Neither ‘The Godfather’ nor ‘Citizen Kane’: This 90s classic has been named ‘best movie of all time’ but many disagree
On one popular ranking website, there is an unexpected entry at the top of the list of the greatest films in history.
A box-office smash that won big at the Oscars three decades ago, Forrest Gump tends to feature on lists of the greatest movies ever made.
However, Robert Zemeckis’s 1994 epic doesn’t normally top the all-time big-screen charts - or, indeed, get all that close. So it has come as a surprise that one popular ranking website has proclaimed the picture the finest ever witnessed.
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What is Forrest Gump about? Film synopsis
Starring Tom Hanks as the titular character, Forrest Gump chronicles the life of a man who defies the low expectations engendered by his IQ - as a boy, tests show it is just 75 - to earn himself a front-row seat for many of the most iconic historical events in the U.S. in the mid-to-late 20th century.
The film’s distributor, Paramount Pictures, explains: “Entirely without trying, Forrest teaches Elvis Presley to dance, becomes a football star, meets John F. Kennedy, serves with honor in Vietnam, meets Lyndon Johnson, speaks at an anti-war rally at the Washington Monument, hangs out with the Yippies, defeats the Chinese national team in table tennis, meets Richard Nixon, discovers the break-in at the Watergate, opens a profitable shrimping business, becomes an original investor in Apple Computers, and decides to run back and forth across the country for several years.”
Forrest Gump - watch the trailer:
How much money did Forrest Gump make and how many Oscars did it win?
After its theatrical release in July 1994, Forrest Gump became the year’s second highest-grossing movie in the U.S., behind only The Lion King. Per Box Office Mojo, the film accrued $294.5 million in domestic theaters, just short of the $295.7 million earned by the Disney classic.
Forrest Gump then dominated at the 67th Academy Awards in March 1995: it scooped an unmatched six Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Hanks and Best Director for Zemeckis.
Forrest Gump beats The Godfather and The Dark Knight
On The Top Tens - a ranking site which describes itself as having “217,545 top ten lists for everything under (& including) the sun” - users have helped to choose Forrest Gump as the greatest film of all time, relegating 1972’s The Godfather and 2008’s The Dark Knight to second and third place, respectively.
“Forrest Gump captivates audiences through its unique storytelling and heartwarming performances, particularly by Tom Hanks in the titular role,” says The Top Tens’ description of the movie. “The film blends historical events with a fictional narrative in a manner that offers both entertainment and poignant social commentary. The script is rife with iconic lines and memorable scenes that have since entered into the cultural lexicon. Additionally, the groundbreaking special effects, including inserting Forrest into real archival footage, and its iconic soundtrack help make it an unforgettable cinematic experience.”
How does Forrest Gump’s Top Tens ranking compare to other all-time best movie lists?
When Forrest Gump came out, the legendary Chicago Sun-Times critic, Roger Ebert, praised it as a “magical movie”. The Guardian’s Derek Malcolm, meanwhile, lauded the picture as a “technical tour de force”. But it is far from universally appreciated: Sight & Sound’s Leslie Felperin dismissed it as “a feel-good movie for which it is hard to feel anything at all”, while The New Yorker’s Anthony Lane has branded it “wearisome as hell”.
And, while Forrest Gump leads The Top Tens' chart, other best-movie rankings indicate that there are many films out there that are held in higher esteem by critics and regular cinema-goers alike.
On the online movie database IMDb, internet users’ ratings place Forrest Gump 11th on the list of the top 250 films of all time. Another 1994 picture, The Shawshank Redemption, leads the IMDb chart, with The Godfather and The Dark Knight again completing the podium.
In Empire magazine’s recent ranking of the 100 greatest movies ever made - a list chosen by critics from readers’ initial picks - the winner was The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring, with Forrest Gump in 53rd position. According to experts at the American Film Institute, meanwhile, Gump merits 71st place on the organization’s list of the “100 greatest American films of all time”. For the AFI, Orson Welles’ 1941 classic Citizen Kane is the best ever.
On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, moreover, Forrest Gump doesn’t make it into the top 100 at all. Indeed, its overall rating by both critics and audiences isn’t even enough to earn it a spot in the website’s ranking of the 300 best movies ever.
While many audience reviews on Rotten Tomatoes are overwhelmingly positive about Forrest Gump, describing it as a “masterpiece” and “one of the best movies to ever exist”, it is evident from the site that the picture is not short on detractors among film fans.
It is labeled as “boring and overrated” by one user, while another claims that the movie “gets worse every time you watch it”. One particularly unimpressed Rotten Tomatoes contributor concludes: Forrest Gump is “the worst 02 hours and 22 minutes ever”.
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