--- title: "Forrest Gump: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/forrest-gump/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/forrest-gump" critics_score: 62 critics_reviews: 19 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Forrest Gump (1994): what the critics said Critics' score 62 from 19 reviews: 9 positive, 3 mixed, 7 negative. Most critics like Forrest Gump, though not by a wide margin, and almost all of them agree on what works. Tom Hanks’s performance is praised in nearly every review, positive and negative alike, for its warmth and its refusal to condescend to the character. The effects that place him in archive footage alongside real figures are the other constant, with several reviewers calling the technical work the film’s chief achievement and Zemeckis’s direction assured. The reservations are about everything else. A large minority find the sentimentality cloying, the episodic structure loose and the politics complacent: a film that rewards its hero for knowing nothing and treats the counterculture as a cautionary tale. The spread is unusually wide, from full marks to outright dismissal. The Independent and The New Yorker are hostile from the start, and later pieces from IndieWire, Time Out and Den of Geek argue the film has aged badly. ## RogerEbert.com — Roger Ebert Rating 4/4. 6 July 1994. The critic calls it a magical movie and a meditation on recent American history seen through the eyes of an honest, simple man. He singles out Tom Hanks' dignified, straight-ahead performance and the innovative use of special effects to place the character in real historical events. [Read the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/forrest-gump-1994) ## The Times Rating ★★★★★. 18 July 2024. The review describes the film as a consistently moving and visually spectacular sprawling picaresque that remains relevant, slickly self-aware, and the pinnacle achievement of its director despite some dated elements. [Read the review](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/forrest-gump-film-review-tom-hanks-vfw7nmxd8) ## The Hollywood Reporter — Duane Byrge Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 29 June 1994. The film is an uplifting saga and cheeky social satire that contrasts Forrest’s innocence with the upheavals of recent U.S. history. Hanks delivers an Oscar-level performance as the wise fool, and Zemeckis directs with graceful, technically eloquent maturity. [Read the review](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/forrest-gump-review-1994-movie-1018984/) ## Variety — Todd McCarthy Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 11 July 1994. A picaresque story of a simpleton’s charmed odyssey through American history that is whimsy with a strong cultural spine; elegantly made and winningly acted by Tom Hanks, technically dazzling, and shrewdly packaged to appeal to baby boomers with emotional and iconographic touchstones. [Read the review](https://variety.com/1994/film/reviews/forrest-gump-1200438040/) ## Radio Times — Adrian Turner Rating 4/5. A box-office blockbuster and Oscar winner that sees naive Gump drift through key American historical events and emerge triumphant, with Hanks delivering a remarkable performance and stunning special effects. [Read the review](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-ejxyzu/forrest-gump/) ## The Guardian — Derek Malcolm Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). 6 October 1994. The critic calls the film a brilliantly made technical tour de force that places its simple protagonist in the midst of recent American history like a modern Zelig. It is a triumph of style over content that goes on too long but appeals widely thanks to Hanks' sincere central performance. [Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/News_Story/Critic_Review/Guardian_review/0,,544587,00.html) ## Empire — Angie Errigo Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 2000. The charmed life journey of an innocent through turbulent American history makes for an original and hugely appealing story with dazzling special effects. It singles out Tom Hanks' captivating, disarming performance as the standout element while noting the film is overlong and occasionally overly sentimental. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/forrest-gump-review/) ## Los Angeles Times — Kenneth Turan Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 6 July 1994. Turan calls the film sweet and eccentric with a gentle sensibility, highlighting Hanks' deadpan comic determination and the impressive special effects as its strongest elements. He notes it stumbles when forcing charm toward obvious sentimentality and broader societal points. [Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-07-06-ca-12186-story.html) ## The AV Club — Noel Murray Rating B-. 18 November 2009. The multi-Oscar winner has suffered strong backlash for emotional manipulation and its simplistic hero, yet Zemeckis' visual style, pacing, and lyrical moments using old-school techniques are praised. Hanks' performance as the limited simpleton and the character's conception are major flaws that make the film divisive. