The Pursuit of Happyness
Will Smith’s infamous “Oscar Slap” could be cited as an example of the negatives of marriage. If someone makes a joke about your spouse, you might be motivated to defend said spouse in such a manner that could be destructive to your career.
That said, fifteen years before this slap, Smith starred in a pro-single film called The Pursuit of Happyness. It’s based on the true story of Chris Gardner, a San Francisco man who endured homelessness as a single father while he competed for a job at a prestigious financial firm, Dean Witter Reynolds.
On its most basic level, it’s a “nice film,” an inspirational story about what can do through grit and perseverance. If one looks at it through a Critical Race Theory lens, it gets more complicated. Gardner, a Black man, views this firm, populated primarily by middle-aged white men, genial as they are in this film (a sharp contrast to the sharks we see in films like Boiler Room, Glengarry Glen Ross, The Wolf of Wall Street, and of course, Wall Street). And they do appear to exploit him on a few occasion, as he’s often the person they call on to get them coffee and donuts; at one point, he’s interrupted from making a big sale so he could move the car one of the white brokers (he misses out on the sale and ends up having to pay the parking ticket for parking illegally).
Another problematic element: all the women are portrayed negatively. His wife, Linda, is portrayed as a shrew who never wanted a kid (in real life, this dynamic was undoubtedly more complex); a guitar-playing hippie steals one of the bone density scanners he attempts to sell pre-internship; a daycare center owner just parks his son and other kids in front of the television until the parents pick the kids up.
That said, its pro-single message is apt, even if it conflicts with the feminist reading of the movie. Happiness is subjective, and in a world where marriage is conflated with happiness (“I just want to marry this person so I can be happy”), his vision is to obtain this coveted internship and job with the firm, and when he gets it, he is truly happy. What’s more, we believe it. There’s no new woman to add to it, which is true to life; as far as I know, Gardner has not remarried.
I’m pursuing my own version of happiness by buying a new home; as of this writing, closing is in six days. So I’ve exorcised parts of my massive DVD collection. But when I went to my local library and saw this movie on sale for $1, I remembered it’s pro-single message and just had to have it.
Hey, I cleared out all my films from singlist John Hughes; I might as well replace them with something good.
That said, fifteen years before this slap, Smith starred in a pro-single film called The Pursuit of Happyness. It’s based on the true story of Chris Gardner, a San Francisco man who endured homelessness as a single father while he competed for a job at a prestigious financial firm, Dean Witter Reynolds.
On its most basic level, it’s a “nice film,” an inspirational story about what can do through grit and perseverance. If one looks at it through a Critical Race Theory lens, it gets more complicated. Gardner, a Black man, views this firm, populated primarily by middle-aged white men, genial as they are in this film (a sharp contrast to the sharks we see in films like Boiler Room, Glengarry Glen Ross, The Wolf of Wall Street, and of course, Wall Street). And they do appear to exploit him on a few occasion, as he’s often the person they call on to get them coffee and donuts; at one point, he’s interrupted from making a big sale so he could move the car one of the white brokers (he misses out on the sale and ends up having to pay the parking ticket for parking illegally).
Another problematic element: all the women are portrayed negatively. His wife, Linda, is portrayed as a shrew who never wanted a kid (in real life, this dynamic was undoubtedly more complex); a guitar-playing hippie steals one of the bone density scanners he attempts to sell pre-internship; a daycare center owner just parks his son and other kids in front of the television until the parents pick the kids up.
That said, its pro-single message is apt, even if it conflicts with the feminist reading of the movie. Happiness is subjective, and in a world where marriage is conflated with happiness (“I just want to marry this person so I can be happy”), his vision is to obtain this coveted internship and job with the firm, and when he gets it, he is truly happy. What’s more, we believe it. There’s no new woman to add to it, which is true to life; as far as I know, Gardner has not remarried.
I’m pursuing my own version of happiness by buying a new home; as of this writing, closing is in six days. So I’ve exorcised parts of my massive DVD collection. But when I went to my local library and saw this movie on sale for $1, I remembered it’s pro-single message and just had to have it.
Hey, I cleared out all my films from singlist John Hughes; I might as well replace them with something good.
