Forrest Gump – 4K UHD Blu-ray Movie Review

Tom Hanks gives an astonishing performance as Forrest, an everyman whose simple innocence comes to embody a generation. Along side his mama (Fields), his best friend Bubba (Williamson) and his favorite girl Jenny (Wright), Forrest has a ringside seat for the most memorable events of the second half of the 20th century. Winner of 6 Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor, Forrest Gump remains one of the great movie triumphs of all time.

Though this film is 22 years old, it holds up remarkably well. Only Hanks could have pulled of a performance of an innocent simpleton who understands life in a way the rest of us simply overlook with our self-centered and busy lifestyles. Yes, the film is a bit too long and frankly, a bit too sappy in some places, but it effectively speaks to the heart. It’s a wonderful tale that intertwines history and Gump’s personal journey that reminds me a bit of Woody Allen’s Zelig.

Hanks has played this type of part before in the movie BIG, where he plays a child in a man’s body with believable innocence and emotion. Here, as Gump, he is a child like man facing a world that is often confusing and up side down. The film is a clever commentary on how a wise person can navigate the joys and hardships of life with dignity and purpose. It really does make the audience think about what is really important and what is superficial in living a life. In spite of the length of the movie, the events seamlessly move from one to the next and the film never feels to bog down. Maybe life is like a box of chocolates after all.

The picture quality is a bit of a mixed bag. Some close-ups show remarkable details while a few long shots are bit unfocused and blurry. This is probably due to the actual film stock and not a UHD transfer issue. A few of the darker scenes also exhibit some buzzy graininess that doesn’t appear elsewhere in the film. HDR does bump up some of the primary colors and adds some crisp whites, but he overall contrast is not much better than the Sapphire Blu-ray that came out on the 20th anniversary of the film. The soundtrack has been improved with an aggressive 5.1 mix and Atmos. This is especially noted during the battle scene in Viet Nam, with loud explosions and cackling machine fire all around. Though this release is marginally better than the BD version, I would not say it is a “must have” upgrade unless you are a huge fan of this movie.

Besides the UHD version, you get these extras on the BD version:

• Audio Commentary with Robert Zemeckis, Steve Starkey and Rick Carter
• Audio Commentary with Wendy Finerman
• Musical Signposts to History
• Greenbow Diary
• The Art of Screenplay Adaptation
• Getting Past Impossible – Forrest Gump And The Visual Effects Revolution
• Little Forrest
• An Evening With Forrest Gump
• The Magic of Makeup
• Through The Ears of Forrest Gump – Sound Design
• Building The World Of Gump-Production Design
• Seeing Is Believing – The Visual Effects Of Forrest Gump
• Screen Tests