...Summary of PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS "Don't ever let somebody tell you you can't do something. ...You got a dream, you gotta protect it... If you want something, go get it. Period." In Columbia Pictures' The Pursuit of Happyness, Chris Gardner (Will Smith) is a bright and talented but marginally employed salesman. Struggling to make ends meet, Gardner finds himself and his five-year-old son evicted from their San Francisco apartment with nowhere to go. When Gardner lands an internship at a prestigious stock brokerage firm, he and his son endure many hardships, including living in shelters, in pursuit of his dream of a better life for the two of them. Chris Gardner (Will Smith) is a family man struggling to make ends meet. Despite his valiant attempts to help keep the family afloat, the mother (Thandie Newton) of his five-year-old son Christopher (Jaden Christopher Syre Smith) is buckling under the constant strain of financial pressure. No longer able to cope, she reluctantly decides to leave. Chris, now a single father, continues doggedly to pursue a better-paying job using every sales skill he knows. He lands an internship at a prestigious stock brokerage firm, and although there is no salary, he accepts, hopeful he will end the program with a job and a promising future. Without a financial cushion, Chris and his son are soon evicted from their apartment and forced to sleep in shelters, bus stations, bathrooms, or wherever they can find refuge for the night. Despite...
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...The Pursuit of Happyness The Pursuit of Happyness Le Genia Millsaps | Introduction to Film | March 29, 2015 Le Genia Millsaps | Introduction to Film | March 29, 2015 The Pursuit of Happyness was released on December 15, 2006 as a documentary about the life struggles of Chris Gardener from homelessness to great success. At the box office The Pursuit of Happyness bought in an amount of $307.10 million after being produced by Will Smith, Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal, James Lassiter and Steve Tisch on a budget of $55 million. Written by Steven Conrad. The music was produced by Andrea Guerra, cinematography was done by Phedon Papamichael. There were many aspects used in the creation of the film to make a lasting impression on the viewers. The development of the film started after Chris Gardner did an interview with 20/20 in January 2002. After the airing of the interview Chris realized the Hollywood potential of his life story due to the overwhelming national response to his story. Chris soon published his autobiography on May 23, 2006 and later meet with an associate producer for the film. The movie was produced with many liberties of Gardner’s true life story. Many details and events that took place over a span of many years was compressed to a shortened time frame for the creating of a film to be played in theaters, the roll of Christopher portrayed as a five year old was being played by eight-year-old Jayden, when in reality Christopher was a toddler. The...
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...3X3 Rubik’s Cube in less than 30mins, who instantly spots an analytical talent in Chris which can be used in the stock broker firm he is in. * His condition worsens as he is estranged by his wife and he lives with his son, providing and taking care of him, while simultaneously striding through the internship which selects one in twenty and also trying to sell the remaining of his portable bone density scanner to make ends meet. The rest of the plot unfolds portraying Chris’s struggle through life from being near bankrupt, being homeless , arrested and crossing paths with many other adversities to strive to meet his goal. * The Pursuit of Happyness is, based on a true story, a rags-to-riches tale about a father’s love for his son and him working hard to achieve dreams to give the best to his family. The Pursuit of Happyness also highlights the plight of homelessness in our society. The movie also portrays the martial discord...
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...The Pursuit of Happyness Based on the true life events of Chris Gardner, now an American entrepreneur, investor, stock broker, author, and renowned speaker, The Pursuit of Happyness explores Chris Gardner’s ups and downs with homelessness in the early 1980’s. Gardner faces multiple struggles in his conquest to take care of his child as a single father, while also attempting to maintain a job and provide the basic necessities for primarily his son and himself when possible. Even as things begin to appear like they may be getting better for Gardner, they suddenly and continuously get much worse. However, through these crests and troughs in Gardner’s life, one can see Chris reflecting on and learning from his past, moving from a more individualized identity to a collective one, and displaying the spirit of generosity with what little he had. One of the most prevalent aspects of the movie from the beginning is Gardner learning from his past, more specifically his parents past, a theme also prevalent in Bordas’ text “Salsa, Soul, and Spirit”. In the text, Bordas uses the word Sankofa to mean reaching back and collecting experiences, values, and culture and to learn from them in order to avoid the drawbacks and stalemates of history. She says, “Sankofa rests on the foundation of the past, its feet are facing forward. This ancient symbol counsels us that the past is a pathway to understanding the present and creating a strong future.” (Bordas 28). Within the first few minutes of...
