My favorite movie

Hardships and challenges are scattered everywhere over and along the path that leads us to fulfillment and happiness; yet, these factors are easily brushed aside if we live our lives with diligence and hard work.

The movie Pursuit of Happiness exemplifies the correlation of these elements and manifest into something we call Life. The film has become my favorite movie because of its rendition of things which are common to us all, the hardships and misfortune we all have to face in the pursuit of happiness. This movie tells of a bright and talented man and his son, struggling with poverty, who has to endure many hardships, including living in shelters, in pursuit of his dream of a better life for the two of them.

In a way, all of us can relate to the different performers’ portrayal of going through life. Thus, all of us are interconnected by a common bond of misfortune and hardships; however, with perseverance, we can see that we all can be triumphant over these life challenges.

Christopher Gardner, the father in the movie, said to his son “Don’t ever let someone tell you that you can’t do something. Not even me.” This line suggests that no matter how other persons employ schemes to discourage and pull us down, we have to be firm and trust ourselves in seeing us through overwhelming odds. It is rather apt that the father said to his son “You have a dream, you gotta protect it. People can’t do something themselves, they wanna tell you that you can’t do it. You want something? Go get it, period.” Therefore, the challenges that life has to throw at us can best be overcome alone by perseverance and the unflinching desire to succeed in life.

I was moved by the father’s love for his son, that in order to let his son experience a better life, he has to accept an internship job at a brokerage firm without compensation with the hope that he will become a regular employee for the firm someday. Many of us might wince at the thought of working for six months without pay, but Christopher Gardner accepted the challenge, all for the sake of his son and in pursuit of happiness.

A priest in the movie, Reverend Williams said that “The important thing about that freedom train is it’s got to climb mountain. We all have to climb mountains, you know. Mountains that go way up high, and mountains that go deep and low.” This statement holds true in life.

We have the freedom to choose what we should be; in essence, we make our own destiny. But before we realize our dreams in life, we have to face many obstacles and trials. As we search for happiness in our lives, we are taken into the depths of agony and pain brought upon by our failures or thrust towards the top of the mountains when we .

One thing that we need is to have a positive outlook in life. In spite of the troubles that will come our way, these should not dim our hopes of achieving what we want in life. If we ever search for a man who epitomizes the triumph of perseverance over adversity, let us just remember Christopher Gardner in this movie, and hear his words in our minds saying “if you have a dream, protect it, go for it, and get it.” Although in different ways, all of us pursue happiness. Thus, in achieving this end, we should be firm in our intention and should not bow down to the challenges that life has to throw at us.

References:

1)  Memorable Quotes for The Pursuit of Happiness (2006).                                                                       http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0454921/quotes [website]

Date accessed: 19 April 2007

2) The Pursuit of Happiness movie (2006).

http://www.sonypictures.com/homevideo/thepursuitofhappyness/ [website]

Date accessed: 19 April 2007