I searched and found nothing.

Saw this movie today with the Mrs.

Really good. ~1 Hour and 50 min, but it seems alot shorter. Uplifting TRUE story played by Will Smith. He and his son are great.

Has anyone else seen this?

I give it an "A"

12/27/2006 5:19:49 PM

"True" story... there were alot of differences from his book and this movie

12/27/2006 5:22:07 PM

saw it, thought it was good but would have liked to see a little more of the "good" life at the end

12/27/2006 5:54:21 PM

I read a review before I went to see it, and it tainted me as a movie viewer.

I didn't like the movie. I took two smoke breaks because I was so bored and annoyed with the story.

I don't think I'd really like the man whose experiences this movie was based on. I simply wasn't on his side.

12/27/2006 6:02:40 PM

^ I dont agree. How could you not like someone who does whatever it takes to better the life of his son?

^^I agree, but the movie wasnt so much about the destination as it was the journey.

^^^ and yes, it is inspired by a true story, not based on one. Big difference there.

[Edited on December 27, 2006 at 6:04 PM. Reason : asdf]

12/27/2006 6:03:06 PM

i am interested in seeing this

12/27/2006 6:03:22 PM

Quote :

"saw it, thought it was good but would have liked to see a little more of the "good" life at the end"

12/27/2006 6:21:58 PM

Quote :

"^ I dont agree. How could you not like someone who does whatever it takes to better the life of his son?"

He could have gotten a regular job and gone to night school to get a college degree. That's the way most folks do it, you know. His son wouldn't have had to sleep in a public restroom that way. He didn't have to alienate his wife with his ambitions and criticisms. His son wouldn't have had to be without a mother that way.

But he wanted a Ferrari, and he wanted it right then. And he did what he had to do to get it. What a great guy! Ferrari-driving stock brokers are such admirable people!

12/27/2006 6:25:44 PM

yawn

i bet you are a republican

12/27/2006 6:43:42 PM

ummmm....he didnt have the ferrari, he just looked upto the person who did.

I think you are missing the point of the movie.

look where the 9-5 job got his wife.

he could do more, knew it, and strived to get it.

12/27/2006 6:45:24 PM

Quote :

"ummmm....he didnt have the ferrari, he just looked upto the person who did."

Did I say he had a Ferrari?

Quote :

"I think you are missing the point of the movie."

What was the point of the movie? If you have a dream, even a crappy, lame ass, materialistic one, you should follow it at the cost of everyone you love?

Quote :

"look where the 9-5 job got his wife."

Yeah, it got her a snotty ass husband telling her that she didn't know how to raise their son. Like he did...

Quote :

"he could do more, knew it, and strived to get it."

You don't mean "do more." You mean "make more."

HUGE difference.

[Edited on December 27, 2006 at 6:58 PM. Reason : sss]

12/27/2006 6:56:15 PM

Quote :

"materialistic one"

WHAT materialistic dream?

to not live in a bathroom?

to not get evicted?

to not have to run to be in the homeless shelter line by 5:00pm?

YOU ARE WRONG.

remember what he said when he saw the car...

"What do you do, and how did you do it?"

He didnt want the car, he just wanted to be in a place where he could have exspendable money (like going to the 49ers game)

12/27/2006 7:04:26 PM

wow i cant believe what some dumb asses are saying. This guy did what he could to get a better life for his son. He did none of this for his gain, and if you could not get that out of the movie then watch it again.

12/27/2006 7:16:57 PM

So we're supposed to be inspired by some asshole who went through a 6 month internship and became a millionaire? I had to sleep in a bathroom...I had to work a second job selling a shitty bone density scanner...call the fucking WAHmbulance. Many dorm rooms resemble toilets, you're roomate is usually a small black child, and you eat ramen noodle. Oh yeah, and this goes on for 4+ years.

Bitching aside, I did enjoy the movie.



[Edited on December 27, 2006 at 7:20 PM. Reason : gsdf]

12/27/2006 7:19:36 PM

good grief

i want to go see this movie now just to fucking spite bridgetspk

WHY DIDN'T THAT MAN DO LIKE ALL THE OTHER FAILURES IN LIFE AND TAKE NO FUCKING RISK

seriously
someone woke up on the wrong side of their period today or what?

go kick a kitten in the cat-cunt or something

12/27/2006 7:30:00 PM

bridget doesn't understand, because she's never had to work for anything in her entire life.