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...A movie named “The Pursuit of Happyness” is inspired by the real life story of Chris Gardner, who struggled with homelessness while raising his toddler son. Chris is a single father since her wife no longer able to cope. His wife could not handle under the constant strain of financial pressure, so, she decided to leave and went to work in a restaurant in New York. He continues tenaciously to pursue his life and his son using every sales skill he knows. His top priority was to be a good father to his son, Christopher. Finally, he rose from being homeless to become a stock market tycoon and eventually as everyone knows he now is a multi-millionaire. From this inspirational movie, I need to choose any four scenes and do analysis based on the six theories, which are social morality, personality virtues, utilitarianism, egoism, the principle of duty and the principle of existentialism. The first scene I chose is when Chris plays basketball with his son. His son says he really likes to play basketball, and wanted to become a famous basketball star. Then, he said to his son, “Don’t ever let somebody tell you, you can’t do something, not even me.” Scene closes. This dialogue from the scene makes people feel a father’s love, and it is the point impressive people. Based on his dialogue, it is clearly shown that he wants and teaches his son to practice the theory of egoism. It means that, Christopher must take consideration of his self-interest the most in making decision and doing something...
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...Show Me the Money (The Pursuit of Happyness) FIS/200 Pursuit of Happyness is a movie based on a true story about the life and financial struggles of Christopher Gardner. Christopher Gardner is an African American man who begins making a living selling bone density machines. Christopher, along with his wife chose to spend their life savings on these new yet unpopular instruments. During the early stage of their investment; life seemed to be promising until a stream of bad luck arrived. Mr. Gardner became unable to sell these instruments which caused a downward spiral of events to happen such as: losing his car, losing his home, losing his family, and sometimes even losing “his mind.” However during his fight towards financial stability he ran into a guy who decided to give him a chance based on his ability to quickly solve the rubric cube puzzle in such a short amount of time. Throughout the movie money plays a pivotal role in the direction of the story. Money is revealed throughout the story as a matter, means, and measure. Matter. When considering the matter of money there are two different things that you have to consider; (1) physically having it or not having it and (2) being or having the ability to successfully manage it. During the movie Chris Gardner goes through a roller coaster experience with physically having money. He lets us know that when he first decided to embark on his journey of entrepreneurship the profit came very easily, However when...
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...The year is 1981, and Chris Gardener (Will Smith) is trying to make a living by selling bone scanner machines in San Francisco to doctors and medical centers. It's a bother to lug around the clunky machines but he enjoys making connections with people. Although he is a natural born salesman, this African-American believes that he is destined for a better career path. His wife Linda (Thandie Newton) is working at two jobs to help pay the bills, and they are behind on their rent. Their five-year old son, Christopher (Jaden Christopher Syre Smith), goes to a day carecenter, and it bugs his dad that on the outside of the building, the term "the pursuit of happyness" is misspelled. He is convinced that these little details make all the difference in life. The constant strain of financial pressure is too much for Linda to handle so she decides to take a job with a relative in a restaurant in New York. Although her husband is a disappointment to her, she does have confidence that he will find a way to take care of their son, and so she leaves Christopher with him. Chris's persistence pays off when he is chosen for an internship program at a prestigious stock brokerage firm. The determining factor seems to be that he impresses one of the top officers by solving a Rubiks Cube in record time. It is obvious that he has a special gift for numbers in addition to his flair for sales. The only hitches to his new lease on life are that the program does not pay any salary and only one of the...
