10 Best Movies Like Forrest Gump for Heartwarming Feels

The movie Forrest Gump makes you feel good about life. At the 67th Academy Awards, the 1994 Tom Hanks movie won six awards, including Best Picture and Best Leading Actor. It also started a trend of chocolate jokes that people still use today. There have been many parodies and negative reviews of the movie since it came out, but many people still love the story of a guy with an intellectual disability who plays a part in historical events in the 1960s and 1970s. And it’s easy to see why. Forrest Gump is a sweet movie with a gentle lesson about how powerful love and kindness can be. It’s hard to find current movies like Forrest Gump because the movie is so rooted in its time. But that didn’t stop us from making a list of (mostly) classic movies with hearts as big as Forrest’s.

A movies like Forrest Gump doesn’t come along very often these days. It’s clear that the movie is funny, but it also takes its subject matter very seriously. The movie wants you to feel the epic but very real journey that its main character goes on over many decades. It does this by showing Forrest’s time in Vietnam and not hiding the sadness of his failed relationship with Jenny (Robin Wright).

Of course, there aren’t many movies like Forrest Gump. But there are a lot of movies that tell emotional stories or cover a lot of history from the point of view of an average person. We swear that the fact that many of them take place in the South, like Forrest’s story, is just a quirk. These movies, from “The Green Mile” to “Castaway,” are great for people who like “Forrest Gump,” which means they’ll make you cry.

10 Best Movies Like Forrest Gump:

1. Castaway (2000):

Forrest may have seen and heard about many important events, places, and people in world history, but sometimes the most important things can happen when you are completely alone. When Chuck Noland’s plane crashes in the middle of the ocean in Castaway, he ends up on an empty island. He goes on a mental, physical, and emotional journey because of what he goes through on the island and when he gets back to society. How come Wilson didn’t get an Oscar?

2. The Green Mile (1999):

Movies Like Forrest Gumpand “Shawshank,” which didn’t do very well at the box office, will always be linked as a David vs. Goliath Oscar season fight. However, writer/director Frank Darabont would soon follow up with “The Green Mile,” a 1999 adaptation of Stephen King’s “The Green Mile.”

The Oscar-nominated movie was a mix of a sad fairy tale and an upbeat drama. Hanks played a prison guard whose job it is to watch over criminals before they go to “Old Sparky” at the end of the “green mile,” which gets its name from the color of the floor leading to the electric chair.

One of the inmates on the mile is a big man named John Coffey, whose name sounds like a drink but is spelled differently. He is friendly and has the magical power to heal people (his initials are J.C., in case you didn’t get the joke). In the end, Hanks’ character becomes friends with this strange soft giant, and it’s only a matter of time before Coffey’s abilities are put to the test to help an older woman who is sick.

“The Green Mile” builds up like a great book, presenting different characters, like a mouse, a bad guard, and a bad prisoner, over the course of its three-hour runtime. In the end, everything comes together in a powerful third act. Darabont put a little too much sap into his movie, but the actors, especially Michael Clarke Duncan, gave strong performances that made this late-1990s movie a hit. People today tend to look down their eyes at it, like they did with “Forrest Gump,” because of the so-called “Magical Minority” cliche. But if you watch it again, it’s hard to hate.

3. Big Fish (2003):

Big Fish, which was directed by Tim Burton, is a big movie that is full of magical realism. The main plot of the movie is about a father and his son, but there is also an unforgettable love story, a stint at a moving circus, and, of course, a quest to catch a huge fish. Many years pass in this modern fairy tale that starts with a heartfelt message. Fans of Movies Like Forrest Gumpwill love it right away.

4. The Terminal (2004):

The Terminal, a beautiful and heartbreaking movie made in the same place as Forrest Gump, is based on the real story of Mehran Karimi Nasseri’s 18-year stay in Terminal 1 of Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport, France, from 1988 to 2006. Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks), whose visa is useless now that his country, Krakozia, has been overthrown in a coup, is shown here. No one is letting him leave the airport.

People and rules are at odds in this deep character study by Steven Spielberg that looks a lot like a Kafka story. Hanks does a great job with the man; he’s never a cartoon character; instead, he’s a truly responsible and honest person who confuses the authorities. He has no hidden agendas or other plans. Navorski is who he says he is. He has no plans to leave. Navorski always makes you think of Forrest Gump, another character whose acts don’t go against what he believes in. You will always be with him.

5. Mr. Holland’s Opus (1995):

If you want to talk about history, Mr. Holland’s Opus is a great book. Forrest Gump shows how historical events like the Vietnam War and the death of John Lennon affect the main character, but the music is what really brings the characters together.

