The Strange Conservatism of Forrest Gump

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How did Forrest Gump become the posterchild for the 90s alt right? Let's find out!
Thumbnail by Hannah Raine
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edited by ‪@BenFromCanada‬
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SOURCES:
Richard Corliss, "The World According to Gump," Time (1994).
Frederic Jameson, Postmodernism, or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, Duke University Press (1992).
Fredric Jameson, “Reification and Utopia in Mass Culture” Social Text, no.1 (1979).
David Kehr, “Who Framed: FORREST GUMP” Film Comment, Vol. 31, No. 2 (1995).
Eric Kohn, “‘Forrest Gump,’ 25 Years Later: A Bad Movie That Gets Worse With Age” Indie Wire (2019).
David Lavery, “"No Box of Chocolates": The Adaptation of "Forrest Gump"” Literature/Film Quarterly, Vol. 25, No. 1 (1997).
Howard Mancing, “The Picaresque Novel: A Protean Form” College Literature, Vol. 6, No. 3 (1979).
Mark Crispin Miller, “”Hollywood: The Ad” The Atlantic (1990).
William Flint Thrall and Addison Hibbard, A Handbook to Literature, Doubleday, Doran & Company (1936).
Jennifer Hyland Wang, “A Struggle of Contending Stories": Race, Gender, and Political Memory in "Forrest Gump” Cinema Journal, Vol. 39, No. 3 (Spring, 2000).

[@mohhie]

oh how good it is not to be american and seeing that forest gump is not liberal or conservative, its just very american (so yeah, conservative)

[@BROJANGSTER]

nah fam. america’s really cool. about as cool as coexist bumper stickers and universal healthcare. you can like all 3 simultaneously 😎😎

[@titoleon3101]

As an adult who has gone through a lot, now I cant help loathing this movies message and politics: just go with the flow, the system works, never question anything, America is inherently good. I still love Jenny as a character but she was done so dirty by this screenplay.

[@nicholasjoseph8297]

Beacuse what she goes through has some merit of a secular lifestyle with no purpouse as wrong. She friendzones Forrest for one she sees him as a child, an escapism buddy and 2 she was afraid of seeing the world more simple.

[@nicholasjoseph8297]

How dare we have a film about a man with a simple right or wrong complex. The fact that patriotism, not overthinking and being true to your values is considered propaganda. Even if it was conservative im sick and tired of people on the hating everything they disagree with and shame people for liking it. Most right leaning who are not on Washington or the internet watches movies with left leaning values and themes all the time. I love Forrest Gump cause it gives hope that the American Dream is possible and if you do the right thing and be true to who you are. We need to be more optamistic and true to our vales like Forrest. Maybe not as ignorant, but hpeful more then ever.

[@jaysonmitchell6701]

A new Broey Deschanel Video? About a movie ive seen? Hell Yeah!

[@trinaq]

I could always related to Jenny, as I too went on a period of self loathing. I love that Forrest simply lets Jenny unleash her pain by throwing rocks at her abusive father's house, and doesn't judge or condemn her for it.

[@trinaq]

Whenever I go for a jog near my area, someone always inevitably shouts "Run, Forrest, Run!", just to be funny.

[@Doctor_Straing_Strange]

some teenagers shouted that at me when I was 12

[@roomtomush]

Honestly I'm sick of hearing it at this point 😅 I do be running a lot and I get this shouted at me without fail every time

[@JEstey10000]

