The Pursuit of HappinessFollow

hell a 1/4 of that article was the sam stupid *******

Yeah, stuff like that goes on the resume out there.

I don't buy it. A genius like that can only aspire to become a failing salesman? I don't see how that's a "respectable" career, unless every stubborn man not willing to find a better income source is "respectable." OK, he doesn't even bother to check if his product has any demand before buying 30 units of it. Stupid mistake. Those are very common in life, I'm sure for geniuses all the same, but he had the chance to rectify them. Chris Gardener had the chance in this movie, and yet, he didn't.


He ignores every bit of advice his wife gives him and drags her to the end of her wits and his ultimate strive is to be locked in an office making phone calls all day. And then half of the movie just showcases him chasing around his bone density scanners.


You know what, this movie was inspiring, and it is an amazing tale of continuous misfortune and a rise to the top. And I'm sure all of the lessons it teachers are very valuable. Any movie about something as dramatic as this should be immensely powerful, and I feel that that source of empathy is all the movie plays off of. And to add to that, the plot layout and the constant gags, they were just plain annoying.


The story was great, but it was poorly executed. The scenes with him and his son were incredibly touching, I admit to crying in one, and then only to find him being awe struck by a guy with a nice Porsche, leading to his decision to become a stock broker. Sure, that’s an impressive accomplishment especially given his circumstances, even the well prepared rich men were not accepted as the new broker. I'm happy he got what he wanted, I was cheering for him the entire film even. But it’s a damn weak substitute for a title that promised happiness. For all we know he became an alcoholic who ignores his son while he works his life away. I didn't see any real accomplishment of happiness or an epiphany that changed his life for the better. Just one that brings in a bigger paycheck than all of his friends back in the Mission District.


This movie could have been much better if it focused more on the human aspect of being on the streets rather than on the drive for monetary gain and cheap gags throughout. Maybe if this movie was centered around a man who wasn't so stubborn and selfish in the beginning I would have enjoyed it. It seemed like he was more interested in selling the scanners than taking care of his son. I would have loved this movie if all those things weren't true. Unfortunately, they were.


Again, great story, poor execution.

Edited, Jan 4th 2007 3:34pm by sonicmonkeys

Unless it's "The Fisher King" maybe.

Or some stupid Richard Pryor movie about a homeless man running a multibillion dollar corporation using street smarts, dontcha know.

Well. It is based on a true story, so they kinda had to follow what actually happened, right? It just seems like most of your complaints have nothing to do with the actual "execution" of the story, but with the actual goals and approach of the main character himself. That's the part you can't change when making the story into a movie though...

I'd also like to point out that the title could well be a play on words. In the Declaration of Independance, the phrase "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" was originially going to say "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Property". It was changed to the more general "happiness" after much debate. There's a long rationale involved and it ties back further into some basic rights and ideas as described by folks like Locke.

My take on this is that he's not seeking "happiness" so much as "freedom". Freedom in the classical liberalist ideology comes from property (private ownership thereof in fact). Thus, by being able to become financially independant (aka: "wealthy"), he gains the freedom for himself and his son. All the things you bash him for follow this goal. He could very easily have just taken some random job and done ok for himself and his son. But that's not the point. He did not want to be a wage slave for his entire life. He wanted to be "free" in the classical sense.

That's what the film's about. It's a concept that has largely been lost in our nation where we think of rights as things that are owed us in some way instead of things that simply allow us to pursue our own goals.