Pursuit of Happyness

1.        Introduction

a.         Title            :    The Pursuit of Happyness

b.         Author        :   Gabriele Muccino

c.         Genre         :    Biographical – Drama

                               Based on a true story of Chris Gardner's (now an American entrepreneur, investor, stock broker, motivational speaker, author, and philanthropist who owns stockbrokerage firm, Gardner Rich & Co, based in Chicago, Illinois) nearly one-year struggle with homelessness.

d.         Casts          :    Will Smith as Chris Gardner

                               Jaden Smith as Christopher Gardner Jr. (Chris’ son)

                               Thandie Newton as Linda Gardner (Chris’ wife)

                               Brian Howe as Jay   

                               Dan Castellaneta as Alan Frakesh

                               James Karen as Martin Frohm

                               Kurt Fuller as Walter Ribbon

e.       The stages in the film:

1.  Riding the bus

2.  Being stupid

3.    Running

4.    Internship

5.   Paying taxes

6.   Happiness

2.    Synopsis

THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS

In 1981 San Francisco, Chris Gardner (Will Smith) invested his family's savings in portable bone-density scanners which he tried to demonstrate and sell to doctors. The investment proved to be a white elephant, which financially broke the family and as a result, his wife Linda (Thandie Newton) downhearted and left him, then moved to New York. Eventhough Linda wanted their son, Christopher (Jaden Smith) remained with her, but Chris Gardner insisted that Christopher should be with his father. While downtown trying to sell one of his scanners, Chris met a manager for Dean Witter and impressed him by solving a Rubik's Cube during a short taxi ride. Chris did not have enough money for the taxi fare and fled the cab driver into a subway station where he barely escaped the taxi driver but lost one of his bone scanners in the process. This new relationship with the Dean Witter manager gave him the chance to become an intern stockbroker.

Despite arriving there unkempt and shabbily dressed due to an emergency, Chris was offered the internship. Chris was further set back when his bank account was garnished by the IRS for unpaid income taxes, and he and his young son were evicted. As a result they were homeless, and were forced at one point to stay in a bathroom at a subway station. Motivation drove him to find a church, which had a homeless shelter primarily for single mothers and their children. The church's owner did not let him stay due to the fact that it was for women and children, although she told him about a local church that also provided shelter, but had very limited space. Due to demand for the limited rooms, Chris must frantically raced from his internship work early each afternoon in order to land a place in line. Chris then found the bone scanner that he lost in a park from a demented man who believed it to be a time machine and it was damaged, but Chris finally repaired it.

Disadvantaged by his limited work hours, and knowing that maximizing his client contacts and profits were the only way to earn the one paid position that he and his 19 competitors were fighting for, Chris developed a number of ways to make phone sales calls more efficiently. He also reached out to potential high value customers, defying protocol. One sympathetic prospect,  Walter Ribbon (Kurt Fuller) took him and his son to a San Francisco 49ers game. Regardless of his challenges, Chris did never reveal his lowly circumstances to his co-workers, even going so far as to lend one of his bosses five dollars for a taxi, a sum he could not afford.

Concluding his internship, Chris was called into a meeting with his managers. His work had paid off and he was offered the position. Fighting back tears, he rushed to his son's daycare, hugging him. They walked down the street, joking with each other. The epilogue revealed that Chris went on to found the investment firm Gardner Rich in 1987. In 2006, Chris Gardner sold a minority stake in his brokerage firm in a multi-million dollar deal.

3.        The Elements of The Plot

a.    Exposition

Chris Gardner invested his family's savings in portable bone-density scanners which he tried to demonstrate and sell to doctors. The investment proved to be a white elephant, which financially broke the family and as a result, his wife (Linda) downhearted, then she  left him and moved to New York. Their son Christopher remained with his father. While downtown trying to sell one of his scanners, Chris met a manager for Dean Witter and impressed him by solving a Rubik's Cube during a short taxi ride. Chris did not have enough money for the taxi fare and fled the cab driver into a subway station where he barely escaped the taxi driver but lost one of his bone scanners in the process. This new relationship with the Dean Witter manager gave him the chance to become an intern stockbroker.

b.   Conflict

Chris Gardner’s wife, Linda, left him and moved to New York for a new job because she thought that Chris couldn’t make a happy living for the family. Their son, Christopher, stayed with Chris as he asked it and he had to struggle in his life to give a good living for his son and to find a proper job.

c.    Rising Action

·      Chris and his son started to live by themselves after his wife left him.

·       Chris couldn’t sell the bone-density scanners while he had to pay the rent and some taxes (which previously was the reason why his wife left him)

·      Chris met Jay met a manager for Dean Witter, Jay, who gave him a chance for an interview to be an intern stockbroker.

·      Chris got the position as a beginner of Dean Witter’s stockbroker for six month without a salary, yet he still had to attract the clients as many as possible during the six month trial.

·      During the six month, he had to struggle to sell out the remaining scanner for living cost, evicted from his rent apartment, slept in a public bathroom, stood in the line just to get a free room from a social church, and sold his blood (blood donor) just to buy food for his son because unfortunately the Tax Department took everything from his saving account for the incoming tax regarding to his scanner selling.

·      In his worst struggling time, he still had one last scanner which he got back from the mad man who found it in the subway station but it didn’t work properly so he had to fix it.

d.   Climax

·      The scanner was getting fixed and Chris sold it.

·      After the internship test and succeeded in grabbing some significant clients, Chris was called by his manager and was told that he got the position as the staff of Dean Witter’s stockbroker.

e.    Anti climax

There is no anti climax and resolution because this movie uses an open plot.

4.        Character and Characterization

a.    Dynamic (major) character

1)   Chris Gardner : a patience, tough, smart, loving and caring guy with a good sense of humor.

2)   Christopher : smart and cheerful boy.

b.   Static (minor) character

1)   Linda : a loving but tempered woman

2)   Walter Ribbon : a kind hearted businessman.

3)   Jay : a doubtful man

4)   Martin Frohm

5)   Alan Frakesh

5.        Plot

The plot of the movie is an open plot. It leads the story that ends at the climax and lets the viewers conclude the story by themselves.

6.        Setting

·      Setting of time: around 1981

·      Setting of place: San Fransisco

7.        Theme

The toughness of a struggling man to get a better life for his son.

8.        Tone :

·      Sadness (when Chris and his son struggled to pursue a better life)

·      Happyness (in the climax, Chris cried when he got a chance as a stockbroker)

9.        Style

The Pursuit of Happyness Story is told in the first-person perspective. With this personal perspective, we are able to key in on the emotions and events that touches and impacts tough man's life. Chris tells of his pain and anguish when he learns that his wife left them and will not return. He relates the hard times he, his son  struggle to pursue the happyness and never let somebody tells him that he cannot do something. We learn how important his son's influence is to his eventual success. Even though Chris start out as a senior high school graduated, he proove that he can get what he wants to get.

10.    Symbol 

·         Running : it shows the toughness of a struggling man to get a better life for his son, he always run in order to manage his time.

·         The Captain America fell down : it happened when Chris and his son were running to get a bus, it showed that in that time (around 1981) America got a crisis.

11.    Moral Lesson

·      We should pursue our happyness and never let ourselves lose mind when worst time get us.

·      We should not give up no matter how hard the situation is. Tough times don’t last, but tough people do.

·      “Don’t ever let somebody tell you that you can’t do something. You got a dream, you gotta protect it. People can’t do something themselves, they wanna tell you you can’t do it. If you want something, go get it. Period”

-Chris Gardner