The Pursuit of Happyness Review

The Pursuit of Happyness
Me and My Brother went to see The Pursuit of Happyness last Sunday evening. It was a very moving and powerful movie for me and my brother. My Brother said that he spent most of the movie with tears in his eyes. I thought it was an awesome movie myself and was one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. The Movie is based around Christopher (Will Smith), a poor black man trying to make a living by selling Bone Density Scanners, which produce a picture a little bit better than a X-ray, but are twice as expensive. He is a bright man, who used to get the best grades in his class, but because of poverty and ill-fortune he is forced to attempt to sell these scanners, which most doctors see as an expensive luxury item. One day he sees that there is an internship at Dean Witter Investments. He gets the chance and through the rest of the movie we see him go through the trials of getting to his dreams. The whole movie is a pursuit of happiness!

This movie is a great exploration of healthy masculinity and the father and son relationship. The man will do everything he can do for his son so that he can have a better life than he did. At the beginning of the movie he expresses his goal in life “I was 26 years old when I first met my father, I made a promise to myself that if I had children I would never leave them or not care for them.” He wants to set wrong all that was done by his father, men all have ghosts of the failures or successes of their fathers, and spend most of their life trying to be more successful than their fathers in how they live their life. Throughout the movie Christopher aims to fulfil his promise to his son that he will never leave him and he will always care for him. The displays of affection and care shown for his child and his desire to teach him how to survive in a fast paced vicious world are amazing. The affection showed by his son for Christopher was amazing and just got me every time. The son listens to his father, and follows his every word, trusts that the decisions made by the father are in his best interest, while his father spends sleepless nights trying to improve their place in life. It got this twenty-one year old crying many times throughout the movie. It shows what a man should do for his family, fight, lay down everything and fight for his and his family’s survival. For many of course this can be an uphill battle, some can’t cope, and turn to drugs or suicide. It’s a hard up road battle for many who are down and out. Christopher is lucky, but he virtually goes through hell for his Son so that that he and his can pursue a life of happiness.

Another thing that got me were the scenes of poverty, the down and outs that live in our streets and the streets of America. Throughout the movie we see Christopher and his son survive on virtually a few dollars. They spend nights in homeless shelters as they are faced with no income from the internship, they join the lines of people waiting for a space in the homeless shelter, some nights they miss the opportunity and have to stay out on the streets, attempting to survive. The First night of their plight they spend in a subway toilet where Christopher cares for his son and gets through the night, never wanting to go back to that experience again. The hopelessness faced by many is harrowing. Again, I stress that Christopher is lucky. He’s determined, smart, proud and willing to give his all for the cease. Those characteristics help him in his pursuit of happiness, but I wonder how many like him there are who aren’t as lucky as he is, who don’t achieve through all the crap that is thrown at them. Many fall into hopelessness and just can’t get out.

This has to be the feel good movie of the year, I spent a lot of my time crying or on the edge of my seat, this man survives through all the crap so that his family can have a better future, what an amazing testament to mans will to go through all that and survive. It’s an example of this mans resolve in a cut-throat world.