12/27/2006 7:51:01 PM

wait, hold on

im pretty sure somebody said they slept in a bathroom

12/27/2006 8:20:36 PM

Quote :

"WHAT materialistic dream? to not live in a bathroom? to not get evicted? to not have to run to be in the homeless shelter line by 5:00pm? YOU ARE WRONG."

i havent seen the movie and i think i have read the review that bridget read (ruthlessreviews)

but if i understand the plot and bridgets point, didnt he only have to do those things after he decided he was going to work an unpaid internship and try to make his wife work 3 jobs?

12/27/2006 8:51:16 PM

I don't understand why his wife couldnt just work one job instead of trying to work like 3... and while she was working he was at his internship and his son was at daycare... so when he came home from his internship, he could work a night job while the mom raised the kid

12/27/2006 9:03:51 PM

I saw the movie this weekend and it was great.
Major movie discussion and details to follow below.
































































































To answer rwoody, Smith's character had spent his life savings on the bone density scanners and therefore it was his job to sell those with the dream that they would be the next big thing. Of course, the scanners didn't become anything so after seeing the guy with the Ferrari, finding out what he did, seeing all the other people in the area appear to be so happy with the assumption they all were in the same line of work, Smith's character decides to pursue that happyness for the happyness of his son. This pursuit doesn't lead to him getting kicked out the apartment and living hotels, shelters and a bathroom because he was already on that route. However, his drive and determination ensured he and his son wouldn't just settle for what gets them by but instead provide them with the means of truly living in happyness.

I can see Bridget's point too, which is he could have chosen to any type of job but that wouldn't have kept them from continuing to struggle with what little they had to begin with. Also, his wife leaves him before he takes the job. She had just become frustrated with her husband, who she had supported with the bone density scanner attempt before but not seeing the reward from the purchase had become fed-up with living in his dream world.

[Edited on December 27, 2006 at 9:14 PM. Reason : .]

12/27/2006 9:11:42 PM

What were the odds that he would see the hippy girl again? San Francisco is not that small a town. I guess she could have lived in the neighborhood where his job was, but I wouldn't think so. Are there cheap apartments in downtown SF?

Also, he should have made different choices. It seems to me his wife left after losing her job because she had to miss her shift to pick up the boy (but this was not stated specifically). This makes sense, since she was now unemployed she was a burden on the family, better to go east and take the job offered. But at this stage in his life, it seems to me he should have taken a night job: since he had to be at the shelter at 5pm, he could have instead stayed at the hotel and paid for it with a job that started at 6pm (taking advantage of hind-sight, of course, he didn't expect to be kicked out of the hotel). I realize at that time jobs were hard to find, but he didn't even look.

Also, I wonder if "day-care" was prudent: at this stage in their life, it costs money but apparently the kid watches TV all day, he could do that in the hotel room.

12/27/2006 9:36:47 PM

at that point, there was no hotel.

you have to remember, his intellect and desire for his child to be smart was a key factor in the way that the events in this movie played out.

The dude is dead broke and instead of pulling his kid out of day care (which is $150 a month), he complains to the teacher that all they do is watch TV.

I think Bridget is confused into thinking that he did all of this b/c he wanted "things". This is not the case at all.

As for night school, that would have been a great option if he werent working as an intern during the day, studying for the exam in down time, and all the while living check to check and scrambling trying to find a place for his son to rest his head EACH NIGHT.

Night school isnt an option when you dont know where your child can sleep.

12/27/2006 9:58:13 PM

^The point is that all those things he had to go through were a result of his decision to take the internship.

He was a dreamer. He alienated his wife with his fantasies. Who knows what scheme came before the bone density scanners...he could have gotten a regular job and gone to school part-time. Remember he had received training in the Navy--it's not like he was unemployable. Throughout the entire movie, he had other options that wouldn't put him out on the street, but he chose to take a chance and try to become a stock broker. After gambling away his life savings, he gambled his son's well-being to chase another one of his dreams...and I'm supposed to admire that?

And am I the only one who was disturbed when he told his wife that she didn't know how to raise their child? Or when he told his kid to SHUT UP! because his kid was crying over having to leave his one and only toy behind so that his father could chase down one of his scanners? (Granted, I told the kid to shut up at one point, too.) What about when he was arrogant enough to critcize the daycare provider like she actually gave two shits about his opinion and $150/month?

He was able to be personable with all the people that could give him something, but everyone else he treated like they were dumber than him, like they just didn't get it.

Quote :

"you have to remember, his intellect and desire for his child to be smart was a key factor in the way that the events in this movie played out."

I didn't get that from the movie. The turning point was a bunch of seemingly rich people smiling and a Ferrari...that's what lit him up to chase his new dream.

Quote :

"I think Bridget is confused into thinking that he did all of this b/c he wanted "things". This is not the case at all."

He equated things with happiness. I absolutely got that from the movie. I hope it worked out for him.

