Having watched Forrest Gump a few times over the years, I’ve started to see beyond the well-made tale of a simple man who seems unaffected by his (fictional) catalytic role in history. He is like the feather that appears at the beginning and end of the film: just going wherever the wind may take him, settling for a little, just doing what he does and seemingly unfazed .

I came across a site that offered a few interpretations of the messages in films and I thought the analysis of the message in Forrest Gump was something worth considering. From filmwad.com:

“…Forrest Gump never really does anything of his own free will. He listens to his momma, Jenny, Lieutenant Dan, and Bubba, but (apart from the scene where he runs back to find and rescue Bubba) he never actually shows any initiative or decision-making capabilities of his own. Jenny tells him to run, so he runs. The government tells him to fight, so he fights. Forrest is a pure, wonderful soul, but were it not for his supernatural speed and ability to play ping pong, he’d have gotten killed or screwed over roughly a hundred times over throughout the course of his life.”

The audience is, presumably, amused by Forrest and might even feel superior because while the viewer might handle meeting the President, being a ping pong champion or fighting in the jungles of Vietnam much differently, Forrest remains humble, almost like an innocent bystander throughout.

Here’s an example, though, of how Forrest inadvertently gains praise and recognition because he just does what he’s told:

Drill Sergeant: GUUUUUUMP! Why did you put that weapon together so quickly, Gump?
Forrest Gump: You told me to, Drill Sergeant?
Drill Sergeant: Jesus H. Christ! This is a new company record! If it wouldn’t be such a waste of a damn-fine enlisted man I’d recommend you for OCS! You are gonna be a general someday, Gump, now disassemble your weapon and continue!

Ironically, the contrast to Forrest is Jenny: she follows all the wrong people down one dead end after another. In the film she acts as the sign o’ the times, falling into whatever trend or trouble there was in the different eras. Jenny’s actions are, presumably, the result of childhood abuse — but as an adult, Jenny has choices and, tragically, she makes the right ones too late.

How many of us — the audience — are really much different than Forrest? When you are confronted with similar conflicts as the ones the other characters in the film experience, isn’t it easier to listen to what others think is the “right” thing, or what we “ought to do”?

The difference between Forrest and the other characters — Jenny, in particular — is that his good-natured compliance doesn’t really bother him at all. How many people can really say that?