"How was it that a film so beloved by the generally-liberal Hollywood elites... came to be so gleefully embraced by the far right?" ... because the generally-liberal Hollywood elites are actually pretty darn conservative? Liberal ≠ Left. The US Democratic Party are NOT Leftists! And we may separate "Liberals" from "Conservatives" in US politics, but in a capitalist Liberal Democracy like the USA, Liberalism IS a conservative ideology. I appreciate that there's a huge space of political difference between Conservative Republicans like Pat Buchanan and Liberal Democrats like Aaron Sorkin when it comes to a relatively small number of publicly-debated issues such as abortion rights and the separation of Church & State, but they're both broadly in favor of preserving the current US-centric, capitalist, imperialist, etc. etc. world order. "Hollywood elites" may not generally be "big C" Conservative in the sense of endorsing "traditional Christian family values" or supporting Republicans - aside from Zach Snyder, Mel Gibson, Michael Bay, Charlton Heston, Clint Eastwood... actually, there are quite a few prominent Conservatives in Hollywood! However, at a more fundamental level, Hollywood - both in the 90's and generally - generally makes movies which broadly endorse conservative Liberal values (that's "small c conservative" and "big L" Liberal): capitalism, consumerism, individualism, reformism/gradualism/legalism, US nationalism, patriarchy, violence as a tool of social preservation, veneration of the police & military, etc. Even Hollywood movies that offer social or political critiques tend to focus on individual changes ("get the bad guy out") or surface-level reforms rather than ever even considering systemic change as an option. Forrest Gump is a well-meaning individual man who navigates a corrupt and confusing world successfully and touches many people's lives positively, while simply taking the underlying structure of society as a given - and that's a staple trope of BOTH Liberal and Conservative worldviews. (As Broey explains in economic terms much better than I could during the "Problem with Popular Filmmaking" section of this video, starting at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1827">30:27</a>.)

[@christopherschneider2968]

Damn straight! Jenny represents the left, which is why she is seen the anti-war protestors and the black panthers that are shown to be violent thugs. Forrest Gump is the moderate the centre thats why he has many conservative values but also is colourblind when seggregation comes up. Like you said conservative Liberal.

[@Doctor_Straing_Strange]

yeah I don't think it was purely a marketing or "money" decision either, i think a great deal of ideology slipped through the film, not to make it appealing to a wider public, but revealing the biases of the filmmakers around subjects of oppression and integration, as well as stereotypical portrayals of hippie culture as a shorthand for degeneracy and evil

[@juliana_f_c]

Thank you for this comment. I'm sure many of us who are not from the USA will be a little perplexed by the questions raised in this video.

[@lehwSwBp]

The fact Forrest is not depicted killing anybody is just ridiculous, he's a solider, who's job is killing his country perceived enemies, the act of not depicting war as it bare minimum of ppl killing each other, is just... absurd,PERPLEXING, I am baffled, confounded even Like bro what is this,military propaganda?! I gone and watch the battle scene and the depiction of the battlefield is so nebulous, distant even

[@tape-6]

this is true but I dont think zack snyder is a conservative, I think his movies are just kinda dumb and also adapt frank miller comics, but his personal politivs dont seem to lean very conservative. However I do understand ur point+why hes here bc his movies being successful shows that conservatism regardless of its intentionality is not a powerless force in hollywood and in fact can be a massive moneymaker

[@martymcflown3707]

This is such a random reference, but I remember listening to the director's commentary for The Princess Bride and Rob Reiner being vey insistent that Robin Wright, and thereby Jenny, was the heart of Forrest Gump and that the movie wouldn't have worked without her while he was complimenting Wright's performance in his own film. And even as a kid, it made me realize that I never really watched Forrest Gump to see Forrest. I'd always connected to Jenny or to Lt. Dan. I honestly never think about this movie anymore except when people on the internet decide to say awful things about Jenny. Not the writer's choices around Jenny, which are worthy of critique, but speaking on the character Jenny as if she's an evil harpy who strung Forrest along "for no reason." So I guess Rob Reiner was correct. The movie definitely wouldn't have worked for me even a little if it wasn't for Jenny.

[@PokhrajRoy.]

FINALLY! People need to stop eulogising this movie (although love you Rob Reiner).

[@dhribbler7303]

I'd say someone who truly fits as the patron saint of the conservative canon of the 80s and early 90s is John Hughes with Ferris Bueller and Home Alone essentially being full blown celebrations of Reaganite Conservative politics and 80s consumerism. John Hughes was also openly sympathetic to the conservative movement. Forrest Gump in that sense is a close of that era in some ways.

