all, without government intervention. FUCK, they make me sick.
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Furienna (3322)
3 years ago
Actually, it is more like they didn't want Forrest to achieve anything because he's a white man!
Just look at this quote:
This no-nothing white man becomes a war hero and a wealthy man simply by chugging along, participating in a country that dictates his every move.
Really, I couldn't have made that up!
And it seems like they miss that Forrest had his disabilities just because he's a white man.
So he couldn't possibly have any disadvantages in life!
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pioneergrrrl (2390)
3 years ago
No they did not want him to achieve anything bc he was a person with intellectual/developmental disabilities
But it doesn't white wash/dumb down American history. It's actually quite somber
*Forrest's mom has to perform sexual favors with the school personnel in to get him into the 'public school' This is the era prior to special education--so she is going to do whatever it takes to ensure he goes to school too. People don't have to do that today they can enroll their kids/relatives directly and take legal action when/if the schools harass them and/or the kids. Today the public school has to admit and educate anybody regardless of type/severity of disability.
*Even though he was a war vet Lt Dan could not find any job after Vietnam initially and is living in a flophouse apartment drinking and having sex with hookers. This is because it is legal for most apartments to deny him access and most places of employment to outright refuse to hire him just because of a disability during the early 1970's. So receiving welfare is his only option even though staying at home and watching tv IS boring.
*Lt Dan and Gump can't find anybody who will hire them they have to go into a job for themselves. And that is when they at last become financially successful. It compresses things yes. But it explains that people with disabilities have trouble getting hired and have to make small businesses for themselves in order to be successful and productive.
*Jenny IS removed from her dad's physical...etc abuse but she never initially receives any type of counseling to work through the mental etc scars. So she attempts to self-medicate with drugs and really trashy guys who were not Forrest. She dies from another disability at the end of the movie. She did apparently receive rehabilitation in order to hold down the job at the diner (by the 1980s places were drug testing)
I do consider myself a liberal but I am also a person with a disability so I understood many incidents in this movie. The problem is that the average viewer has no idea re disability studies/history. So the significance of these events probably will go over them.
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