by Trisha Fitzgerald, SUNY Cortland
Posted in on Thursday, Dec 28
What we want is not always given to us, you can’t sit back and wait for it to come to you…you have to go after it for yourself. Accomplishing something yourself is a better and more rewarding feeling anyway. Chris Gardner (Pursuit of Happyness) says, “You got a dream, you gotta protect it. People can’t do something themselves, they wanna tell you that you can’t do it. You want something? Go get it. Period.” The movie, Pursuit of Happyness, will leave you inspired, hopeful, and thankful for what you have. Not only will this movie leave you thinking about this man’s story, but it reminds you of the values in life that are truly important. When your days seem tough, remember this story and it may make you a stronger person than you thought you were.
The Pursuit of Happyness was based on a true story, the life of a man named Chris Gardner in the early 1980s. Written by Steve Conrad and directed by Gabriele Muccino, it is your “rags-to-riches” tale come to life. Chris Gardner, played by Will Smith, is a man who struggles to make ends meet along with his wife Linda (Thandie Newton)> Both work all day everyday, but they are barely able to afford to pay the rent and daycare. Chris works as a medical supplies salesman, going from hospitals and doctors offices trying to sell his product. If he’s lucky and sells at least two a month, he can just afford to pay rent and daycare. Working endlessly and never getting a step or a penny ahead, he keeps an eye out for any job opportunity that will get him somewhere.
Fate must have been on his side this day, because as he was walking through the city (San Francisco, California), he comes across a man parking his Ferrari. It hits Chris that this guy is doing something right. So he says to the man, “I have two questions for you. What do you do? And how do you do it?” The man tells Chris that he is a stockbroker, that you don’t have to have a college degree and basically all he needs is to be good with numbers and good with people. Chris is inspired by this, knowing he’s good with numbers and can be good with people, it’s a possibility that things can change for him and his family.
Linda decides that she can’t live this way anymore, and leaves Chris and their five-year old son, Christopher (Jaden Smith). Chris had been abandoned by his father when he was little, and he made it his first priority to let make sure that his son knew that he was there for him and that he was never leaving. Chris was unable to pay rent on time, a few months in a row on top of parking tickets, and had gotten evicted from his apartment, leaving him and Christopher homeless. Chris continued to sell his product, but was also consistent about applying for the stockbroker job.
Determined to make himself known with the firm offering the internship, he hands in his application personally to Jay Twistle (Brian Howe), who is the man taking the applications and who doesn’t give Chris the time of day. Again, Chris waits for him outside to talk to him about the internship and ends up sharing a cab ride with Mr. Twistle. Fate again steps in, and on this cab ride Mr. Twistle is playing with a Rubek's cube, unable to figure it out. Chris had just done this the other day, and proves Mr. Twistle wrong by figuring out the cube, and leaves an impression. Chris gets into the internship program with the stockbrokerage firm, but has to come out on top out of a competing class of 20. This now makes Chris homeless, working an unpaid internship, and still working as a salesman on his extra time, taking Christopher along with him.
The movie goes through what it was like for Chris to be homeless, the everyday struggles of not knowing if your going to get a spot at the homeless shelter, where you’re going to eat or where you’ll end up tomorrow. At the same time, he doesn’t give up; it’s hard but he tries. He gives everything he has, every moment of every day is devoted to taking care of his son and working towards a better life. When it comes to sleeping on the bathroom floor of a transit station because you couldn’t make it to the shelter on time, you can’t help but think about your life, and where it’s going. For Chris, it only makes him more determined to turn his life around. Going over and beyond what is asked is done at this internship because everyone is competing for the same single spot. Even then, Chris stands out. A better life he worked for and a better life he created for Christopher and himself.
Will Smith was interviewed on the "Oprah!" show along with his son Jaden and the real Chris Gardner and his son. In the interview Will talked about how he and Chris Gardner walked around the city together, visiting the actual places where Chris stayed with his son which gave Will more of the reality of what Chris's life had been like. What stuck out most in the interview was a statement Will made, “What I really connect to…it’s the idea of why I think America is such a great country.”…”The promise of America is such a great idea because this is the only country in the world that Chris Gardner could exist.” Now this may not be the “only” country in the world where Chris could exist, but definitely one of the very few. He went from homeless to becoming a self -made millionaire. Being good and smart with what he does, not only does he now lead a better life, but he helps others to lead a better life. He has the ability to give scholarships, and is committed to helping charities with those in need and also for education.
A big part of the movie was education. Chris would ask Christopher questions everyday concerning learning, making sure Christopher stayed on track. A humorous part of the movie was the daycare center that Christopher attended. On the wall outside, along with drawings, it said “happyness”, which Chris would tell the daycare lady and a street cleaner was spelled incorrectly, but no one cared. Given the circumstances of the world in which Christopher was growing up, Chris knew himself that he had to make sure that Christopher knew how to spell it correctly. Chris’s life was pursuing “happyness”, hence the title. He knew what he wanted for his life, and not having much he knew he had to work to get there. That’s exactly what he did, he pursued the “happyness” that he was looking for.
A+ movie
This movie is labeled a Comedy/Drama and is rated PG13, and 1 hr 57 min
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