The Movie 'Forrest Gump': Conservative Propaganda for Political Influence -United of America America was a nation that struggled to retain many of its defining ideas. Many believed that the country needed to "redefine" itself, and as a result of this new ideology, American pop culture became the dominant platform for creating new narratives about American history. Furthermore, explaining these narratives about American history—particularly through film—helped build a sense of popular politics, which is exactly what happened in 1994. In this article, I will argue that the success Robert Zemeckis' box-office hit, "Forrest Gump," was used by conservatives to express a traditional version of recent American history and as a tool to define the political terrain of the 1994 congressional elections. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Historical Context and Its Influence The Republican Revolution of 1994 was a conservative movement that emphasized the importance of America – primarily the Republican Party – “redefining” itself. Led by Newt Gingrich, the movement gave birth to an unprecedented new wave of partisan politics. Gingrich rose to power in the 1980s as the leader of a new assertive conservatism that fused the "moralistic language of the New Right with conservative mystical ideas," creating a powerful ideological message. His strategy was to blow up the bipartisan coalitions essential to the legislation, then capitalize on the resulting chaos to incite a populist war against Congress itself. In other words, it was Gingrich who ended up creating the hyper-partisanship that currently dominates modern politics. Additionally, the Republican Revolution attempted to capitalize on the idea that current family values in American society needed to be reorganized. For example, the presidential campaign of George Bush and Dan Quayle emphasized the decline of American morality and made family values a major campaign issue. Their main issue was the disintegration of two-parent families and the need for America to return to the traditional family structure to succeed. They highlighted how single mothers – especially black mothers – deride the importance of fathers in their “life choices.” Simply put, their primary goal was the reestablishment of male patriarchy in American families and the reestablishment of a white male-preferred social order. Representation of family values in the film 'Forest Gump' In relation to the Republican revolution, the film 'Forrest Gump' continues the trend of idolizing the family values of the 1950s-60s, defined by the traditional family. For example, the film takes all the major flaws of American culture from the 60s and 70s and transposes them onto the female character Jenny. The film makes it seem like the reason she died of AIDS was solely due to her countercultural lifestyle, and that the reason for Forrest's success is because he chose the opposite path: the conservative path . The film promotes a very conventional conservative political position, primarily by making countercultural life extremely unappealing. To further illustrate, James Burton, a professor at Salisbury University, pointed out that "the film's content and advertising campaigns havebeen affected by the cultural climate of the 1990s, which emphasized family values and American values. Additionally, the conflict over family values was one of the main reasons why this film was so successful at the box office in 1994. For example, based on data acquired from IMBD box office , the movie “Forrest Gump” ended up grossing over $667,387,716 worldwide. vast, largely due to the unstable political climate. As a result, one can see this film as an answer to the questions of when, where and how the United States as a nation deviated from the traditional path and who was at fault. To summarize the film, “Forrest Gump” was about a slow, learning-disabled Southerner who wanders through four decades. of American history, finding itself successively at the heart of several major moments in the history of our nation. In the film, Forrest travels through the civil rights movement, the Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam War, the Black Panther movement and Watergate, and each event is explained through the perspective of an Alabama man with a IQ of 75. The film attempts to summarize these events. historical events in a way that is simple for the audience, but somehow ends up reshaping a part of post-war American history. To explain further, historical events are told in the stylistic manner of flashback, and the images displayed are reconstructed and recombined in such a way that they create a new revisionist history of America's past. The problem with recontextualizing these historical events is that the public is allowed to share this new American history, thereby creating a vast false narrative about how these events actually happened. Another example of how “Forrest Gump” continued the trend of idolizing traditional events. Family values relate to how the film depicts the feminist movement of the 1960s. In relation to the political message set out by Dan Quayle that women's "lifestyle" choices are the catalysts for feminine and feminized chaos , the film sets the scene that a “free woman” is responsible for the country’s demise. For example, the film makes it seem like Jenny is on a path to self-destruction when she decides to be a free, loving woman. Jenny eventually joins the countercultural (hippie) lifestyle and the film attempts to correlate her sexual experimentation with the political and cultural movements of the 1960s. Although the director mentions that these conclusions are not intentional, it is difficult to 'ignore the extent to which the film makes it seem like sexual freedom is the reason for the historical chaos of the era. Furthermore, as mentioned previously, the far right at the time was focused on reestablishing male patriarchy and reestablishing a preferentially male social order. The inherent demise of Jenny's character once she chooses to be free is symbolic with the idea that once American families - mostly men - lose control of their wives, bad things tend to happen. ensue.Final Thoughts Regarding the civil rights movement, the film 'Forrest Gump' delves deeper into the notion of selective revisionist history. For example, in the entire film there are only two instances of racial conflict, the two being the famous scene with Governor George Wallace in front of the University of Alabama and the famous Black Panther scene. Although at first glance the viewer may not understand the film's biased angle on these cases, a deeper analysis will bring these issues to light. To further illustrate, when. 2,

