Why we loved - and hated - 'Forrest Gump'

Twenty years later, life is still like a box of chocolates. "Forrest Gump" was released on July 6, 1994, with Tom Hanks playing the title character, a man with child-like innocence and a penchant for stumbling into history. We catch up with the cast.

In the years since "Forrest Gump," Hanks has gone on to even more acclaim, both in front of and behind the camera, with roles in films like "Saving Private Ryan," "The Da Vinci Code" and "Charlie Wilson's War," which he also produced. He also served as executive producer of the TV documentary "The Sixties," which aired on CNN.

Robin Wright Penn plays the love of Gump's life, Jenny Curran.

These days Wright (she dropped the Penn after a divorce) is best known for her role as Claire Underwood in the critically acclaimed Netflix series "House of Cards." She has also ventured behind the scenes and directed a season two episode of "House of Cards."

Gary Sinise plays Lt. Dan Taylor, Gump's platoon leader, and later, friend.

Sinise has carved an impressive career including an acclaimed role as President Harry Truman in the 1995 film, "Truman," for which he won a Golden Globe. TV viewers probably best know him for his role as Detective Mac Taylor in the CBS crime drama "CSI: NY."

Mykelti Williamson, left, stars as Gump's Army buddy Benjamin Buford "Bubba" Blue, who has an affinity for shrimp.

Williamson has appeared in numerous films including "Waiting to Exhale" and "Final Destination," and TV shows like "24" and "CSI: NY," which reunited him with Sinise.

Sally Field plays Forrest's loving and practical mother, Mrs. Gump.

Field has had continued success on the small screen and big screen. In 2007 she won an Emmy for her portrayal of Nora Walker on the series "Brothers & Sisters." The role of Mary Todd Lincoln in the 2012 film "Lincoln" won her praise, and she played Aunt May in 2012's "The Amazing Spider-Man" and the 2014 sequel.

A young Haley Joel Osment stars as Forrest Gump Jr.

Osment became even more famous for seeing dead people in "The Sixth Sense." He has continued to act, including voicing characters in films like "The Jungle Book 2" and in 2014 appeared in the TV miniseries "The Spoils of Babylon."

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

• "Forrest Gump" was released in the United States on July 6, 1994


• Twenty years later the movie remains a cultural touchstone, and surprisingly polarizing


• While audiences embraced the film, some critics hated it

(CNN) -- It's a heartwarming, epic journey through defining events of the late 20th century, as seen through the eyes of a dim-witted but honorable hero whose life is a testament to small-town American values.

It's an overrated, manipulative tearjerker that glosses over a turbulent period of U.S. history and suggests a simpleton can become a successful businessman, husband and father merely by chance.

With "Forrest Gump," which hit theaters 20 years ago this weekend, there's not much middle ground.

The movie won the best picture Oscar, earned $677 million around the world and is hailed by many as a modern classic, filled with homespun catchphrases like, "My momma always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get."

But many critics -- and some moviegoers -- hated it. To them, "Forrest Gump" was a simpleminded mix of gooey sentiment and ridiculous flights of fancy. (Forrest suddenly decides to jog back and forth across the country? For three years? Seriously?)

"Robert Zemeckis' ode to 20th century America still represents one of cinema's most clearly drawn lines in the sand," said Entertainment Weekly a decade after the movie's release. "One-half of folks see it as an artificial piece of pop melodrama, while everyone else raves that it's sweet as a box of chocolates."

Twenty years later, the movie remains a cultural touchstone -- and surprisingly polarizing. While some other best picture winners from the '90s ("The English Patient") have faded from memory, it's hard to find someone even now who doesn't have an opinion about "Forrest Gump."

"I think the movie can be read in several different ways," said Sam Wineburg, a professor of history at Stanford University who has co-authored academic papers about the movie's influence. "It can be read as a celebration of American goodness and innocence. And it can also be read as a kind of critique of American naivete and innocence."

Here's a closer look at some of the arguments around "Forrest Gump," both pro and con.

