10 Movies Way Freakier Than You Thought
3. Forrest's Success Was The Result Of Abuse - Forrest Gump
Forrest Gump is a wonderful movie and boasts Tom Hanks' signature performance, but it's also fair to say that the more charming aspects of Forrest's picaresque story are only allowed to happen due to one specific - and disturbing - incident in his childhood.
The course of Forrest's life is changed when he's allowed to go to public school despite not fitting the IQ requirements, a result of Mrs. Gump (Sally Field) agreeing to have sex with the school's principal in exchange for a place.
As hilarious as young Forrest's impression of the principal's impassioned grunting is, it really only conceals that the man thoroughly abused his power in order to get what he wanted from a desperate woman.
T'was a different time, of course, but viewed today, it's a painful primer for many of the formative events in Forrest's life: namely meeting Jenny (Robin Wright), shedding his braces and becoming an athlete, and every fortuitous future interaction he was blessed with.
In actual fact, Forrest and Jenny are ultimately two sides of the same coin: Forrest benefited enormously from his mother's "sacrifice," while Jenny's troubled adulthood and untimely death were largely a result of the sexual and physical abuse she suffered at the hands of her father.