Great Character: Chris Gardner (“The Pursuit of Happyness”)
This month’s theme: Father figures. Today’s guest post by Jason Cuthbert features Chris Gardner from the 2006 movie The Pursuit of Happyness, written by Steve Conrad.
Fours years before mega multi-talent Will Smith produced his son Jaden Smith’s first staring role in the 2010 martial arts reboot “The Karate Kid,” or played father and son in “After Earth,” Will and Jaden were Chris Gardener and Christopher Jr. in the 2006 drama “The Pursuit of Happiness.” Italian director Gabriele Muccino, who would direct Will Smith again in “Seven Pounds,” finessed a screenplay by Steve Conrad (“The Weather Man,” “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”) about the real life Chris Garner, CEO of stockbrokerage firm Garner Rich & Co. Before becoming a multimillionaire, Garner learned how to be a stockbroker from scratch while overcoming the challenges of fatherhood amidst having to hop over the sky-high hurdle of homelessness. The fact that Will Smith’s celebrity convincingly disappears into this humbled and impoverished father figure, when Smith himself has literally been rich and famous for longer than he hasn’t been, speaks to how seriously Will Smith thrust his immense talent into this Academy Award-nominated role — and the sheer power of this quintessential rags to riches story.
The Pursuit of Happiness plot summary from IMDB:
A struggling salesman takes custody of his son as he’s poised to begin a life-changing professional endeavor.
Chris Gardner deserves to have everyday be Father’s Day in his world. Many men have left their children behind for far less than Gardner found himself facing. Even with no steady income and the option to let his son leave with his mother, Chris Gardner refused to relinquish his duties. The resolve on this guy is unbreakable. Just look at the multiple ways in which Chris’ life was altered at a moment’s notice, and still he remained on his unwavering straight and narrow pursuit of happiness.
a.) We meet him as a salesman who struggles to sell. But he gets up every morning, suit and tie, chin up, smile intact, running directly towards a paycheck of uncertainty.
CHRIS GARDNER: “It was right then that I started thinking about Thomas Jefferson on the Declaration of Independence and the part about our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And I remember thinking how did he know to put the pursuit part in there? That maybe happiness is something that we can only pursue and maybe we can actually never have it. No matter what. How did he know that?”
b.) Chris finally gets an interview for a life-changing stockbroker internship at Dean Witter. But he has to go with no dress shirt, splashed paint in his hair and on his face and literally smelling like a night in jail. He saw opportunity when many folks might have seen an excuse to call in and beg to reschedule.
c.) His son’s mother and roommate Linda doesn’t support his Dean Witter intern plans and decides to leave him. Chris could have understandably caved in to her lack of support and begged her to stay — but not Chris.
LINDA: “What are you going to do for money?”
CHRIS GARDNER: “I got an interview at Dean Witter for an internship. And I got it. So I am going to stand out in my program.”
LINDA: “Salesman to intern is backwards.”
CHRIS GARDNER: “No, its not.”
d.) Losing his apartment and then his motel room as well, with no place for his son and himself to immediately go, still didn’t turn Chris Gardner into a suicidal candidate or even a deadbeat dad with a 5-year old son getting put into a foster home.
f.) Even Chris Gardner’s odds of being chosen to fill the one job slot at Dean Witter out of all of the eager participants in his internship were stacked way over his head. But he still reaches for whatever is out of reach.
CHRIS GARDNER: “Whoever brought in the most money after 6 months was usually hired. We were all working our way up call sheets to sign clients. From the bottom to the top. From the doorman to the CEO. They’ stay ’til 7. But I had Christopher. I had to do in 6 hours what they’d do in 9. In order not to waste any time, I wasn’t hanging up the phone in between calls. I realized that by not hanging up the phone I gained another 8 minutes a day. I also wasn’t drinking water so I didn’t waste anytime in the bathroom. But even doing all of this, after 2 months I still didn’t have time to work my way up a sheet.”
g.) Even when Chris Gardner finally managed to sell all of his bone density scanners, including the ones that were stolen from him that he retrieved, he loses all of that money to pay taxes to the IRS, leaving him with $21.33 in his bank account. He still somehow manages to do what any financially leveled parent would find impossible — maintain his strength to keep his son feeling safe and to prevent him from worrying.
As a father figure, Chris Gardner is not just honest, but even able to admit when he is wrong to his son.
CHRISTOPHER: “You’re a good papa.”
For his persistent pursuit of happiness, his immeasurable dignity in the shadows of poverty and his lead by example playbook for pure fatherhood, Chris Gardner is an incredibly GREAT CHARACTER.
This movie currently has a 7.8 rating on IMDB which is quite good. Those of you who have seen the film, what about it is compelling and entertaining?
Thanks to Jason for yet another Great Character post. Join us in comments for a discussion of Chris Gardner and The Pursuit of Happyness.
Comment Archive