'Forrest Gump'

There's a lot that's specious about this holy-fool's tour through Baby Boomer history -- for example, in the Washington antiwar-rally sequence, where the protestors are all thuggish opportunists and where the film cheats us out of hearing whether Forrest (Tom Hanks) actually developed a political opinion about the carnage he saw in Vietnam. Still, the film's moral center is the relationship between Forrest and the maimed Lt. Dan (Gary Sinise), who aren't as different as they seem on the surface. Both were sent off to die, and both learn that living is much more of a challenge. Ultimately, Forrest is too simple to display much moral growth, but Dan finally learns how to live in a universe that has inexplicably taken so much from him -- and given so much to Forrest.