Essay / The Movie 'Forrest Gump': Conservative Propaganda for Political Influence -United of America America was a nation that struggled to retain many of its defining ideas. Many believed that the country needed to "redefine" itself, and as a result of this new ideology, American pop culture became the dominant platform for creating new narratives about American history. Furthermore, explaining these narratives about American history—particularly through film—helped build a sense of popular politics, which is exactly what happened in 1994. In this article, I will argue that the success Robert Zemeckis' box-office hit, "Forrest Gump," was used by conservatives to express a traditional version of recent American history and as a tool to define the political terrain of the 1994 congressional elections. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Historical Context and Its Influence The Republican Revolution of 1994 was a conservative movement that emphasized the importance of America – primarily the Republican Party – “redefining” itself. Led by Newt Gingrich, the movement gave birth to an unprecedented new wave of partisan politics. Gingrich rose to power in the 1980s as the leader of a new assertive conservatism that fused the "moralistic language of the New Right with conservative mystical ideas," creating a powerful ideological message. His strategy was to blow up the bipartisan coalitions essential to the legislation, then capitalize on the resulting chaos to incite a populist war against Congress itself. In other words, it was Gingrich who ended up creating the hyper-partisanship that currently dominates modern politics. Additionally, the Republican Revolution attempted to capitalize on the idea that current family values in American society needed to be reorganized. For example, the presidential campaign of George Bush and Dan Quayle emphasized the decline of American morality and made family values a major campaign issue. Their main issue was the disintegration of two-parent families and the need for America to return to the traditional family structure to succeed. They highlighted how single mothers – especially black mothers – deride the importance of fathers in their “life choices.” Simply put, their primary goal was the reestablishment of male patriarchy in American families and the reestablishment of a white male-preferred social order. Representation of family values in the film 'Forest Gump' In relation to the Republican revolution, the film 'Forrest Gump' continues the trend of idolizing the family values of the 1950s-60s, defined by the traditional family. For example, the film takes all the major flaws of American culture from the 60s and 70s and transposes them onto the female character Jenny. The film makes it seem like the reason she died of AIDS was solely due to her countercultural lifestyle, and that the reason for Forrest's success is because he chose the opposite path: the conservative path . The film promotes a very conventional conservative political position, primarily by making countercultural life extremely unappealing. To further illustrate, James Burton, a professor at Salisbury University, pointed out that "the film's content and advertising campaigns havebeen affected by the cultural climate of the 1990s, which emphasized family values and American values. Additionally, the conflict over family values was one of the main reasons why this film was so successful at the box office in 1994. For example, based on data acquired from IMBD box office , the movie “Forrest Gump” ended up grossing over $667,387,716 worldwide. vast, largely due to the unstable political climate. As a result, one can see this film as an answer to the questions of when, where and how the United States as a nation deviated from the traditional path and who was at fault. To summarize the film, “Forrest Gump” was about a slow, learning-disabled Southerner who wanders through four decades. of American history, finding itself successively at the heart of several major moments in the history of our nation. In the film, Forrest travels through the civil rights movement, the Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam War, the Black Panther movement and Watergate, and each event is explained through the perspective of an Alabama man with a IQ of 75. The film attempts to summarize these events. historical events in a way that is simple for the audience, but somehow ends up reshaping a part of post-war American history. To explain further, historical events are told in the stylistic manner of flashback, and the images displayed are reconstructed and recombined in such a way that they create a new revisionist history of America's past. The problem with recontextualizing these historical events is that the public is allowed to share this new American history, thereby creating a vast false narrative about how these events actually happened. Another example of how “Forrest Gump” continued the trend of idolizing traditional events. Family values relate to how the film depicts the feminist movement of the 1960s. In relation to the political message set out by Dan Quayle that women's "lifestyle" choices are the catalysts for feminine and feminized chaos , the film sets the scene that a “free woman” is responsible for the country’s demise. For example, the film makes it seem like Jenny is on a path to self-destruction when she decides to be a free, loving woman. Jenny eventually joins the countercultural (hippie) lifestyle and the film attempts to correlate her sexual experimentation with the political and cultural movements of the 1960s. Although the director mentions that these conclusions are not intentional, it is difficult to 'ignore the extent to which the film makes it seem like sexual freedom is the reason for the historical chaos of the era. Furthermore, as mentioned previously, the far right at the time was focused on reestablishing male patriarchy and reestablishing a preferentially male social order. The inherent demise of Jenny's character once she chooses to be free is symbolic with the idea that once American families - mostly men - lose control of their wives, bad things tend to happen. ensue.Final Thoughts Regarding the civil rights movement, the film 'Forrest Gump' delves deeper into the notion of selective revisionist history. For example, in the entire film there are only two instances of racial conflict, the two being the famous scene with Governor George Wallace in front of the University of Alabama and the famous Black Panther scene. Although at first glance the viewer may not understand the film's biased angle on these cases, a deeper analysis will bring these issues to light. To further illustrate, when. 2,

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