It's a celebration of conservative values

Forrest, as played by Tom Hanks, is the epitome of wholesome decency: a God-fearing, All-American football player and war hero who has no use for the counterculture movements of the late '60s. Despite an IQ of 75, he achieves fame and financial success. He's even from red-state Alabama!

Meanwhile Forrest's childhood sweetheart, Jenny Curran, becomes a promiscuous hippie, joins the anti-war movement, hangs out with the Black Panthers, gets strung out on cocaine, ponders suicide and eventually -- if you need a spoiler alert here, we feel sorry for you -- dies of an unspecified disease.

No wonder many political conservatives embraced the movie. In 2009 the National Review ranked it No. 4 on its list of the 25 best conservative films of the past 25 years.

"It seems the film promotes a very conventional conservative political position," said Daniel Herbert, a professor of media culture at the University of Michigan. "While both Forrest and Jenny experience many of the most notable historical events of the era, Jenny's anti-conformist lifestyle is made to look very unappealing."

Ugh. It panders to audiences

Between Alan Silvestri's swelling score and Hanks' somber voice-overs -- especially at the deaths of three major characters -- "Forrest Gump" wears its emotions on the surface. For many viewers, this worked -- especially during the tear-jerking final scene at Jenny's grave -- but others complained the movie went for cheap sentiment by suggesting to moviegoers how they should feel at each moment.

"This movie is so insistently heartwarming that it chilled me to the marrow," wrote Anthony Lane in The New Yorker. "There are no moral crosswinds here, not a breath of doubt or unease to ruffle the Gump image."

Some critics griped the movie had no nuance, no subtlety, no shades of gray to muddy its simplistic view of the world.

"It is incredibly manipulative ... in what I would say is the most dangerous way, which is manipulation through a sleight-of-hand superficial liberalism; it hides its political conservatism in a good-ole-boy story about a protagonist whose very heroism is totally unconscious, unaware," said Hunter Vaughan, a professor of film theory at the University of Oakland in Rochester, Michigan.

"It is a funny film, a sweet film, and an entertaining film," he added. "But it is a deceptive film, a manipulative film, and (like most best picture winners) a conservative film."

It offers young viewers a valuable history lesson

"Forrest Gump" spans some 30 years and touches on many important chapters in U.S. history, including the Vietnam War, the '60s anti-war movement and the Watergate scandal. Along the way Forrest encounters a young Elvis Presley and three U.S. presidents and even appears to inspire John Lennon's "Imagine" when he meets the ex-Beatle on a talk show.

Some teachers have shown the movie in high school classrooms as a jumping-off point for discussing the '60s and '70s.

No, it airbrushes history

"The film ... simplifies historical events that were incredibly tumultuous and complex," said the University of Michigan's Herbert. By presenting history through the experiences of the slow-witted Forrest, the movie "situates history as something to be felt, emotionally, at the expense of intellectual consideration."

Wineburg, of Stanford, surveyed students about the movie and found that they remembered iconic moments, such as the scene where Forrest accidentally addresses an anti-war protest in Washington and reunites with Jenny. But the students didn't remember how Forrest got there, or understand the scene's historical undercurrent -- that disillusioned Vietnam veterans were instrumental in turning public opinion against the war.

Hey, lighten up! It's just a fable

Many believe "Forrest Gump," adapted liberally from Winston Groom's novel, is not meant to be taken literally. Some viewers see Forrest as a Christ-like figure, especially in the scenes when he's trotting across the country, long-haired and bearded, with a herd of followers behind him.

Even its floating feather, which opens the film, can be seen as a metaphor for the randomness of fate and the direction of one's life.

It was a pioneer in visual effects

"Forrest Gump" received kudos for its unobtrusive and Oscar-winning digital effects that made Gary Sinise's Lt. Dan look like he had no legs and turned a few thousand extras at the Lincoln Memorial into half a million war protesters.

The filmmakers also inserted Hanks seamlessly into archival footage of presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon, providing some of the movie's funniest moments.

