当幸福来敲门(the pursuit of happiness)影评

This movie has a political setting.

Before watching this movie, I’ve already heard of and shocked by the words in the declaration of independence: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, and there are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. By the time I watched this movie, I could even recite paragraphs of the declaration.

Frankly it was merely interest that appeals to me when I first got to know about the declaration. I copied the first two pages down neatly on my notebooks and struggled to find the connection between sentences. It was hard, let alone the effort to find the relevant connection between those rare words and the foundation of a nation, which stands as the sole super pole in the world now, with a history of less than 300 years.

The pursuit of happiness, it sounds strange compared with the strong and short words followed by it. Life and liberty, two clichés in the declarations or announcements concretely exist in our mind. However thinking of pursuit of happiness, chaos stirs in my mind.

While the two nouns can be interpreted statically, the pursuit of happiness never exists without action. Just like what Will Smith tries to tell.

The setting of the story is common, an average man undergoing obstacles in family life and work. The success of individuals varies while failures often have something to share. The difference of success and failure just lies in the fact that the success acts unique when faced with the same experience, which is called pursuit.

What face Chris are consistent dilemma, misfortune and jokes of life. When we bystanders are indifferently watching, Chris holds tough. When we bystanders are shockingly moved, Chris still holds tough. Experiencing toughness, Chris is always equally or even overwhelmingly tough. He lost hiswife, while he kept his son tough. He lost his job, while he kept hunting tough. He fought aggressively on his narrow way to the success. When his car was pulled away he tried his best, seized the last chance to sell another scanner though he hadn’t sold any one out for long. That’s what we call to pursue, to pursue happiness. I still remember what Chris said about happiness: in happiness, there’s an “I” not “y”. In the process of pursuing of happiness, there’s no point in asking why. You are the ultimate and only answer, and eventually, Chris found himself, then the world found him, too.

There’s no need for a consideration of the structure or plot of the story. The story itself stands vividly as a description of the pursuit of happiness. An inspiring story developed in this way is well enough to live up to the words in the declaration that all men are granted an unalienable right to pursue happiness. Christ is only an individual example of the fulfilment. What the movie tries to sell is another case of American dream that consistently inspired all generations of America.