I was very excited to receive the 25th Anniversary Blu-ray DVD release of Forrest Gump from Paramount Pictures because it was a great film in 1994. Paramount chose the right director in Robert Zemeckis as well as two amazing writers Winston Groom and Eric Roth plus excellent actors Tom Hanks, Rebecca Williams, Sally Field, Gary Sinise, and more. The film won six Oscars plus another forty-one critical wins and sixty-eight nominations.

This 2-disc Anniversary Blu-ray DVD is packed with great features including new digitally remastered Blu-Ray film, the complete originally released special features, and a digital movie.

The first scene of Forrest Gump (Hanks) sitting on the bus stop bench with a box of candy gives us a hint of comedy to come. He talks to another person about his mother (Field), who says, “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.” And Hanks is superb at mingling that comedy with drama and romance as the story unfolds.  

Fortunately, there’s plenty of humor from and about Forrest as a young boy. When he meets Jenny (Robin Wright Peen), she has to help him learn how to have a girlfriend. There are ups and down with their relations, mostly with Jenny venturing to hang out with hippies and drowning in drugs. Penn does an amazing job of creating a lost and confused young girl.

Meanwhile Forrest blossoms while learning about life and even having fun teaching Elvis Presley how to dance! He also plays football and meets three presidents (John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon). What he never expected was to end up fighting in the Vietnam War and trying to deal with losing his comrades.  And keeping up with the commands of LT. Dan (Gary Sinise) takes a toll on him. Scenes of the war are hard to watch, but the actors make us feel we are there.

Forrest later bonds with Bubba (Mykelti Williamson), a veteran who convinces him that when the war ends he should come back to Alabama where they could make a fortune together on his Shrimp boat.

There is more to Forrest’s life, of course. For example, it’s interesting how he learned as a young boy to run away very fast from other boys trying to hurt him, and it turns out he continued to run as fast as he could during the rest of his life as well.

Finally, I have to admit the beautiful production values of this 25th Anniversary DVD absolutely overwhelmed me.   

(Released by Paramount Pictures and rated “PG-13” for war violence, profanity, drugs and alcohol.)