[@bomberbcm]

I never thought about the conservative undertones in Back to the Future. I can understand tho how much easier it is to critique Forest instead bc it has less pop culture impact imo than Forest Gump.

[@arempy5836]

It's ridiculous to imagine that you could make an apolitical film that is nothing but a best hits collection of post-war 20th century American history.

[@2channelfudanshi]

Ahhh such a good video really opened my eyes about this movie. Like I always felt wierd about this movie and I never could say why. I liked it as a kid but as I got older it just felt strange to me. The book sounds interesting and adds more character to Forrest.

[@kimberleesi]

I didn't even know this was a book and now I really want to read it so thank you for that!

[@emisformaker]

Never before thought of Ready Player One as a spiritual successor to Forrest Gump (in the sense of 'here's a thing you know! remember this thing?'), but here we are.

[@zainmudassir2964]

A spiritual sequel is probably the movie 'The Butler'. It ends with the main character going to meet president elect Obama which Liberal elites probably think is revolutionary

[@tj2375]

Ah, the film I always disliked and can't understand how anyone likes it.

[@BROJANGSTER]

cuz it’s wholesome and funny and gives me little butterflies that fly around in my stomach 🤗🤗

[@Barbabonbon]

it's because you have bad tastes

[@person35exists48]

Because it’s a well made, crowd pleasing movie? I seriously don’t understand this idea that so many people online have now that something having a disagreeable message suddenly robs it of all further artistic value.

[@generaldiscernment]

You may think everyone likes it except for you, but you would be incorrect. Many of us are fully aware it is an absolute piece of garbage, oscar baity mess of a movie.

[@andrehirschler5442]

Is there an irony in the conservative movement gleefully claiming a man lacking mental faculties as the model american male? No? Just me seeing that ok...

[@isaiahromero9861]

Theres something ironic about this comment too if you ask me

[@Oryx7000]

Let’s not do that.

[@marksando3082]

I mean, it's not really ironic because what resonates with them is that he's slavishly devoted to values they adhere to. They don't claim him because of but in spite of his "shortcomings".

[@UrbanDecayLova247]

Hmm this might be the best explanation I’ve heard of why people view it as a conservative film. That said, idk I still like the story of Jenny 🤷🏾‍♀️ I’ve always found her character to be a litmus test for misogyny because I just cannot wrap my mind around the “she’s a villain” folks. That take has always come off misogynistic.

[@anthonyrowland9072]

I mean I saw it once in like 1996 but...

[@sadplanets]

I love Jenny. She's a tragic figure who did some really cool shit and had an interesting(albeit sad) life. I would watch a movie from her pov

[@danielrose881]

I've never seen Forrest Gump as a conservative film. Quite the opposite in fact. I've always viewed the character of Forrest as a metaphor for America and Americans in general; mindlessly walking through history not knowing or understanding what is going on around them, but going along with it anyway. This is reflected by the fact that the movie is seen through his eyes and not that of an observer who gives context, so when he comes across rights activism, for example, all he sees is what's in front of him and not the reasons behind it. When he goes to war, he doesn't question why, he just goes along and does what he's told. We aren't told in the movie the background behind these events, we're supposed to know already. This is a criticism of Americanism, not a celebration of it. The fact that conservatives latched on to the movie and claimed it as their own, should ring alarm bells for anyone who watched it, to praise the unquestioned and uneducated and support those who just do what they're told. The fact that they latched on to it is also an unintentional criticism of them, as conservatives typically don't have a good eye for metaphor, allegory or art. They prefer to be spoon-fed surface-level information and meaning, not layered and complex meaning that requires background knowledge.

[@MCArt25]

It is conservative insofar as it blatantly rewrites American history to put all blame on women, leftists and Black people.

