~~Pursuit of Happyness~~

Loosely based on the real-life tale of how Chris Gardner tried to make it in the dog-eat-dog world of stock broker, The Pursuit of Happyness is a heartbreaking, yet ultimately rewarding tale of pursuing one's dreams to be someone, even when one's life seems to be crumbling all around.

“Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” is a phrase in the United States Declaration of Independence. They are our “inalienable rights” and what we as Americans hold to. Notice that happiness is not guaranteed in this statement. The world, the government, society as a whole does not owe any of us a great life. But we have every opportunity to pursue that happiness with every fiber of our being. Real life stock broker Chris Gardner did that very thing in 1981. His story is told in the new movie aptly titled, “The Pursuit of Happyness.”

First up, that’s not a typo. It’s supposed to be spelled like that.

check out this san francisco gate article about Chris Gardner's life and links to film what the bleep do we know

Yesterday, a friend and I ventured out to buy a DVD copy of Will Smith’s latest biopic “the pursuit of happyness” based on a time in the life of Chris Gardner of garder rich, llc. the film follows the life of Chris Gardner for 7-9 months as he struggles as an office-to-office salesman and (eventually) single father to becoming a stockbroker. the heartiest parts of the story are seeing Gardner's unyielding, yet difficult commitment to staying with his son and being a good parent despite potentially crushing circumstances. i expected the film to tap into my weepy, emotional side much more than it did. here are the possible reasons why i was not moved to gut wrenching tears throughout the film:

1. the underlying theme of the film is that what we can be, do , and accomplish needs not be dicatated by our present circumstances, where we were born or descended, or other past experiences beyond our control. i thought the fact that we learn very little about chris gardner’s past was a deliberate testament to this assertion…which is just fine with me. but, i would have liked to have more of a context for chris gardner’s life and eccentricities.
2. this lack of a presented past left me with many ‘why?’s. like, “why didn’t/ wasn’t chris able to go to college?” “why didn’t chris or his wife/girlfriend have any family?” “why didn’t chris appear to know anyone besides the guy who owed him $14?” i suppose the literature lover in me thinks having answers to questions like these would have made chris a rounder character.
3. thandie newton played the gardner’s wife/girlfriend. i hate to be so blunt, but thandie newton did a very poor job of portraying the immensely frustrated and economically poor laundry worker. though i don’t think she was meant to come off as a drug abuser, all of the neck rolling, cigrarette-smoking, and poorly contextualized emasculating (read: OVERACTING!) made her come off like a pedestrian crackhead.
4. i thought the film was uniquely illustrative of the possible mechanations of capitalism on the life of the working class. the reality is, that the modern world is not one in which people are valued because of their character or abilities. no, our worth is measured in how much we can cause to be produced and/or consumed within an hour. this was just as true about chris gardner’s life when he was pushing bone density scanners door-to-door as when he was pushing retirement plans for dean witter. instead of feeling glad when chris was chosen for the job after the internship, i had a small, but deep disappointed that even in the comfort of the fairy tale that is cinema, i was being coerced into appreciating and rooting for the devaluation of human life and potential.

But what feels most striking about this film is not its truth or accuracy, at least not in a technical sense. Rather, it's that the film does not seek blame or create unfounded obstacles for the character - particularly racial ones - instead enabling Chris' triumph as a personal one unencumbered by social or political context. Ultimately, this isn't the story of a black man learning how to succeed in a white world, or a poor person becoming rich, but the achievement of one man who looked past the litany of obstacles to which he could have easily surrendered. The fact that no one in the film looks down on him because of his sometimes unkempt appearance, much less the color of his skin, is a testament to the unfiltered purity of the real Gardner's story, and what makes the movie accessible to all audiences.