Word: vietnam
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Gumped, here is a jaundiced synopsis: Forrest, a nice young man with an IQ of 75 and a freak talent as a runner, survives bullying in his small-minded hometown; survives Vietnam and wins a Medal of Honor; survives a freak storm on the Gulf Coast that wipes out all other shrimpers, making him fabulously rich; and survives (as in outlives) his sweetheart Jenny, a sad, bad girl who nonetheless leaves behind Forrest Gump Jr. Gump also manages to inject himself, Zelig-like, into a fair amount of historical film footage...
...queasy feeling began during the film's key Vietnam scene. There is an ambush: Forrest saves some of his platoon; others die; his lieutenant loses his legs. A certain horror attends the explosions and deaths but so does a strong feeling that things here are happening by the book. As indeed they are. The grunts have not died in vain: they have died as a plot device, to facilitate Gump's upward float -- and the film's apparent message: act decent, stay positive (brains optional), and everything will be fine...
...cheered Ronald Reagan, who, more than Schweik or Candide, is the real proto-Gump. Reagan too was relentlessly upbeat. Reagan too was extraordinarily lucky. And his luck, like Gump's, was often built on the backs of people who suffered off-screen. Forrest had bankrupt shrimpers, martyred Vietnam buddies, and his wife, whose death was remarkably demure, considering her ailment. Reagan scored points off America's poor; somehow managed to cloak himself in heroism while apologizing for a needless screw-up that killed 241 U.S. servicemen in Beirut; and avoided tarnishing his reputation for optimism by spending too much time...
...trenchant polemic that appears in the summer issue of the leftist quarterly Dissent (est. circ. 10,000), Genovese argues that many American radicals were, in effect, accomplices to mass murder. Many U.S. advocates of a Viet Cong victory in Vietnam, for example, have never accepted that what they considered a radical egalitarian democracy was in fact a cruel totalitarian dictatorship. Until the left is willing to re-examine its ideological premises and admit its past mistakes, argues Genovese, it will have no moral credibility to attack such ongoing societal ills as racism and sexism. "The left will have to clean...
...team of private investigators to dig up information that will help his case. Heading this team is a seasoned duo of private eyes. Ex-New York City cop John McNally, 60, is the tough guy, with a reputation for playing hard, dirty and on the side of the Mob. Vietnam vet Pat McKenna, 45, is the boy scout who loves his kids, baseball and a good laugh over a few beers. Both have lent their expertise to celebrated cases; both have a reputation for extreme thoroughness...