[@zekewalker1350]

I’m with you in loving the Polar Express! The puppet and hobo sequences are a little off putting but it never gave me nightmares and maybe it was just cus I was at that right age to be brave in the face of creepy things but I was still pretty young when it came out.

[@zainmudassir2964]

It's Francis Fukiyama's End of History,The Movie.

[@keiththorpe9571]

I saw "FG" at the theater in '94, and when I began to hear Republicans claim it as their own, I thought they were right...but not in the way they saw it. Forrest (like many conservatives in America) drifts through life observing and sometimes participating in the most pivotal moments of American history while being utterly oblivious to their importance and never reflecting on their consequences. Forrest falls ass-backwards into success with no discernible talent to speak of which would justify such success...again, as do many conservatives. He's a vapid, empty shell, devoid of substance or depth, incapable of grasping the gravity of events around him, coming to terms with them by citing insipid, obvious witticisms, imparted to him by his mother, which only the weakest mind would characterize as 'wisdom'. Yeah, 'FG' is every bit the conservative movie Pat Buchanan said it was, no question.

[@harmonygarcia333]

tf is ur beef with forrest gump bro 😭😭

[@nelus101]

I mean...they ain't wrong tbh​@@harmonygarcia333

[@ilisafonua2798]

​@@harmonygarcia333 yeah, I didn't know anyone could feel this way about this movie 😂

[@petermj1098]

Forrest Gump is satire on American pop culture. Lol

[@doomgal669]

Just watched on Nebula and wanted to leave a comment. I liked this movie as a kid. Now as an adult in my early 40's I start to despise it. The messaging in this movie is so bad, and I can't unsee it anymore. Aged like milk would imply that it was ever good.

[@nanananananananananananana9430]

Now that you have described the film, I feel that "Millennium Actress" did a much better job at exploring the complicated history of Japan through the very specific perspective of one woman. What I adore about that film is that it is very romantic and optimistic in nature but it also does show how Imperial Japan has also been responsible for taking away the love of her life and in aknowledging that much of this fantastical portrayal of her history is ultimately her own perspective of her journey and that she tries to find inspiration in which she herself has been able to overcome in her life to be such an admirable figure and that she cannot regret taking on her choices. The love of her life isn’t simply there to be a symbol of loging for the past but also a representation of her passion and what she has currently become as a woman and a person.

[@WhenIsItUs]

Brave critic! I can only imagine how many people will feel about you criticizing a major piece of American infantilization. Great work! The more I watched it, the less harmless the movie seemed. I think calling it apolitical is deceptive, like not thinking of a scientist as part of the weapons development program just because they aren't testing out the guns themselves. It's an anti-political in the way an anti-matter dissolves matter upon contact. This movie dissolves politics in the now more maleable mind of the viewer, allowing the politics to breed freely within reality.

[@TotoIsWriting]

awesome video

[@lonellfletcher]

I love the Polar Express too!!!!! You're not alone!!!!!!!!!!!

[@martinavila7401]

One of my favorite movies , really just puts a smile in my face, not a masterpiece but an uplifting comforting movie.

[@lizan2678]

I had a brace on my leg during my childhood and I got made fun of A LOT by other kids with references to Forrest Gump, so I could never emotionally latch onto the way my peers did. Also, the Black Panthers scene doesn't sit well with me.

[@milenabianca9787]

I’m sorry I love Forrest Gump. I can’t watch it because Bubba dying upsets me too much. But as a huge fan of Americana it’s the perfect movie. Looking at it through a political lens I can see how people would definitely dislike the conservatism of it but as a piece of cinematic history it’s perfect

[@marksando3082]

Thank you. You really summed up why I never really cared for this film.

[@danrandlehandle]

Bruhhhh why couldn’t you have dropped this a week ago 😭 this would’ve been so helpful for my essay <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="95">1:35</a>

[@kissesfromtiara]

I’m curious to see how Robert Zemeckis translates time in his new movie “Here”. It stars Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, and I’m kinda excited.

