‘The Pursuit of Happyness’

‘The Pursuit of Happyness’ is a good film, even a great one.  Will Smith is Chris Gardner, flogging  unsellable medical equipment.   Debts increasing, he obtains a place on a non-paying stockbroker programme for trainees. As his marriage fails he finds himself, homeless with his 5-year old son [played by Smith’s real-life son], living in ‘flophouses’ and subway lavatories. Not to spoil the ending for you, I’ll just mention a sub-theme, that of fathers determined that their children do better than they, themselves, did.  

Gardner is driven by this. His own upbringing was miserable, enduring abuse at his  step-father’s hands. He was well-acquaint with foster homes whilst his mother was in jail, most notably for attempting to burn down the house with her abusive partner still inside. Chris grew up determined to avoid alcoholism, domestic abuse, child abuse, illiteracy, fear and powerlessness. He resolved that he would, someday, become a loving and dedicated father to his own children.

And so, how do fathers make sure that their offspring avoid the mistakes that they, themselves, made? This brings us to, what for me, is the heart of the film: the relationship of Smith to his son [voluntarily abandoned by the mother].   Smith dreaded the boy ever going through what he had experienced.  Maybe if he became sufficiently brilliant . . .

But it dawns on him, somewhere, somehow, that he cannot make his boy cleverer than he, himself, is. It all depends on what is in the genes. And the film, in a subtle way, shows us a wee, 5 year old who is not particularly bright.   Ordinary, average, yet in a loving, trusting relationship with his dad. Should we, as parents, want more than that? I don’t think so! We can’t live out our lives through our children or grandchildren. God bless them, they may turn out to be as limited or even more limited than we are! We need to accept them for who and what they are. Christopher Gardners are a small minority of achievers but God simply asks us to be good “stewards” of the precious human beings He has entrusted to us.

The film takes some liberties with the actual story, notably the way it compresses into a short period events that spanned some years. Although it does not go beyond the early 80s Gardner has since gone on to be a [very] wealthy man. In 2002 he won a Father of the Year award.

A good, even great, film, but the unvarnished story is, in a way, even more remarkable, told in Gardner’s book The Pursuit of Happyness [misspelling explained in book and film]. There is also a good Wikipedia article on Gardner on the internet.