As the movie starts you are whisked away by a white feather slowly floating down, what seems to be, the heavens making its way towards the bustling city below. Gently intertwining around footsteps, industrial buildings, and nature the feather softly lands on the muddy shoes of Forrest Gump beginning the tale of his life. Just like the feather, Forrest Gump’s life weaved throughout historical events and transitions through several people’s lives. The film is a timeless peace that shows that people’s actions are much more than what they think they are. People come and go as they please but the memories will be preserved there forever.

“Forrest Gump” is an American film directed by Robert Zemeckis. The first opening weekend the film grossed nearly $25,000,000. Worldwide the movie made $678,151,134. Image if “Forrest Gump was released in 2019, which would still have popularity due to Tom Hanks, worldwide would of grossed about $1,177,594,344. Tom Hanks made $60 million for his star role. If you compare these numbers to “The Lion King”, which was also released in 1994, you can see that “Forrest Gump” only made about $100,000,000 less. The range seems like a large amount but in the film industry it is minuscule.

From the opening moment to the closing you are really able to watch Forrest’s life. One of my favorite scenes is whenever Forrest is running away from the bullying kids and he breaks out of his leg braces. Of course in this scene you hear little Jenny yelling “Run Forrest, Run!” But he does run. I find the entire scene very symbolic because here is a kid who is head in by these leg braces that constrict him from being “normal.” Any normality growing up is hard. Trying to fit in and be yourself is a struggle that all youth has to endure. But by running away, breaking the constraints, Forrest was allowed to become himself. Now I know that in reality this is a little kid running away from bullying and he could have stood up for himself. By unleashing this running passion Forrest was able to be on a college football team, save his troop in Vietnam, find Jenny. Forrest did more than run, he allowed himself to take the first steps towards his future.

As successful as the film was critics argue mostly if the film if is as iconic as the audience claims it to be. According to one review from Rotten Tomatoes states “Contrasting Forrest’s unassuming innocence with the upheavals and rancor of the times, the film is a wisely goofy commentary on the stupidity of smartness.” Actually looking through several reviews the word “stupid” is used frequently. I disagree with this. I believe the film can be described as unique or unconventional but not stupid. The overall experience and outlook of the movie was meant to be greater than a silly movie. The movie uses a lot of historical references from Elvis to the Vietnam War. Considering the movie was made in 1994 there was a lot of significant events that happened before that time. I know with 2019 coming to an end there are many reminders of what has been created or happened over that past 19 years. “Forrest Gump” reminded society how much has changed just in one person’s life.

After watching the film finally from start to finish I found another perspective of the innocence in youth. I am a huge Tom Hanks fan from the “Toy Story” movies but I found that they young actors in the film were the true stars. I can only image being put into a position to follow Tom Hanks in a film and be able to portray the level of seriousness that was expended. I believe both young “Forrest Gump” (Michael Humphreys) and “Jenny Curran” (Hanna Hall) exceeded these expectations but they were able to maintain a glimmer of innocence. It is inspiring.

The film had a significant effect on society in the early ’90s but continued in the following generation. If you look at the gap from “Forrest Gump” to “Avatar” there is a huge change in the film industry. Not from the pool of actors and actresses to work with but also the change in technology and the change in almost everything in Hollywood.

The opposite of the unusually average journey of “Forrest Gump” the movie “Avatar” jumps right into the action from the get-go. Within the first five minutes there is space travel, death of a loved one, and an alien planet that hooks you to learn more about what is to come. By the beginning visuals alone you can tell that the use of technology is heavily influenced to make the captivating world of Pandora possible.

To attempt to produce a futuristic space planet film such as “Avatar” in 2009 is a huge risk considering there is several classic space films made before its time such as “Star Wars”, “Star Trek”, “Rise of the Planets of the Apes” etc. But the director, James Cameron, had the power of modern technology up his sleeve. According to The Guardian “Working with long-time collaborator Vincent Pace – founder of a camera equipment outfit in Los Angeles – Cameron developed a filming rig that is more advanced than anything that has gone before. The setup consists of a number of stereoscopic cameras that each use a pair of lenses built to mimic human eyes – positioned close together and able to move a little in order to focus on objects that are nearby or far away. That allows the cinematographer to capture two images simultaneously, which align perfectly with and provide the illusion of depth.” Cameron changed the way technology was used in Hollywood which later developed creating films such as Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” to seamlessly blur the lines of fictitious worlds.

One thing I did notice about the film is the use of legs and running. When the main character Jake first is in his Avatar form he wants to use his legs because of the inability he has with his human ones. He takes off running feeling the freedom and joy to break away from your own restraints reminded me of what young Forrest Gump did. But the overall story is not about selfish freedom, it is about the fight for an entire race. The main character realizes that the intensions of his own kind are hurting the lives of others and his love interest, Neytiri, teaches him the way of life of the Na’vi people ultimately having him fight for the greater good. What I love about films like “Avatar” is it empowers you to see the truth behind a problem. Just because you are told one thing does not mean it is always right. I believe you can apply that to real world situations where people are forced to believe one side over the other. Yes this is a fantasy movie but meaning behind the film can be just as engaging.

The film grossed over $760,000,000 in the US nearly doubling its budget of $237,000,000. Compared to “Coraline” released in 2009 as well and used a modern approach to another side of Hollywood’s technology “Avatar” grossed 10 times the amount of it. Both films had well known actors such as Datkoa Fanning (Coraline), Teri Hatcher (Coraline), Sam Worthington (Avatar), and Zoe Saldana (Avatar).

Overall I find the film to be conventionally unconventional meaning obviously the main character would win his battle but the movie had unexpected twists and turns drawing you in even more. As a far-off, natural beauty this film “Avatar” can be labeled the eighth wonder of the world. It not only is a classic for my generation but upcoming generations will witness many sequels building upon the world of Pandora. That is a sight I cannot wait to see.