Ep 49 - Forrest Gump

The Generation Splice

Our biggest episode yet, and the one this entire podcast was built to cover. This week we talk FORREST GUMP. This is the Baby Boomer wiki entry as a film. Raphael considers it a dangerously conservative movie, and Raquel actually doesnt fully disagree. Theres talk about CCR being in every Vietnam War movie, comparisons to the proto-fascist films of Germany or Francoist films. Is Lt. Dan a fascist trope of a character? Raquel tells a personal anecdote about George Wallace and weighs in professionally about the depiction of Gump as a person with mental issues. FORREST GUMP is an American fairytale, and is that problematic? Does this film want us to respect Gump, or laugh at him? Did Jenny ever love Gump? Or did she just pity him? Either way, she sure was the Boomer punching bag in this film. And we try to come up with the plot points of millennial FORREST GUMP!

The Generation Splice is film podcast where retired psychologist Dr. Raquel Martinez, a Baby Boomer through & through, & her son Raphael Jose Martinez, a cranky millennial punk rocker/film writer, discuss various films through the lens of their generation & personal experiences. Every week one host picks a movie to dissect & see if they can splice together the generation gap via their love of film.

Feel free to write to us! Give us some film suggestions at [e-mail] or @gensplicepod on Twitter.

Raphael is on Twitter at @citycelluloid. You can find his film writing at cinefile.info and film-cred.com