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...Project & Task Management: The Pursuit of Happyness Project & Task Management: “The Pursuit of Happyness” “The Pursuit of Happyness” is a movie about an African American man, Christopher Gardner, and his journey to reach “happyness” in his life. Christopher was abandoned by his father as an infant and met his father for the first time when he was 28 years old. Because of this Chris vows to be nothing like his father when he has a child of his own. Chris and his son Christopher Jr. are homeless. He takes on a competitive unpaid internship as a stockbroker in hopes to be hired on as a full time employee, all while caring for his son. This movie is a story of determination and hope while being faced with disappointment and provocation. There are so many lessons that can be taken from Christopher Gardner and of those I’ve decided to use a clip from “The Pursuit of Happyness” and teach a lesson on project & task management. The scene that I used to teach my lesson is called: Cold Calling. This is where Chris Gardner demonstrates how to reduce wasteful activities in the office to make a bigger impact in his productivity. Out of necessity to care for his son, Chris has a shorter day and does what he can to make the most of the resources he has. In the clip as Chris is calling potential clients he doesn’t hang up the phone in between calls to save precious time. He also eliminates time wasted using the restroom by not consuming water during the day as well as time...
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...can buy happiness and if we have money we are living the good life. Even Aristotle would agree that money can’t buy happiness. But what if you are poor and struggling and trying to reach success because you need to support your family. Can that success buy happiness? Because when you are struggling and trying to make ends meet it can be frustrating. We can definitely look at the movie Pursuit of Happyness and try to think what would Aristotle think of the story and would he agree on the main character, Chris’s, definition of happiness. In the movie Pursuit of Happyness there is a guy name Chris Gardner who is trying his best to support his family by selling portable bone density scanners. And for Chris to be able to pay rent and daycare fees, he has to at least sell 2 scanners each month. Throughout the movie he has a hard time selling them and it gets to the point where he can’t pay his bills. In result of him not being able to pay his bills, his wife ends up leaving and he also gets evicted from his home and the only person he has left is his son Christopher (Pursuit of Happyness). So his only option to not live on the streets and to give his son a good life is to find a good paying job. When I was watching the movie, one scene that stood out was the scene when Chris was walking through the Financial District in San Francisco after a long day of trying to sell his scanners. But as he is walking he sees a man in a suit and tie stepping out of a nice sports car. So Chris...
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...Film showing "Pursuit of happyness" paper The pursuit of happyness was mainly a movie about a hardworking father that is trying to give all the best for his son. As for selling processes, the salesperson forms a working relationship with his customers to be able to connect with the customer on a more personal level in order to know what kind of things they like, and how to approach them when they are to sell something. Also, I have learned that no matter how hard things get, I should always find a way to look at the brighter side of life and try harder to escape the misfortune that I am in; and that if I do my best, it will all pay off in the end. Another thing that I would like to point out in the movie is when Will Smith, whilst dialing the numbers of people during his internship, didn't put the handset back in the cradle. This to me was a symbol to not waste time, to do the work efficiently and to not spend time and extra work by putting it back. I also realized that by not showing buyers the personal feelings that you currently feel, and instead act like everything is okay, it may be more of plus since they won't be scared if you are tense while presenting a product. Customers would want a salesperson to be confident, and when they see otherwise, it may be more of a reason to turn you down. Also, as a student, having my parents alongside me is a reason why I never give up, to do my best. So that one day, I can give them a life they deserve, like Will smith did for his...
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...BACH NGUYEN ESL 302 MS. MUENCH 02, 25, 09 Out-class essay#1 Second draft A Good Father in the Pursuit of Happyness Every film more or less has impact to audience depending on which type of film and the awareness of each person. The Pursuit of Happyness is a nice movie which shows the regular social issues. It presented the good results that a man got by his great effort in his hard working. Love and trust between father and son is also the dynamics that lead to his motivation to succeed in his life. Through the content of this film, the interactions between Chris and his son impressed me so much. In my opinion, Chris Gardner was a good father through the ways that he acted with his son generally. After watching the movie, it was hard to ignore that he was a responsible father. He really cared about his son’s environment which Christopher communicated with because Chris did not want his son to get the information which did not fit with Christopher’s age. For example, when he saw some bad words on the wall next to the place where Christopher got day-care, he asked the street cleaner to erase them due to being afraid of his son’s seeing. In addition, he told his son to forget the bad words that Christopher had seen on the wall. He also complained the baby-sister after hearing his son retelling his watching a movie which was unsuitable with a child at her day-care home. Anther aspect shows Chris’ love with his son as a father’s obligation when his wife left her family. He...
