The Pursuit of Happiness: A Movie Analysis

The movie 'Pursuit of Happiness' is a critically acclaimed film that explores the struggles and triumphs of Chris Gardner, a middle-class man fighting to achieve his life goals amidst poverty, homelessness, and family issues. The movie reflects upon the urban life, depicting the daily struggles faced by people in pursuit of their personal goals, be it taking care of their families or achieving their professional aspirations. Through its portrayal of Chris' journey, the film sends a strong message to audiences that never losing hope is crucial for achieving success, and that hard work can make one's life better.

Pursuit of Happiness: Critical Analysis
Film Case Study analysis
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Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................1
Depiction of highly dynamic and overly moderate city life: (How does the film provide a commentary on
urban life?)..................................................................................................................................................1
The attempt of the screenwriter/director to justify the saying ‘All well that ends well’:............................1
Screenwriter/director attempting to communicate....................................................................................2
Film impacted your understanding of the city or urban life........................................................................2
The intended audience:...............................................................................................................................2
Why might this matter?...............................................................................................................................3
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................3
References...................................................................................................................................................4

Introduction
It will not be an exaggeration to say that the movie could be renamed with the title
‘Hope’ and it will still be justice with the message the movie Pursuit of Happiness wants to give.
Perfectly written, directed and more than that perfectly acted by the characters makes the movie
a must watch. Pursuit of happiness, an amazing piece of art and cinematography is directed by
Gabriele Muccino starring Will Smith and his son Jaden as lead characters. The movie is based
on a real story. The movie portrays the life of Chris Gardner who was in the pursuit of a nearly
impossible dream and ended up making it happen. Given the message in the movie opens the
debate for many suitable titles that could be the right fit (Potter, 2014).
Depiction of highly dynamic and overly moderate city life: (How does
the film provide a commentary on urban life?)
The story starts with a glimpse of the city of modern world where the man, in pursuit of
his material goals has lost his core values of a human being. The sky touching buildings, people
going to work with lost sense of existence, the traffic that tells the story of business of people’s
lives, the man lying unconscious on the road with indifferent crowd is the testimony of the
present world where everyone is so self obsessed that mankind is losing its existence. People
running in the street with their suitcase and office files in hand with a stillness on the face for the
future that is uncertain (Kamanksha, & Sanjay, 2017). The portrayal of the city life in the movie
is so beautifully done by Gabriele Muccino that exhibits the fact that the director has tried to go
on the absolute edge of his potential (Layous, Sheldon, & Lyubomirsky, 2015).
The attempt of the screenwriter/director to justify the saying ‘All
well that ends well’:
With the movie Pursuit of Happiness, the screenwriter/director is trying to say that life is
never meant to be a smooth road. The movie in its essence says that life often throws surprises
that are bad and sometimes worse but one never should give up. Life asks us to be resilient, and
requires us to know how to bounce back. With the portrayal of the struggles of a common man

and his grit and determination for his family’s well being speaks volumes of the message the
movie is trying to give (Kim, & Maglio, 2018).
The scene with the Rubik’s cube has a deep meaning to convey but it takes a wise
audience to understand it. The Rubik’s cube with different colors speaks about the colors life has
but it takes sweat, determination, a great deal of hard work, resilience and an undying will to
travel any distance to bring these colors in life (Aikman, 2015).
Screenwriter/director attempting to communicate
The screenwriter/director wants to say that in order to achieve your distant and
impossible seeming dream, you need to keep yourself glued to your work and don’t let the
circumstances dictate the distance you will travel. As rightly said that the process is tedious and
tiresome, not the reward (Ross, 2016).
Film impacted your understanding of the city or urban life
The satisfaction and outburst of feelings of happiness could be witnessed on the face of
Chris Gardner that were a perfect testimony of the fact that hard work always pays off and when
it pays off its so gratifying that it wipes out the scars of the struggle you have gone through
(Monk, 2015).The movie gives the message that in the pursuit of your life goals it’s hard to
gauge the extent of your struggles but one never have to give up on his family and goals. You
may sometimes find yourself homeless, unappreciated and neglected but the efforts should never
be stopped which keeps the hope alive (George, 2017).
The intended audience:
The intended audience of the movie is the common man or the middle class man who is
fighting his fingers to bones to run his finances, to feed his family and meet the daily life needs.
With the movie the screenwriter/director wants to give a hope to the intended audience that in the
end it all comes on the track and everything gets right (Kolker, 2018). The screenwriter/director
wants the intended audience to keep the fight for achieving alive and don’t lose hope. With the
movie the screenwriter/director wants to inject strength in the spirit of a person who is in pursuit
of his life goals (Barranco, et al. 2016). The portrayal of Chris Gardner’s struggles including the

scanner that was taken away by the girl who he trusted with, the leaving of his wife and being
homeless is the portrayal of the real life of a common man. The achievement of the nearly
impossible goal in the end makes it a happy ending and sends a strong message to those who
questions the ability a man (Chase, 2016).
Why might this matter?
As rightly said that cinema is the mirror of the society and it reflects what happens in the
lives of the people, the movie reflects upon the life of those who are in pursuit of their life goals,
be it taking care of the family or be it to achieve your personal goals. The movie tries to
enlighten the fading the belief of these people that never lose hope because it all becomes well in
the end (Neuendorf, 2016).
Conclusion
Therefore, after assessing movie and the ideology of this movie, it could be inferred that
in context with the urban life, this movie was intended to depict the struggle and issues faced by
a person in his life and had to make several efforts to make his life better. He felt sorrow, pain,
disappointments and all other issues in his life which some time tore him apart. He learned how
to find happiness in his life and how hard work could make his life better.

References
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Kolker, R. P. (2018). The altering eye: Contemporary international cinema (p. 344). Open Book
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