Best Supporting Actor 1994: Gary Sinise in Forrest Gump

Gary Sinise received his first Oscar nomination for portraying Lieutenant Dan Taylor in Forrest Gump.

Gary Sinise initially appears as the commanding officer to Tom Hanks's slow superhuman Forrest Gump. His performance initially very much fits within the film's tone which is kind of the "last thirty years" lite for the time. This as Sinise is a hard bitten lieutenant for...Forrest Gump. Sinise though manages the tone well. Skitting above corniness while not going too hard in this regard. Finding enough balance in his straight directions to his new recruits and just all his commands to Gump. Sinise doesn't overplay, and very much senses the tone Zemeckis is going for without falling into the pitfalls of the tone. Sinise gets to do a bit more, in the massacre lite scene, where an injured Dan demands to stay and die, but Gump saves him anyway. Sinise is intense, but not too intense. Again finding a balance to not seem out of place but still grant enough reality towards the situation. 

After these events, which leaves Dan without his legs, Sinise delivers the initial vicious bitterness. Both in the moment of expressing venomous hate towards Gump, but with a nuance in his eyes that senses this certain appreciation for his life nonetheless. After that he disappears before returning to Gump as a tired angry old veteran. Sinise is at his best in these scenes, these in the moment where he excels really with the confinement of the tone. This as the anger he brings is honest, even if he allows it to be used in a slightly comical way just by Gump's lack of reaction to it. Sinise finds the real sense of loss within this, particularly in the moment of reflection during New Year's. This as he silently expresses his sorrows rather beautifully in a reaction that actually dives deeper than the film wants to go. Sinise does his best in the moments of reflection as Dan seems to find contentment, again the largely silent ones, as Sinise can purely find the emotion without any of the film's sometimes overly light tone getting in the way. This culminates in his final scene, where Dan visits Forrest for Gump's wedding. Sinise expresses well in just a few scant words the sense of gratitude and calm in the man finally. Sinise's performance very much is working within the film's flawed framework, but works within the framework. Although one can definitely see where Sinise could've gone further with this type of part, he still does well even within this film.