[@chefarik]

You've crossed the threshold to that space where a new Z.D. video drop will set the tone for my whole day feeling better. I love your insights, I love your work.

[@valenfr01]

Thank you!! I never liked the movie even tho i love Tom Hanks' and Zemeckis' earlier work

[@tzimaka]

love to see it

[@tourbillon9617]

Forrest Gump, Mrs Doubtfire, Star Wars, and the Indiana Jones franchise are the opposite of 70's movies like Network or All The President's Men. It's children's movies, but many grown-ups like them too.

[@anthonywheeler2082]

You mean Hollywood adapted a novel without understanding its tone or intention? I'm shocked. Shocked, I tell you! Well, not that shocked.

[@moviemaniac14]

I might be far left, but this is still my second favorite film of all time. Nothing anyone says will ever change my mind about it.

[@zekewalker1350]

That explosion at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1733">28:53</a> you can see skeleton. The VFX artists added that much detail.

[@tadici4464]

The point of the film becoming part of the American memory of these events is pretty interesting. This reminds me of how John Reed's account of the October Revolution in Ten Day That Shook the World became for many Russian revolutionaries the definitive account of the events. They would start referencing the book as if it was their memory.

[@trapadvisor]

Man I’ve gotten to a point where media analysis seems juvenile, dialectical materialism applied to the modern day and history is where it’s at imo

[@nicholasjoseph8297]

Broey your wrong. Gump is almost every 13 year olds favorite movie to this day and is a good introduction to prestidge cinama. Forrest Gump has aged briliantly. We need to look up to Forrest more then ever. Nobody talks about Forrests unconditional love. He loves people based on merrit and not superfical things. After befriending Bubba, he keeps his wish alive and helps his family. He doesnt give up on lutenit Dan and still loves Jenney since he sees her as the first person to ecept him we need more friends like Forrest.

[@kennethhymes9734]

throughline in zemeckis, which we should recognize in the narratives and defenses of land theft all around us and elsewhere: the sentimentalization and whiteification of the past.

[@Oryx7000]

I seem to remember learning that as a character back story, the narrator of Fight Club unironically loves the movie Forrest Gump. Which is just so perfect.

[@kblixt]

I’m far from conservative and I’ve loved this film since I was like 8

[@JC-tu6hc]

THE best satire of all time. It is so sick watching gen Xers sob over this movie.

[@MrJacobHart]

Yo Broey, I just saw Megalopolis this weekend and… Im gonna need your help rationalizing it. Preciate ya!

[@Prometheusforliberty]

I find some of these issues are also found in Back to the Future, just less so . This makes me think that if it was an accident, it was from subconscious bias

[@ZacaRainier]

Omg Forest and Maya, could not ask for better morning.

[@edbop]

Shock horror, people in the '90s were similarly politically illiterate as they are today; people describe what they like as being of their own political persuasion because people like to think of themselves as the good guy. If anything it has only got worse now that we see adults watching superhero movies.

[@hgfdshtrew8541]

i actually read that she was supposed to have died from Hep C not aids

[@vladimirvparfenov3935]

i was there when it happened ?????

[@howaboutnooo00]

oh dude forrest gump is one of the first grown up books I've ever read at like age 9 (bc my mom who had a video rental shop bought the book, and we had very few books at home), and I've reread it several times, and I always liked how wacky it was, and imagine my surprise when I found out people haaaate the book. Like, I've learned a lot about history from it as a tiny polish tween (the cargo cult? the vietnam war? chess? the hippie movement?), and I think it's a whole different creature from the movie, which, yeah, is really conservative.

[@sallylillian2760]

Mindnight on a sunday, lessss gooooooo

[@DominickHernandez-b6k]

LESSSSGOOOOOO (I hate this movie)

[@IRosamelia]

This is one very good video ❤

[@madisonemily4083]

Wow, great video!

[@SeekingApatheia]

RIP Jameson

[@FLOJo83]

Great video!