OK, but it's no 'Pulp Fiction'

Although "Forrest Gump" beat "Pulp Fiction" for the 1994 best picture Oscar, many film scholars rate Quentin Tarantino's film -- with its vivid antiheroes, nonlinear plot and pungent dialogue -- as the better movie.

"Pulp Fiction" and its gallery of colorful criminals didn't stand a chance of winning top honors at the Oscars that year. But Tarantino's brash movie inspired countless imitators.

If you ask a film critic to list the most influential movies of the 1990s, you probably won't hear them mention "Forrest Gump."

Who cares? It's a classic

"Forrest Gump" blends drama, comedy, reality and fantasy into a genre-busting saga that almost defies description. It shouldn't work, but it does.

Its scenes, and lines, are indelible to many of us: "Run, Forrest, run!" "I gotta pee." "Stupid is as stupid does." "That boy sure is a runnin' fool!" "I'm sorry I had to fight in the middle of your Black Panther party." "There's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp ..."

The list, and "Forrest Gump's" legacy, goes on and on. And that's all we have to say about that.

Two swimmers drown in Barcelona

TWO swimmers have drowned in Barcelona.

As reported in a communiqué released by the Civil Protection authorities, a Russian national drowned in the Rocapins cove after passing out in the water.

Personnel from the Medical Emergencies System tried to revive the 50-year-old man after other swimmers had reportedly pulled him out of the water, but it was too late.

Another man, 72, drowned in Les Caletes de San Susanna. The Spaniard crashed against the rocks and was found floating unconscious by other swimmers. Local Police officers arrived on the scene, as well as two ambulances. CPR was performed on the man but he later died.

There were allegedly no lifeguards on the two beaches where the men drowned. Civil Protection advises tourists and local residents to go to beaches flying green flags, which means it is safe to swim. Yellow flags mean swimmers should be careful, while red flags mean swimming is strictly forbidden.

A total of 56 people drowned in Spain during the year 2012 – 43 of them during the summer.

According to the Ministry of Health, people are more likely to drown over the age of 40.

Skydiving school plane crashes

Nine bodies were found in the plane's wreckage, according to police.

• A plane from a parachute school crashes near Czestochowa, state news reports


• Fire captain: Arriving firefighters found 3 people outside the plane -- one of them alive


• Nine more were found dead in the small aircraft's wreckage, the fire captain adds


• The survivor, 40, is in serious but stable condition

Warsaw (CNN) -- Eleven people died and one, somehow, survived when a small aircraft belonging to a private parachute school crashed Saturday in Poland, state news reported.

Firefighters learned about the crash near Czestochowa, a city some 140 kilometers (85 miles) north of Krakow, around 4:20 p.m., Polish Press Agency (PAP) reported.

Czestochowa fire Capt. Pawel Liszaj told PAP that arriving firefighters found three people outside the aircraft, one of whom was still alive.

"Unfortunately, everything indicates that he is the only person who survived the crash," provincial police spokeswoman Joanna Lazar told CNN affiliate TVN.

Authorities later discovered nine bodies inside the plane's wreckage, according to Liszaj.

The survivor -- who was one of the three initially spotted outside the aircraft -- was flown by helicopter to a Czestochowa hospital, Robert Galazkowski, the head of the Polish Medical Air Rescue, told PAP.

The 40-year-old man was conscious from the time he was found, though he suffered many injuries, including to his pelvis, according to the report. He was in serious but stable condition Saturday evening, Galazkowski said.

The cause of the crash wasn't immediately known.

CNN's Greg Botelho contributed to this report.

Will Sterlings face probate court trial?

• Sterlings face a probate court trial in California on Monday


• But Donald Sterling now asks a federal court to take over the case


• Couple face a September deadline to sell the LA Clippers


• Probate court will look at the Sterlings' trust that owns NBA team

Los Angeles (CNN) -- The saga of billionaire Donald Sterling enters a new phase Monday when a California probate court trial examines his estranged wife's takeover of the couple's trust that owns the Los Angeles Clippers, which she is now trying to sell for a record $2 billion.

