The Pursuit of Happyness (Widescreen Edition)
by Gabriele Muccino
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DVD details
Actor: Brian Howe, Jaden Smith, James Karen, Thandie Newton, Will SmithDirector: Gabriele Muccino
Brand: Sony
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.40:1
Running Time: 117 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-03-27
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Sony Pictures
DVD Reviews of The Pursuit of Happyness (Widescreen Edition)
DVD Review: San Francisco is beautiful, but are traders just as glorious?
Summary: 4 Stars
We are not used to seeing Will Smith playing the father taking care of his son alone. Especially in his world under Reagan. He lost his wife, then his apartment, then a second apartment, then he had to go to homeless people's shelters, with his son mind you, sleep in BART toilets, with his son mind you, work like hell to get a new profession in the world of finance, go on selling some of the medical machines he was selling before to just make ends meet, to avoid the worst possible, losing his child, his son. And he manages to keep his cool, to remain friendly with everyone, even those who obviously exploit him, and he proves himself and he gets the job, one out of twenty. The whole film is dominated by a quotation from the Declaration of Independence, the "pursuit of happyness". And this pursuit is a real chase but a chase that does not so much take place outside, because outside it is a hunt not for happiness but for the game that is homeless, defenseless, out of luck and deprived of the minimum. But the chase, and the pursuit, is in one's mind first and foremost. If you are not free in your mind, if you have no project and if you do not have the motivation and the determination to get it going, you will not overcome the difficulties life will bring. Though I think this is true for everyone, that motivation and determination are the basic qualities you need to get anywhere in life, the end result will be quite different and vary a lot according to the point where you started and the opportunities that will come along across your own path and that you will be able to catch. We definitely are equal potentially, but the end results of people in their lives vary tremendously and then at this point equality is no longer the main characteristic. That makes the film slightly sad. For one financial success, how many meager survivals?
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines, CEGID
DVD Review: More relevant for today's recession when all is down and out
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie depicts the actual situation now: we have high unemployment, broken families, and people that are in debt with no income. How did Will Smith overcome the odds and emerge as the winner?
The 1 thing I got from here is: Perseverence.
AndyTheCoach
www.asiacoachingtraining.com
Singapore
DVD Review: Money = happiness?
Summary: 3 Stars
My normal policy is to not write reviews for products that already have 10 or more reviews, and I know that this review will disappear into oblivion in a month or so, probably after netting several "unhelpful" votes. So why bother? Because this film, despite its almost universally positive reception, got my hackles up.
The Will Smith character, Chris Gardner, is portrayed as being a loving and caring father who is doing everything he's doing for the sake of his 5-year-old son. Nonsense. Chris Gardner is doing what he is doing primarily for himself. Yes, he does take good care of his son, but the final result is positive only because things do work out for him in the end.
What if it had all gone horribly wrong? For every person who attempts to do what Chris Gardner did, and succeeds, there are 100 who attempt it and fail. What then? What would the consequences have been for Chris Gardner's son?
My claim is that a really responsible father would have bitten the bullet and taken an ordinary job and settled down to being a single father and living a simple life, instead of gambling everything on "the American dream". Doing what Chris Gardner did, while it did succeed for him, was, in fact, irresponsible.
Another irritating aspect of this movie is that to a large extent it pushes the idea that money and happiness go hand-in-hand. Those who are rich are all portrayed as being happy and decent people, which in my experience is far from the truth.
And then there's the problem of whether Chris Gardner's chosen profession is admirable or meaningful in the general context of human activities. My understanding of financial markets is almost zero, but I got the impression that Mr. Gardner was becoming successful by selling the kind of financial constructions that have since become part of the Wall Street meltdown and the trigger to a global financial crisis.
My conclusion is that "The Pursuit of Happyness" is a Hollywood "feel-good" movie that doesn't stand up to a more critical examination.
