I didn't mind this movie too much the first time I saw it, though I thought it was very over-rated and wondered what the fuss was all about.

I caught it again recently and got more irritated with it the longer it went.

I'll admit that the shots integrating Tom Hanks into historical footage are impressive, technically. I'll admit that Hanks, Penn, and Sinise give very impressive performances. But I'm really starting to hate this movie.

I know, I know...of COURSE it won Best Picture--it's cynically designed from top to bottom to do that. It's supposed to teach an important lesson about life while tugging at the heartstrings as big historical events unfold in the background. And what is that lesson? It pays to be stupid.

Well, gang, sorry to burst your precious little bubble, but it doesn't. You won't find guys like Forest running corporations; you'll find them in trailer parks, beating their kids. Them clever folk, with all that book learnin' you so despise, are running the big corporations, and they're laughing their way to the bank over the real morons, who watch crap like this and think it's great and then vote in Forest-like mental midgets to run the country.

The worship of the "wise fool", the disdain for education, and the myth of the self-made man are a few things Western, and especially American culture would be better off without. Anything like this cynical and manipulative film, which perpetuates them, should be despised, not lauded.