Life IS like a box of chocolates

Everyone has that movie that while flipping through the channels they stop on, always.  I have to admit I have several.  I like my movies and I like seeing them multiple times.  The other day I was flipping through to see what I could have on as background noise while working and I came across one of my All-Time favorites, Forrest Gump.  I must say if you are not a fan of this movie then the movie is not the problem, it has to be you.

That last sentence reminds of a conversation I had with my cousin while I was in Italy visiting family a couple years after the movie was released.  He asked me if I liked it.  I looked at him like he was crazy for even asking the question.  He told me he thought it was just "ok", and that he really didn't get it.  That's when it hit me.  That movie is an American thing.  No disrespect to other countries around the world but Forrest Gump is truly a piece of American Pie, and it has been truly embedded into American Culture.

Was there a message in that movie?  I think so.  I believe there were several.  It told us that anyone was capable of achieving success, not matter what the odds, isn't that what the American Dream is after all?  It showed us that people truly have a destiny whether they want to believe it or not.  It gave us a, somewhat skewed, view of American history and how it intertwined into America lives.  It showed us the benefits of the Civil Rights movement in the South.  It showed us the beauty of America while he was running across country and it showed us the ugly side of Vietnam and the AIDS epidemic.  

Most of all it showed the loyalty that Forrest Gump had and the loyalty that people befriended him had towards him.  He loved his Momma, He loved Bubba, he loved Lt. Dan and obviously he loved Jenny.  He would do anything for any of them and it showed when he kept his promise to Bubba's family on the partnership they had, or how he took a legless Lt. Dan and made him his first mate and partner.  He showed it when the dispatcher told him his mother was sick and he immediately jumped in the water to get to her, even though he had a boat at his disposal.  He took care of Jenny no matter the circumstance and never questioned what happened to her.

Believe it or not but Forrest Gump has become ingrained into our pop culture.  Mainly because the movie represents a certain piece of Americana that makes Americans proud.  But how many times have you uttered the phrase "...Life is like a box of chocolates.  You never know what you are going to get".  Have you ever had to go to the bathroom and say "I gotta pee" in that southern drawl that Tom Hanks made so famous.  How many times have you referred to actor Gary Sinise as "Lt. Dan".  It had become so subliminally ingrained into our pop culture that there now is a Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Restaurant.

You may not agree with what I have said above, or maybe have never realized it, there is nothing wrong with that.  But the next time you are surfing through the channels and the movie that you can never get past is on, ask yourself why is it you can't get past it?  Stupid is, as stupid does.

3D

If you don't take it from me, ask my wife.