It's been an operatic tale.

Sterling slurred African-Americans in a taped conversation with a woman acquaintance. The National Basketball Association banned him and ordered the couple to sell the team. His wife, Shelly, negotiated a price that would be unprecedented for a sports franchise in North America. She did so as doctors certified Donald Sterling, 80, as incapacitated with early Alzheimer's or another brain disease.

Questions persist, however, on whether the team's planned sale to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is a done deal, because Donald Sterling disputes his wife's authority in the negotiations. The couple own the NBA franchise through a trust.

Will there be a trial on Monday?

It's anybody's guess: Anything can happen in the Sterling saga -- and just about has.

Donald Sterling now wants to move the controversy over the basketball team's proposed sale to federal court -- a legal move he made just before Friday's Fourth of July holiday.

It's unclear whether he'll be successful -- or what impact the last-minute maneuver will have on Monday's scheduled trial in a state court in Los Angeles.

Shelly Sterling's attorney described the move as desperation.

"Donald Sterling's 11th-hour attempt to move the probate trial into the federal courts is a desperate act by a desperate man," said Pierce O'Donnell.

"This latest bad-faith maneuver on the eve of his reckoning is a cowardly ploy to do just one thing: Kill a record-setting $2 billion sale of the Clippers," O'Donnell said.

But Donald Sterling's attorney says federal court is the appropriate place to hear how the publicizing of his medical diagnosis "trampled" his privacy rights under the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) -- which Shelly Sterling denies, saying the trust allowed for the information's release.

"While Shelly Sterling and her team will claim that this is merely a 'tactic,' we feel strongly that this important issue should be addressed by the federal court at this time," said lawyer Bobby Samini. "While it has become popular to attack Donald Sterling for his regrettable comments, his right to privacy and to the protection of his medical records should not be acceptable collateral damage."

Even Ballmer has entered the dispute, with his attorney saying he would file papers to block what he called a frivolous move by Donald Sterling.

The parties will be monitoring how the state and federal courts will proceed Monday.

Will we hear more about Donald Sterling's mental issues?

No.

The trial will focus on Shelly Sterling's right to sell the Clippers and not Donald Sterling's mental capacity, attorneys for both sides say.

Testimony will largely focus on how the couple own the team through a trust and whether procedures for removing one of the trust's owners -- namely Donald Sterling -- were followed.

The trial, however, will address an accusation by Donald Sterling that his wife duped him into undergoing separate examinations by a neurologist and a specialist in geriatric psychiatry, who both judged him to be mentally incapacitated.

Donald Sterling also disputes those findings.

"We are going to argue that their examinations were by way of undue influence, that their examinations were not complete, that there was fraud in the examinations, and the letters that they have issued do not comport with technical requirements that the trust requires," Samini said.

Shelly Sterling maintains her husband's arguments about being tricked are baseless, her attorney said.

"There was no duping or whatever," O'Donnell said. "Donald voluntarily went to ... get the brain scan."

Late last month, another doctor found Donald Sterling to be mentally fit, a source with knowledge of the situation told CNN.

So what will the probate trial be all about?

The court will hear five issues, according to court papers filed by Shelly Sterling.

First, the court will determine whether the physicians' evaluations of Donald Sterling were obtained by fraud, undue influence or breach of fiduciary duty, as he claims.

The court will then decide whether Shelly Sterling's May 29 contract to sell the team to Ballmer is binding.

Even if the court doesn't affirm that, the judge will weigh whether the contract is nevertheless binding on the couple's trust because it's in the trust's best interest -- in other words, whether it's too great a deal to pass up.

The court will then have to examine how Donald Sterling later revoked the trust in June -- in apparent retaliation for his wife negotiating a proposed deal to sell the team -- and whether his revocation prevents the sale of the team or the court's jurisdiction over the trust.

Finally, the judge must decide whether to provide relief to prevent injury or loss.

How did this deal ever get done?

