This summer Forrest Gump turns 30. There will almost certainly be some celebration and reappraisals and maybe even a splashing theatrical reissue. But there’s one person who won’t be joining in the revelry: the guy who got filthy rich off a show about a ranch.
Per Dexerto, Taylor Sheridan went on The Joe Rogan Experience, which he probably didn’t have to do considering he’s one of the wealthiest people in showbiz, and he aired some of his hot takes. At one point he was talking about his vision of what an artist working in a populist medium should do.
“For me, the holy grail as a storyteller is entertain, educate, and enlighten,” he said. “Don’t give anybody answers, just lots of questions to think about – that’s my job. Because I can’t stand to pay money to have someone preach to me their ideas.
“That’s the reason I hated Forrest Gump,” he added.
Sheridan went on to describe its hero, who has a low IQ and shuffles through a picaresque life, as a “doddering f*cking idiot” who the film holds up as “the only guy who can figure out the world.”
Sheridan complained how Gump decides he’s “just gonna go on a f*cking run across America and everyone’s gonna follow him and that’s gonna heal the country? I just was like, ‘What is this sh*t?’”
To make matters worse, the premise of Forrest Gump, Sheridan argued, probably wouldn’t even fly in 2024. “The irony is you couldn’t make that movie today because someone would be too offended at the portrayal of Forrest’s character,” he said.
Gump has always had lots of detractors. It’s the movie that, to some, infamously stole the coveted Best Picture Oscar from Pulp Fiction, a decidedly less cuddly movie. Still, most people complain about its cornball nature or how basic the soundtrack is. They usually don’t complain that the protagonist is kind of dumb. But Sheridan created Yellowstone and you didn’t, so let the man hate Forrest Gump.
You can watch Sheridan trash the biggest movie of 1994 below.
(Via Dexerto)