And maybe BobbyDigital is right. Maybe if I had to work hard for the "things" I have in my life, then I might see them as sources of happiness. As it is, I laugh at people who think things bring happiness.

[Edited on December 27, 2006 at 10:26 PM. Reason : sss]

12/27/2006 10:26:05 PM

i haven't even seen the movie

but i feel comfortable saying this

THE FERRARRI IS NOT HIS FUCKING DREAM
FINANCIAL SECURITY IS HIS FUCKING DREAM
A FERARRI IS THE FINANCIAL SECURITY EQUIVALENT OF A FUCKING BRINKS TRUCK
THEREFORE HE WANTS TO KNOW, AND DO, WHATEVER FERARRI BOY DOES

fucking a

12/27/2006 10:50:22 PM

^

1. I'm not saying the ferrari is his dream. I'm using the ferrari scene to illustrate his near-manic obsession with materials/money.
2. He wanted a lot more than financial security.
3. There are ways to make money that don't involve gambling your child's well-being.
4. You just managed to be bitchier than me over a movie you haven't seen. (By the way, you were right...I did start my period today.)

[Edited on December 27, 2006 at 11:10 PM. Reason : sss]

12/27/2006 11:03:34 PM

just "making money" =/= financial security

also

caps lock =/= bitchiness

12/27/2006 11:40:37 PM

^Sorry. Let me change #3.

3. There are ways to make money achieve financial security that don't involve gambling your child's well-being.

I must have misinterpreted your post. I saw CAPS and the word "fucking" four times and made an assumption of bitchiness. Sorry again.

12/27/2006 11:45:14 PM

If I were him, and I had it all to do over, I would not do anything different. It all worked out perfectly in the end, so why jinx it?

Now, if I were him, and I was doing everything from the start, I would have chickened out. There is no way I would consider myself smart enough to win that internship without training.

Then again, we need to realize when the movie is taking place. It is the early 80s, during the depths of the inflation battle and jobs simply cannot be had (unemployment was above 16% if I remember correctly). Now, I'm sure with effort he could find something fast enough to keep himself in the hotel (the owner gave him over a month it seemed). But he would not get out of it for years.

But, he being him, he knew he could win the internship, so the only question is surviving the 6 months in the hotel, which he was perfectly capable of doing: it was the IRS which put him behind on the rent and got him thrown out.

When I left the theater I thought he was an idiot; but now that I have thought about it he made reasonable decisions, all he lacked was the knowledge that the IRS could take from his bank account. If he had known that then he could have kept his money in cashiers checks, cashing them when necessary, never gambling with his child's well-being AND getting the high-paying job.

[Edited on December 27, 2006 at 11:48 PM. Reason : .,.]

12/27/2006 11:46:54 PM

i just find it funny (and slightly telling) that you assume this guy could have completely changed his life without risk and taking chances

even people with good lives have to take a risk to make a change

12/27/2006 11:54:41 PM

^^I got the idea that he had been repeatedly taking these chances just "knowing" that things were going to work out. I mean, investing your life savings in bone density scanners? Come on! That's insane...on that note--and I've kind of mentioned this already--he almost seemed to be experiencing a manic episode. The spur of the moment decision to become a stock broker, the days and days of working without sleep, continuous reading/study without tire, running through traffic to get his scanner back, getting hit by a car and not going to the hospital, showing up at the firm in house clothes, the "just knowing" that he could do it, that he was invincible...

There was one scene that I think was supposed to show what a good father he was, but it just didn't get to me. It was when he pretended his bone density scanner was a time machine to create a make-believe world for his son. We were supposed to be like, "Wow, he's homeless, but he's still trying to make things okay for his kid." I saw it as him just trying to get his kid to sleep in a bathroom without complaining. He was no Guido Orefice.

^He was extremely bright/smart/intelligent. He also had training from the Navy and medical experience. He coulda got a regular job and whizzed through school on the side easily.

[Edited on December 28, 2006 at 12:31 AM. Reason : another add]

12/28/2006 12:09:36 AM

I'm glad that you think that things cant bring someone happyness.

No, they cant, in a philosophical sense of the word- but that's a problem faced more by people who have always had them.

It's really hard to be "happy" when you live in a ghetto, or dont have a home at all, or food to eat.

i havent seen the movie, so i'm not going to comment on it directly.

And things dont bring happyness, but something can be what makes you happy.
it's not a property of the object, I believe is the point of that, not that material wealth is inconsequential because frankly, it's not.

12/28/2006 12:45:34 AM

god just because the movie spells it happyness doesn't mean all of you have to.

12/28/2006 12:54:34 AM

statefan24: We are paying homage to the movie: if you remember, the main character made a big deal out of it being "Happiness".