Facing pressure from the NBA, Donald Sterling signed a letter in May -- on the same day when one of the physicians examined him -- to the basketball league agreeing to the sale of the Clippers and authorizing his wife to negotiate the sale of the team.

But Donald Sterling changed his mind on the entire controversy: He sued the NBA for $1 billion for its decision to ban him for life and force him to sell the franchise. He then opposed the proposed sale of the team negotiated by his wife.

What's the rush in all this?

The contract between Shelly Sterling and Ballmer has a July 15 deadline to close the deal -- with a 30-day extension, if needed.

At the same time, the Sterlings face a September 15 deadline to sell team, as set by the NBA.

If not, the league may sell the franchise on its own or renew termination proceedings against the Clippers or both, according to NBA general counsel Richard W. Buchanan's statements in Shelly Sterling's court filings.

Killer caught

NATIONAL POLICE have detained a man in connection with the murder of a Danish female tourist in Madrid.

The Belgian man, 33, is suspected of killing the 27-year-old Danish tourist at an apart- hotel in the centre of Madrid. He allegedly strangled her with a cord and then set the room on fire.

The accused is an employee of a company that reserves accommodation for tourists, which the murdered woman used to find her hotel.

As soon as the police confronted him with the facts, he broke down and confessed to the crime, even giving police details which only the killer could have known.

The man has been sent to prison on remand until his case can be heard by the courts in Madrid.

6 arrested waiting for no-show migrants

• Federal buses carrying migrant don't show up in a California town


• Six protesters and counterprotesters were arrested


• Friday's demonstration focused on expected busing of detained migrants


• The buses were rerouted to San Diego, newspaper reports

Murrieta, California (CNN) -- The busloads of detained immigrants never arrived.

For that, six protesters and counterprotesters got themselves arrested, Murrieta police said.

Almost all day Friday, two factions of demonstrators endured a hot July 4th holiday verbally sparring over an anticipated convoy of buses carrying detained immigrants who are a part of a surge in illegal border crossings.

Instead, the migrants were rerouted for processing at the federal San Ysidro facility in San Diego, reported the Los Angeles Times, citing a law enforcement source.

Protesters on Friday await the arrival of migrants in Murrieta, California.

The migrants had been expected to be processed at Murrieta's U.S. Border Patrol station, 75 miles north of the Mexican border, but federal officials declined Saturday to say where the buses took the migrants.

Friday's angry protests was the second public outrcy of the week in the small southern California town of Murrieta, becoming the nation's newest flashpoint in its immigration crisis.

The first protests occurred Tuesday after the city and Mayor Alan Long posted on the city's website a notice stating that "Murrieta Opposes Illegal Immigrant Arrival."

Long said in a website statement that Murrieta "continues to object to the transfer of illegal immigrants to the local border patrol office," and he blamed the nation's immigration woes on "a failure to enforce federal law at the federal level."

At Tuesday's protest, a group of protesters overwhelmed law officers and successfully prevented three busloads of detained Central Americans from entering Murrieta. The migrants were instead sent to the San Ysidro site in San Diego, said an official with the National Border Patrol Council, the union for border agents.

Tuesday marked the first day of a federal initiative to transfer 140 migrants every 72 hours for processing in Murrieta. Federal officials initially sought to send 500 detained immigrants every 72 hours for processing in Murrieta, but city officials opposed that, the mayor said.

The migrants rejected by Murrieta protesters initially had been held in Texas, where U.S. facilities are overflowing, forcing detainees to be sent to other states for processing.

A recent tide of Central Americans illegally entering the United States has overwhelmed a federal immigration system already buckling under the weight of the nation's estimated 11 million undocumented migrants.

Unlike undocumented Mexican migrants, who are often immediately deported, the United States detains and processes Central Americans, who are eventually released and given a month to report to immigration offices.

Many never show up and join the undocumented population, according to the National Border Patrol Council.

More protests as town expects new immigrant transfers

5 things Obama can and can't do on immigration

Little-known law allows abused immigrant children to say in the U.S.

