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In class a couple days ago we watched a very moving and inspiring movie called, The Pursuit of Happyness. To sum it up, it was about a family that goes through a financial crisis due to not having a stable income from a bad investment. They end up homeless halfway through the movie, but luckily Chris Gardner the protagonist gets out of the bad investment and gets accepted into Dean Witter, starting a new life and reaching happiness for a brief moment.
This is by far one of my favourite movies and I have actually seen it 3 times. I am astonished on how it is based on a true story and that a man named Chris Gardner went from being in a burden of debts to a new life with a great job. The most powerful part in the movie was when he fixed his last bone density scanner and the light turned on. The light I believe resembled hope and that he can get through this difficult climb in life, which he did in the end. If I was in his position I would keep striving for a better life and try to pursue happiness. In reality you can always try to pursue happiness, but only few do obtain it and for many people they only acquire it for a brief portion of time.
Another part of the movie that stood out to me was when many homeless people were lined up including Chris Gardner and his son for the homeless shelter. I noticed there were many people that were homeless and received low income and I did some research about the time frame of the movie (1981) and that was the time of the early 1980s recession. During this time in the U.S there was a very high unemployment rate which is probably the reason why there was lots of homeless people as well as only 1 person out of 20 got the stock broker job. There were probably tons of job applicants too. If there was a lot more homeless families/people going through a financial crisis, the U.S economy would collapse because they are a market economy. If consumers stop buying the products and services many companies would not flourish causing many people helping with production, transporting, providing the service and managing products to go unemployed. Unemployment rates would rise causing the government to receive little taxpayer dollars making it harder to provide the essential services. The government would also probably change the area it spends taxes on to homeless shelters, providing monthly incomes and non profit organizations that help with poverty.
I thought there was quite a few themes portrayed in the film but I thought the major theme of the movie was that, money runs everything and you can’t live/survive without it. There was one line in the Movie that was very memorable to me and it supports my theme statement, Chris Gardner (Will Smith) says that if he lost one of his bone density scanners, he would be losing one week of groceries (probably even more). Unfortunately he did lose two of them along his journey, but fortunately he found them in the end keeping them alive for several more days. This displays how without the money from selling the bone density scanners they would not have food or a shelter to survive in. In school we learned about “Maslow's Hierarchy” and it shows you can’t have self actualization needs without self esteem needs and you can’t have that without social needs, etc. At the bottom of hierarchy is physiological needs (water, food, shelter) supporting everything, but you can’t get those basic needs without having money. In turn money runs everything and you can’t live/survive without it.That was reason why they were homeless for a decent portion of the movie because they did not have enough money to acquire basic needs. They also rarely bought products that were not the essential to live like junk food or games, I still remember the birthday scene vividly where chriss’ son only gets a cheap basketball. I feel miserable for how ungrateful I am sometimes when I recieve gifts, when some kids around the world get nothing or very little. I can’t even imagine how different my life would be if I lived in a developing country or in the slums. I am guessing that I would not have a choice on what I wear ,eat or what I do for fun because we would not have enough money for a great deal of selection on products.
I think there were two other themes too which were: life can be difficult, but never lose sight of your dreams/goals and money can buy happiness in some ways. I felt that during the whole movie Chris Gardner believed that life could become better and happier the harder he work. During the up and downs like when he became homeless and slept in the LRT station he still stayed determined and stayed very realisent to many of the problem that faced him. In the end, he was the only intern worker that got the job and that was through his hard work. Another one of my favourite parts of the movie was when he was in the cab and minutes before he figured out the rubix cube he said that, I am person that when I see a problem I will say I do not know how to solve it, but I will go and find the answer. The other theme statement I conjured, I know is very controversial, but really in the end when he did get the job he was happy and I think this was because he had a stable income and could support his son in growing up. As well he had enough money to own/rent a shelter and buy a car (he did not have one for most the movie). I think money could not buy happiness and love in some ways a long time ago but now society has changed so drastically that many people such as myself have reached happiness from gifts and money. When I say money can buy happiness in some ways I am thinking that money has a key role in reaching happiness. I am content when I perform soccer, but to be content with soccer I need a ball which requires money to get. I am truly sad to see that nothing really in life even love and happiness is free anymore.
