The war time movie I picked was Forrest Gump. Forrest, Forrest Gump is a simple man with little brain activity but good intentions. He struggles through childhood with his best and only friend Jenny. His 'mama' teaches him the ways of life and leaves him to choose his destiny. Forrest joins the army for service in Vietnam, finding new friends called Dan and Bubba, he wins medals, starts a ping-pong craze, creates a famous shrimp fishing fleet, inspires people to jog, create the smiley, write bumper stickers and songs, donating to people and meeting the president several times. However this is all irrelevant to Forrest who can only think of his childhood sweetheart Jenny. Who has messed up her life. Although in the end all he wants to prove is that anyone can love anyone. (:
When Forrest is on stage at a rally at the Washington monument he and other vets are there speaking out against the war in Vietnam. When Forrest gets up to talk at the Vietnam rally in Washington, the microphone plug is pulled and you cannot hear him. According to Tom Hanks, he says, "Sometimes when people go to Vietnam, they go home to their mommas without any legs. Sometimes they don't go home at all. That's a bad thing. That's all I have to say about that." I realated this to Slaughterhouse Five because the book is about anit-war and speaking out about it; kinda like Forrest Gump. I think that if Kurt Vonnegut were to watch Forrest Gump he would be pretty happy with the movie and meaning of it!
I keep meaning to buy this movie. It really defines the baby boomer generation. Everything that was the fifties, sixties, and seventies is contained in some form within Forest Gump. I really like how it exposes some of the challenges to traditional values that the sixties posed. Vietnam was the first war that was mass-protested (shown several times in Forest Gump). Marriage did not become synonomous with love (Forest has a child with Jenny out of wedlock). There's a lot behind Forest Gump that resonates with the culture of a fading era.
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