2 points regarding the power of this film

Rating: Null/10 (27 September 2000)

I want to make two observations that I have not seen in the over 160 reviews of this film that I just read on this site.
1) One thing that Forrest does not embody, something which our culture is drowning in, is sarcasm. (For accessible examples, read many of the reviews for this film!) That is one of the reasons people find it surprisingly moving. If you watch a lot of popular movies, not to mention sitcom TV, you might think that sarcasm is the natural idiom of communication. But then, when someone actually asserts something and takes a stand for something (other than self-seeking sex or egotistical domination) without a whiff of sarcasm, the effect can be stunning.
We have forgotten that sarcasm is parasitic on somebody actually asserting something. To cut through the garbage of life we should be able to distance ourselves from the false parts of it, and that is what sarcasm does. But sarcasm cannot assert anything except its derision of someone else's assertion. It is derivative and parasitic. To see someone who is without sarcasm, as we see in Gump, can be an eye-opening and truly moving experience, opening us to a vision of life where there is something to believe in, and not just something to mock.
This is not a question of Gump's (low) intelligence, though our culture often likes to think that sarcasm is the sine qua non of intelligence. It is about a desire to commit and risk. Sarcasm falls silent in the face of life honestly lived in adherence to values worth striving after. Hence, all we are left with are tears when we see someone without sarcasm and guile who lives a life of loyalty and love.
2) The recitation of recent history may seem a frivolous excuse for a few jokes, but the whole point of it detonates in the penultimate scene where Forrest talks to Jenny's grave. He asks "Is it Lieutenant Dan who is right, or is it Momma?" (or words to that effect). He is asking if we are all fated in a predeterministic way or if we are truly free to make our own destiny. His answer--"I think its both"--rings true for many people, and hence is a powerful comment on all of life. Both the capriciousness of history and a sense of something coming from it are acknowledged, and that speaks to me.
The feather seems to be blown around randomly, but it comes to rest in strategic places. God's grace works within the context of our human freedom, and, in the end, this is a film about grace.