CNN's Chuck Conder and Kyung Lah reported from Murrieta. CNN's Michael Martinez wrote and reported from Los Angeles.

Van der Sloot marries in prison

• Joran van der Sloot marries a woman who he met as she visited his Lima prison


• The couple are expecting a child together in September, according to his lawyer


• Van der Sloot pleaded guilty in 2012 to the murder of a 21-year-old Peruvian woman


• He was arrested twice, but never charged, in Natalee Holloway's disappearance

(CNN) -- Joran van der Sloot has been tied to the disappearance of one woman and been convicted of murdering another.

Now, he's a taken man.

The Dutch national, who is serving a 28-year sentence for the killing of Stephany Flores -- married a Peruvian woman named Leidy Figueroa on Friday morning, his attorney told CNN en Espanol.

The nuptials took place at the Lima, Peru, prison where the 26-year-old van der Sloot is being held, according to the lawyer, Maximo Altez. John Barrera, Mayor of Ancón District, presided over the ceremony.

Van der Sloot to marry prison visitor

Joran van der Sloot's jailhouse letters

Van der Sloot is expected to become a father in September, when Figureoa is due to give birth to their child together, Altez said.

But just like he won't have a honeymoon anytime soon, van der Sloot won't be around to change diapers after the baby heads home.

That's because he has been sentenced to 28 years for the murder of Flores.

Once he's eligible to get out of prison for that crime, van der Sloot is set to be extradited to the United States to face charges related to the case of Natalee Holloway, the Alabama 18-year-old last seen leaving an Aruba nightclub in 2005 with van der Sloot and two other men.

Peru agrees to extradite Joran van der Sloot to U.S. ... in 24 years

Accountant met inmate while visiting a relative

There's no reason to believe that Figueroa didn't know about van der Sloot's past when the two first encountered one another.

They met when Figueroa, an accountant with a young boy from another relationship, was visiting a relative in the Peruvian prison where van der Sloot was being held.

"They became friends and spent a lot of time together in his cell," Altez said earlier this year. "Unlike the United States, here in Peru, loved ones or relatives can see inmates inside their jails."

In January 2012, van der Sloot made a far different pronouncement when he pleaded guilty to all charges against him in Flores' killing.

"I am really sorry for what happened," he told the three magistrates overseeing his trial in Lima.

2012: Joran van der Sloot sentenced to 28 years for Peru murder

Police say van der Sloot killed the then 21-year-old Flores in his Lima hotel room in May 2010, then took money and bank cards from her wallet and fled to Chile. He was arrested a few days later in that South American country.

Investigators believe van der Sloot killed Flores after she found something related to the Holloway case on van der Sloot's computer as she visited with him in his hotel room.

Lawyer: 'No hidden agendas' with marriage

Holloway's body has never been found, and her case -- which drew intense international attention in the weeks after it unfolded -- has never been solved.

Van der Sloot was the main suspect in the 2005 disappearance of American teenager Natalee Holloway in Aruba.

Van der Sloot himself was arrested twice in Aruba in connection with the Alabama teenager's disappearance. However, he was never charged in that Caribbean nation.

He has been charged in the United States in relation to her case, though.

In June 2010, a federal grand jury based in Alabama indicted van der Sloot on charges of allegedly attempting to extort $250,000 from Holloway's mother, Beth.

Van der Sloot offered to provide what turned out to be bogus information about the whereabouts of Holloway's remains in exchange for the money, according to the indictment against him.

He was allegedly given $25,000, which authorities say he used to travel to Peru for a poker tournament.

2012: Natalee Holloway declared legally dead

In March, Peru agreed to extradite van der Sloot to the United States on these charges sometime after he's eligible for release, in 2038, for Flores murder.

Peruvian media have raised the possibility that van der Sloot got married to avoid extradition to the United States.

But Altez, his defense lawyer, this spring dismissed that suggestion, saying then that the wedding shouldn't be "a big deal."

"He's getting married because he's in love and is having a child," Altez said in May. "There are no hidden agendas."

CNN's Rafeal Romo contributed to this report.