In " Notorious" (2009) (the story of rapper Biggie Smalls), Sean Puffy Combs - the film's producer - is a savior while Tupac Shakur is crazy. It seems that Hollywood's way to praise a father is to attack the mothers.įurther, I should mention that biopics always reveal their source material by presenting specific characters as heroes and specific characters as hyperbolic wretches. The Homeless Shelter manager, though polite, is a gatekeeper who keeps the gate closed. The lazy Day Care Center owner busies her children with old television shows. Thandie Newton, in a razor sharp performance, is jaded, exhausted, and angry, and abandons her child. Unfortunately, all the women that carry any substance are hopeless. This film's world is a world almost without women. Nevertheless, the fatherhood in this film is so outstanding that it almost compensates for all the rest of the Darth Vaders in all the rest of Hollywood. The fathers, true to Joseph Campbell's mythologies, were tyrannical obstacles that had to be fooled, faced or defeated. When my little daughter was very little, I started reading Disney Princess bedtime stories to her, only to discover that all the fathers were horrible. Look at all the Disney fathers of all those Disney Princesses. Until then, I should remind you that Hollywood fathers are often dimwitted, defeated, absent, and usually evil. How many examples of positive fathers in major Hollywood movies are there? You have sixty seconds to mention five. It is Capra-esque in that, through the force of his determination, he reaches a happy ending.įurther, it is a rare, rare, rare story of a sympathetic, caring, intelligent, dignified father. It is Neorealist in that everything that can be wrong happens to this man. Somehow, we are handed an Italian Neorealist film in the body of a Jimmy Stewart classic. This American film by this Italian Director is somehow a mixture of Vittorio De Sica and Frank Capra. Meaning, it is not a normal Hollywood movie.
#Pursuit of happiness true story movie#
On the other hand, it is a movie about an American dream, directed by an Italian, starring an African American. On the surface, this filim is a standard Hollywood tale. Every time his life gets hopeful, a piano starts its simple melody. Third, happiness is a based-on-a-true-story underdog, who defeats all the odds, overcoming all obstacles. His Chris Gardner is trying his best to become happy, while everyone in his environment is breaking him down. The one exception is Will Smith, who effortlessly carries almost every scene with charm and delicate strength. People of Color are angry, depressed, or broken. There are a few happy White women most of these women have fixed smiles, blank eyes and permed hair. Second, the film takes place in the 1980s, so happiness is a friendly White Male with bad hair and foreign car. The only happy person that is neither wealthy, nor drugged, is a cute child (played by Jaden Smith, whose cuteness masks his precise acting). All the other happy people are drugged considering that they are in San Francisco, they are probably wealthy drug addicts. All the wealthy people in the movie are happy. At first, he seems to answer the question the way we would expect a Hollywood filmmaker to answer:įirst and foremost, happiness is wealth.
In answering this question, Gabriele Muccino's "The Pursuit of Happyness," takes many usual directions that Hollywood movies take.