“The Pursuit of Happyness” by Gabriele Muccino Free Essay Example

The Pursuit of Happyness, directed by Gabriele Muccino in 2006, should be added to the list of National Film Registry Listing because of its Historically (movie with the unemployment history after post-depression time in Ronald Regan presidential era) and Culturally (has shown the average day-to-day significance and family and child care problems). History leads the pillar for the future and is the only thing which we can strongly rely upon because the present and future are not in our part of control.

This film represents the time-frame and average socio-economic condition of the era which led to the present America in which we are living now. So I believe this is the major reason why the film should be included in National Film Registry Listing.

Despite of having a low budget endowment of fifty-five million dollars but doing the total business of staggering three hundred and seven million dollars in box office is not as easy task to accomplish. All thanks to the director Gabriele Muccino and major cast of the movie Will Smith, Thandie Newton and Jaden Smith who have performed in an extra-ordinary way to portrait the real-life scenario of the time frame of eighties.

The plot of the story starts with unemployment and how an average American struggled at the time. The whole story of the movie surrounds over the three characters Will Smith (father), Thandie Newton(mother) and Jaden Smith (son).

In the movie The Pursuit of Happyness, the main character Chris Gardner was played by Will Smith, who had lost everything in some financial crisis.

He ended up living in homeless shelter with his kid. He was jobless to support his kid and his wife, so his wife leaves him. Motivation drives him to struggle until the very end to get rid of this situation. Chris had motivation, he had to feed and care for his child. To feed your child and raise them properly is probably about the strongest motivation a person could have. Chris’ son reminded him daily of his need to succeed and get control of his life. Not only did Chris have motivation, he had an incredible attitude and was confident in himself. If not for his confidence and attitude he most likely would have never become the successful stock broker he ended up being, much less even made it into the internship.

Chris, after falling on hard financial times his son was left homeless. Chris manipulates working a full-time unpaid internship, bringing his son to daycare, and finding a bed to sleep each night in Church. Chris and his son are not leading an easy life. One day, Chris finds some free time and decides to play basketball with his son. Where he tells his son that his dream to play basketball as an NBA player will never become true, and he can never be a good player, so he should stop playing. Yet Chris has a sudden change of heart and gives his son a speech to encourage him to always try his hardest and not let anyone shuts him down. Chris tells his son, ‘Don’t let anybody tell you, you can’t do something. Even me,’ ‘You gotta dream, you gotta protect it’ You want something? Go get it. Period (_The Pursuit of Happiness.)’_ In first Chris decreases his son’s expectancy by telling him that he wouldn’t be able to play as a basketball player.

In addition, the movie was nominated in various prestigious awards like Golden Globe Awards, Academy Award, MTV Teen Award and many more. The facts which I mentioned provides how the ideology and thinking perceptions of America and American people was related to poverty, racism and other social factors at that time.

Works Cited

1. AuthorLastName, FirstName. Title of the Book Being Referenced. City Name: Name of Publisher, Year. Type of Medium (e.g. Print).
2. LastName, First, Middle. “Article Title.” Journal Title (Year): Pages From – To. Print.

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