10 Best Films With Unreliable Narrators

Forrest Gump is a slightly different unreliable narrator, in that the viewer is not being deceived by him, merely told stories that they already know but from a different perspective. A lot of the fun of the movie comes from trying to work out what events he is describing when his understanding of them is often naïve or biased.

He is apparently involved in several key occurrences in American history, and he often deals with some serious issues such as war, child abuse and HIV. His misunderstanding of Jenny’s relationship with her father and the subsequent path that her abuse leads her down is particularly heart-breaking. His unwavering belief that Jenny always has his best interests at heart is also quite hard to watch, as is his sadness when she dies.

Forrest generally has a rose-tinted view of the world, however, and little touches like him investing in the ‘fruit company’ Apple and teaching Elvis to dance are nice because he doesn’t realise the magnitude of what is happening. Other events are questionable, such as his run across America, which seems to be physically impossible, but we gladly suspend our belief because of the feel-good nature of the story.