Forrest Gump is THE GREATEST MOTION PICTURE in the history of American cinema. Every other movie should be compared to Gump and then be determined if it meets the criteria of what a good movie is. Gump has every possible type of genre in it and at the same time has one of the most simplistic story lines ever. The acting is wonderful, the story is great, the cinematography is extraordinary and director Robert Zemeckis is one of the most brilliant directors in motion picture history. He is also one of the most overlooked directors in Hollywood today. He is able to give us movies better than that of Spielberg yet does not get much recognition. To think that it was the same man who brought us Back To The Future I, II, III, Death Becomes Her, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump, Contact and the soon to be released What Lies Beneath and Cast Away is truly a master Filmmaker. When I found out that Forrest Gump was number 71 on the AFI's list of 100 movies I very disappointed. How could the best movie of all time be at number 71? Then I finally realized why it was at number 71. It turns out that the list was made by idiots. I don't think that there's anyway that Tootsie is a better movie than Forrest Gump. Now I'm not usually one to go about and write my opinion on something so strongly but what really made me mad was reading a review about Gump on the IMDB by Ben Morgan. He seemed to hate the movie yet his review had nothing but good things to say about it. He starts off by saying, Surely Forrest Gump must rate as one of the biggest dupes of all time. Quite how the marketeers managed to pass this off as a great film is beyond my powers of reason. Yet he goes on to say things like: I would put this film into the same sort of class as the Wonder Years -What's so bad about the Wonder Years. It's a great show. The cast is good with Gary Sinise very good as Gump's Vietnam Sergeant. Sally Field is well cast as Gump's mother the effects are very nicely added the soundtrack is predictably well chosen given the period of time it covers It's little more than a period piece chronicalling American Life across three decades and how it affected one man, namely Mr Gump -No sh*t Sherlock. And what really, really made me mad was when he said: In years to come the Shawshank Redemption and Pulp Fiction will be looked upon much more favourably than the over-awarded Forrest Gump. I doubt it highly buddy. What is it about Forrest Gump that's so special to some people and yet so fake and cheesy to others? What do these other people consider to be a good movie? Tootsie?? Perhaps the reason that Forrest Gump is such a good movie is because it has this certain mood to it. This sort of magical feeling that stays with you for a long, long time. A feeling of knowing what it was like to live through the decades of American history and seeing just how foolish and loving the world is. I am proud to say that Forrest Gump is an extraordinary movie that changed my life in the way that I see movies and all I can do is feel sorry for the people that didn't like this movie because they're the ones that are truly missing out. Evan Campbell, Winnipeg, Canada 