Oftentimes, seemingly divergent movies correspond in what they express through their themes and general ideas. This is the case with the films Blue Sky and Forrest Gump. At first, these two motion pictures seem unlikely to have anything in common, but they show some interesting similarities in their depictions of female and male interaction.

Scopophilia, or the desire by the female gender to be looked at, is one of the main ideas present in both films. It exists as an erotic basis for pleasure in considering a separate person as an object (Mulvey, 24). In Blue Sky, it is exemplified by Jessica Lange’s character, Carly Marshall. She constantly strives to be the center of the male characters’ attention, especially by wearing provocative clothing. This produces a sense of separation for the male viewers, and plays on their voyeuristic fantasies, according to Mulvey (25). The counterpart to her scopophilic personality is her husband in the movie, Major Henry “Hank” Marshall, played by Tommy Lee Jones. He seems to symbolize the voyeuristic properties that are supposedly present in the actual male population. He says that he loves to watch her and to look at her body. This voyeuristic tendency on his part is probably the reason she decided to marry him in the first place. She physically and mentally needs a man like him to mesh with her scopophilic personality. He loves to look at her, while she loves having the satisfaction of being looked at.

Forrest Gump displays a similar idea. The character of Jenny, played by Robin Wright Penn, the iconic “hippy” of the sixties, also demonstrates this scopophilic quality. In one scene she is featured in a Playboy: College Issue, with a college letter jacket over her nude body. Another scene has her singing folk songs in front of a room of military men – she is nude in this scene also, with a guitar being the only object covering her body. The voyeuristic counterpart is always the male gender. In the Playboy scene, it is the American male population, while it is the room full of American soldiers (all being male, of course) in the other scene. In this scene, the soldiers and other the other military-types don’t seem to care what she is singing about and yell at her to show off her bare body – an aggressive representation of voyeurism. The title character of Forrest Gump, played by Tom Hanks, does not seem to display this voyeuristic quality that is so apparent in all of the other characters. Instead, he accepts Jenny the way that she is and loves her unconditionally. Keep in mind that Forrest is a flawed male character.

Between these two movies is a similar concept – that of active (male) and passive (female) (Mulvey, 27). So, both Forrest Gump and Blue Sky put forth the idea of a scopophilic quality inherent in the female psyche; and voyeuristic counterpart inherent in the male psyche. Another similarity of these films is the central female characters seem to have little or no real convictions of their own. In Blue Sky, Jessica Lange’s character seems to only advocate the richness of a woman’s beauty and her sensuality. This is what most of her dialog centers upon during the entire movie, even in conversing with the other female characters. She is totally convinced of her powers as a woman, and displays this whenever she can. Expressing her sensuality seems to give her an enjoyment, a satisfaction, and also a personal force with which to contend against the male dominated society in which she lives. Likewise, in Forrest Gump, Jenny shows little or no stable convictions of her own. She is basically a drifter, carried through the film with what was “in” and popular during those turbulent times, and she never really stands for her own thoughts and ideas. She never finds her own strength and direction in life and repeatedly must rely on Forrest for a true support system. She is definitely not a strong female character, mainly because of her inability to become independent and thus a truly liberated woman. And for these weaknesses, which are related to drug problems, emotional breakdowns, and suicidal thoughts, she finally has to call Forrest to her side to take care of her until she passes away.

So, both Blue Sky and Forrest Gump show the similarity of giving their main female characters few true convictions of their own. Traditionally, the female shown on screen has functioned on a couple of levels; as an erotic object for the characters on-screen, and as an erotic object for the audience. In this role, women are simultaneously looked at and displayed. Their appearance has been coded for an visually erotic impact (Mulvey, 27). Both Forrest Gump and Blue Sky display some of the same ideas regarding females and how females fit into society. One of the ideas they both have in common is of the scopophilic quality that is supposedly present in the female psyche, which according to Pally stems from the fear of castration (of Freudian psychoanalysis) (70). When the film is visually pleasurable, especially to the male, then the male viewer is left with a larger-than-life concept of himself. The woman is left either jealous of her on-screen counterparts, or unsatisfied (Pally, 68).