Rennie Petersen
DVD Review: Heartwarming, Inspirational, and Exciting
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie is fantastic. A modern day exploration of the American Dream, the popular movie "The Pursuit of Happyness" shows a poor, divorced father struggling to improve his circumstances and create a better life for himself and his son. The movie features good acting, great San Francisco scenes (including some hilarious chase scenes), and is full of spirit and warmth. The father-son interactions are tender and understanding as they work through a hard time together. Will Smith is great in his role as a down-and-out man living an urban adventure all the while holding the highest business dreams in mind. The pace of the movie is fast and does not bog down the viewer with slow or tedious scenes. Each scene is a new adventure and another step on the father's path to success. It is based on a true story and is a rags-to-riches tale of the highest caliber.DVD Review: Memorable and Life-shaping
Summary: 5 Stars
Based on the true story of entrepreneur/millionaire Chris Gardner, the movie follows the struggles of a homeless single father trying to raise his son in 1980's San Francisco, while pursuing the grand dream of becoming a stockbroker. The story evokes tears of sadness and tears of joy, as it takes the viewer through a real daily struggle not uncommon to so many in the world around us. A rags-to-riches story, yes, but even more a story of determination and hard work and a story of human potential.
Will Smith performs his best role ever as Chris Gardner, and his real life son Jaden plays the younger Christopher. Their chemistry is inspiring, as is the rest of the film.
This 2006 movie is rated PG-13 with good reason, however, and I don't recommend it as a "family film," as it has some brief language, and the subject matter is too intense for children. For teens, however, and adults, it is a must-see movie!
Description of The Pursuit of Happyness (Widescreen Edition)
Will Smith stars in the inspirational true story of Chris Gardner, a San Francisco salesman who's struggling to make ends meet. When his girlfriend Linda (Thandie Newton) walks out, Chris is left to raise their 5-year-old son Christopher (Jaden Smith) on his own. Chris' determination finally pays off when he lands an unpaid internship in a brutally competitive stockbroker-training program, where only one in twenty interns will make the cut. But without a salary, Chris and his son are evicted from their apartment and are forced to sleep on the street, in homeless shelters and even behind the locked doors of a metro station bathroom. With self- confidence and the love and trust of his son, Chris Gardner rises above his obstacles to become a Wall Street legend.A heartwarming film that demonstrates how good, hard-working people can become homeless almost overnight, Pursuit of Happyness is a tour-de-force showcase for Will Smith, who convincingly portrays a down-and-out dad trying to better his family's life. Smith, who usually is cast in effortlessly boyish roles (Men in Black, Independence Day), is wonderful in the film--even in the scenes that shamelessly tug at viewers' heartstrings. Based on the true-life story of Chris Gardner, a San Francisco salesman forced at times to shelter his young son (played by Smith's adorable look-alike offspring Jaden Smith) in a men's room, there is little suspense to the film in terms of Chris' outcome. (His story and eventual success a successful and wealthy Chicago businessman was well-publicized on the newsmagazine show 20/20.) And let's face it, Hollywood's not too keen on making feel-good movies with unhappy endings. The beauty (and suspense, to a certain extent) of this film is in the way the story is told. Though he is constantly rushing around to get to appointments and pick up his child, things do not happen quickly for Chris. When he accepts an internship with a prestigious stock brokerage firm, there's a catch: The position is unpaid, suitable more for trust-fund children than single parents with no other source of income. In many scenes, the viewer panics along with Chris, wondering how he's going to feed his child. While Smith and his son, Jaden, share many tender moments together, Thandie Newton has the thankless role of playing Chris' shrill wife, who deserts her family early in the film. It's not a particularly challenging part for the talented actress, and her departure doesn't impact the storyline much at all. As for the movie's misspelled title, it's inspired from a scene in the film. (Seeing a mural drawn by the children at a daycare center, Chris points out to the proprietor that "happiness" is spelled incorrectly. She notes that it doesn't matter how the word is written--just that the kids have it.) With Pursuit of Happyness, Smith has come out of his safety zone and, in turn, ends up playing his most heroic role to date. --Jae-Ha Kim
Extras from The Pursuit of Happyness
 Behind the scenes footage of The Pursuit of Happyness high bandwidth |  Chris Gardner: "On Being Studied By Will Smith" high bandwidth |  Will Smith And Jaden Smith: "On Will Always Being In Character" high bandwidth |
 More Films Starring Will Smith |  More Films About Fathers & Sons |  The Book |
Stills from The Pursuit of Happyness (click for larger image)
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