Bridget, your objection is that things worked out to threaten his childs well-being, right? If all the bone-scanners had sold out immediately, would you still be calling it insane? I just want to make sure you are not trying to argue that being a stock broker is not a better life than being a shelf stocker.

Also, Bridget completely ignored my comment about the era's economic conditions: Unemployment was higher than at any other point in post-World-War-II history. Getting a "regular job" at that time would have required a miracle.

Nevertheless, he had it worked out to where his son never had to sleep in the bathroom, he was thwarted by the IRS. If the IRS had not breached his bank account his son would have never found himself on the street.

Finally, I get hit by stuff all the time and don't go to the hospital. What were they going to do? "Sir, do you feel like your brain is hemoraging? No? That will be $2000."

[Edited on December 28, 2006 at 1:12 AM. Reason : .,.]

12/28/2006 1:11:53 AM

Quote :

"Bridget, your objection is that things worked out to threaten his childs well-being, right? If all the bone-scanners had sold out immediately, would you still be calling it insane? I just want to make sure you are not trying to argue that being a stock broker is not a better life than being a shelf stocker."

Yes, I would still be calling it insane. It's insane to invest your life savings in something you're not sure about. I guess that's just my point of view.

Quote :

"Also, Bridget completely ignored my comment about the era's economic conditions: Unemployment was higher than at any other point in post-World-War-II history. Getting a "regular job" at that time would have required a miracle."

I know. You made the comment more than once. The guy had a high school education, was extremely motivated and smart, had training in the Navy (including medical experience), and was great with people...I don't think it would "require a miracle" for him to get a regular job. Call me stupid!

Quote :

"Finally, I get hit by stuff all the time and don't go to the hospital. What were they going to do? "Sir, do you feel like your brain is hemoraging? No? That will be $2000.""

What's your point?

I go a tad deeper than you into the psyche of the movie's protagonist, and you wanna argue but one of the points I mentioned in reference to his potential mania? What about the others?

Some might suggest Smith's character was displaying mania. It's a decent observation, in my opinion. Sorry you're not as original as I am. It's a curse and a blessing for me.

[Edited on December 28, 2006 at 2:15 AM. Reason : I'm actually serious with that last part. I watch shit differently than most.]

12/28/2006 2:12:57 AM

its so fun to watch you talk about the plight of the working man

seriously, its prolly more entertaining than the movie actually is

12/28/2006 2:18:52 AM

I'm not really talking about the plight of the working man.

The guy in the movie wasn't your average working man anyway.

12/28/2006 2:23:22 AM

Quote :

"The guy had a high school education, was extremely motivated and smart, had training in the Navy (including medical experience), and was great with people...I don't think it would "require a miracle" for him to get a regular job."

Yes, of course he was going to find a job before all the other motivated and smart high-school graduated unemployed men in the San Francisco area. He was also black. I just retrieved the data from BLS and in 1982 20.7% of all black males were unemployed. That's right, 1 in 5.

12/28/2006 11:06:11 AM

well

he still could have gone to night school!

12/28/2006 11:48:55 AM

^ how could he pay for night school? He was barely able to keep a roof over his head. Just face it he did the best he could.

12/28/2006 11:52:14 AM

i thought this movie was great. (i had actually read the book before seeing it)

you have to remember

Quote :

"The film is going to focus on one year of my life. That year being the toughest, darkest, scariest year of my life. "

my admiration of chris gardner comes from the fact that i feel the majority of people, myself included, would not be able to make it out of his situation. you can argue that he shouldn't have invested his life savings in the bone density scanners, but that is not the point. That is like saying, he shouldn't have had a kid in the first place. People make bigger mistakes all the time. however, how many people would be able to make out the way he did if they ended up in his situation. This is a movie about how hard work and perseverance pays off. He hit rock bottom yet continued to drag himself through it so that his son could live the life he never did.

also, he raised his kid. his wife did work all the time, and literally could not raise the child on her own. she actually agreed that he should keep her son, she knew she could not properly care for him.

12/29/2006 2:25:47 AM

So the book covered how much time in his life? From start to finish?

12/29/2006 10:21:52 AM

no book is same time, more details. the quote is one he had made during an interview while making the movie.

12/29/2006 8:28:53 PM

great movie

all the socio-economic-blah blah going on in this thread aside

1/2/2007 2:55:48 AM

didn't read the thread....and don't want to, but the movie was good.

1/2/2007 6:51:39 AM

what about fuck?

is that spelled right?

1/2/2007 9:27:19 AM

i'd say on one of the best movies i saw in 06

1/2/2007 9:31:45 AM