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/forrest-gump-1798207450) ## Slant Magazine — Rob Humanick Fi1m's normalised score 60/100 (inferred from the text). 4 September 2014. The film mixes affecting sincerity with absurdity that invites ridicule, succeeding through Zemeckis's optimistic touch and Hanks's performance despite some problematic elements. It singles out the Jenny AIDS subplot as a calculated and despicable deviation that lands poorly. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/forrest-gump/) ## The New York Times — Janet Maslin Fi1m's normalised score 50/100 (inferred from the text). 6 July 1994. Maslin praises the film's technical sleight-of-hand and seamless special effects integrating Hanks into historical footage, along with Hanks' warm, uncondescending performance. She criticizes the loose, vignette-like structure and overreliance on saccharine sentimentality that undermines dramatic coherence. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/06/movies/film-review-tom-hanks-as-an-interloper-in-history.html) ## IndieWire Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 4 July 2019. The film is a slick celebration of the human spirit that exploits American history as empty signifiers for technological effects and preaches conservatism by having its naive hero emerge unscathed from tumultuous events. It is viewed as a bad movie that gets worse with age and scarier than its reputation suggests. [Read the review](https://www.indiewire.com/features/commentary/forrest-gump-25th-anniversary-bad-movie-1235021959/) ## The Independent — Quentin Curtis Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 8 October 1994. The critic views the film as passive and simple-minded like its hero, acting as a narcotic security blanket that anaesthetises America from real engagement with history. It praises Tom Hanks' skill and charm in the role but faults the sentimentality, episodic structure, and overall lack of depth or ideas as a new low in American filmmaking. [Read the review](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/film-gump-simple-but-ineffective-1441779.html) ## The New Yorker — Anthony Lane Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 18 July 1994. The film is insistently heartwarming to the point of chilling the marrow, with no moral doubt or unease, pushing the myth that one can know and do better by being dumb. The seamless visual effects inserting Gump into historical footage are praised as snappy, though sound dubbing and dramatic purpose receive criticism. [Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1994/07/25/the-spy-who-loved-me) ## Time Out — TCh Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 10 September 2012. The film is a reactionary work that contrasts Gump's charmed life with Jenny's counterculture missteps, ultimately promoting ignorance as bliss beneath its feel-good surface. Hanks's performance is noted but the overall tone is mawkish and conservative. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/forrest-gump) ## The Ringer Fi1m's normalised score 60/100 (inferred from the text). 25 July 2019. Forrest Gump swept the Oscars as an ambitious American picaresque visualizing 20th-century upheavals through an innocent's eyes, achieving critical and commercial dominance. It defeated Pulp Fiction at the Oscars but the latter has aged better in cultural impact. [Read the review](https://www.theringer.com/2019/07/25/movies/pulp-fiction-forrest-gump-quentin-robert-zemeckis-oscars) ## Collider — Matt Goldberg Fi1m's normalised score 40/100 (inferred from the text). 1 July 2019. The film is a surprisingly cold-hearted and nihilistic movie that renders important historical events into kitsch through Forrest's simplistic lens. Zemeckis's direction and Hanks's performance provide crowd-pleasing sheen and charm despite the problematic approach. [Read the review](https://collider.com/forrest-gump-problems/) ## Den of Geek — David Crow Fi1m's normalised score 40/100 (inferred from the text). 21 May 2022. The film is a quintessential Baby Boomer artifact whose rose-tinted view of American history feels increasingly threadbare and grating on rewatch. It singles out the trivialization of racial tensions and the simplistic portrayal of counterculture versus mainstream values for criticism. [Read the review](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/has-forrest-gump-aged-well/) ## Eye for Film — Angus Wolfe Murray Fi1m's normalised score 40/100 (inferred from the text). 14 November 2001. The critic describes Forrest Gump as a sentimental fable that covers American history through the eyes of a simple-minded everyman but questions its simplistic, overly wholesome approach to mental disability and emotional manipulation. [Read the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/forrest-gump-film-review-by-angus-wolfe-murray) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/forrest-gump.md