[@emiliosillero4227]

First

[@ryanroddy6129]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="2003">33:23</a>

[@ok..7616]

💗

[@GrownUpKid94]

Zemeckis was a history of having likable white ppl doing historically Black things. Also, shout out to Ben from canada

[@martinavila7401]

Like what examples besides Forrest?

[@kblixt]

I’ll just have to imagine what taboo on screen would be like, because I can’t pay for another streaming service

[@kostajovanovic3711]

It's fine, even underwhelming if I am being honest

[@Flutterwhat]

I had been genuinely wondering where you had gone and looks like it's not a surprise: a podcast. so many creators slow their yt output because of these podcasts. it's a big dissapoimtnet that you've shifted your priorities.

[@Theyungcity23]

I strongly disagree with this idea that Forrest Gump is a conservative movie or makes a pro conservative argument. It's a lot like Being There (1979) where it's saying that in order to succeed in America you have to be "not smart" as Gump describes himself. You can't be a person who questions or thinks outside the box. We see Gumps loved ones throughout the film very clearly struggling with the state of America and the lies their country sold to them. Life is like a box of chocolates in that its a lot of trash that no one would request otherwise packaged up nice to make you think its better than what it is. Now of course that is a weird ableist othering of neuroatypical people. And the film does not earn the right to criticize the Black Panthers the way it does. But for the most part it's a left wing criticism.

[@PramitChatterjee1993]

fyi while india is going through its most conservative right-wing stage ever, bollywood remade forrest gump as laal singh chaddha. so, ya. no matter how much zemeckis & roth say it's aPoLiTiCaL, it's a deeply conservative film.

[@kostajovanovic3711]

Thanks Modi, very great of you

[@joeytosi]

I think this whole essay is about you learning that you are inspired by conservative values and struggling against those emotions.

[@vgsadgirl]

that you read that into it says a lot more about you than her

[@skywalkersbutido6375]

politics rear its ugly heads

[@benrualf]

The mistake here is analysing the movie on today's political landscape where everything is so divided. The divide wasn't that strong back then

[@terryjones573]

Oh for god’s sake🙄

[@moonlighthowling666]

Just say youre not gonna watch the video and move on😂

[@benrualf]

@@moonlighthowling666 were you alive back then? Because I was. You don't know shit about the 90s and Broey doesn't either.

[@filmlab_uk]

Politics… nothing new or creative anymore

[@dj71162]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="120">2:00</a> Er, I think you need to learn the difference between conservatism and the far right.

[@btarczy5067]

She referred to Buchanan there who is a far right conservative.

[@nicholasjoseph8297]

How dare we have a film about a man with a simple right or wrong complex. The fact that patriotism, not overthinking and being true to your values is considered propaganda. Even if it was conservative im sick and tired of people on the hating everything they disagree with and shame people for liking it. Most right leaning who are not on Washington or the internet watches movies with left leaning values and themes all the time. I love Forrest Gump cause it gives hope that the American Dream is possible and if you do the right thing and be true to who you are. We need to be more optamistic and true to our vales like Forrest. Maybe not as ignorant, but hpeful more then ever.

[@glenquagmire4340]

All i hear is a liberal crying

[@justaghostinthesea]

The video has been up for 7 minutes. The video is 37 minutes long. You didn’t watch shit

[@cannondebris]

"I'm not mad, please don't put in the newspaper that I got mad"

[@TotoIsWriting]

eats bees 🐝🐝🐝

[@Snp2024]

Bait comment to start war typical

[@eminentbishop1325]

Keep boosting that algorithm buddy, doing God's work out here 😂

[@motherlesschild102]

Even though it was made in the 1990's, Forest Gump is a very '80s film. It certainly is conservative ("center right") in outlook, but also hearkens back much further ("Tis a gift to be simple, tis a gift to be free."). Everyone else in my family loved that movie- and couldn't understand why I didn't. It is, in so many ways, a dishonest movie- even above and beyond the "usual dishonesty" of movies/filmmaking.