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...There are many ways to the keys of happiness. People might choose a long difficult road to pursue their happiness, or some people might choose an unethical easy short way to pursue their dreams. Either way, people chose to do what they want for themselves or what they deserve. The movie The Pursuit of Happyness had deliberate how people seek for their happiness wether it is decent or not. In the article: “Never Fear Never Quit,” written by Joe Tye; article “The Four Attitudes of Happiness,” written by Raj Raghunathan; article “The Rules For Success,” written by Farouk Radwan; article “The Money-Happiness Connection,” written by Susie Poppickthe; article “Does Success Lead to Happiness,” written by Christy Matta, the authors state that the keys to happiness is perseverance, attitude, passion, money and success....
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...himself in living. There are two main characters in this movie, Chris Gardner (Will Smith) and Christopher (Jaden Smith). Since Christopher is portrayed as a five year old boy, his character does not give any huge contribution towards the development of the movie. Whereas, Chris Gardner is depicted as a real portrait of American man who really believes in the myth of material success and it is reflected through his way of thinking, attitude, and his action along the movie. Almost all parts of this movie describe about Chris Gardner’s struggle in pursuing his real and true happiness. PART (2) CONCEPTS (1) MARS Model MARS Model theories of Individual Behavior and Performance can be best reflected in the movie of The Pursuit of Happyness. MARS model is a model that seeks to explain individual behavior as a result of internal and external factors or influences acting together. The four elements of the MARS model are motivation, ability, role perceptions, and situational factors which are represented by the acronym MARS. These four factors are...
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...Introduction: “The Pursuit of Happyness,” was released by Columbia Pictures in December 2006 and is inspired by the true story of a real-life leader, Chris Gardener. Chris Gardner is the owner and CEO of Gardner Rich LLC with offices in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. Gardner Rich LLC is a FINRA registered broker-dealer specializing in servicing public pension funds and Taft-Hartley plans for some of the nation’s largest institutions and unions. Conquering grave challenges to become a successful entrepreneur, Gardner is an avid motivational and inspirational speaker, addressing the keys to overcoming obstacles and breaking cycles. Gardner is also a passionate philanthropist whose work has been recognized by many esteemed organizations. Will Smith starred as Gardner and received Academy Award, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations for his performance. Gardner was an associate producer on the film. In the early years of his life, Gardener was a scientific supply salesman. In the movie, he sells bone scanners which are hard to sell and no one needs. As a result he is shown to be financially distraught from the beginning. In 1981, as a new father to son Christopher Gardner Jr., he was determined to find a career that would be both lucrative and fulfilling. He was also determined to raise his child in the best way he could because he himself had spent his entire life not knowing who his father was. Fascinated by finance and in his pursuit of happiness, but without...
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...Have you ever felt at any moment in your life that you cannot handle things anymore? Feeling powerless and you want to give up everything you have done so far? In the films The Pursuit of Happyness and Hustle & Flow it is noticeable a very important ideology that a lot of people have at some point in their lives, this is The American Dream. It is also significant to talk about the Mise en scene, the costumes and the angle of the camera in both films. In the film The Pursuit of Happyness shows how hard it is to be a single father with minimum resources to survive and all the struggles that he passes through to create a better life for him and for his son. Christopher is a black man and he does not have a lot of money, looking for ways to get money with different ideas but things did not get any better when he was kicked out of his apartment where Christopher and his son were living because he could not pay it anymore. Things kind of looked better when Christopher got an internship in an important brokerage firm but sadly that position does not pay him until he gets hired for a full-time position in the company and earn much more money than he thought he would have. The ideology in this film of The American Dream is very clear, it began with the fact that Christopher might be considered a failure dad to a lot of people at the beginning of the film because he does not have any properties, luxury things or anything for his own use, no job and problems with his partner. Christopher...
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