With music, things get better. By the end of the movie, Glenn Holland has changed from a grumpy music teacher into a more understanding person.

6. Good Morning, Vietnam (1987):

Robin Williams got great reviews for his charming role as Adrian Cronauer, an AFRS radio DJ who took his skills to Vietnam to try to cheer up the tired U.S. troops. Movies Like Forrest Gump, “Good Morning, Vietnam” told an interesting story with equal parts comedy and drama, but it was mostly just a show for Robin Williams’ amazing acting skills.

With Barry Levinson directing, “Vietnam” gave Williams his first of four Oscar bids (he would win in 1998 for “Good Will Hunting”), which gave him a lot of room to show off. His ability to improvise is used a lot in the movie, and the effects are often amazing.

In terms of war stories, “Good Morning, Vietnam” is right up there with the best. It’s a movie that makes you laugh and cry at the same time. People will be crying and wanting more of Williams’ playful magic by the time Louis Armstrong sings “What a Wonderful World” on the music while violent images of the Vietnam War play in the background.

Supporting actors Forest Whitaker, Bruno Kirby (as a tense Lieutenant), Robert Wuhl, and the great character actor JT Walsh are also there. They all give strong performances that perfectly balance Williams’ crazy energy.

7. Fried Green Tomatoes (1991):

Fried Green Tomatoes is the best Southern movie ever (sorry, Forrest). It takes place in two different times and over many decades. Fried Green Tomatoes is a funny, sad, and finally touching story about female friendship and love. It stars a strong group of female actors, such as Kathy Bates, Jessica Tandy, Mary Stuart Masterson, Mary-Louise Parker, and Cicely Tyson. Idgie (Masterson) and Ruth (Parker) are at the center of it. Their love is so strong that it motivates Evelyn (Bates), another woman, to take care of her life.

8. Vagabond (1985):

Loved French film icon Agnès Varda made movies and documentaries that often questioned and then changed the rules of storytelling. In her 1985 Golden Lion-winning film, Varda tells the story of a death that was predicted in a way that is both factual and fiction. In the beginning of her movie, Sandra Bonnaire plays Mona Bergeron, a woman who is found dead in a ditch in the country. Varda then shows her life through a series of flashbacks. Everyone she meets either tells her she needs to get a job or gives her a reason to live. She isn’t usually so quiet, but she rudely turns them all down and makes her way through a capitalist society like a traveler.

Forrest Gump and Vagabond are very different from each other. Two very different movies have one thing in common: the main character is very angry and never stops moving. Aside from that, Vagabond is very different in how it handles the subject. People around Mona know that she doesn’t answer because she is known to be. What and sometimes how are what are being asked, not why. From person to person and place to place, they go. Both of these movies have a strong life force. Both Vagabond and Forrest Gump show how strong the human spirit can be, but Vagabond is more political and hard than Gump, and it doesn’t calm down when things get tough.

9. The Butler (2013):

When it comes to different views on different times in history, The Butler by Lee Daniels is one of the best. It shows a lot of different times and a lot of important people. Viewers see decades that changed history through the eyes of Cecil Gaines, the White House butler. They also see several leaders who served in that time. There are some interesting things shown in this movie about life inside and outside the White House from Eisenhower to Regan.

10. Cast Away (2000):

It should be clear by now that most Tom Hanks movies are meant to make you feel everything. In the movie Cast Away, a FedEx executive is stuck on an island by himself after his plane crashes. He stays on the island for years, getting used to it and hopes that one day he will be saved. In the end, he takes a chance and jumps into the ocean to try to find help.

Conclusion:

You’ll feel the same way about these ten movies as you did about Forrest Gump. Each movie has the same spirit of strength, kindness, and wonder that made Forrest Gump so memorable, whether it’s Tom Hanks making friends with a volleyball in Cast Away, the quiet respect of The Green Mile, or the magical memories of Big Fish. Even though they don’t all have the same big historical setting, they all focus on telling stories through characters and making you feel something.

There are movies like Forrest Gump that promise to make you laugh, cry, or think about the simple beauty of life. All of these movies, from Mr. Holland’s Opus’s soulful beats to The Butler’s lasting strength, show how everyday lives can shape and be changed by extraordinary events.

Want to watch movies that make you think of Forrest Gump? The same heartwarming, inspiring, and deeply human experience can be found in these timeless works. Save this list and start your journey with movies that tell us all that life is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you’ll get. But with these choices, you’re sure to get something great.

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